Moving out of parents house! (apartment, renters, car insurance)

[Thatgirlsaraa]

I am 21 years-old, currently finishing my AA in Criminal Justice and working full time as a Legal Assistant in a Law Firm. I get paid 10 dollars an hour and are currently working 40 hours a week.
I am looking to move out sometime in the Fall ( August September October-ish) and in with my boyfriend. He is also moving out of his parents house. He works for a construction company and makes roughly as much as I do, excluding over-time here and there. We live in South Florida.
We want to be smart about the move and carefully calculate everything before moving. I am quite the list maker so I have made list and estimates for just about everything, but somehow still feel nervous that I may have missed something.
My questions---
How much money should we have saved up?
Do we make enough to survive alone with our current jobs?
Tips that might help???

[PDF]

I suppose your situation is quite different as you aren't looking to move to another place, but rather stay where you are and just get your own apartment. Budget right and two people both working full-time jobs can definitely make it on their own.

[02blackgt]

So you together make about $800/week - taxes of abt 15% so take home is 680 or about $2720/month. Lets take out a few necessities (monthly estimates i consider conservative) of gas 150, groceries 400, electric and water 150, car insurance 150, renters insurance 20, cable and internet 100, and misc emergency money 100. That leaves you 2 with about $1750. Given that you want probably 200-250 a week (combined, not each) at least in discretionary income I would adivse you to not spend over 750 a month. Anything over $750/month in total rent and you will quickly be falling behind and stressed. Thins like car problems, medical issues do come up and you do not want to fall behind b/c on $10 bux an hour you will have a very hard time digging yourself out. I am only 27 but it seems like yesterday i was moving into my first apartment. Also its important to note that i did not include car payments in here. That could be an easy 300= extra between two people if you end up needing new car or already have payments. DO NOT get over your head in rent or you WILL be miserable.