Well, I could have just bought it. But it’s a 0% interest loan. Same thing I did with my other two luxury watches, and it’s almost done. Having a two year commitment to it definitely keeps me from looking at any more! I really like watches. It’s probably my last one for a long time, anyway. Kids are expensive. $8600 for a watch over two years is cheap compared to $15k a year just in childcare. That’s just one kid.
You can have a car for a lot less, but we have relatively new cars and I opted for a lot of insurance for my own peace of mind. If we had any public transit options, we could get by with one car for sure. But there is nothing here. There is a city bus system that primarily caters to the low income, which is a great start. But it really only goes to like, the grocery stores and the urgent cares. Nowhere near our daycare, and definitely way short of the 30 miles to my office. We also have a shuttle bus that you can call for, that’s only $3 a ride, but thats really just for the disabled and elderly. I’d say we have better transit than a lot of metropolitan cities I’ve been to, but obviously our society is completely car-centric.
I mean, I am aware of that. But 16k wouldn’t even cover my mortgage, let alone food and utilities. Adding up just the essentials, housing + food + electricity + natural gas + phone + water, I’m at 27k. Being in the US, I’d say car and health insurance are also necessities. So, you can easily add another 5k or 6k to that.
If we keep the currencies the same, I know you mentioned earlier that £16k is about $20k, so we’re looking at about $7k difference over a year (I understand that car and health insurance are necessities, but that doesn’t work in this comparison because OP doesn’t have either so it shouldn’t be included)
That’s less than $600 a month difference – and one thing I can immediately point to is your electricity bill. It sounds like you have a family, whereas it seems like OP lived alone for that year. Speaking from experience (currently living alone also in London) my electricity bill is $67 a month, and my natural gas is $33. That’s $100, versus about $430 in your estimation (so we’re now missing $270).
I spend a fiver for my SIM card each month and have a cheap phone I paid like $100 for three years ago, so my phone plan is $6.75 vs your $168, which may be for multiple people as you said phones plural, so we’ve found another $161, bringing us down to $109 difference.
My water bill is $50, I don’t see yours but I am going to guesstimate at a three person household being maybe $80? Either way, I think the difference here is likely to be made by groceries and toiletries, because you’ve got a family!
My groceries/toiletries budget is around $470 a month. I could absolutely lower that to around $300 but work is killing me at the moment and I just need to spend more to make my life easier in the evenings.
So, looking at a monthly groceries/toiletries budget (combined) - is yours at least $570?
Well, I could have just bought it. But it’s a 0% interest loan. Same thing I did with my other two luxury watches, and it’s almost done. Having a two year commitment to it definitely keeps me from looking at any more! I really like watches. It’s probably my last one for a long time, anyway. Kids are expensive. $8600 for a watch over two years is cheap compared to $15k a year just in childcare. That’s just one kid.
You can have a car for a lot less, but we have relatively new cars and I opted for a lot of insurance for my own peace of mind. If we had any public transit options, we could get by with one car for sure. But there is nothing here. There is a city bus system that primarily caters to the low income, which is a great start. But it really only goes to like, the grocery stores and the urgent cares. Nowhere near our daycare, and definitely way short of the 30 miles to my office. We also have a shuttle bus that you can call for, that’s only $3 a ride, but thats really just for the disabled and elderly. I’d say we have better transit than a lot of metropolitan cities I’ve been to, but obviously our society is completely car-centric.
Weird thing to wonder about how he can get by with 16k when you obviously have an insanely unnecessary consumption ¯_(ツ)_/¯
“with my other two luxury watches” rofl
I mean, I am aware of that. But 16k wouldn’t even cover my mortgage, let alone food and utilities. Adding up just the essentials, housing + food + electricity + natural gas + phone + water, I’m at 27k. Being in the US, I’d say car and health insurance are also necessities. So, you can easily add another 5k or 6k to that.
If we keep the currencies the same, I know you mentioned earlier that £16k is about $20k, so we’re looking at about $7k difference over a year (I understand that car and health insurance are necessities, but that doesn’t work in this comparison because OP doesn’t have either so it shouldn’t be included)
That’s less than $600 a month difference – and one thing I can immediately point to is your electricity bill. It sounds like you have a family, whereas it seems like OP lived alone for that year. Speaking from experience (currently living alone also in London) my electricity bill is $67 a month, and my natural gas is $33. That’s $100, versus about $430 in your estimation (so we’re now missing $270).
I spend a fiver for my SIM card each month and have a cheap phone I paid like $100 for three years ago, so my phone plan is $6.75 vs your $168, which may be for multiple people as you said phones plural, so we’ve found another $161, bringing us down to $109 difference.
My water bill is $50, I don’t see yours but I am going to guesstimate at a three person household being maybe $80? Either way, I think the difference here is likely to be made by groceries and toiletries, because you’ve got a family!
My groceries/toiletries budget is around $470 a month. I could absolutely lower that to around $300 but work is killing me at the moment and I just need to spend more to make my life easier in the evenings.
So, looking at a monthly groceries/toiletries budget (combined) - is yours at least $570?