|
OP, do you speak and read Mandarin? Your budget tracking app seems to imply that you do. You're in China, you should be able to get clothes (even relatively formal businesswear) for cheaper than 10 usd a piece. You have to buy them from the yelly crowded markets where people are elbowing past each other and haggling though, not from the western style clean, well-lit, gentle music malls. I don't know how doable this is if you've recently moved to China. I'm Chinese and speak some Mandarin but even I have some trouble navigating these markets without a native relative. Likewise even eating out for lunch daily should be very cheap as long as you're going to local eateries and not chain restaurants and cafes like Starbucks. The summers I've spent in China no one brings lunch, everyone eats at dining halls or local restaurants and it's super cheap. China, in most of its cities, has multiple tiers of food, clothing, and consumer goods. Street food or restaurants run by one couple-- looks grungy but it's delicious and lunch is 20 rmb. A western-ish mall with its foodcourt, cafes, etc -- 50-100 rmb per meal. Fancy restaurant with private room (sometimes multiple rooms for one party) and private servers-- 500 - basically unlimited rmb. You're making well over the average income even for Beijing, I think with some limiting of your lunch out budget and digging around for eateries that match that budget you should be okay. Stop using takeout apps, the delivery fee is not doing you any favors. And then let's say you take 20 rmb out with you for lunch and just cannot spend more than that, that'll limit you to 600 rmb a month for lunch, about 100 usd per month which sounds very reasonable. If you spend another 100 usd for breakfast and dinner that you don't eat out and then I'll give you another 100 usd pure food buffer that puts your monthly food budget at approx 300usd or 2000 rmb (round numbers). Consider giving up cows milk, it's not necessary for health, look at all the people around you who aren't drinking it and it seems very expensive. If you can stick to that a heftly amount of budget should free up for debt and savings. I tried to stick to round numbers for the ballparking, let me know if I've gotten things wrong.
|
#
¿
Jan 13, 2019 20:25
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 22, 2024 03:31 |
|
|
I did some more math. With everything you listed in your original post, using my food budget, your monthly basics will cost 900 usd. You need to save 500 usd monthly to make your goal. Since your income is 1900 usd, this means you have 500 usd extra after servicing debt/savings and basic living costs. So, each time you get a paycheck, immediately set aside $500 for your debt/savings. Then take out $600 for rent and utilities Then take out $300 for food and put it into 3 buckets, $100 for lunch, $100 for groceries, and $100 for "all other and extra food". And then you should still have $500 left for everything else, which should be a very comfortable amount of spending money every month for things like salon, clothes, travel, entertainment, etc.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 13, 2019 20:34
|
|