This is something worth discussing imo. While I've never had an exact notion of what 'should' be possible on $X0,000, $X00,000, or $X,000,000 a year, I'm sure most Americanadians under 45 would snap their heads up and take notice at what you're saying. Ex - My Dad's gigantic two-cart monthly grocery trips for a family of four in, say, 1992, would shock us if they went north of $250. In Orange County CA, 2010, with an emphasis on frozen chicken breasts, fresh produce, lots of eggs, etc, I can't make a weekly grocery run for two for less than $150 or so.

I'm sure if we ran this over to Politardz we'd get a very snappy 'oh inflation and the systematic impoverishment of the middle class, ldo, buy gold' or something, but people setting up households now must surely be stunned by costs compared to what they remember growing up.

Your location is Iowa -- now anywhere that anyone would want to live $1600/month is not high.

I can also buy a train station in Detroit for $1.

jesus christ RESPONDED TO A STATEMENT OF YOURS AS THOUGH YOU WERE NOT ******ED, WHOOPS.

FORGOT YOUR WHOLE 'I AM SO ****ING REFINED (chicken parmesan) THAT ONLY THE MOST EXPENSIVE AND THEREFORE BEST THINGS IN LIFE REGISTER AS NORMAL WITH ME' BIT WAS MORE IMPORTANT TO YOU THAN OXYGEN, SORRY.

WON'T BE PULLING A BONER LIKE THAT AGAIN. NO SIR.

It could be state and city taxes; NY has an income tax and NYC even has a third income tax on top of that.

You seem upset.

The only reason I used chicken parm is that I know you can buy pre-made frozen chicken parm. I don't see why (actually I do but I'm trying to be polite) you just assume that means that I see chicken parm as refined. I actually wanted to use chicken tikka masala as my example since that costs twice as much to make but I have no idea if that is widely available in pre-made frozen form.

is $1250/month similar to $4000+/month?

Trader Joe's. It's one of their best frozen products.

You may have heard of one of those? In between rehearsing deliberately-obtuse-for-the-sake-of-baller acts?

You can definitely buy frozen bagged boneless skinless chicken for ~$7 bucks for 2.5lbs. It's not going to be as good as the fresh stuff but it's healthy and for someone complaining about their budget this seems like a really easy sacrifice. Start shopping at Walmart instead of Whole Foods and paying 1/2 price while getting out of debt. Once you have everything paid off then go back to Whole Foods. You can also buy basic stuff in bulk online at places like amazon for way cheaper than the prices your saying.

Won't you have enough bottles of cologne after a few months that you have variety without buying new stuff. Just use the 3-4 bottles you own.

Also your supporting 2 people instead of 1 and that makes a significant difference. What does your gf do that she doesn't pay for anything?

i guess this is an understandable response when your frame of reference is limited to areas where it takes an hour to rent any of 1000 cookie-cutter track apartments available for $500/month.

in manhattan, $1600/month studios barely exist. it could take 3 months to find a decent, tiny place for $2000/month. you're laughing at henry, but what he's saying is 100% accurate and there's really nothing "lol" about it...

Just want to add that like OP I support a partner, I live in the UK with a much higher tax rate (income, national insurance, VAT, council tax, plus pensions on top) than US, I'm on ~$32k gross at the moment (moving up shortly) and live very comfortably.

Unlike OP, my partner and I have no olive oil fetishes to wither our financial reserves.

I suggest OP
- leaves his girlfriend
- leaves new york
- finds cheaper fetishes than olive oil enemas and cologne baths.

Well, I have to admit that usually, lunch for me comes out of a box. So you definitely don't want to look at me for fine living. Nonetheless, I'll take a stab at a typical weekly trip to the grocery store for me:

1 1½-pound bag of breaded chicken tenders, good for three meals ($6)
1 box of French bread pizzas ($4)
1 loaf of bread ($3)
¾-pound smoked turkey breast ($6)
1 1½-pound package chicken breasts ($5) -- fresh, not the jumbo bags of frozen ones!
1 1½-pound package sirloin steak ($8)
assorted spices ($4): probably an overestimate, but necessary if you're eating chicken breasts that often
3 bagels ($2)
2 pounds apples ($2): every other week or so. My local grocer almost always has $1/pound sales on at least one variety of apple.
2 pounds bananas ($2): again, like every other week, so $2/week for fruit.
$5/week worth of vegetables: green beans, corn, potatoes and rice are all cheap. This is probably an overestimate; you can get a 5 lb. bag of potatoes in my area for $2.99. I'll throw pasta in here too; with all that you're probably still good with $5 or $6 a week.
$8/week worth of snack food: obv this can easily be cut out.
$6/week worth of soda: ditto
$8/week worth of toiletries

This jives well with a typical weekly food bill that I have.

That comes out to $61 a week; with my discount card, it'll probably be worth more like $51 a week. I can have fruit or a bagel for breakfast, a turkey sandwich or Something Out Of a Box™ for lunch, have three dinners of chicken and three of steak a week, with sides of (say) fresh green beans and garlic toast. So that's all my meals, minus one dinner a week, for like $225 a month, for one person. And it's loaded with extra crap, like the $60 a month in soda and snacks. So someone with more expanded food tastes can do well even on this budget. And I only have to cook dinner twice a week.

Pretty much this.

The "$1600/month is cheap in Manhattan" thing is pretty much the only sense Henry is talking in this thread.

I went over a decade without stepping foot inside a domestic grocery store and I'm suppose to know details about a small speciality chain in a different country?

I think the issue is that as someone who makes $65k he should be in a position to not have to shop at Walmart. $15k in credit card debt is bad but if I'm not mistaken the average household has credit card debt in the $11-12k range.

Actually no. Cologne changes over time (the amount of time is really dependent on the cologne and how you store it) but returning to something a year or two later is not usually an option. Especially given we are talking about him saving $100-150 a year. That isn't going to mean anything when it comes right down to it.

I'm not sure I disagree with you in principle. But I think you underestimate the cost of having everything on hand to make a simple meal like chicken parm. It costs a lot to have these things on hand. If I wanted to make this meal, and I didn't have any of the ingredients on hand, here's what I would need to buy:

chicken breast 5
flour 3
eggs 4
bread crumbs 2
salt 1
pepper 3
dried thyme 3
olive oil 8
parmesan 5
mozzarella 5
parsley 1
tomato sauce jar 8
spaghetti 1
basil 3

Total $52

Yes, I could choose to buy cheaper versions of some of these items, and yes, the per/meal cost is a lot lower since most of these are more than you need for this one recipe. But why bother cooking at all if all you are doing is matching the ****ty quality of frozen meals. The point remains that the cash you have to spend to make chicken parm from scratch is a lot more than the $2.50 it costs for you to buy it frozen.

Now if you're talking about making a vat of soup or plain pasta with grated cheese on it, yes, that's somewhat cheaper homemade than pre-made versions of comparable meals. But not by enough to make the extra effort worthwhile imo. If I'm going to cook, I'm going to make a better meal than that.

LOL, after Lasgane this is probably the quintessence of ready meal. Of course you wouldnt know this blah blah blah pull the other one its got bells on.

england is different than usa

I'd actually argue that $1600/month is normal to slightly below average for most places for a young professional couple who cares about their residence.

Saying something doesn't make sense is easy. Be specific. I actually am quite curious because I do put in effort to edit out stuff that I think people will find too much and yet I still get the same response as if I actually posted without considering that it is a young professional. To me it seems that people view anything above student lifestyle as someone trying to be an insane baller.

There's a .gif out there somewhere that captures that idea perfectly, and the thought comes up around here often enough that we should have it at our disposal. Somebody get to work on a frame-by-frame review of The Patriot.

Read better imo.

Okay. At the very outset, this figure assumes that if you're young, professional, and 'care about your residence', you must live in

A) one of the (trying to over-estimate the lower bound) 30 or so most expensive cities in North America

and/or

B) live in a house, 3/2 or bigger.

These things vary. My mother's old house sold for just under $100,000 in 2006. It's 2500+ sq ft, built in 1985, full size below ground swimming pool, big yard, in a place that white Protestant Christians of average intelligence think is ****ing paradise. My current rent would buy that house outright in three years, and this house is strictly inferior to that one in almost every way.

I think there is plenty of evidence that OP is a young professional so it is a fair assumption. Most people care about where they live.

Generally yes. Very few professional jobs exist outside of major cities. I could want to be an investment banker who lives in Blind River but unfortunately not many options available in that general area.

Actually no. I'm thinking a house would be out of the question and also not really what a young professional couple would seek. What I'm thinking is condo in a nicer building -- either a one bedroom with a den/office or a two bedroom. Something in the 900-1200sqft size. Lots of windows and open concept to make it look bigger. Modern appliances in the kitchen, no stains on the tub, sink, toilets, and newish looking. Common areas look clean and presentable. If not downtown proper still close enough to the social area that it would be a long walk or a cheap cab ride. Short commute to work. This isn't asking for a lot.

you called chicken tikka masala a "quintessence of ready meal"

besides just SOUNDING gay and english, it's just not the case in this country.

as an englishman i feel i must say i consider microwave lasagne to be the quintessence of a ready meal. perhaps bangers and mash if you wish to be native.

with a cup of tea in both cases.

he's not paying 4000 a month

$800 a month in groceries seems like a lot for just yourself.

You could consider finding a place that is less than $1600 a month.

Your credit card debt is a problem, $15k is quite a lot and you're not making much of a dent in it.

You certainly aren't poor, you make well more than the average person in this country, you simply need to allocate your funds better. Life in NY is tough when it comes to cost of living.