living expenses

[Carbondated]

You are comparing the costs of a mobile home in Florida to a 100 year old Victorian house in Taxachusetts?
How large is your mobile home? 500sf or 750sf maybe?

Come on...it is like comparing apples to oranges... no wonder why you are laughing.

[mr&mrssunshine]

Originally Posted by Carbondated

Great, informative reply ShepsMom.

Just to add:
weekly food bill around $200 plus every time
Same here

tv phone broadband cable etc $200 (a month)
Same here

cell phone $110 (a month)
Same here

By the looks of it mr&mrssunshine, you may have to do some wallet tightening if you plan on living on $4000 a month. Things like eating out twice per week, can't be done on your limited budget.
Best of luck to you.

PS... A good rule of thumb is to use 25-33% of your monthly income on rent/mortgage. Best if it is only 25% of your income.

Carbon- you arent paying attention mate, this is with no mortgage or car payments in Fla. When we move I intend to pay cash for the house and car and then live off 4000

[Carbondated]

Ah well, in that case, lol...welcome to Florida and have a nice day.

I'm sure you can see where the confusion spawned. When you listed your housing and car expenses over in England as an example of how much costlier you think it is in comparison to Florida.

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by mr&mrssunshine

Carbon- you arent paying attention mate, this is with no mortgage or car payments in Fla. When we move I intend to pay cash for the house and car and then live off 4000

With no mortgage payment or other credit debt, you should be able to live nicely off $4,000, particularly if you buy in an area with fairly reasonble taxes and insurance. I am sure you will love the area!

[mr&mrssunshine]

cheers, i may have enough to buy you a beer at the CD meet in that case !!

Serioulsy what i was trying to find out is what the minimum is i would need (without mortgage and car) to live 'comfortably' ie eat out 2-3 times a week and not have to worry about bills etc.


if its less than 4 grand even better

[mr&mrssunshine]

Originally Posted by gypsychic

With no mortgage payment or other credit debt, you should be able to live nicely off $4,000, particularly if you buy in an area with fairly reasonble taxes and insurance. I am sure you will love the area!

we plan to move to rotonda, taxes arent horrible. we do love the area -been coming 15+ years and back in October for our third time this year.

cant wait for the one way trip

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by mr&mrssunshine

cheers, i may have enough to buy you a beer at the CD meet in that case !!

Serioulsy what i was trying to find out is what the minimum is i would need (without mortgage and car) to live 'comfortably' ie eat out 2-3 times a week and not have to worry about bills etc.


if its less than 4 grand even better

Well, the big variable here is what type of places and prices do you pay when you go out to eat? If you like fancy restaurants and buy a bottle of wine and pay close to $100 a pop for dinner for two each time, obviously that will eat into your budget. Hubby and I love to eat out but have been finding less expensive places and skipping the expensive wine. You can find some great eating places without the big price. If you are thrifty enough, you might be able to eat out FIVE nights instead of three! lol And since you will be eating out so often, you will be buying less food at the market, so you won't need a big food budget! And less utilities because you won't be cooking or washing dishes! Yes, much more economical to eat out!

[mr&mrssunshine]

I love your logic, so eating out and barbies it is !!! Our faves are the Outback and believe it or not the Olive Garden -always good value, but for authentic italian food we love mamas.25 bucks worth there can keep us going for 2 nights (nearly )

for cheapy nites out International super buffet and the Mexican in PC and we found a pretty good chinese take out on 776 last time.

for a fancy treat out we use the Crows Nest in Venice.

HOWEVER i have now decided our mission in October should be to find some new places so any recommendations gratfeully recd

[Big House]

Originally Posted by gypsychic

Well, the big variable here is what type of places and prices do you pay when you go out to eat? If you like fancy restaurants and buy a bottle of wine and pay close to $100 a pop for dinner for two each time, obviously that will eat into your budget. Hubby and I love to eat out but have been finding less expensive places and skipping the expensive wine. You can find some great eating places without the big price. If you are thrifty enough, you might be able to eat out FIVE nights instead of three! lol And since you will be eating out so often, you will be buying less food at the market, so you won't need a big food budget! And less utilities because you won't be cooking or washing dishes! Yes, much more economical to eat out!

Do they have bring you own bottle (BYOB) restaurants in Florida. In MD there are lots of restaurant where you can bring your own bottle of wine or beer if you'd like.