I'm all for budgeting and making plans, but after having followed along in the thread here, I think that I'm going to suggest using your signing bonus to take your current car to a mechanic to make sure it will be dependable for six months. You've got "savings" budgeted in, and after 6 months, that should give you $900. That can be used for a down payment on a more reliable used car, and there's at the very least scrap value in your current one. Using a 36 month benchmark, you can buy a car for around $5,000 (factoring in interest), which should get you a fairly nice reliable used car. A new car is a terrible use of money since it depreciates the moment you drive it off the lot. Unless you intend on driving it into the ground, it's a bad idea for your first car purchase. You can get a car that's a couple of years old with low milage and a good maintenance history. Sure, it's not as sexy, but that's no reason to buy a new car.
As far as the budget goes, I think that you'll find that you need to rework things in 6 months. The medical and dental payments seem high unless you're paying for them yourself with no contribution from your employer. I've also never needed to pay for water as a renter, so that seems out of place to me, although maybe I've just been lucky. Those items can be used to offset the glaring holes that I see, which are gasoline (figure at least $100/month unless you live very close to work), clothing/toiletries/haircuts ($30/month as a minimum) and local phone (maybe you don't intend to have one?).
Congratulations on the job, by the way!
__________________
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo
|