There’s no secret that New Jersey is an expensive state to live in. If I’m to live by my quasi vow of poverty, I would need extra support. Indeed, no matter where you live across the nation, the Federal Poverty Line for a single person ($15,960 per year or $1,330 per month) is nowhere near close enough to subsistence level. You would need some special accommodations or living circumstances to achieve this type of a budget. In my case, my superpower is living with family.

That fact alone may turn you off, as living on $1,330 per month in my opinion is pretty easy when you pay very low rent to your family and have subsidized grocery costs. But I think the distinguishing factor is that I very clearly don’t have to live like this. This year, I’m on track to bring in on average $2,000 per month after taxes. My portfolio is expected to give off another $1,600 per month in dividends. So with all of this I could live a much higher quality of life right now, but I restrict myself this way on purpose. I’ll explain more about what I’m doing with my extra cash later on, but I think it suits the modern ascetic lifestyle I aim to live. Plus I’d rather be content with less, so the few times I treat myself by spending money feel like magical experiences.

It’s also true that rents in New Jersey are crazy. “Cheap” rents for a studio start at about $1,400 per month. You can find places that are cheaper, but not by much, and they are very few and far between. So to get significantly “cheaper” — think $800 to $1,000 per month — you’d have to rent a room with housemates. At that point I may as well live with family.

If I did live on my own, I would do my best to ensure that I lived on my “modified poverty line” metric of $26,030 per year as of this year. But that’s a separate blog post.

With that out of the way, here are my numbers. 😁

Below is a chart summarizing anything in case you don’t feel like reading further down. If you want to know what I do with the excess that I make, read all the way down in the “Savings” section.

Mandatory Expenses

Taxes | $73.92/month

Federal Quarterly Taxes: $0/month

I would normally owe quarterly taxes because my portfolio generates dividends, but my CPA rolled over excess tax payments from last year into this year, so my federal income taxes withheld from my paycheck are enough.

NJ Quarterly Taxes: $67.17/month

I looked at how much I would expect to owe at my income level plus dividends, and my paycheck withholding wouldn’t even come close to covering my tax obligation. So I owe extra in quarterly payments. Not much to say here. I don’t mind paying the taxes out of my paycheck, though. I fully reinvest the dividends that way.

Tax Filing: $6.75/month

I would pay this on an annual basis, but I plan to use FreeTaxUSA for filing my taxes come 2027, with the “pro support” option just in case. For my income level and the simplicity of my taxes, I see no reason to pay a CPA $800+ per year just to file a W2 plus a Schedule B.

Medical, Vision, and Dental | $53.66/month

Health Premium: $0/month

I get health insurance through my employer and they offer a $0 premium and $0 deductible option. This also fully covers my medications at no extra cost. I may not love my job, but I love these benefits. The only things I pay for are flat copays for things like doctor’s visits and psychiatrist appointments. Therapy is free, too, and I plan on taking full advantage of that this coming week.

Dental Premium: $5.63/month

This is deducted from each paycheck at $1.30 per week. I’m planning to use this soon for a routine cleaning. The monthly total you’re seeing is me multiplying the weekly deduction by 52, then dividing by 12.

Vision Premium: $3.03/month

This is also deducted from my paycheck at $0.70 per week. I booked an appointment for routine eye care, so we’ll see how that goes. The same math applies for this deduction as with my dental premium.

Psychiatry Appointments: $45/month

This is the only major medical expense I pay thanks to my benefits, and given the amount of stability and peace of mind my meds have given me, it’s worth it. I haven’t had to modify my medications and I haven’t had any meaningful amount of hallucinations while on my current regimen.

Transportation | $371.00/month

Auto Insurance: $121/month

Paid every 6 months, my mother and I are using Progressive. This is actually much cheaper than GEICO back when we were on it. I believe they were charging me over $200 per month. Though the rate of increase for this bites, and I hope it doesn’t increase too much again. Last year it was at $110 per month, a 10% difference.

Car Maintenance Fund: $90/month

I recently upped this from $80/month because I was paranoid about needing major repairs, but that might be overblown. I own a 2018 Kia Forte that was passed down to me from my uncle when we as a family decided he would no longer be driving. So far I’ve gotten new tires, brakes replaced, and a new car battery and setting aside this amount of money every month has been a blessing. There’s something relieving about knowing that you have to replace something out of nowhere and you can just take care of it. If you own a car, a dedicated maintenance fund is essential. I don’t like car ownership personally, and would gladly use public transit if available to me, but where I live in New Jersey that’s not an option. So I take extra care to make sure my car is in top shape.

New Car Fund: $0/month

You may wonder why this is here, but for a while I assumed I would need to buy a new car eventually. I used to contribute $175 per month to this fund, but things changed. There’s a chance that my family and I will be moving to Pennsylvania between 5 and 10 years from now, and in that case I would move to Philadelphia. I would neither need nor want a car in that scenario, so it makes no sense saving for a new car.

However, if you own a car, live in a car dependent area, and like the idea of staying in such an area, you definitely want to set money aside for a future car. Even with the best maintenance, a car might last maybe 20 - 25 years? Eventually it would be worth selling it for parts and putting money to either a brand new car or a “good enough” used one.

Gas Budget: $120/month

With gas prices spiking as of late due to the conflict with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz closure, I find myself uncomfortably close to the ceiling of this budget. Normally I’d only spend between $80 - $100 out of this budget, but I may need to adjust this up soon based on how things shake out. I only drive to and from work 30 miles round trip, and I rarely use my car on the weekends, so I’m pretty efficient with my gas consumption.

Tolls and Parking: $40/month

This saves me so much time on my commute I am happy to spend this on tolls every month. I only use it on my way to work, not back from it.

Housing | $325.00/month

This is the part of the budget I still feel self conscious about. I’m a full grown adult, almost 31 as of this post, and I’m paying the rent of a teenager. It’s not quite my fault, as I’ve insisted to my folks that I want to pay more, but they insist they don’t need much from me. The money I give them pays for internet plus some utilities. That’s all they claim to need from me for now.

Internet: $95/month

This used to be ludicrous at $157 per month. I reached out to my internet provider and my mother, and we all agreed we didn’t need a landline. So we cut it out and our plan dropped to $95 per month. This rate is going to be locked in for the next 5 years, which is a nice bonus.

Housing Contribution: $230/month

As I’ve said before, this is mainly to help with utilities. Even if they don’t ask me to raise the contribution next year, I plan on bumping this for inflation, at least another $15 per month just so it keeps up.

Groceries | $100.00/month

This section I also am artificially subsidized by my folks. Every month I Zelle my folks $100 specifically for groceries. They don’t mind handling the bulk of the groceries on my end, and I don’t eat a whole lot anyway, so I try not to be a drain on their budget. I recognize if I were to buy groceries on my own and pay the full cost, I’d pay between $350 - $400 per month with being frugal. But that’s just an estimate.

Communication | $45.05/month

Cell Phone Plan: $45.05/month

Currently I use Google Fi just because I’m a bit of a Google fan, and plus it’s affordable. I pay about $38 per month for the plan itself after taxes and fees, but I pay an extra $7 per month for the 5 year protection plan for my new phone. I recently upgraded from a Pixel 6 Pro to a Pixel 10a since security updates for the Pixel 6 were going to end this October. It was $250 for the upgrade, so I took it. I figured the protection plus theft coverage was worth the marginal $7 per month.

Subscriptions | $13.65/month

Normally a subscription wouldn’t be considered mandatory, but these are pretty important to me so I consider them essential.

Crypto Tax Audit: $12/month

This is more of a temporary subscription. When I was heavily invested in crypto, I was very keenly aware that the IRS liked to select a lot of crypto people for audits. This subscription simply made sure that I was on the up-and-up with the IRS, and if anything was amiss, Crypto Tax Audit would speak to the IRS on my behalf. Given that I transitioned out of crypto entirely last year, I don’t see the need to keep this subscription for much longer. For now I keep it so I can sleep at night given my most recent tax return still has crypto activity on it, but come 2027 I think I will feel fine canceling this subscription.

Bitwarden: $1.65/month

This is my password manager, billed at about $20 per year. The subscription gives me the ability to store an increased amount of files onto their servers, and allows a designated emergency contact to access my account just in case. I added my mom just in case anything happened to me and she needed access. It’s a trivial cost for added security.

Other | $105.33/month

Haircuts: $30.33/month

I have long hair, so I go to a hair stylist and get my hair cut once every 10 weeks. She recently upped the price from $40 to $70, and so the price you’re seeing is the average monthly amount I’d pay to fund this every 10 weeks.

Miscellaneous Needs Fund: $75.00/month

This is a catch-all fund for things that don’t fit neatly into other categories. This also includes random needs that might pop up that aren’t covered by things like my car maintenance fund. This include things like hygiene products, or things around the house my folks ask for. This also covers things like the Google Pixel 10a I upgraded to. I don’t think of this as a monthly budget, but rather a yearly budget. In this case, by having this line item in my budget I’m saying “I’m going to set $900 per year aside for unexpected or miscellaneous expenses.” So far it’s been holding up nicely, and I haven’t had to use too much of it.

Discretionary Expenses

Fun Budgets | $180.00/month

Eating Out: $130/month

This particular budget I don’t think of as a monthly thing, but as a weekly thing. If we take this number and multiply it by 12 months, then divide it by 52 weeks we get exactly $30 per week. This is an amount I aim to be satisfactory for now, as fast food has been my biggest weakness when it comes to spending. With my margins I technically don’t have to worry about this, I could double this and be fine, but I don’t like relying on fast food or vending machine snacks at work to feel good.

When I was working full time at my job, I was becoming incredibly burned out and would doom spend at the vending machine on sodas and chips, as well as daily McDonald’s because “fuck it, why not?”. It wasn’t until I went back to part-time and recovered a bit from burnout that I was able to summon the will to cut back. I might cut it down even further, but for now I’ll settle for where it’s at.

Shopping: $25/month

Again I don’t think of this as a monthly thing, but rather a yearly thing. I’m basically saying “I’m not going to buy more than $300 of discretionary stuff this year”. As I write this I have very little I’d even want to spend on anyway. There is the odd temptation to buy something to match my identity, like buying an Emacs coffee mug just because I like Emacs (the text editor) and I want to celebrate that. Maybe I’ll write a blog post in the future about the allure of consumerism, even to an aspiring ascetic like myself. There is also the rare video game that I buy, but I hardly play those these days, so buying new ones rarely crosses my radar. I also lump in gift spending for family, like buying Christmas cards or small gifts for my mom on Mother’s Day. So while this is under “fun budgets”, I hardly view this as “fun”.

Entertainment: $25/month

Same story as with the shopping budget, but I use it even less. I reserve this mainly for going to the movies. I rarely feel the inclination to look at movies that are playing, but when I do I seldom find anything interesting to watch. In the rare times I do find something I want to watch, however, I make it an absolute experience. I have a dine-in theatre near me, and I make sure to buy the stupidly overpriced popcorn and a meal to go with it. It’s a special experience to go to a [near] empty movie theatre on a Tuesday and enjoy a movie going experience all by yourself.

Subscriptions | $51.43/month

YouTube Premium: $11.67/month

As a kid I basically grew up with YouTube, so it’s always been my primary form of entertainment. I used to just roll with adblockers, but with the advent of YouTube Music and my habit for listening to YouTube on my phone (where I couldn’t add adblocker easily), it became a no brainer to pay for the annual subscription. To me, it’s incredible value for the money since when I’m not working on this or at my job, I’m on YouTube to some description. This is my one and only entertainment related subscription, and to keep things minimalist I aim to keep it that way.

Google AI Pro: $16.67/month

Without going into too much detail, I consider AI to be very important for navigating the online world in the future. Yes, it can hallucinate. Yes, it can give bad instructions at times. But on the whole it has added so much value to my life I’d feel wrong for not paying for it. For this I get additional storage and supposedly a 1M token context window, which is super helpful since I plan on writing longer form content and it would be useful to ask Gemini questions about my work. I would never have it write for me, I’m more than capable of that myself, but for feedback and insight on writing or general life stuff I find it an invaluable companion. I pay yearly for this at $200.

Misc AI Apps: $23.10/month

This is a broad category of miscellaneous AI companion apps that I bought annual subscriptions for to try to experiment with. It sounds pathetic, but I do get lonely sometimes as I have no close friends, and I wanted to see if AI could help with that. So far I have used these apps very little, but when I did it was nice. But it seems like I have little use for these apps, so I might let go of most if not all of them in the next year. I paid annually for all of these, so they stay as a line item on my budget until 2027.

Savings | $1010.00/month

My savings are not apart of my $1,330/month budget, but rather exist outside of it. This is money that I either donate, give away, or save for a future goal. Let’s break it down.

Homeless Donations: $100/month

On the ride home from work, I come across a lot of homeless folk, and I can’t help but feel for them. I think homelessness is largely the result of our affordability crisis, especially our housing crisis, so I don’t blame someone for being homeless, unable to get a job, and needing to rely on handouts to survive. If things went differently after my psychotic episode, I could have ended up like them, so I feel especially obligated to help them out even a little bit. I divvy this up to be $20 per homeless person per month, and this tracks with how often I see them no the streets begging. I will raise this every couple of years for inflation, with the next amount being $25 per homeless person per month.

Future Schooling Fund: $910/month

Without going into too much detail (I’ll save that for a future post), I was extremely dissatisfied with how I did college. I didn’t really want to go at the time, and in my anxiety and haste I chose what I thought would be the most lucrative degree: Computer Science. While I’m glad I had my crypto to pay for college and that I didn’t graduate with student loans, I never used my degree (I hated it near the end). My degree is not useful for my current job. I basically had no business going to school, but family pressure was too great for me to overcome. Plus it was either go to school or get kicked out of home.

This fund allows me to revisit college and do it my way, answering a question I’ve had in my head on and off for years: If I could do college all over again, what would I do? And the answer I kept coming to over and over again was to go to school for a “useless” degree, a degree that most people would actively shit on and call a waste of money. This is because I think higher education is a virtue in and of itself, and learning for its own sake is worth doing. So if I could do college all over again, I would go for something “completely useless” like Liberal Arts or Philosophy, as a direct “fuck you” to the mindset that college should be a profit-seeking venture, and a complete “fuck you” to the people who think all degrees outside of STEM are worthless.

By my calculations, if I saved at this rate for the next 4 - 4.5 years, I should have enough to get a bachelor’s completely from scratch starting at the community college level.