How much money do you need for a month of living in Los Angeles: the experience of an immigrant
'29.11.2020'
Calculate how much people spend in the United States in one month in the most expensive state of the country - California, the author of the channel suggests “This wonderful world” on Yandex.Zen
Regardless of whether you are planning to move to the United States, want to travel to this wonderful country, or are just collecting information about America - first of all, you will have a logical question: how much money do you have to spend in one month of such a life? And as an example, we will take such a rather expensive city like Los Angeles.
Of course, the most significant part of the budget is renting an apartment. A one-room apartment in Los Angeles per month will cost you an average of $ 1800-2500. Of course, there are also more budget options, but everything below one and a half thousand will either not be an apartment, but just one room, or the apartment will be extremely killed.
There is also such a function as roommate, which means that you can live together with a roommate, and this is very popular here, especially in expensive cities. On average, it will cost around $ 500. you share the rental cost in half with 1-2 neighbors.
To the cost of the apartment, of course, you must definitely add utility bills. You pay for electricity and gas, and water is usually already included in the rental price. On average, the amount for a communal apartment per month will be $ 100.
A separate budget item is health insurance. In the USA, as you probably already know, medicine is quite expensive. Therefore, it will be very expensive to come and receive treatment for cash. For example, a doctor's appointment in Los Angeles costs $ 250, an ultrasound scan can cost $ 300, and a regular blood test $ 80 - which is why you need to buy insurance here. Insurance costs about $ 200 per person per month.
Of course, there are times when you can buy very expensive insurance, or vice versa, take advantage of the free one. Poor people can apply for free, but at the same time it is necessary to understand that local taxpayers pay money for this insurance, therefore, as soon as the poor start earning, they are removed from this insurance, and they are obliged to buy it for themselves.
Another item of expenses is transportation. In Los Angeles, for example, you can rent a car, it will cost $ 150 for three days, which is very expensive if you use the car in this way for a whole month. Therefore, it is more profitable to take some kind of long-term lease, or buy a car - on credit or lease. For a month, the payment of the loan plus auto insurance will come out about $ 350. And this is just for the car itself, but we do not forget that the car also needs gasoline and maintenance, which will add an additional $ 150 to your monthly expenses.
If you can't afford a car at all, you can use the metro or the bus, the price will depend on the subscription, and one trip costs $ 1,75. It is also very popular here to use Uber or Lyft services, the average ride on which costs somewhere around $ 7-10. For comparison, a short taxi ride costs $ 10. In addition to the basic costs for a car, you will have to pay for parking, which on average costs from 1 to 2 dollars per hour.
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Perhaps the most annoying part of the budget is mobile communications, because in America it is very expensive. In fact, there are different offers here - as a rule, you buy a phone immediately with a contract, tied to some operator. The fare can be around $ 60. Accordingly, you still have to pay separately for the Internet, on average somewhere around $ 50. And all this together comes out somehow expensive.
Naturally, do not forget about such an item of expenses as going to a cafe - drinking a cup of coffee, ordering delivery, or running somewhere for lunch if you have not had time to eat at home. On average, this comes out in the region of $ 150-200 in 30 days. If we are talking about such a concept as a business lunch, then here you can buy it for 10-12 dollars, and for this money you will get a huge bowl of, for example, salad and soup. Of course, you can afford this a couple of times, but if you eat like this every day for a month, it turns out to be very expensive. Therefore, Americans also calculate all this and often carry food with them - they take containers and thermoses, and have lunch at work.
Let's talk about household goods. Means for hygiene and cleaning of the apartment draw from the budget about $ 60-80 per month. Here's how much basic necessities cost:
- Soap - $ 2,99;
- A pack of eight rolls of toilet paper - $ 7,69;
- Napkins - $ 4,99;
- Garbage bags - $ 4,59;
- Gel for washing clothes - $ 14,99;
- Wet rags for cleaning floors, pack of 24 - $ 8,59;
- Dishwasher detergent - $ 6,49
If you have a pet, then, of course, he needs to buy food. A bag of cat food, for example, costs $ 0,87, and a large bag of dry dog food costs $ 13,39.
Food per month will cost about $ 300-350, this is such a classic set of the most basic products, no frills. And we have already talked about how much food products cost in the USA (and not only) in one of my articles.
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And with such simple calculations, we get that one person per month spends in Los Angeles on average about 3500-4000 dollars. That said, do not forget that salaries in America are generally quite high, so with a salary of $ 5000, this monthly amount does not seem so catastrophic.
Original column published on the blog. “This wonderful world” on Yandex.Zen
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