Tight Fisted Miser

A Sample $1000 Monthly Budget

Someone on a Yahoo group I belong to recently asked if it was possible to live on $1000 a month.  Since millions of people in the U.S. do live on this amount or less it is definitely possible.  Below is a sample budget of how I would live on $1000 a month.  I won’t be working during the months of February, March or April and plan to keep my expenses at $1000 a month or less for that time period.

The rent, health insurance, car insurance, and phone are all actual, fixed monthly totals.  The utilities amount is less than what I’m paying right now but it is well above what I’ll be paying in the summer.  My food expense isn’t fixed but it is usually right around $100.  The savings for irregular expenses covers car registration, maintenance, and any other predictable but irregular expenses.  My entertainment budget of $100 could easily be cut but I’ve been spending more than that lately.  The amount budgeted for gasoline is also probably too high since it should come down significantly now that I’m not working.  I threw in $30 for miscellaneous to cover any little expenses not covered by the previous categories.  This is a realistic budget for me and should be achievable for most people that live in an area with similar housing expenses.  You can look at my expenses for last April to compare how my actual expenses match up with this budget.