Can we afford this apartment?

[Fightthefire]

Hi

 

so my friend and I are looking on renting an apartment. The rent is $985 and we're both working minimum wage, ($11/hour). The thing is that he's waiting on a job interview at our town's ship yard where he will be making $16 to $18 an hour.  Right now he's working at $11/hour and about 40 hours a week while I'm working around 30 hours a week but will have to cut down to 20 hours once school starts. I'm finishing up my prerequisites to my nursing major at the community college that's about 15 minutes walking distance from the apartment. I'll be going to the community college all throughout my time at college. Including my bsn. My question is, can we afford the apartment? And college? I'm working as much as I can and I've been using my days off to look for scholarships.

 

thanks for your help!

[Jord]

My inclination is to say no. 

 

If you were a couple and had joint expenses (phones, insurance, etc) and were NOT in college, then it might be doable. 

 

College expenses is its own ball of wax. tuition, books, etc. And then also when you are in school and working you usually don't have a lot of time to cook so you end up eating out a lot more. Food is expensive. 

 

However, you should do up a REAL budget and see how it plays out. I do mine in an excel file. 

 

Monthly Income minus: 

 

Rent

Tuition/12 months

Books/ 12 months (will help you plan for paying for these)

Food

Car payment

Car insurance

Gas

Cell phone

Utilities (gas/electric) divided by 2

Cable / Internet

Food (this is usually a big budget buster)

Household supplies (cleaners, grocery bags, soap, etc)

Any debt payments (credit cards, etc)

Health insurance? 

Any other monthly payments, gym, etc? 

 

Mine is a lot more complicated than that because I get paid bi-weekly instead of 2x month, but that can get you the general idea. 

[Jord]

On 8/17/2017 at 2:44 PM, Fightthefire said:

The thing is that he's waiting on a job interview at our town's ship yard where he will be making $16 to $18 an hour.  

 

Also, never bank on getting a job. 

[Hazard]

On 8/17/2017 at 2:44 PM, Fightthefire said:

Hi

 

so my friend and I are looking on renting an apartment. The rent is $985 and we're both working minimum wage, ($11/hour). The thing is that he's waiting on a job interview at our town's ship yard where he will be making $16 to $18 an hour.  Right now he's working at $11/hour and about 40 hours a week while I'm working around 30 hours a week but will have to cut down to 20 hours once school starts. I'm finishing up my prerequisites to my nursing major at the community college that's about 15 minutes walking distance from the apartment. I'll be going to the community college all throughout my time at college. Including my bsn. My question is, can we afford the apartment? And college? I'm working as much as I can and I've been using my days off to look for scholarships.

 

thanks for your help!

 

Using the two of you combined with present income, following the 1/3rd after-tax rule of renting, you two could possibly afford a rent of up to, but not exceeding, $667/mo (lower would be better). That's not including any debt you're currently making payments on and anything you spend out-of-pocket for college tuition and books, all of which you'd have to factor in subtracting from the estimate.

 

 

[james452]

One rule I learnt when it comes to money is to make spending decisions based on the money you already have. Just because your friend might get a new better paying job, doesn't mean they will. You wouldn't want to get the new apartment, then find out they didn't get the job, and all of a sudden you are stuck paying all this extra money on rent. 

 

Another thing to do is consider what your financial priorities are. If it's to live in a nice apartment, then do it, but you have to sacrifice spending money in other areas (such as buying expensive furniture or eating out every day).