To determine how much a 4 person family with 2 young children (in elementary school) would spend on food each month, I went to Harris Teeter and planned out a hypothetical meal plan for a week for the whole family and then multiplied that number by four to determine the monthly total.
For breakfast:
16 pack of waffles-- $2.27
A dozen eggs-- $1.89
1 box of Cheerios-- $3.55
TOTAL: $7.71
For lunch:
10 Uncrustables (for children’s school lunches)-- $6.99
2 bunches of bananas (for children’s school lunches)-- $2.76
2 loaves of white bread-- $2.39
Turkey sandwich meat-- $5.99
Sliced sandwich cheese-- $3.69
1 bag of goldfish-- $2.19
TOTAL: $24.01
For dinner:
4 Totino’s frozen personal pizzas-- $5.00
1 box of Mac & Cheese family size-- $2.45
4 cans of ravioli-- $5.00
4 cans of soup-- $6.00
1 box of spaghetti noodles-- $2.59
2 cans of spaghetti sauce-- $2.00
1 bag of frozen corn-- $3.99
1 boxed taco kit-- $2.89
1 package of ground beef for tacos-- $4.97
2 tomatoes for tacos-- $3.49
1 package shredded cheese for tacos-- $2.65
1 lettuce head for tacos-- $1.49
1 package of chicken for grilling (four large pieces)-- $4.66
1 bag of frozen green beans-- $3.99
1 bag of frozen broccoli-- $2.19
TOTAL: $53.36
Drinks:
10 juice boxes (for children’s school lunches)-- $3.65
12 can pack of soda-- $5.99
1 large can of coffee for two for week-- $2.25
2 bottles of juice-- $4.45
TOTAL: $16.34
WEEKLY TOTAL OF FOOD: $101.42
MONTHLY TOTAL OF FOOD: $405.68
I also assumed that the family would probably go to a decent out to eat dinner at least once every two weeks. Assuming that every dish costs around $10, this jacks the monthly total up $80.
REVISED MONTHLY TOTAL OF FOOD: $485.68
This total is over $100 less than the $643 predicted by the epi.org calculator.
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To determine housing, I looked for 2 bedroom apartments in North Charleston on craigslist.com. I found three decent-sounding apartments for about $450-$500 a month. This is much less than the $823 a month predicted by the basic family budget calculator on epi.org. This is probably because the hypothetical housing in that calculator is located in downtown Charleston.
http://charleston.craigslist.org/apa/1664309606.html
http://charleston.craigslist.org/apa/1625812723.html
http://charleston.craigslist.org/apa/1645267366.html
MONTHLY TOTAL FOR HOUSING: $500
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For transportation, I assumed that my family would have recently bought a car for transporting the children to school. Using this website:
http://partners.leadfusion.com/tools/kiplinger/auto05/tool.fcs
I decided that my family would probably have something like a $20,000 car. If their down payment was $2,000, and their interest rate for a loan was 5%, they would be paying about $415 a month on the car. Although my family would park the car for free at their home most nights, they would probably have to occasionally park around Charleston. Since parking at most garages is in the teens for just a few hours, I estimated that my family would spend $100 a month on parking around Charleston.
MONTHLY TOTAL FOR CAR: $515
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Since there is only one car and, since my family will be living in North Charleston, I decided one parent could use public transportation to get to work. Carta fare is $1.50 per ride, so the parent would use $3.00 a day, adding up to $93 a month, assuming they only go to and from one place each day that month on the bus and walk everywhere else.
MONTLY TOTAL FOR BUS: $93
MONTHLY TOTAL FOR TRANSPORTATION: $608
The epi.org calculator estimated $482 a month, but my family total is more than $100 over that.
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For childcare, I called the Sunshine House in North Charleston to get their rates. (http://www.sunshinehouse.com/enrollment.php) For one child in the after school program, it is $65 a week, and with two children, you get a 10% discount on the second child, so it is $58.50 for the second child. Altogether, this comes to $494 a month. This is almost half of the $859 estimated by the calculator. This discrepancy could be because the children in my family are young, but old enough to be in school for most of the day, so they do not need to be at a daycare for the entire day.
MONTHLY TOTAL FOR CHILDCARE: $494
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The Basic Family Budget Calculator says that health care for a family of four in Charleston would be $414, and this seems to be a pretty universal figure for South Carolina, so I am just using it for my family.
MONTHLY TOTAL FOR HEALTH CARE: $414
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The Calculator says other monthly expenses would be something like $352. I have no way to estimate that, so I will just use the epi.org number.
MONTHY TOTAL FOR OTHER NECESSITIES: $352
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Epi.org says that monthly taxes for a family of four in Charleston would be somewhere around $297, and I will just use this figure because I have no way to determine a new one.
MONTHLY TOTAL FOR TAXES: $297
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Here are my totals for the month:
FOOD: ............................................$485.68
HOUSING: ......................................$500
TRANSPORTATION: ......................$608
CHILDCARE: ..................................$494
HEALTH CARE: ..............................$414
OTHER NECESSITIES: .................$352
TAXES: ...........................................$297
MONTHLY TOTAL: .........................$3150.68
And finally, my annual total:
ANNUAL TOTAL: ............................$37808.16
Interestingly, my annual total is nearly $10,000 lower than the epi.org calculator predicted. Of course, several of my numbers (especially housing) are based on the luck of finding good deals. The biggest discrepancies in my numbers and their numbers are in housing and childcare. This can be accredited to the fact that we’re in a recession now and housing value is way down. At the time the EPI numbers were calculated, this was not the case. Also, the calculator could potentially be talking about housing in downtown Charleston, whereas I am calculating numbers for North Charleston. For childcare, my family’s children will only be spending a few hours at the daycare a day rather than most of the day, so that is where that difference comes from, probably.
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