I mean, I am aware of that. But 16k wouldn’t even cover my mortgage, let alone food and utilities. Adding up just the essentials, housing + food + electricity + natural gas + phone + water, I’m at 27k. Being in the US, I’d say car and health insurance are also necessities. So, you can easily add another 5k or 6k to that.
If we keep the currencies the same, I know you mentioned earlier that £16k is about $20k, so we’re looking at about $7k difference over a year (I understand that car and health insurance are necessities, but that doesn’t work in this comparison because OP doesn’t have either so it shouldn’t be included)
That’s less than $600 a month difference – and one thing I can immediately point to is your electricity bill. It sounds like you have a family, whereas it seems like OP lived alone for that year. Speaking from experience (currently living alone also in London) my electricity bill is $67 a month, and my natural gas is $33. That’s $100, versus about $430 in your estimation (so we’re now missing $270).
I spend a fiver for my SIM card each month and have a cheap phone I paid like $100 for three years ago, so my phone plan is $6.75 vs your $168, which may be for multiple people as you said phones plural, so we’ve found another $161, bringing us down to $109 difference.
My water bill is $50, I don’t see yours but I am going to guesstimate at a three person household being maybe $80? Either way, I think the difference here is likely to be made by groceries and toiletries, because you’ve got a family!
My groceries/toiletries budget is around $470 a month. I could absolutely lower that to around $300 but work is killing me at the moment and I just need to spend more to make my life easier in the evenings.
So, looking at a monthly groceries/toiletries budget (combined) - is yours at least $570?
I mean, I am aware of that. But 16k wouldn’t even cover my mortgage, let alone food and utilities. Adding up just the essentials, housing + food + electricity + natural gas + phone + water, I’m at 27k. Being in the US, I’d say car and health insurance are also necessities. So, you can easily add another 5k or 6k to that.
If we keep the currencies the same, I know you mentioned earlier that £16k is about $20k, so we’re looking at about $7k difference over a year (I understand that car and health insurance are necessities, but that doesn’t work in this comparison because OP doesn’t have either so it shouldn’t be included)
That’s less than $600 a month difference – and one thing I can immediately point to is your electricity bill. It sounds like you have a family, whereas it seems like OP lived alone for that year. Speaking from experience (currently living alone also in London) my electricity bill is $67 a month, and my natural gas is $33. That’s $100, versus about $430 in your estimation (so we’re now missing $270).
I spend a fiver for my SIM card each month and have a cheap phone I paid like $100 for three years ago, so my phone plan is $6.75 vs your $168, which may be for multiple people as you said phones plural, so we’ve found another $161, bringing us down to $109 difference.
My water bill is $50, I don’t see yours but I am going to guesstimate at a three person household being maybe $80? Either way, I think the difference here is likely to be made by groceries and toiletries, because you’ve got a family!
My groceries/toiletries budget is around $470 a month. I could absolutely lower that to around $300 but work is killing me at the moment and I just need to spend more to make my life easier in the evenings.
So, looking at a monthly groceries/toiletries budget (combined) - is yours at least $570?