Can you review/criticize my budget (Quebec City)

[Ste_Vege]

Can you review/criticize my 2023 budget (Quebec City), I will be living with my wife and her parents at her parents home. All values are per month per person:

food: $400 (seems high but food inflation looks quite bad at the moment too..)
rent/bills: $100
health insurance: $100
phone: $50
clothing: $50
transport: $150 (fuel, car depreciation, etc)
travel/fun: $300
emergency: $150

TOTAL: $1300 per month per person

This would mean I only need to work 28hrs/week at min wage to cover my expenses?
Assuming I will work full time min wage, I will have spare money which I would rather use to get unpaid holidays. How likely are min wage employees to get some unpaid leave? Let's say up to 20 unpaid days/year

 

[canuck78]

Can you review/criticize my 2023 budget (Quebec City), I will be living with my wife and her parents at her parents home. All values are per month per person:

food: $400 (seems high but food inflation looks quite bad at the moment too..)
rent/bills: $100
health insurance: $100
phone: $50
clothing: $50
transport: $150 (fuel, car depreciation, etc)
travel/fun: $300
emergency: $150

TOTAL: $1300 per month per person

This would mean I only need to work 28hrs/week at min wage to cover my expenses?
Assuming I will work full time min wage, I will have spare money which I would rather use to get unpaid holidays. How likely are min wage employees to get some unpaid leave? Let's say up to 20 unpaid days/year

That budget is too low. Do you own the car outright? Is insurance included? Phone budget is too low.

 

[scylla]

Can you review/criticize my 2023 budget (Quebec City), I will be living with my wife and her parents at her parents home. All values are per month per person:

food: $400 (seems high but food inflation looks quite bad at the moment too..)
rent/bills: $100
health insurance: $100
phone: $50
clothing: $50
transport: $150 (fuel, car depreciation, etc)
travel/fun: $300
emergency: $150

TOTAL: $1300 per month per person

This would mean I only need to work 28hrs/week at min wage to cover my expenses?
Assuming I will work full time min wage, I will have spare money which I would rather use to get unpaid holidays. How likely are min wage employees to get some unpaid leave? Let's say up to 20 unpaid days/year

Have you factored in income tax? Your gross pay is not your take home pay.

Transport is low if you are going to be driving due to the cost of insurance.

 

[Naturgrl]

Quebec has the highest taxes in the country. Are you taking out the taxes? Don't know what phone plan you are on but for $50 assume it is just text and calls, no data. Assume you are bringing your car and have a really low insurance plan.

 

[Ste_Vege]

ok, so you all agree that $400/month/person in food is not excessive?

 

[Ste_Vege]

That budget is too low. Do you own the car outright? Is insurance included? Phone budget is too low.

yes, I would own the car outright, and I would buy only third party insurance, i.e. it would not cover the damages to my own car. How much would you allow for that?
Everything else look right?

 

[Ste_Vege]

Have you factored in income tax? Your gross pay is not your take home pay.

Transport is low if you are going to be driving due to the cost of insurance.

https://ca.talent.com/tax-calculator I use this calculator to work out the net pay in Qc. it looks like net pay would be 80% of my gross salary

 

[canuck78]

yes, I would own the car outright, and I would buy only third party insurance, i.e. it would not cover the damages to my own car. How much would you allow for that?
Everything else look right?

Insurance rates depend on numerous things so it’s hard to estimate. You should be planning on needing to work full-time to support you and your partner especially at minimum wage. Travel medical insurance just covers emergencies. You’ll need to pay for any prescriptions. There is no miscellaneous category for basics from soap to gifts. What about savings?

 

[Ste_Vege]

Insurance rates depend on numerous things so it’s hard to estimate. You should be planning on needing to work full-time to support you and your partner especially at minimum wage. Travel medical insurance just covers emergencies. You’ll need to pay for any prescriptions. There is no miscellaneous category for basics from soap to gifts. What about savings?

Do you mean I would need to work full-time to support both me and my wife, i.e. my wife would not work? or she would also need to work full-time?
I would arrive with enough savings, I would not need to save any more money for the rest of my life (hopefully).

 

[scylla]

Do you mean I would need to work full-time to support both me and my wife, i.e. my wife would not work? or she would also need to work full-time?
I would arrive with enough savings, I would not need to save any more money for the rest of my life (hopefully).

These are really hard questions to answer and depend a lot on your lifestyle and also retirement expectations.

 

[Ste_Vege]

These are really hard questions to answer and depend a lot on your lifestyle and also retirement expectations.

well, what I would like is a feedback if any of these are unrealistically low (travel/fun is personal, so let's leave that out). I would like a feedback on food, health insurance, phone, transport (very cheap car, paid outright) in particular.

or too high, I mean $400/person/month of grocery seems high to me... at least I hope so.

 

[scylla]

well, what I would like is a feedback if any of these are unrealistically low (travel/fun is personal, so let's leave that out). I would like a feedback on food, health insurance, phone, transport (very cheap car, paid outright) in particular.

or too high, I mean $400/person/month of grocery seems high to me... at least I hope so.

I would increase transport by $100.

Food looks OK to me for now (I assume this is per person too). I would leave this at $400. It may be a touch high ($350 is probably more accurate) but prices keep going up so leaving at $400 is probably better.

For health insurance, I'm not sure what this means. Is this above and beyond what you are going to be covered by RAMQ as PRs? If so, this would depend on any prescription costs, glasses, dental, any physio or other treatment required and is a bit hard to guess without knowing your personal circumstances.

Phone is OK if you are on a cheap plan and don't require frills.

I'm not sure what's included in rent/bills since you will be living with your inlaws (presumably rent-free).