It's not an exact monthly expense update. It's a very close estimation.
Total housing expense is US$1,845, including utilities and such.
I probably could get a cheaper place to rent at US$400 cheaper per month.
We chose this current place as it had a discount for a year, but after the first year the discount would expire and this is the expected monthly rental without discount. I'll have to consider if I want to move after my first year, but then I'll incur moving costs and more admin fees for the move.
Cars are cheaper but not entirely cheap. We leased our vehicle for 2 years.
It's US$359.99 per month, insurance is expensive at US$233.
Total at US$593 per month. Which is around S$842 (@1.42 fx rate)
I don't get to keep the car after 2 years. I have to return it, and pay for any damages to the vehicle.
However it IS a new Toyota Camry, so... well, at least once in my life I'm able to drive a new car.
Since it's on lease, I don't have to pay for maintenance. Every 6 months or so, I can drive it to the Toyota workshop for them to do the usual servicing.
Fuel is significantly cheaper.
Cheapest I got during this period of low oil price is US1.39 per gallon, or S$0.52 per litre!!
However, before the low oil prices, petrol was around US1.70 per gallon or S$0.64 per litre.
Mobile line/internet isn't really cheap.
If I subscribed to a monthly subscription plan like how we usually do in SG, the cost would be US$60 per month for 1 single line. Prices drop significantly if the subscriber takes up multiple lines for a family of 4. Then each line will end up averaging at US$25.
Since I'm only getting a single line, this is extremely expensive for me. My wife has a free mobile line from her company.
So, I bought a prepaid card. S$300 before tax for 12 months, after tax it averages to be S$27 per month after tax.
Home internet is fairly affordable. HOWEVER, the speeds are abysmally slow. In SG the lowest speed is maybe 300mbps and most people subscribe for 1gbps.
Over here, I have to subscribe for 100mbps or less. That's the normal speed. It's good enough for my usage but... yep... this is the kinda speeds in other countries. Even in Paris I was surfing at ADSL speeds.
I buy quite a lot of food these days. It's normal for me to be spending around US$175-US$225 in a month, but I don't use all the food every month, so some of the food will roll over. I'm not really sure how much food rolls over though, so maybe actual food expenses could possibly be US$100 per month or so?
I haven't bought much toiletries in the US. I had a lot from SG shipped to Paris and from Paris shipped to the US. So I've just been using my old stash. I'm still using dishwashing liquid like Mama Lemon, and TOP for my laundry detergent. Shampoo, soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, wet wipes, etc... All from SG.
I don't know how much medical insurance costs, cos that's covered by the company. I think it's a few thousand per year.
My wife receives a housing allowance and car allowance, so a lot of our expense is covered by that as well.
Before I starting just staying at home, I sometimes would go shooting.
It's quite expensive around US$70 for an hour. Which is around S$100.
It's one of the things which I can only do in the US... So... what to do...
Til now, I think I've been maybe... 3-4 times.
I've come to a conclusion... Some guns are nicer to shoot. More stable, less recoil, etc...
But overall, a gun is a gun. There's no gun that's really "better".
It's like bicycles. There are some which are really poorly made which is barely acceptable if you're on a budget, but most bicycles are the same, you can't really tell the difference, then there are some really expensive bicycles for professionals.
Similarly, there are some guns which are made poorly, cheaper low quality guns. Most average guns are similar. And generally, it's like any other tool. It's the person using the tool, not the tool in itself.
We also used to go out to eat. Typically the portions are big enough for 2 people to share. Since my wife eats less than me. So it's pretty ok to share. 1 portion is around 1.5 servings. So it probably won't be enough for 2 guys to share. But for me and my wife it's just nice. Maybe a bit little, just by a bit. But still enough for the both of us.
Besides these expenses, we hardly do anything else.
We went to NASA previously. That was the only place of interest we went to. Maybe if things let off in future we would travel to other parts of the US, but that seems unlikely for at least a couple of months, and the first thing I would want to do is take a trip back to SG so, that's the first priority.
I would think that my lifestyle in US is similar to SG. No real change. Although I've been buying food instead of getting it for free. Expenses hasn't increased by much, unless I go shooting. Then THAT really adds up.
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