Today we’re talking about budgets and more specifically, the slight struggle I’m going through with estimating how to budget for a new life in a new country.
I know Canada and the U.S. are similar, but they aren’t the same, which means things can either cost more or less here than what I paid in Canada.
Before we start, since we’re speaking of budgets, check this out:
Anyway back to me and my USA budget. 🙂
Coming up with a preliminary budget is not easy, especially if you are moving to another country and you aren’t sure about how much things will cost.
How can you estimate categories like car insurance, when even in Canada, paying insurance in Quebec differs from paying it in Ontario?
(For the record, it’s cheaper in Quebec to have car insurance, I paid about $300 a year, when it’s $300 a month in Ontario)
So here are my preliminary budget categories and numbers:
(Click on it to make it larger)
Frankly, it’s still a crapshoot.
I mean, the personal spending of $150 is laughable to me, just because for the year of 2011, I’ve ONLY been spending on personal things.. and not very frugally, I might add. 😛
Travel is in the savings somewhere, but again, I don’t know where/if/when I will be traveling for pleasure during my year of working.
I need to get back on track to building net worth, and I am hoping I will work so much that my free time will be cut down and I won’t be tempted to spend.. 🙂
I am hoping to come out UNDER $2000 at the end of it all, but I need to prepare for the worst.
I will also have a fixed income/salary, which means I can’t la-dee-dah with my budget the way I did before.
UPDATE: Thanks to Kevin from Thousandaire, I am looking at about $100 a month for car insurance, give or take. Maybe cheaper. That’s really good news… $1200/year is doable and more painful than $300/year but.. meh. 🙂
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
Not sure if you’re aware of these, but they were big issues for us after we moved to the US from Canada:
1) You have no credit. Your Canadian credit score means nothing, so you have to start all over again.
2) Health insurance can be very expensive if your company is not generous. I may have misunderstood what you said about having health care but hospitals and doctors will not/cannot take Canadian health insurance.
Good luck!
I’ve never lived anywhere BUT Texas. It seem that you will be in the D/FW area from comments, so if the $650 is for half your rent, you are probably good on that, including utilities(if you’re in a 1-2 bed apt). I have a friend who lives in Plano near a golf course in a nice 1 bedroom and his rent is right around $700. Check Farm Bureau and State Farm for your car and renter’s insurance and you may come out cheaper. Also, on an important note, be sure to try the Original Market Diner in Dallas(corner of Harry Hines and Market Center). I am in love with that place! http://www.originalmarketdiner.com
Sorry I’m not more help; I live halfway between D/FW and Austin. Welcome to Texas!
Carol
antiquetexan.blogspot.com
I just moved out of Dallas back to Tucson. Dallas is not cheap living and $650 for a nice apt is completely unreasonable. Think more around $800 minimum depending upon where you want to live. Stay away from South and East Dallas. Stick more North. My sister and husband have a really nice 2bdrm apt, I think around 1300-1400 sqft for $1000/mo in North Dallas/Plano area. You will be driving a lot..you definitely need a GPS. You have I-635, Dallas Tollway, George Bush Turnpike, 75..etc to learn. It’s a lot..and learn to be aggressive or you’ll get eaten alive out there. My job as a housing caseworker for a non-profit mental health company taught me all the good and the bad areas of Dallas. (I put 30,000 miles on my car last year alone). You have to really…REALLY be careful where you chose to live because there are some really sketchy areas that look good but are really dangerous/drug/violence ridden. I have no problem giving you advice if you’d like it. Dallas is an interesting city for sure. It’s very diverse but EXTREMELY pretentious and materialistic.
You can get renters’ insurance for $10-20/month here, and car insurance depends on the type of car you’re driving and how much insurance you’ll want on it. With an inexpensive company, I pay $67/month for insurance that isn’t quite full insurance (I have deductibles) but is significantly more than the legal requirement. Of course if you have a loan on a car or rent one, then you’ll probably have slightly higher insurance.
I think food is slightly cheaper in the US so you might have some more wiggle room there, though it depends on where you live of course.
Do you have to live in hotel rooms? In most areas of the US, you should be able to find significantly cheaper rent on a short-term apartment. Even in somewhere like Austin it was $600/month for my friend’s small apartment.
I would leave wiggle room with health care costs if you can. That is probably the biggest difference between Canada and the US. Hopefully your employer kicks in for a plan, because even a catastrophe-only plan can run $400/month or more. If you have any prescriptions, they’ll be probably more expensive here even with health insurance. Ditto if you get sick and have to go to a doctor or the hospital. I know some friends that moved in from Vancouver and were horrified at how much their health care costs went up, even though they had insurance.
I had the same problem when I was moving to Barbados from Toronto. I couldn’t be sure how to budget, especially because I’ve only vacationed here in the past so the amount I’d spend on things like entertainment and food wouldn’t be the same. I think you should plan as best as you can but also know that living and learning are inevitable! Good luck on your journey!!
I used to pay about $12 a month for renter’s insurance + $107 for car insurance in California. Both were from the same provider which allowed me to qualify for a discount. I imagine Texas is a lot cheaper. Gas is cheaper, as is food. Car – if you’re buying used and in cash – you can probably get a really good, solid investment for about $10,000 🙂
Why will you have to pay tax to canada? You won’t be a resident.
There’s no income tax in Texas, so you’re saving a big portion right off the bat. From what I know (and not from first hand experience, Dallas is really inexpensive in terms of cost of living. I say gas will definitely be more unless you will be driving a lot for work and work reimburses you. Dallas is a pretty sprawled city. Can I visit you in Dallas?! 🙂
It won’t matter for me re: taxes, because I have to pay the difference in taxes to Canada for the first while 🙁 So I’ll be out the max in Canada… *sigh*
YOU CAN VISIT ME! 🙂 Or I can visit you. I’ll be on projects and I’ll try and angle for ones close to California or something 😀
Things are very different in NYC – $650 would get you a night and a half in a hotel. In the suburbs it is around $2500 a month in a cheap motel. Dinner for two is $50-$70 at a midscale restaurant, and I spend about $80 a week for food for one person, not very extravagant. Car insurance when I was your age was around $700 a year – probably $1500 now. An ’emergency’ land line is $23 a month, and with a message rate plan it is $30 (I use voip – $25 unlimited). Gas is $3.85 a gallon at the cheapest stations (96 cents a liter). Health insurance for one – $250 a month – I pay half. I usually buy most of my things online, as it is much cheaper than locally. The car dealers presently are charging $1800 over sticker for a new toyota yaris, and used prices are inflated also. Average house price is $280,000. The house that my parents bought in $1978 for $54k sold for $420k 2 years ago.
The advantage (?) of living in an area with such high costs is that salaries (mostly) reflect that, so a frugal lifestyle produces a lot of savings.
Good luck to you! Welcome to the US!
Thanks for the welcome 🙂 I’m not quite IN yet, but it should change pretty quickly.
I appreciate the breakdown. It’s helpful to know about health insurance and that prices are inflated at the moment.
In NYC, I just quadruple everything *LAUGH* I remember paying $70/night for the Days Inn and it was a real dive … I was afraid to walk into the room with its nasty carpeting..
I was glad I had points for only 2 nights at the Marriott, but even at $300/night, I was willing to shell out for it after staying at the Days Inn 😛
Landline phone might be a little more due to taxes. I’m not sure since I haven’t had one in years.
Car insurance seems high, but given that you have no U.S. driving record they might consider you like a new driver. Check on that. Since you have some assets now, you’ll want more than the state minimums for Liability. Those are 30k/60k/25k in Texas. Your need for Comprehensive & Collision depends on the value of the car you buy – if you got in a wreck, could you pay out of pocket to fix your own car? Anyone with business assets should also carry extra Liability because if you’re driving for business and you cause an accident, that person can now go after your business too.
Gas is highly contingent on how far you live from where you work. I generally recommend considering rent + commuting costs as a combined variable in your planning. Everything is spread out in Dallas. You’ll drive a lot more than you think you should.
Okay. I’ll up it to $20 or $25 just to be sure. I’d rather not have a phone at all but my parents aren’t quite at Skype-level yet.
Thanks for the note re: new driver. Maybe I can get my driving record from Canada and use that as a reference.
If I got in a wreck, I have a $100,000 cushion to pay for anything. Which means I could just buy a new car in the end… 🙂
I can’t be a freelancer here. I have to work for a company as a Canadian, so that business thing won’t be a problem, but is still a good point.
I remember visiting Dallas years ago and it was really spread out, so I’m not surprised I’ll drive more.
Oh and I should mention that I’m a consultant, so that means I’ll be flying to other cities, and renting hotels & cars there on their dime… so ‘commute’ is not an issue in terms of cost. It’s more the time spent in the air.
I live in LA, which is considerably more expensive. But here’s what I can tell –
$650 a month rent for an apartment/flat is reasonable. However, unless you’re living on the Vegas Strip, my guess is that you won’t be able to live in a hotel for that money. You can probably live in a motel for that money in some places. If you’re a freelance consultant, then you’re paying for your own health insurance probably. If you’re getting a job with a company, the company will probably pay less than that.
As for used cars… you can probably get a small car for less than that. I’m assuming that you want a relatively new used car and not a really used used car. If you want a really used used car, then you can pay less than 10,000 for many of them.Good luck finding a service that is just a landline phone, and not landline + cable + internet… the cost of that might be a bit higher?
I should mention that the $650/month is considering BF is splitting half. Now that I think about it, it will be $1300 if I have to pay for it on my own while I wait for him to get the visa to come across.
I want a relatively new used car for sure 🙂 $10,000 was my budget but I was willing to pay up to $15k.
Thanks for the note re: bundling!
Car insurance will definitely be less. I pay $110/month for 10 months/year for absolutely top of the line car and apartment insurance with two adults covered. I use Amica for that service. My family has been with them for many years and I got my own policies when I moved out. For apartment insurance, make sure you get adequate coverage. Most basic policies cover 10K but you, like me, have a lot of electronics so the 10K might not be adequate coverage. Due to tons of electronics (partner is an IT developer) and some jewelry we bumped our coverage to closer to 40K.
Groceries you can definitely do less. But, if that’s something you’ve made a conscious choice to spend more on to get quality, local ingredients then $400 is pretty accurate. That’s about what we spend for 2 ppl.
Gas might be low depending on your commute.
I definitely need more than $10,000 in electronics coverage alone. Not to mention the rest of the stuff I have.
Thanks for that note. I’ll probably bump coverage up to $50k just to be sure.
I do the same thing for groceries — local, quality, organic. I was actually thinking more of $400 for one person *blush* because BF buys wine to cook with and that gets EXPENSIVE!
I live within a few hours drive of Dallas, and I think the cost of living is pretty similar here and there…
I would guess that your car insurance will be lower (we pay about 125/month, and since hubby is a male between 21-24 yrs old, we pay a bit more. we do save by using the same company for car/condo insurance though), apartment insurance will probably be in that ballpark (we paid 10/month for our apartment, now 35/month for our condo insurance)
Everything else looks about right to me… health insurance will completely depend on your workplace, though, and their plan. You might have a deductible to take into account too, for appointments and prescriptions.
We don’t spend that much on food, but we are definitely not foodies at all, so…I can definitely see you spending more if you eat nicer stuff 🙂
I will definitely make a note about the health insurance bit, although I will still be Canadian so I am not sure that would apply to me anyway… I can always buy separate insurance via Canada for the year or longer.
Yep. We’re foodies 🙂
I think your health insurance might be a bit more and car insurance a bit less!
Nice. I get to switch the numbers!
Looks about right to me too (from Louisiana, not too far away). Good luck with Dallas traffic when you get down there! When are you moving?
Moving date: ASAP 🙂
Great post. I’m in Texas, too (Houston). Car insurance might end up being a lot less, especially if you buy your car paid in full. Other than that, I’d say you’re pretty accurate.
I’ll pay cash for the car unless I get a deal like 0% loan for 6 months.. then I’ll just milk the interest earnings and then pay it in full in 6 months. Or something 🙂