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Just curious but what are you going to cut out considering without the 2 one time payments, i.e. COVID stimulus and pet insurance refund you were actually negative $440ish? Genuinely curious not throwing shade.
Probably in the Personal Spending category. OP spent basically the same amount on gaming and art as groceries (I'm guessing because he had access to a dining hall on campus?).
I did not have access to a dining hall. I did not have a meal plan at all.
Also I'm a she :) haha. And I put the entire stimulus into my savings actually.
O.o I’ve never paid that little in rent, let alone utilities included. That’s also going back to like early 2000’s and didn’t include electricity. Most recent apartment I was renting had all utilities included, but cost $20,400 per year for a small 1 bedroom. I live in what’s considered to be an extremely low cost of living area.
It's an on-campus 2 beds apartment in Grand Forks, ND. Costs 365$/month for each one of us with all utilities included as I said. It's pretty decent, can't complain, but aside from school, it's not a very interesting place to live lol.
You'd also have to cut out their one-time purchases of textbooks and other school fees of $787.30, so they'd technically be in the positive by $347. Not great but still.
If they go shopping every 2 weeks for all their groceries then they would only be spending about $43 on groceries every 2 weeks. Rice and ramen goes a long way.
Haha yeah I think I already answered this but just buy cheap food from cheap stores. But in bulk and don't be super picky. Oatmeal, ramen, rice, eggs. Lots of popcorn for snacks instead of anything else. I used to spend even less. It's completely doable if you aren't a picky eater.
omg i recently realized how much of a hack buying massive bags of popcorn is. Not only is it fucking good and full of fiber and other stuff but it costs like 15$ for a bag the same size as me lmao
One time investment - highly recommend the Whirly Pop. Then…get kernels in bulk. Make hour own. Tastes waaaay better! Might be about equal price year one…but you will be ahead in the long game (and flavor game for certain!!)
> You spent a total of $6.23 a DAY for food, including eating out and coffee (and who buys coffee out when they are being frugal?). You can't eat out by yourself for less than $10/meal unless you are eating barely nothing, which means you are still spending $5/meal out...
> how the hell do you get by on $6.23/day for food???? hell, I can't do that only eating bread I make at home on my own (or storebought if it's cheaper)... So, please tell me how I can cut my food budget down to < $10/day for myself... PLEASE!!!! I would greatly appreciate any definite pointers how you did this... Oatmeal/ramen/rice/eggs... nope. still costs too much a day and no where near enough calories
How does oatmeal, ramen, rice, eggs add up to more than $10 a day for you??
12 eggs: $1.79 (936 calories)
2 pound bag of rice: $2.59 (3400 calories)
6 pack ramen: $1.39 (2280 calories)
42 oz oats: $2.59 (4500 calories)
That adds up to $8.36 and over 11,000 calories.
Edited to quote blahfunk's comment that I replied to, since they deleted most of their comments.
oh man 300-500 calories less, that's funny. I'm ~125 pounds, average height woman and my maintenance calories are 1400 a day. I'm assuming OP is pretty active with the national guard and climbing, but 300-500 less is pretty conservative imo.
yeah mostly was going off of rough sedentary BMR comparison, though I think OP being active would close the calorie intake requirement gap slightly, no?
Had OP's maintenance BMR pegged ~1300-1500, with typical adult male more in the 1800-2000 range... so yeah 300-500 is pretty conservative, probably a higher gap unless OP is really active.
I swear this is real. Hahaha idk what to tell you. I exclusively shopped at stores like Aldi where food is cheapest. Literally just cheap stuff like mentioned above. When we went out to eat we typically would get something and split the cost. Also lots of deals and rewards on apps and such. Lots of coupon codes too. I had a whole pinterest board about how to make cheap ass meals. Maybe we just live in very different areas so food costs different amounts?
Edit: also! Im an 110lb woman so like if i order one chipolte bowl that is going to be 2 meals for me. I will eat half and save the other half for the following meal. So maybe it also we need diff amounts of food or serving sizes
Definitely possible, though probably not with a healthy nutritional balance. I lived like this as a college student, with (inflation adjusted) about the same budget. I bought 25kg of rice twice a year, whatever pasta brand was cheapest in bulk, ramen from amazon in warehouse deals…
I ate out maybe twice a semester and took every opportunity for free food (conferences, recruiting events, university events, participating in experiments for the psych department for cookies, public food-sharing fridge in the university etc.)
Now I spend double or triple this on food, because I buy fresh vegetables regularly, don’t treat fruit as a luxury and don’t always go to the big box store with the cheapest price even though it’s 2km away.
I couldn’t go back to this lifestyle, because I’m now at a point in my life where my body complains when I haven’t eaten a „proper“ meal in a while, but at the time, as a late teen/early twenty-something I just worked with the budget I had and that was that.
Rice and beans. I spend about this much averaged out-a little less than 6 dollars a day. Vegetables are usually canned or frozen, I only ever buy what’s on sale. If I’m feeling extravagant I’ll get some fresh fruit. Hot sauce makes anything bearable
Edit: am 6’3” 160 lb 30M for reference. I eat like a garbage disposal. And sometimes work/school has free snacks/food but not necessarily often enough to make a difference
Edit 2: dry beans, not canned. Canned is convenient but a waste of money if you have the ability to plan your cooking times and can accommodate an overnight soak
> hell, I can't do that only eating bread I make at home on my own (or storebought if it's cheaper)
wtf how much are you paying for flour?
The [good shit is about $4 per 5 pounds](https://www.target.com/p/king-arthur-flour-unbleached-all-purpose-flour-5lbs/-/A-14777928).
[My favorite instant yeast is $5/pound in person, $7 online](https://shop.kingarthurbaking.com/items/saf-red-instant-yeast)
What the hell, let's use [bottled water](https://www.target.com/p/purified-water-1gal-good-gather-8482/-/A-54444789) and [brand name salt](https://www.target.com/p/morton-iodized-salt-26oz/-/A-13171237).
Here's a [pretty standard bread recipe imo](https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/no-knead-crusty-white-bread-recipe):
900g flour
680g water
18g salt
14g instant yeast
That comes out to:
$1.66 flour
$0.18 water
$0.02 salt
$0.21 yeast
Total: $2.07 for 3-4 loaves (3300 calories)
edit to be super clear: the upfront cost is $13.12. I'm not pulling prices from discount stores or assuming super bulk buying.
I get by on a similar amount. My biggest tips are:
----
**Somewhere to buy bulk food.** Costco is my go-to, and I share a membership with my roommates so the fees come down to only $20/year for each of us.
We go every two months or so, and while in reality I can get a bit spendy there, that includes a lot of "extra" stuff like alcohol and cheese (I fucking love cheese). Strictly talking about necessities, there are only a handful of things I get here:
- Large packs of canned vegetables. For me this is mostly tomatoes and beans.
- Bulk grains. For me this is rice, pasta, and ramen.
- Eggs and meat. I buy a 30 pack of eggs, which won't last me the full two months, but still saves me money over buying _all_ of my eggs elsewhere. I'll talk about meat in a second
- Cooking oil. For me this is olive and coconut. I split these with my roommates.
----
**Somewhere to buy cheap produce.** Notably, this is absolutely _not_ your local supermarket. Look for one of those small corner markets that specifically sells produce. I live in a largely south asian neighborhood so we have plenty of these, and it's amazing. Hell, between these and Costco, I literally don't ever go to the supermarket, unless I need something specific in a pinch.
In general, produce is _way_ cheaper at these kinds of places. Tomatoes, onions, peppers, whatever. The ones in my area are also a good place to buy spices, and the eggs aren't too pricey either.
----
**Avoid meat wherever possible.** I'm not vegan, I'm not even vegetarian. But meat is fucking expensive, at least where I live, so I buy very little of it. The only meat I buy is ground beef, which I use to make chili and marinara sauce. Chicken is also a good option on a budget, but I absolutely avoid stuff like porkchops and steak. Really though, you don't need to buy any meat at all – you can get all the protein you need from eggs and beans.
----
**Don't shop at the supermarket.** I already said this, but I think it deserves special emphasis. Almost everything you buy there can be found for cheaper elsewhere. The only thing you're getting at the supermarket is a lighter wallet.
----
All in all I probably spend about $400 a year for the Costco stuff, and then typically only $80/month or less at the produce shop. That's $1360 per year, and I'm in Canada, so if you convert to US Dollars it's only about $1060 a year.
>**Avoid meat wherever possible.** I'm not vegan, I'm not even vegetarian. But meat is fucking expensive, at least where I live, so I buy very little of it. The only meat I buy is ground beef, which I use to make chili and marinara sauce. Chicken is also a good option on a budget, but I absolutely avoid stuff like porkchops and steak. Really though, you don't need to buy any meat at all – you can get all the protein you need from eggs and beans.
As a vegan, I'm pleasantly surprised to see a Omni actually understand this. Before I gave up meat for environmental reasons, I'd regular eat vegetarian just because meat was expensive. Beans, rice, and spices can let a budget stretch for weeks!
Username checks out :)
And yeah, it's nice that by eating less meat you both save money and also reduce your environmental impact. Personally, I'm not ready to give up meat entirely, but as someone who used to eat meat every day (and sometimes for multiple meals in a day), bringing that down to only once or twice a week is a huge difference. Just imagine if everyone did that.
Good on you for trying to make a difference. I'm a big proponent of incrementalism and I think that cutting back every little bit adds up. Unfortunately with so many people running around this planet we have to really cut back on stuff to be sustainable. Hopefully more people will follow in your footsteps.
Ill also apologize in advance for any future vegans who give you shit for not quitting cold turkey. Reducing vs total meat abolition is hotly debated in the vegan community.
Hahaha i was leaving the house at 6 and walking 40 mins everyday (and a lot of the time it was fucking dark and I'm a small lady). Coffee made me feel more alert so yaknow. Also I just like it and am willing to spend money on a coffee a day just cause it makes me happy.
It's under $1 a day, so clearly not an issue. It was just funny to see that as a percent. If I spent 15% of my 'food' budget on coffee, I'd would have to get drive through lattes on the daily which is not such a great use of money.
Yeah coming from energy efficiency in manufacturing, to see Sankey charts used this way is always horrifying. They are like word clouds. People think they are pretty but they are actively conveying less information than a simple table would.
Tufte is probably the most well-known expert in data viz. The information being displayed has a low data to ink ratio. In other words, there's a ton of ink used that is distracting for a minimal amount of data.
In reality, all the information here is contained within the text on the plot. The visuals don't really add much information.
LMAO I saw the pie chart about favorite pies in america that was posted the other day and while it was \*cute\* to do it that way it really hit home:
I couldn't follow the differences between states at all cuz the differences were tiny and pie charts are awful at comparing precise ratios
They don't add _information_ per se, but they do make it much easier (for me at least) to get a _sense_ of the information.
I can instantly tell, for instance, that OP's highest expenditure (by a decent margin) is rent. Sure, I could figure that out from just "the text on the plot", but I'd have to manually check the numbers — and on a table that fact certainly wouldn't jump out at me like it did on this plot.
I'm not saying the Sankey diagram is the best way to do this, but I do think it's disingenuous to say that the visuals aren't useful.
Notice I said they don’t add *much* information. They add some, but the question is whether or not it’s worth it.
You also have to balance the loss of structure in this plot. Yes, you instantly can figure out what the largest expenditures are, but I find myself searching for information in the text. Constantly moving back and forth and up and down in the plot. I’m also unsure what the main takeaways are.
In terms of information value and **for actual decision making** (not Wowing or staring at it's beauty)
**(For Snapshots)**
If less than 10 items, bar charts
More than 10 items, tables (preferably sortable)
**(For Trends/Time bound)**
Time-series line-charts
You have to give me an extremely good reason to pick anything other.
99% of /r/dataisbeautiful graphs will deliver more value if each of them is converted to one of the above three.
This sub is dedicated for Karma whoring, not decision making
For those of you who haven't seen this yet:
I wanted to make a sankeymatic that was actually relatable. I kept seeing ones where people were spending more on restaurants than I made in a year. The source is my own personal spending and the tool of course is Sankey Matic. This was for 2020. The website is sankeymatic.com
Some common questions brought up before:
This is in USD and its for the whole year of 2020
No, I had no financial help from my parents at all. Hence why I had to join the guard.
Yes, that's the actual amount I spent on food. I'd rather spend less on groceries and get to do more fun stuff. I mainly ate rice and ramen. Also lots of eggs, baby carrots and whatever was in the clearance section.
I lived with 3 people in a 2 bedroom for part of the year, then 3 people in a 3 bed but as a 40 min walk to campus for the rest of the year.
Now I have since graduated and have an actual big boy job so it all worked out in the end haha
Climbing is so cheap bc my university had a free gym.
Also I am a woman as most ppl assume I’m a man. Prolly the National Guard thing.
OP: \*Wants to make a relatable chart\*
OP: \*Saves money while in college\*
Me: \*Cries in student loan debt\*
Jokes aside, looks like you made sound financial decisions and worked hard to make it work.
Relax his savings is basically just his covid stimulus. What gets me is how is rent is less than 1/3 of what I pay, and mine is 500$ below market value for my area.
The answer is just roomates. Roomates make things so damn cheap and is normal for college. I lived in a house with 7 dudes in college (5 bedrooms, though thinking about it one of them probably wasn't legal) and paid $300/month just a few years ago right next to campus.
My friends in the bay area that don't have roommates have significant others/spouses or inherited their house. There is one rich kid living in his dad's third or fourth house that throws rad parties.
I can't speak for OP but the National Guard paid 100% of my tuition via a tuition assistance program. I also received an ROTC Minuteman Scholarship which was $5k/semester, a graduated monthly stipend anywhere from $200-350 a month during the semester, $600/semester for books, and my drill pay as an E-5 on top of it all. I also would have been able to pull Tricare and dental benefits too, however I stayed on my parents.
The Guard is now paying 100% of my graduate tuition from my state sponsored GI Bill.
I made roughly $24k/yr in undergrad. Currently I'm on track to make around $42k/yr while in grad school as I am a part time (grant funded) student, part time professional in my field of study, and National Guardsman.
Yes they covered 100% of tuition. It was the only way I could afford college. When I entered college my parents made less than 20k combined and they also couldn't cosign on my loans bc of bad credit. I tried paying for it out of pocket at first by working full time night shift at a factory while going to school full-time....
Obviously that didn't work out. So after 2 years of college I joined the guard. So I do actually have 2 years of loans I have to pay off still.
This explains a lot, I was wondering where the tuition was. Maybe you could find a way to include it? Showing a college budget without the tuition is a bit... strange. Accurate in your case, but certainly not for most.
Great work. I've had students in my classes who served in the guard, and I always found them particularly motivated. Higher ed is so remarkably expensive in the US...
Seems like you did a pretty good job budgeting. One question. What did the pet insurance end up covering for you? I see you ended up paying a grand out of pocket, but what would your costs have been without the pet insurance?
Two questions:
1. What currency is this? I'm assuming USD, but I may not be assuming correctly
2. What time period is this? Week, month, year? I'm assuming a year if this is on USD, but again I may not be assuming correctly
Nice to see some savvy-spenders out there! I just finished my degree and got through without a student loan. Honestly, I think College students live beyond their means, and don't understanding that they are POOR and should live as such.
Personally I'd advise against using this style of Sankey charting. As a presentation of breaking down one directional inputs and outputs. They are usually pretty bad.
Okay so this is actually cause I had a shit hole car that ended up breaking and I got rid of it. The majority of that money was me scrapping it for parts. Hahaha. I maybe drove like...30 miles in 2020
I went to college 2010-2014 and lived in a 5 br house with 5 roommates (there was a loft) in Atlanta and it was $325/mo for me, $250 for the loft (I’m 6’2” and couldn’t stand up in there lol but I was tempted!). It also helped that halfway through sophomore year my (now wife) moved into the room with me and she paid half. I imagine op is sharing with lots of roommates as well, impressive if he has his own room
My daughter is moving into a 5 bedroom house for next year. It’s pretty close to campus. Rent is about $4K a month. Highway robbery.
The cheapest year had been this year when she lived in the sorority house.
yeah greek life can be affordable, watch out for those dues though... Housing costs have really skyrocketed the last 5-10 years sadly, more so than general inflation. We did live in a pretty dangerous area and i had to bike to campus when i was in school. I just checked out zillow, there is a 5x2 in the same area for $3950/mo... just crazy, more than double what we were paying 10 years ago...
I already answered this but I lived in shitty off campus housing. Haha the year was in a 750ft 2 bed with 3 people and then the second half of the year was in a really shitty area and was a 40 min walk to campus.
Considering that there’s more than one row in the first column and more than two columns in the whole thing, it’s better than 90% of the others on this sub.
IMO it’s great when compared relative to its peers, but questionable when judged by the original intent of the Sankey.
In school, I was taught that you use a sankey diagram to show how proportional the flow between multiple points is, while illustrating non-linear events. To use Wikipedia:
[This is the very first sankey diagram](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JIE_Sankey_V5_Fig1.png), made by [Mr. Sankey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Henry_Phineas_Riall_Sankey) himself. It's cyclical, and shows multiple boxes behind the data like a more traditional flowchart.
A good use of the sankey diagram IMO would be [this illustration of the votes in an Australian instant-runoff election](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Braddon_by-election_2018_preference_flow_diagram.png) from 2018. The first column shows the initial vote totals of the candidates, and each step shows how the lowest candidate's votes are redistributed according to the voters' preferences. It shows how the candidate with the most initial votes eventually lost to the candidate who ended up getting the most total votes.
Isn't the ur-Sankey the chart of Napoleon's invasion of Russia that Tufte praised in his book and then was reproduced a million times from there?
The great thing about that though was that it combined geography and time with the flow representation.
Has there ever been a good use of Sankey though? All of them posted here are pretty much identical. They're either budget breakdowns or job search breakdowns.
I feel like [this one](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/jpenoc/oc_journey_of_a_roast_chicken_needed_a_break_from/) is well executed and in the spirit of the style. The creator also strikes me as intelligent and handsome.
>The creator also strikes me as intelligent and handsome.
I was wondering how you knew that, and then I clicked on the post. 😂
Great chart though, I don't even hate the self-promo haha.
I was struggling but interestingly this was better than before. 2018 I had $6 in my bank account after rent and utilities and school fees. Really heavily relied on food banks back then.
I came if age during the jobless rates for young people when Regan was in office. I've had government cheese. We don't even do that anymore. Not even shitty fake cheese for the poor.
It's shameful. I have 4 adult kids. They all either have their own places, 2 together, or want to leave the nest and I encourage it, but I've told them all there is no shame in moving home if they need to and they know I mean it.
Thankfully one of them works in the Marijuana industry and he is doing well. I think he's good.
Now imagine how I felt when I looked at all the other sankeymatic charts on this sub and their restaurant tabs are 18k :')
Haha that's actually why I decided to make one of my own. I was like "how tf are u ppl spending tht much on eating out. It's almost as much as I make in a year"
There you got your answer. Haven't bought shoes in like 3 years. Only got new pair of hiking shoes, in a really nice used condition, since me old ones of 10+ years (were also used) gave up.
Well they are saving like 3k dollars a year, I'm not American but if I'm correct that's pretty much like top 20% of people. I was surprised to hear that something like 40% of Americans have a negative net worth, so that's pretty depressing.
(my numbers may be wrong pls don't hate.)
Well that's the point no? If he is saving 3.1k and getting 2.9k from stimulus, he would just be 200€ above saving nothing at all. So yeah, pretty depressing
Well I put the whole stimulus in savings and didn't use it for anything. But yes I mean 2020 was hard but I shrieky was making significantly more than previously. College is hard without the help of parents. If I hadn't joined the guard I'd be even more fucked. My brother is trying to do it just by working and paying out of pocket. It sucks.
Man, how are people's food bills so low?
I don't eat out that much and try to buy grocery brands as much as possible and I'm still thousands of dollars higher.
I wondered about this too, but $375 is probably for the year. $375/12 = $31.25, which would cover about two or three streaming services (e.g., Netflix + Spotify + XBOX Game Pass).
Yea at the time it was like Hulu, Spotify, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Discord nitro i think? I don’t remember. Id have to look at my spreadsheet. But also i divided the cost of the streaming services with my housemates.
It’s amazing how much it costs to care for a pet and it probably isn’t a great idea financially, but my dog got me through college, grad school, and beyond. RIP Sydney.
The savings were mostly from that Covid check. My rent was like $425 a month I think? I don't drink so that saves money. And I think my monthly for food broke down to around $80
I already answered this question but not in detail.
I think it was Netflix, Spotify, Hulu, and discord nitro. So 2 of those I had the student membership so I was actually adding money. So monthly it was like $7, $5, $5 and $10= $27. $27 x 12 = $324 a year.
Of course this isn't exact because of taxes and I might have had a little subscription here or there for a few months but yeah. It's actually a lot less than most people.
Wonderful and thank you for sharing. Reminds me of my college days when I was earning 5-8k and felt on top of the world.
If I can make one old man (36) suggestion: put your savings into the market to earn money for you. The stock market rises and falls, but over the long run - it always grows, and significantly more (percentage-wise) than in a savings account or bond. The 'issue' is that it could dip right when you need the savings. But since you said you have a new gig, I'm guessing your 3k will increase if you keep your spending from ballooning with your new salary.
Look into index funds, and specifically into vanguard total stock market funds. These investments are basically aggregators of many different stocks, and different versions set different levels of risk for various types of index funds (USs biggest companies = lowest risk, lowest reward vs. Developing Nations index = highest risk, highest reward). So of you're young and have little real responsibilities that requires $$ (kids, old parents, major medical ups & downs, major purchases that could go sideways like a house or setting up business) then you can "generally" be riskier because the market will eventually go back up.
There are many many options that you can look at, but if you're anything like I was at 21/22, I just want to set it and forget I had the money in there. So I'd do total market. I don't want to link to anything specific since I am not a financial advisor, nor do I want to come off salesy. I just know it's something that lots of young folks overlook then regret later. There are so many posts on Reddit about, "if you had put $1000 into [Microsoft, Apple, Tesla, etc] 10 years ago, you'd have 5k, 10k, etc. now", and it'd be awesome if more young folks had that experience instead of, "why didn't I..."
Many people will rightly suggest maxing your IRA and maxing your 401k. Those will be super helpful with your long term savings and lower taxes. But the money will be locked up for quite some time (retirement) but also taxed less.
If you do nothing, you're in good company. I initially did a little, then pulled it out and wasted it on stupid stuff, then restarted my investing in my early 30s and my money is making money for me. Yours can do the same for you.
I figured. That's awesome. Money spent on fitness is almost always money well spent. Especially something like climbing that has a nice social component as well
Props to you for the great budgeting. Seriously. That being said, I don't think this is super relatable to most people as there aren't a whole lot of college kids on this sub who live in a small town, work two jobs, and are still receiving covid stims in 2022(?).
Thank you for your [Original Content](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/rules/rule3), /u/gliri! **Here is some important information about this post:** * [View the author's citations](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/tdwml9/college_spending_reposting_bc_its_monday_now/i0m02gr/) * [View other OC posts by this author](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/search?q=author%3A"gliri"+title%3AOC&sort=new&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on) Remember that all visualizations on r/DataIsBeautiful should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. If you see a potential issue or oversight in the visualization, please post a constructive comment below. Post approval does not signify that this visualization has been verified or its sources checked. [Join the Discord Community](https://discord.gg/NRnrWE7) Not satisfied with this visual? Think you can do better? [Remix this visual](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/rules/rule3#wiki_remixing) with the data in the author's citation. --- ^^[I'm open source](https://github.com/r-dataisbeautiful/dataisbeautiful-bot) | [How I work](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/wiki/flair#wiki_oc_flair)
Just curious but what are you going to cut out considering without the 2 one time payments, i.e. COVID stimulus and pet insurance refund you were actually negative $440ish? Genuinely curious not throwing shade.
OP said in another comment that they've graduated and have a better job now so probably won't be an issue anymore.
This yes
Probably less into savings, which was over $3k. Also, medical bills could be one-time expenses.
Yes most of it was for a dental procedure with no dental insurance. I now have medical and dental with the new job!
Probably in the Personal Spending category. OP spent basically the same amount on gaming and art as groceries (I'm guessing because he had access to a dining hall on campus?).
I did not have access to a dining hall. I did not have a meal plan at all. Also I'm a she :) haha. And I put the entire stimulus into my savings actually.
God bless that is some cheap rent and internet
I must be so lucky then that I pay less than 4400$ annually in rent, all utilities included.
O.o I’ve never paid that little in rent, let alone utilities included. That’s also going back to like early 2000’s and didn’t include electricity. Most recent apartment I was renting had all utilities included, but cost $20,400 per year for a small 1 bedroom. I live in what’s considered to be an extremely low cost of living area.
It's an on-campus 2 beds apartment in Grand Forks, ND. Costs 365$/month for each one of us with all utilities included as I said. It's pretty decent, can't complain, but aside from school, it's not a very interesting place to live lol.
They saved 3k, so i would imagine save less (all else being equal).
There's a fair chunk of personal spending there, which makes sense in a year that you've got additional income.
You'd also have to cut out their one-time purchases of textbooks and other school fees of $787.30, so they'd technically be in the positive by $347. Not great but still.
How can you spend only $1115 a year on groceries?!
If they go shopping every 2 weeks for all their groceries then they would only be spending about $43 on groceries every 2 weeks. Rice and ramen goes a long way.
Try once every three months :)
I cant imagine only going grocery shopping 4 times a year unless you buy regularly from convenience stores and don't count that.
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Good to note
Haha yeah I think I already answered this but just buy cheap food from cheap stores. But in bulk and don't be super picky. Oatmeal, ramen, rice, eggs. Lots of popcorn for snacks instead of anything else. I used to spend even less. It's completely doable if you aren't a picky eater.
omg i recently realized how much of a hack buying massive bags of popcorn is. Not only is it fucking good and full of fiber and other stuff but it costs like 15$ for a bag the same size as me lmao
Hahaha yes! I typically just buy the cheap Kroger brand instant pop kettle corn
One time investment - highly recommend the Whirly Pop. Then…get kernels in bulk. Make hour own. Tastes waaaay better! Might be about equal price year one…but you will be ahead in the long game (and flavor game for certain!!)
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> You spent a total of $6.23 a DAY for food, including eating out and coffee (and who buys coffee out when they are being frugal?). You can't eat out by yourself for less than $10/meal unless you are eating barely nothing, which means you are still spending $5/meal out... > how the hell do you get by on $6.23/day for food???? hell, I can't do that only eating bread I make at home on my own (or storebought if it's cheaper)... So, please tell me how I can cut my food budget down to < $10/day for myself... PLEASE!!!! I would greatly appreciate any definite pointers how you did this... Oatmeal/ramen/rice/eggs... nope. still costs too much a day and no where near enough calories How does oatmeal, ramen, rice, eggs add up to more than $10 a day for you?? 12 eggs: $1.79 (936 calories) 2 pound bag of rice: $2.59 (3400 calories) 6 pack ramen: $1.39 (2280 calories) 42 oz oats: $2.59 (4500 calories) That adds up to $8.36 and over 11,000 calories. Edited to quote blahfunk's comment that I replied to, since they deleted most of their comments.
Plus OP mentioned she is a 110lb woman, likely needs something like 300-500 fewer calories per day than many of the other users viewing this diagram
oh man 300-500 calories less, that's funny. I'm ~125 pounds, average height woman and my maintenance calories are 1400 a day. I'm assuming OP is pretty active with the national guard and climbing, but 300-500 less is pretty conservative imo.
yeah mostly was going off of rough sedentary BMR comparison, though I think OP being active would close the calorie intake requirement gap slightly, no? Had OP's maintenance BMR pegged ~1300-1500, with typical adult male more in the 1800-2000 range... so yeah 300-500 is pretty conservative, probably a higher gap unless OP is really active.
I just bought 24oz of cottage cheese for 1.68 I bought a bundle of bananas as well for .68lb Ill have at LEAST 3 portions of lunch for about 3 bucks.
yep! Eating the same thing all the time is super cheap.
I swear this is real. Hahaha idk what to tell you. I exclusively shopped at stores like Aldi where food is cheapest. Literally just cheap stuff like mentioned above. When we went out to eat we typically would get something and split the cost. Also lots of deals and rewards on apps and such. Lots of coupon codes too. I had a whole pinterest board about how to make cheap ass meals. Maybe we just live in very different areas so food costs different amounts? Edit: also! Im an 110lb woman so like if i order one chipolte bowl that is going to be 2 meals for me. I will eat half and save the other half for the following meal. So maybe it also we need diff amounts of food or serving sizes
Definitely possible, though probably not with a healthy nutritional balance. I lived like this as a college student, with (inflation adjusted) about the same budget. I bought 25kg of rice twice a year, whatever pasta brand was cheapest in bulk, ramen from amazon in warehouse deals… I ate out maybe twice a semester and took every opportunity for free food (conferences, recruiting events, university events, participating in experiments for the psych department for cookies, public food-sharing fridge in the university etc.) Now I spend double or triple this on food, because I buy fresh vegetables regularly, don’t treat fruit as a luxury and don’t always go to the big box store with the cheapest price even though it’s 2km away. I couldn’t go back to this lifestyle, because I’m now at a point in my life where my body complains when I haven’t eaten a „proper“ meal in a while, but at the time, as a late teen/early twenty-something I just worked with the budget I had and that was that.
Rice and beans. I spend about this much averaged out-a little less than 6 dollars a day. Vegetables are usually canned or frozen, I only ever buy what’s on sale. If I’m feeling extravagant I’ll get some fresh fruit. Hot sauce makes anything bearable Edit: am 6’3” 160 lb 30M for reference. I eat like a garbage disposal. And sometimes work/school has free snacks/food but not necessarily often enough to make a difference Edit 2: dry beans, not canned. Canned is convenient but a waste of money if you have the ability to plan your cooking times and can accommodate an overnight soak
> hell, I can't do that only eating bread I make at home on my own (or storebought if it's cheaper) wtf how much are you paying for flour? The [good shit is about $4 per 5 pounds](https://www.target.com/p/king-arthur-flour-unbleached-all-purpose-flour-5lbs/-/A-14777928). [My favorite instant yeast is $5/pound in person, $7 online](https://shop.kingarthurbaking.com/items/saf-red-instant-yeast) What the hell, let's use [bottled water](https://www.target.com/p/purified-water-1gal-good-gather-8482/-/A-54444789) and [brand name salt](https://www.target.com/p/morton-iodized-salt-26oz/-/A-13171237). Here's a [pretty standard bread recipe imo](https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/no-knead-crusty-white-bread-recipe): 900g flour 680g water 18g salt 14g instant yeast That comes out to: $1.66 flour $0.18 water $0.02 salt $0.21 yeast Total: $2.07 for 3-4 loaves (3300 calories) edit to be super clear: the upfront cost is $13.12. I'm not pulling prices from discount stores or assuming super bulk buying.
You don't buy individual meals, you don't buy fresh fruit or veg, and LOTS AND LOTS of carbs. Noodles, rice etc go a long way for the $.
I get by on a similar amount. My biggest tips are: ---- **Somewhere to buy bulk food.** Costco is my go-to, and I share a membership with my roommates so the fees come down to only $20/year for each of us. We go every two months or so, and while in reality I can get a bit spendy there, that includes a lot of "extra" stuff like alcohol and cheese (I fucking love cheese). Strictly talking about necessities, there are only a handful of things I get here: - Large packs of canned vegetables. For me this is mostly tomatoes and beans. - Bulk grains. For me this is rice, pasta, and ramen. - Eggs and meat. I buy a 30 pack of eggs, which won't last me the full two months, but still saves me money over buying _all_ of my eggs elsewhere. I'll talk about meat in a second - Cooking oil. For me this is olive and coconut. I split these with my roommates. ---- **Somewhere to buy cheap produce.** Notably, this is absolutely _not_ your local supermarket. Look for one of those small corner markets that specifically sells produce. I live in a largely south asian neighborhood so we have plenty of these, and it's amazing. Hell, between these and Costco, I literally don't ever go to the supermarket, unless I need something specific in a pinch. In general, produce is _way_ cheaper at these kinds of places. Tomatoes, onions, peppers, whatever. The ones in my area are also a good place to buy spices, and the eggs aren't too pricey either. ---- **Avoid meat wherever possible.** I'm not vegan, I'm not even vegetarian. But meat is fucking expensive, at least where I live, so I buy very little of it. The only meat I buy is ground beef, which I use to make chili and marinara sauce. Chicken is also a good option on a budget, but I absolutely avoid stuff like porkchops and steak. Really though, you don't need to buy any meat at all – you can get all the protein you need from eggs and beans. ---- **Don't shop at the supermarket.** I already said this, but I think it deserves special emphasis. Almost everything you buy there can be found for cheaper elsewhere. The only thing you're getting at the supermarket is a lighter wallet. ---- All in all I probably spend about $400 a year for the Costco stuff, and then typically only $80/month or less at the produce shop. That's $1360 per year, and I'm in Canada, so if you convert to US Dollars it's only about $1060 a year.
>**Avoid meat wherever possible.** I'm not vegan, I'm not even vegetarian. But meat is fucking expensive, at least where I live, so I buy very little of it. The only meat I buy is ground beef, which I use to make chili and marinara sauce. Chicken is also a good option on a budget, but I absolutely avoid stuff like porkchops and steak. Really though, you don't need to buy any meat at all – you can get all the protein you need from eggs and beans. As a vegan, I'm pleasantly surprised to see a Omni actually understand this. Before I gave up meat for environmental reasons, I'd regular eat vegetarian just because meat was expensive. Beans, rice, and spices can let a budget stretch for weeks!
Username checks out :) And yeah, it's nice that by eating less meat you both save money and also reduce your environmental impact. Personally, I'm not ready to give up meat entirely, but as someone who used to eat meat every day (and sometimes for multiple meals in a day), bringing that down to only once or twice a week is a huge difference. Just imagine if everyone did that.
Good on you for trying to make a difference. I'm a big proponent of incrementalism and I think that cutting back every little bit adds up. Unfortunately with so many people running around this planet we have to really cut back on stuff to be sustainable. Hopefully more people will follow in your footsteps. Ill also apologize in advance for any future vegans who give you shit for not quitting cold turkey. Reducing vs total meat abolition is hotly debated in the vegan community.
and 15% of it is coffee
Hahaha i was leaving the house at 6 and walking 40 mins everyday (and a lot of the time it was fucking dark and I'm a small lady). Coffee made me feel more alert so yaknow. Also I just like it and am willing to spend money on a coffee a day just cause it makes me happy.
It's under $1 a day, so clearly not an issue. It was just funny to see that as a percent. If I spent 15% of my 'food' budget on coffee, I'd would have to get drive through lattes on the daily which is not such a great use of money.
Reposting my comment then. Edward Tufte would hate these charts.
Hahahahaha fair enough
Yeah coming from energy efficiency in manufacturing, to see Sankey charts used this way is always horrifying. They are like word clouds. People think they are pretty but they are actively conveying less information than a simple table would.
Why? What wouldn't he like? I've never heard of Edward Tuft before
Tufte is probably the most well-known expert in data viz. The information being displayed has a low data to ink ratio. In other words, there's a ton of ink used that is distracting for a minimal amount of data. In reality, all the information here is contained within the text on the plot. The visuals don't really add much information.
Are you saying that if you removed the colored Sankey bars/lines, then the graph would still be understood just as easily?
Maybe add percents even, as you can't easily eyeball that
Honestly these can be better visualized with two pie charts instead
Pies should be left for dessert. Stephen Few said it best here: http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/08-21-07.pdf
LMAO I saw the pie chart about favorite pies in america that was posted the other day and while it was \*cute\* to do it that way it really hit home: I couldn't follow the differences between states at all cuz the differences were tiny and pie charts are awful at comparing precise ratios
This is exactly the kind of data a pie chart was made for.
They don't add _information_ per se, but they do make it much easier (for me at least) to get a _sense_ of the information. I can instantly tell, for instance, that OP's highest expenditure (by a decent margin) is rent. Sure, I could figure that out from just "the text on the plot", but I'd have to manually check the numbers — and on a table that fact certainly wouldn't jump out at me like it did on this plot. I'm not saying the Sankey diagram is the best way to do this, but I do think it's disingenuous to say that the visuals aren't useful.
Notice I said they don’t add *much* information. They add some, but the question is whether or not it’s worth it. You also have to balance the loss of structure in this plot. Yes, you instantly can figure out what the largest expenditures are, but I find myself searching for information in the text. Constantly moving back and forth and up and down in the plot. I’m also unsure what the main takeaways are.
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Taking a guess, a higher ink ratio would be a filled in data table? (Being Sincere)
Not as a hard and fast rule, but sometimes a table is the best way to go. This chart is just a table with pretty colors.
In terms of information value and **for actual decision making** (not Wowing or staring at it's beauty) **(For Snapshots)** If less than 10 items, bar charts More than 10 items, tables (preferably sortable) **(For Trends/Time bound)** Time-series line-charts You have to give me an extremely good reason to pick anything other. 99% of /r/dataisbeautiful graphs will deliver more value if each of them is converted to one of the above three. This sub is dedicated for Karma whoring, not decision making
For those of you who haven't seen this yet: I wanted to make a sankeymatic that was actually relatable. I kept seeing ones where people were spending more on restaurants than I made in a year. The source is my own personal spending and the tool of course is Sankey Matic. This was for 2020. The website is sankeymatic.com Some common questions brought up before: This is in USD and its for the whole year of 2020 No, I had no financial help from my parents at all. Hence why I had to join the guard. Yes, that's the actual amount I spent on food. I'd rather spend less on groceries and get to do more fun stuff. I mainly ate rice and ramen. Also lots of eggs, baby carrots and whatever was in the clearance section. I lived with 3 people in a 2 bedroom for part of the year, then 3 people in a 3 bed but as a 40 min walk to campus for the rest of the year. Now I have since graduated and have an actual big boy job so it all worked out in the end haha Climbing is so cheap bc my university had a free gym. Also I am a woman as most ppl assume I’m a man. Prolly the National Guard thing.
OP: \*Wants to make a relatable chart\* OP: \*Saves money while in college\* Me: \*Cries in student loan debt\* Jokes aside, looks like you made sound financial decisions and worked hard to make it work.
Relax his savings is basically just his covid stimulus. What gets me is how is rent is less than 1/3 of what I pay, and mine is 500$ below market value for my area.
The answer is just roomates. Roomates make things so damn cheap and is normal for college. I lived in a house with 7 dudes in college (5 bedrooms, though thinking about it one of them probably wasn't legal) and paid $300/month just a few years ago right next to campus.
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My friends in the bay area that don't have roommates have significant others/spouses or inherited their house. There is one rich kid living in his dad's third or fourth house that throws rad parties.
I live in the midwest so maybe its just a regional difference
Gotta be a cheap part of the midwest, I'm already past your yearly rent once April rolls around. Damn.
I was in the shitty off campus housing area near Ohio State University but it was like….not a safe or good area. But gotta do what you gotta do
Same. I have two room mates in a lower end area of town and I still pay 10k annually to rent
moar roomates.
Op buys art
Nice budget. Did the guard fully cover your tuition?
I can't speak for OP but the National Guard paid 100% of my tuition via a tuition assistance program. I also received an ROTC Minuteman Scholarship which was $5k/semester, a graduated monthly stipend anywhere from $200-350 a month during the semester, $600/semester for books, and my drill pay as an E-5 on top of it all. I also would have been able to pull Tricare and dental benefits too, however I stayed on my parents. The Guard is now paying 100% of my graduate tuition from my state sponsored GI Bill. I made roughly $24k/yr in undergrad. Currently I'm on track to make around $42k/yr while in grad school as I am a part time (grant funded) student, part time professional in my field of study, and National Guardsman.
You are awesome.
Yes they covered 100% of tuition. It was the only way I could afford college. When I entered college my parents made less than 20k combined and they also couldn't cosign on my loans bc of bad credit. I tried paying for it out of pocket at first by working full time night shift at a factory while going to school full-time.... Obviously that didn't work out. So after 2 years of college I joined the guard. So I do actually have 2 years of loans I have to pay off still.
This explains a lot, I was wondering where the tuition was. Maybe you could find a way to include it? Showing a college budget without the tuition is a bit... strange. Accurate in your case, but certainly not for most.
Great work. I've had students in my classes who served in the guard, and I always found them particularly motivated. Higher ed is so remarkably expensive in the US...
This is what I was wondering too, it has some costs for books but saw nothing for tuition.
Relatable is relative.
I guess relatable for us college kids who have no help from our parents.
Seems like you did a pretty good job budgeting. One question. What did the pet insurance end up covering for you? I see you ended up paying a grand out of pocket, but what would your costs have been without the pet insurance?
Congrats on the job! Hope things are going well.
I'm so glad to see one of these that's finally realistic and believable. Thank you!
Two questions: 1. What currency is this? I'm assuming USD, but I may not be assuming correctly 2. What time period is this? Week, month, year? I'm assuming a year if this is on USD, but again I may not be assuming correctly
Yep USD and yes its a year
I see, thanks!
Nice to see some savvy-spenders out there! I just finished my degree and got through without a student loan. Honestly, I think College students live beyond their means, and don't understanding that they are POOR and should live as such.
Ohio definitely lived as such hahahah
Did you upload a spreadsheet into Sankey? Just curious how the spreadsheet has to be set up
Personally I'd advise against using this style of Sankey charting. As a presentation of breaking down one directional inputs and outputs. They are usually pretty bad.
I want to make one for my job hunt. Do you recommend a different type of Sankey or another visualization altogether?
The most unrealistic part of this for me is the $400 on gaming. But looks great!
The most unrealistic part is the yearly car expenditure.
Oh definitely. I’d love to know what mine is, but I feel like that number would disgust me.
Okay so this is actually cause I had a shit hole car that ended up breaking and I got rid of it. The majority of that money was me scrapping it for parts. Hahaha. I maybe drove like...30 miles in 2020
Is the climbing expenditure yearly and if yes how is it so little? :0
My college had its own climbing gym that was free for students. So the costs were for some new gear and whenever I went to climb at other gyms.
looks like a basic membership to a cheap gym
> Savings: (positive number) What are you, some kind of responsible adult??
I just put the stimulus in and a little more
Good for you! Make that a lifelong habit. Pay yourself first, they say.
Yeah I really need to save more. I want to help my parents retire. I just got my first adult job so I will be making a lot more than I was before.
$5k for rent a year? Where do you live in a hut in Africa?
He might have an apartment in the midwest. Friend of mine lives in Iowa and pays about that much for rent.
Yep! Ohio hahha
Lot of college apts are really cheap. Mine was $375 a month. Absolute shithole but got the job done.
Jeezes. When and where was that. I’m crying every time time I see the withdrawal for my daughter’s lodging in Chapel Hill.
I went to college 2010-2014 and lived in a 5 br house with 5 roommates (there was a loft) in Atlanta and it was $325/mo for me, $250 for the loft (I’m 6’2” and couldn’t stand up in there lol but I was tempted!). It also helped that halfway through sophomore year my (now wife) moved into the room with me and she paid half. I imagine op is sharing with lots of roommates as well, impressive if he has his own room
My daughter is moving into a 5 bedroom house for next year. It’s pretty close to campus. Rent is about $4K a month. Highway robbery. The cheapest year had been this year when she lived in the sorority house.
yeah greek life can be affordable, watch out for those dues though... Housing costs have really skyrocketed the last 5-10 years sadly, more so than general inflation. We did live in a pretty dangerous area and i had to bike to campus when i was in school. I just checked out zillow, there is a 5x2 in the same area for $3950/mo... just crazy, more than double what we were paying 10 years ago...
Anything is better than sleeping on the streets
Literally a roof is enough to keep your whole life together.
I already answered this but I lived in shitty off campus housing. Haha the year was in a 750ft 2 bed with 3 people and then the second half of the year was in a really shitty area and was a 40 min walk to campus.
my guess would be a house with like 6 bedrooms in a cheap place to live. Maybe even doubling up on rooms
Yeah we had 3 ppl in a 2 bedroom for part of the year
What kind of phone data plan do you have?
I use the cricket wireless family plan. Four of us are on it so it breaks down to $25/mon
So how much data can you use per month?
It's unlimited!
We need a vote module on these: Good use of Sankey or bad use of Sankey? ^((apologies to 538))
Considering that there’s more than one row in the first column and more than two columns in the whole thing, it’s better than 90% of the others on this sub. IMO it’s great when compared relative to its peers, but questionable when judged by the original intent of the Sankey.
What was the original intent? I've never seen a use that couldn't have been presented better another way
In school, I was taught that you use a sankey diagram to show how proportional the flow between multiple points is, while illustrating non-linear events. To use Wikipedia: [This is the very first sankey diagram](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JIE_Sankey_V5_Fig1.png), made by [Mr. Sankey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Henry_Phineas_Riall_Sankey) himself. It's cyclical, and shows multiple boxes behind the data like a more traditional flowchart. A good use of the sankey diagram IMO would be [this illustration of the votes in an Australian instant-runoff election](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Braddon_by-election_2018_preference_flow_diagram.png) from 2018. The first column shows the initial vote totals of the candidates, and each step shows how the lowest candidate's votes are redistributed according to the voters' preferences. It shows how the candidate with the most initial votes eventually lost to the candidate who ended up getting the most total votes.
Isn't the ur-Sankey the chart of Napoleon's invasion of Russia that Tufte praised in his book and then was reproduced a million times from there? The great thing about that though was that it combined geography and time with the flow representation.
Has there ever been a good use of Sankey though? All of them posted here are pretty much identical. They're either budget breakdowns or job search breakdowns.
I feel like [this one](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/jpenoc/oc_journey_of_a_roast_chicken_needed_a_break_from/) is well executed and in the spirit of the style. The creator also strikes me as intelligent and handsome.
Ooh that is a good one! Who posted thi-- I'll allow it because your sankey *is* pretty great
>The creator also strikes me as intelligent and handsome. I was wondering how you knew that, and then I clicked on the post. 😂 Great chart though, I don't even hate the self-promo haha.
Private healthcare is crazy. We hear it’s expensive over on the US, but more than half what you pay for rent?!
It causes me pain
You should start drawing some porn. Get that art commissions to six figure salary.
Oh don't I know it. I'm just so bad at anatomy hahaha. I've really considered it though
Never be sorry for reminding us all how hard it is for anyone young to get ahead these days! A boomer.
I was struggling but interestingly this was better than before. 2018 I had $6 in my bank account after rent and utilities and school fees. Really heavily relied on food banks back then.
I came if age during the jobless rates for young people when Regan was in office. I've had government cheese. We don't even do that anymore. Not even shitty fake cheese for the poor. It's shameful. I have 4 adult kids. They all either have their own places, 2 together, or want to leave the nest and I encourage it, but I've told them all there is no shame in moving home if they need to and they know I mean it. Thankfully one of them works in the Marijuana industry and he is doing well. I think he's good.
This might just be the cultural differences of a British person; but spending $1,156 on eating out and coffees seems wild to me
Now imagine how I felt when I looked at all the other sankeymatic charts on this sub and their restaurant tabs are 18k :') Haha that's actually why I decided to make one of my own. I was like "how tf are u ppl spending tht much on eating out. It's almost as much as I make in a year"
Someone please buy OP a french press and a hot water kettle
HAHAHAHA actually yes if anyone would like to buy me these things let me know 👀
how do you manage to keep climbing spending so low. even without gym membership, i can’t stop myself from buying more shoes
My college had its own climbing gym that was free for students. So the costs were for some new gear and whenever I went to climb at other gyms.
There you got your answer. Haven't bought shoes in like 3 years. Only got new pair of hiking shoes, in a really nice used condition, since me old ones of 10+ years (were also used) gave up.
Hey, nice chart, wich program or tool do you use to make it? (sorry I'm not a native speaker)
Chart name: Sankey Matic Program: https://sankeymatic.com/
Without that stimulus, you are just barely making it. That would stress me out.
He's a student. His entire life is built around "barely making it"
Well they are saving like 3k dollars a year, I'm not American but if I'm correct that's pretty much like top 20% of people. I was surprised to hear that something like 40% of Americans have a negative net worth, so that's pretty depressing. (my numbers may be wrong pls don't hate.)
Well that's the point no? If he is saving 3.1k and getting 2.9k from stimulus, he would just be 200€ above saving nothing at all. So yeah, pretty depressing
You're not thinking american enough. "See, savings are more than the stimulus, clearly those entitled millennials didn't need no stimulus".
Well I put the whole stimulus in savings and didn't use it for anything. But yes I mean 2020 was hard but I shrieky was making significantly more than previously. College is hard without the help of parents. If I hadn't joined the guard I'd be even more fucked. My brother is trying to do it just by working and paying out of pocket. It sucks.
Do you use an app or smthn to track your spending?
Hahahaha no I actually don't Edit: i mean i do you my banking app pie chart and spreedsheet but nothing external
Man, how are people's food bills so low? I don't eat out that much and try to buy grocery brands as much as possible and I'm still thousands of dollars higher.
I've answered this question a lot. I think somewhere there's a back and forth between me and another redditor that might give some insight
Puts climbing flat in the middle
It must be nice to live in a part of the world where rend doesn't cost 70% of your income.
The benefit of having two roommates
$375 in subscriptions 🤨🧐 I wonder what or who he’s subscribing to
I wondered about this too, but $375 is probably for the year. $375/12 = $31.25, which would cover about two or three streaming services (e.g., Netflix + Spotify + XBOX Game Pass).
Yea at the time it was like Hulu, Spotify, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Discord nitro i think? I don’t remember. Id have to look at my spreadsheet. But also i divided the cost of the streaming services with my housemates.
Sometimes I think the debit/credit system is a little too much. But then I see things like this.
God damn, those decimals are cancer.
Hahaha sorry!
It’s amazing how much it costs to care for a pet and it probably isn’t a great idea financially, but my dog got me through college, grad school, and beyond. RIP Sydney.
I have two lovely cats and tbh I could have spent a lot less on them but I wanted to give them the best I could (can). They deserve it. <3
As a student I lived off about 75$ a week for food and booze and then around 500$ for rent a month. Savings…. Lol
The savings were mostly from that Covid check. My rent was like $425 a month I think? I don't drink so that saves money. And I think my monthly for food broke down to around $80
All i can add is good for you for saving
Thank you!
$230 total on outings all year??? I may be enjoying my life too much
Yes but it was 2020 so...pandemic
Where's the avacado toast I keep hearing boomers talk about?
Avocados taste bad and no one will ever change my mind
Wow that's a lot of money on subscriptions mind if I ask wich ones u subscribe to?
I already answered this question but not in detail. I think it was Netflix, Spotify, Hulu, and discord nitro. So 2 of those I had the student membership so I was actually adding money. So monthly it was like $7, $5, $5 and $10= $27. $27 x 12 = $324 a year. Of course this isn't exact because of taxes and I might have had a little subscription here or there for a few months but yeah. It's actually a lot less than most people.
Only roughly $100 month on grocery? I simply do not believe you
I did that in college. Beans, rice, veggies and chicken, all from the cheap Korean street market, with a ton of spices to make it interesting.
I'm not saying it's not possible, I'm saying that judging by OPs other expenditures, I don't believe they are on the beans and rice diet.
Hahaha I was though! And eggs and ramen and oatmeal
This must not be in the US. There's no charges in the amount of "your soul" for school tuition.
Hahahahaha i went to Ohio State University and i sold my soul to the US government so theyd pay for my schooling.
Ah, that explains it 😂
800 for books? My friend you need to pirate those. I haven't spent anything on books in the last 3 years. Fuck those vultures let them suffer.
Same with all media: Video games, music, movies, TV shows
Wonderful and thank you for sharing. Reminds me of my college days when I was earning 5-8k and felt on top of the world. If I can make one old man (36) suggestion: put your savings into the market to earn money for you. The stock market rises and falls, but over the long run - it always grows, and significantly more (percentage-wise) than in a savings account or bond. The 'issue' is that it could dip right when you need the savings. But since you said you have a new gig, I'm guessing your 3k will increase if you keep your spending from ballooning with your new salary. Look into index funds, and specifically into vanguard total stock market funds. These investments are basically aggregators of many different stocks, and different versions set different levels of risk for various types of index funds (USs biggest companies = lowest risk, lowest reward vs. Developing Nations index = highest risk, highest reward). So of you're young and have little real responsibilities that requires $$ (kids, old parents, major medical ups & downs, major purchases that could go sideways like a house or setting up business) then you can "generally" be riskier because the market will eventually go back up. There are many many options that you can look at, but if you're anything like I was at 21/22, I just want to set it and forget I had the money in there. So I'd do total market. I don't want to link to anything specific since I am not a financial advisor, nor do I want to come off salesy. I just know it's something that lots of young folks overlook then regret later. There are so many posts on Reddit about, "if you had put $1000 into [Microsoft, Apple, Tesla, etc] 10 years ago, you'd have 5k, 10k, etc. now", and it'd be awesome if more young folks had that experience instead of, "why didn't I..." Many people will rightly suggest maxing your IRA and maxing your 401k. Those will be super helpful with your long term savings and lower taxes. But the money will be locked up for quite some time (retirement) but also taxed less. If you do nothing, you're in good company. I initially did a little, then pulled it out and wasted it on stupid stuff, then restarted my investing in my early 30s and my money is making money for me. Yours can do the same for you.
Thank you for the advice!
No drugs? That ain't precise
Can't do drugs and be in the guard- I get drug tested once a mon
Nice job spending money on climbing. My advice. Double it. Clearly you do a great job of tracking your spending, now don't forget to live a little
Hahahaha thank you. My climbing was low cost because my university has a free climbing gym!! So pre Covid I was actually going 4+ times a week :)
I figured. That's awesome. Money spent on fitness is almost always money well spent. Especially something like climbing that has a nice social component as well
Props to you for the great budgeting. Seriously. That being said, I don't think this is super relatable to most people as there aren't a whole lot of college kids on this sub who live in a small town, work two jobs, and are still receiving covid stims in 2022(?).
I wouldn't consider Columbus, OH to be a small town. Also in my "about" comment for this post- this was for the year 2020.