cost of living for a young couple in lakewood

Its not so cheap to live in lakewood anymore, people are looking for alternatives like Toms River and Jackson because Lakewoood is already overcrowded

Rent is cheap and talking from experience it is possible to make it with just about 30k being that the couple is carful

The basic rule is simply to watch what you spend. You need to make sure you are getting the best bang for your buck on necessities. When your in the grocery know how much each item is supposed to cost for example cherries are a fruit and can be cheap but can range from 1.99 to 5.99 per pound

Put on the side 15% of your check and make a fund 5% each 1. Savings 2. Vacations/extras 3. Unexpected expenses

Keep track what your spending knowing where your money’s going

Hi,
The largest employers for frum women seem to be medical billing businesses and LTC Senior Planning. If you have friends in Lakewood you can inquire what the pay scale is. You seem to know what the rents are already.

Your next big budget item is medical insurance. Are there children? Costs for a family are higher than for a couple, If you are below a certain age you may still be on your parent’s plan. What would med insurance cost if the employer offers a plan? Do you qualify for Medicaid/ NJ Family Care?
If you have children you must figure on child care costs which can be significant.
If you have a car, remember auto insurance and maintenance.

I agree you can live normally on 30k. or even less if you are careful and not extravagant. Do you HAVE to buy prepared and convenience foods? Carry a smart phone with data plan? etc etc. Everyone has their own standard of living.

If you earn more than your basic cost of living do not forget taxes and maaser, and saving/investing regularly for your future goals, like buying a house, kids’ chasunos.

Hatzlocho!

@Jakob
Your budget does not make sense.

If the couple is paying $200 to lease a car, they WON’T be paying $100 in car maintenance. New car leases are cars under warranty for at least the first 24 months of the lease.
$4.15 per adult per day for food is ridiculously low for a kosher household.

250 for food for two people sounds very conservative. As one person that’s very modest. Maybe I just eat a lot.

Don’t forget that young couples don’t stay that way for long. The whole equation can change after a year, once you throw in diapers and babysitting costs.

You can use cloth diapers, which are reusable. It’s very practical and saves a ton of money.

Sure it’s practical. Google it and you’ll find tons of help in getting started by parents who use coth diapers. I’ll bet your parents wore them as it was common when they were kids. I’m sure many readers here have parents who wore them (and some of the readers here themselves probably wore them.)

Yes, I wore cloth diapers, as did my eldest children, BUT diaper service was common then and cost only $2.50 per week, much less than disposables.
Today, outside large cities there are no diaper services. So one must add in the cost of laundry, buying machines, detergent or trips to the laundromat and feeding quarters into the machine. May not save much money

Also, good luck getting a babysitter that would be willing to deal with cloth diapers.

You’d be much better off with cheap off-brand diapers

PosterGirl, are you saying that young Lakewood couples expect a high standard of living?

For those of you queasy about using cloth diapers, offbrand diapers are a great option. Especially Walmart’s in-house brand and Kirkland/Costco diapers. (Btw, to dispel an incorrect notion above, if you do use coth, you could still have disposables for the minority of times it’s needed, like for the babysitter or when traveling.)

Another money saving tip from the pros is to use Costco, BJs or Sam’s Club. Just make sure it makes sense for your family size. And Walmart. They’re usually less expensive than other stores.

And use a prepaid cellphone service. Not directly from the major carriers.

I do not live in Lakewood but I do know that anyone who talks about leasing a car does not belong in this discussion. Car leasing is only for wealthier people or those looking for a tax break for their business. Buy a car and take out a loan if you need to. No need to get a new model car for the extra $1,000-$2,000 a year it will cost. You also have nothing to show for it when the lease is over. I have no idea why so many low income intelligent frum families lease

Why is there a need to lease a decent used car bought with around 8k can be a maintenance free and economical option
Leasing is more money, more insurance and a bad investment.

If you buy a used car, there’s always a chance that it will develop serious problems. If you’re tight on money, you can’t afford to take that risk.

A $8,000 car for example a 2010 Corolla with 70k miles small chance for serious problems and you can put away $1k just in case there’s a serious issue you can fix it and you still come out ahead

We are trying to minimize monthly expenses

The comparatively extra cost of the lease is, in the vast majority of the times, much more than the additional cost of owning a car.

What’s $800 max every 3 years?

It’s much less expensive to prepare your own food than to purchase ready made food for Shabbos (or for the week, for that matter.)

Things mentioned like brakes, rotors, struts, tires

1)the off brand diapers always leak & is not worth the difference in price, i used it for first month after my children were born & almost every diaper leaked

2)as a new couple its not worth the storage space & membership to use costco or bj’s. wait until your a larger family & also use more at a time then just 2 people

3)you can get a Verizon (best) unlimited text & talk today for as low as $30 a month for each phone thats only $60 for both of you

4)im married with children for many years & do food shopping once a week & the average-with years of doing already-is between $50 to $70 a week, we also dont spend such high prices as mentioned by iacasrima we get our sodas at walmart for 99 cents when its on sale & store up versus a jewish store charging 1.99. we get 64oz grape juice not once a month for 4.99 in a jewish store but actually twice a year before the holidays when its on sale at the supermarket for 2.99 & get at least 20 of them to last for 6 months until the holidays come again.

HERE IS YOUR LIST with the mistakes you made in prices & in what ONLY TWO PEOPLE NEED:
1 packages chicken legs
(4 – 6 per package ~ 5 lbs)” 2.19/LB 10.95 (THIS is also 2 peices for a weekday dinner)
1 lb chicken cutlets (weekday dinner)
(3 lb package divided)” 3.99/LB 3.99
Gallon milk 5.00 (can last for weeks if only for 2 people)
2 bottles soda 1.25/bottle 2.50
8 oz cream cheese 2.99
8 oz butter 2.50
2 dozen eggs .99/dozen 1.98
small rye bread 1.50
5 lb flour 3.00
sugar 4 lb bag 2.00
1 loaf gefilte fish 3.99 (each shabbos only needs a half loaf, a loaf makes 10 slices)
2 heads iceberg lettuce
1.29/head 2.58
3 slicing tomatoes
.89/ LB 1.11
3 cucumbers 3/$2 2.00
2 green peppers .99/LB 1.99
Bottle Rashi Wine 4.59 (Simple couple get grape juice for cheaper & don’t need fancy wines)
4 cans tuna fish 1.25/can 5.00
30 0z Jar Mayonnaise 3.99
Total 60.66 SO WHATS YOUR TOTAL NOW IF YOU MAKE THE CHANGES TO WHAT I WROTE IN PARENTESES? PROPBABLY ABOUT $50

finally you wanted to know where detergent is on my list? its the last thing listed of all odds & ends of supplies etc… between $300-800 a month every month different depending on the season (is it time for yom tov shopping for clothing or summer time?)

The young couple in question doesn’t eat any side dishes or veggies with their chicken or schnitzle?
add Potatoes, rice, pasta, carrots, string beans, Pre-checked frozen veggies, corn, etc
no chulent on shabbos? You need to add chulent meat, beans, barley to the list- all those items will last more than 1 week
You can cut costs by minimizing the use of disposable dishes/cups/pans. But you would still need aluminum foil, napkins, paper towels, toilet paper, plastic snack bags,

this is very shortsighted budgeting and planning. every young couple hopes that in a years time they are parents, they also hope the husband is still learning in a kollel. the newborn wont take care of itself, nor will it come with a year supply of diapers and formula. childcare, as well as the feeding and clothing of this child will have to be paid for. if the mother goes back to work daycare must be budgeted for, and if she doesnt, the money tree better be in full bloom.

WTP: When i put my list together I was trying to think back 30 years when it was just me and my wife. there are a whole list of “basics” I left out. I asked my wife the question how much she thought a newly married couple would spend on “food” for a week and her answer was $75 – $100.

My experience is that a gallon of milk will not last for weeks if it’s Chalav Yisrael.
If it comes home from the store not spoiled, I’m happy. Once it comes home not spoiled, it virtually never lasts longer than a week even if the date says it should last two more weeks or longer. So budget for buying milk every week or even more than once a week if it spoils. A gallon is unlikely to last longer than the week.

Off-brand diapers really depend on the brand. From my experience, Kirkland diapers are just fine, but not cheaper than Luvs when you get them on sale and combine with coupons.

Also, another GREAT way for anyone to save money is to buy in the chain supermarkets on sale, and then use coupons. Especially in NJ where its common for them to double coupons. Just an example, I recently got salad dressing in Shoprite for free, combining a sale with a doubled coupon.