2016 expenses

NOTE: This page may be outdated and is being preserved purely for the historical record. Please reference https://finances.vipulnaik.com/ for a better presentation of similar information, that is more likely to be updated and improved over time. NOTE 2: That link is currently password-protected (mainly to protect against spammers and scammers), so if you wish to access the information in it, please contact me with the request and I’ll share a username and password you can use to access. 

This page currently contains expense projections. You can compare this with my 2015 expenses and 2014 expenses.

You might also be interested in my taxes page.

  • Rent is $1800/month across two people, so expected annual cost is $10,800.
  • Health insurance costs $2907. Note that I already paid this up in advance in 2015, so it won’t show up in my 2016 balance sheet.
  • Internet, inclusive of taxes, costs about $58 per month for our household. Our Internet provider is sonic.net. Estimated annual cost: $696.
  • Electricity and gas cost an average of $30-45 per month for our household. Estimated annual cost: $360-540.
  • Web hosting on Linode costs $100/month. Estimated annual cost: $1200.
  • Transportation: a $7.80 BART round-trip from Ashby BART to 16th Street/Mission BART every weekday (minus a 6.25% discount due to use of HVD tickets), plus a $2 bus ride back from downtown Berkeley on weekends, so about $39 per week. Estimated annual cost: $2000.
  • Expenses on Facebook and other experimental altruism: $0-1000.
  • Phone expenses: $40/month on my smartphone, and about $200 on my dumbphone. Estimated annual cost: $700.
  • Internet-based subscription services: I am currently subscribed to Eros Now, Pandora, and Viki, but may or may not keep all subscriptions. If I keep all of them, my annual costs will be about $200.
  • Entertainment purchases: $0-100 on MP3 songs.
  • Restaurant dining: I am budgeting $2500 for this, though I hope that costs will be much less.
  • Hot chocolate: I am budgeting $1500 for this, though I hope that costs will be much less.
  • Groceries and toiletries: I am budgeting $3200 for this; costs last year were $2800.
  • Clothes: I am budgeting about $250 for this, though I expect costs to be much less since I made significant expenses in 2015 stocking up on clothes.
  • Business-related expenses: I am budgeting $2,000 though I anticipate rearranging matters so I don’t pay any of these expenses.
  • Paying people to create content: I have arranged matters so that I only pay for marginal production of content in 2016 (I have already paid up the fixed costs).
  • Loans: I expect to spend no money on these. I do hope to get back about $2500 in loans I made in 2015.

Basic information