The window AC unit is sitting in its box by my front door as I write this, $189 and a promise to my future self that August will be bearable. It's a July expense, so it isn't in this post. This post is about June, my first full month living alone in a studio in south Evanston, and every bill that came with it.
Before I moved in, I built a budget for my first apartment and shared it here. Now I have one real month to check it against. Some lines were dead on. A few weren't.
My first month's rent was paid out of my move fund when I got the keys, along with the deposit. So June's paychecks paid July 1's rent. Either way it's the same $1,295 line, and it's the first rent that came out of my regular paychecks instead of savings.
June had two paychecks of $1,332, which is $2,664. I also made $260 pet sitting for the two families in Wilmette I kept after the move. From that, $65 went to the tax set-aside and $65 to the car line, so $130 came into the main budget. Total to work with: $2,794.
Planned versus actual, line by line
- Rent: planned $1,295, actual $1,295
- Parking: planned $50, actual $50
- Electric: planned $38, actual $36
- Internet: planned $55, actual $55
- Phone line to my parents: planned $35, actual $35
- Car insurance: planned $131, actual $131
- Renters insurance: planned $14, actual $14
- Gas for the car: planned $90, actual $98
- Groceries: planned $260, actual $291
- Student loans: planned $550, actual $550
- Emergency fund: planned $250, actual $250
- Fun and eating out: planned $120, actual $124
- Everything else: planned $110, actual $112
Planned total: $2,998. Actual total: $3,041. I went $43 over.
Everything fixed was fixed, which sounds obvious but felt great. Rent, parking, internet, insurance, loans and savings all came out of my separate bills account exactly as planned, on autopay, without me touching anything.
Electric came in $2 under, at $36. That's with no AC, a gas stove and a lot of evenings with the windows open and the lake breeze doing the work. July will be different. That's what the box by the door is for.
What I underestimated
Groceries were $31 over. Some of that was a first-month problem: I had to buy olive oil, spices, flour, rice, coffee, all the things that were always just there at my parents' house. I split my shopping between Trader Joe's here in Evanston and Aldi on Howard Street, and the second half of the month was much closer to plan. I'm going to give it one more month before I decide whether $260 is realistic.
Gas was $8 over because I drove up to Wilmette more than I expected, partly for pet sitting and partly because I went to Sunday dinner at my parents' house three times. Nobody tell my mom I counted that as a cost. She'd start sending me home with gas money.
Everything else was $2 over, and laundry was the surprise inside it. Washers in the basement are $2.50 and dryers are $2.00. Five loads in June came to $22.50, which I had guessed at $15.
The short-month math
Here's the part I warned about in my budget post. My plan is built on monthly averages, and in a two-paycheck month I come in short. June's actual gap was $247: $3,041 spent against $2,794 in.
That came out of the $400 buffer in my bills account, which is now at $153. July has three paychecks, the third one on July 31, and that one goes straight back into the buffer. It worked the way I designed it to. It also made me realize the buffer is not as big as it looks, and I'd like to grow it to $600 by the end of the year.
The month itself felt mostly good. Some nights were a little lonely, especially Sundays after I drove back from Wilmette to a quiet studio. But I liked paying for my own life. Every bill had my name on it, and every one got paid.
A $43 overage on a $2,998 plan is about 1.4%. For a first month, I'll call that a small win and buy a few more quarters for the laundry.
