Living costs

@ DavidS:

Moved here as it has little to do with bounties and less to do with Paint.
Also this is terser than I wanted as the stupid forum told me to log in again (why? FFS!) and threw away my long message.

On ~$700USD per month I support two. The monthly expenses are:
Mortgage = $192USD
Gasoline = Aprox $50USD
Utils ttl = Aprox $100USD
Food TTL = Aprox $150USD
Necessities (Diapers, TP, Soap, etc) = Aprox $60USD

Ah… Americans. You know that amount for petrol doesn’t cover the work journey for a week, never mind a month. Look up the price of petrol in Western Europe, you might get a shock.

Your utils bill is about what I pay on internet alone. I can’t be bothered typing the reasons again, so I will just say that it is. If you can read French → www.orange.fr contract “Open Style”. That’s me. Oh, I’m unbundled (dégroupée) which means I have no analogue telephone, it is all through the internet box. Hopefully you can understand why I want the same company to provide the internet as provides the physical wires.

You are missing taxes, medical, and life insurance.

Taxes. Income tax, cost around €200 (thankfully I can offset mileage). Land tax, just paid €330. Property tax is estimated to be about €440, I’ll know at the end of November.

Medical – the Sécu covers 70% and you need a top-up for the other 30%. This is not optional, it is the law. That said, the top ups usually give benefits. For instance, earlier in the year I got myself new glasses and prescription sunglasses (finally! I’m a bit photosensitive) at a cost to me of €16. The Sécu coughed up an amazing fiver, and the top up covered the rest.

Life insurance. In France you get buried fairly quickly. It costs about 3-4K. I don’t know why as it can’t cost they much to chuck my carcass in a hole, but there you go… Anyway, let’s just say that without some cash to grease the beaurocratic nightmare, things can get unpleasant in a hurry. Do I really want my mother to have to deal with something like that on top of losing me? Now, I have no intention of dropping dead, but you never know when some prick in an Audi will be paying more attention to his mobe than minor trivialities like what side of the road he is on… At any rate, it is prudent to have this eventuality covered.

otherwise I am living well on aproximately $700USD per month with more than $100USD for extras each month.

I take it you have a waaaaaay different Cost Of Living than I do.

We ought to compare supermarket till receipts some time. I rather imagine there will be more shocks in store than just the disparity in petrol prices.

You see I do not need excess,

Excess? Hehe… There’s a nice model helicopter for about €60 (yes, the Christmas toys are already going up in the supermarkets). It is about twice the size of the one I got a few years back, so ought to have enough oomph to carry a mobile phone, its increased size should make it more stable in flight, and the built in gyro (my older one doesn’t have this) should help even more. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can get that for myself even as a Christmas present. I guess it is lucky then that I’ve become sufficiently disillusioned by Christmas that, asides from a tree and some chicken on the 22nd (not a typo), I pretty much don’t bother. I mean, it’s going to be bloody carol-musak from now until then, ugh.

Anyway. Excess is relative, and I’d like to do a bit from time to time.

Most will have many excesses in there list, and not think about them. Not I.

Sure, I could drop a few things along the way, but if I find myself living like a Trappist monk, I’d have to question what exactly is the point of going to work in the first place?
I’ve still not sorted if I work to live, or if I live to work, but one thing is for certain, I would like to enjoy myself once in a while. An excess? Yes. But if not, then what the hell is the point?

Also some still rent a place because they like spending way to much, buying a house + land is cheaper.

Actually, some rent because taking on a mortgage is suicidal. And many rent because at least in France you are not legally allowed to take large loans if you don’t have a full time proper position job. As I have a “CDI”, I could get a loan for the car. If I’m crazy enough, I could probably get a mortgage. Those on "CDD"s of 2-4 months, they are not entitled to this. Some countries are more liberal with what they will give out. The consequences, if a contract is not renewed and repayments cannot be met, can be severe.
I can see the attraction of renting. However, the problem is that you spaff a heap of coin not unlike a mortgage, but at the end you have nothing but memories.

The McDonalds was an indication of the cost of eating out. Over here, McDo is pretty cheap compared to everything else. And for some reason, the regional specialities are moules (shellfish of some sort) and other fishy things, like this place is trying so damn hard to be Brittany despite being so far on the eastern side of Brittany that the closest beach is probably St Malo to the north, and nowhere near the land of Breizh with the bilingual signs. Oh, and then there is the andouille. If you can imagine taking the intestines of a pig, chopping them up, throwing on some other great bits like the bladder and god knows what else, and stuffing the lot into a sausage skin until it reaches breaking point….. Let’s just say it smells exactly like what it is. Apparently it is great with Apple sauce. I value my life too much to try it.

Now I would second that. PayPal is a good service.

I don’t know how much I trust PayPal to hold money, but they’re pretty much the best outfit in town right now. Certainly, I suspect ROOL may be losing potential donations as the current setup doesn’t seem to account for those outside of the United Kingdom.

Or, to put it another way:

Les petites sommes ne changer pas le monde, cependant un certain nombre des petits dons pourrait changer quelque chose.

Be grateful, you don’t have the supermarket ads “every little helps” – or do you?

PS. Shame I never learned French.

PS. Shame I never learned French.

Google Translate est votre amis. Ah, il fonctionne sur RISC OS Netsurf. Quelle surprise! :-)

PS. Shame I never learned French.
Google Translate est votre amis. Ah, il fonctionne sur RISC OS Netsurf. Quelle surprise! :-)

Given the relevance of my comment to the bit I commented on I shouldn’t have needed a smiley.
I hadn’t actually considered google stuff.