Living on a budget

Good morning!

As you may know by now I'm living on my own now with my boyfriend of 3 years and I work as a fast food worker at A&W. What you might not know is that I only make on average $1,200 a month. I work 5 days a week Monday to Friday usually 5 hour shifts sometimes the odd 6-8 hour shift but usually around 28 hours a week. I almost died when I seen my last paycheck because it was $700 - more than the $600 ones I'm used to. When you're living away from your parents that extra $100 seems like a lot but in reality that pays for my half of internet or just a few groceries like what I ended up buying with that extra $100. Before we got our own place we agreed that everything would be split right down the middle because I hate when people fight over money because one person pays more than the other and what not. So, he makes a lot more money than me - like, about $7-$8 an hour more than me and he always works 8 hour shifts and lots of overtime. My work doesn't do that. You can take someones shift if they need you to but my boss won't allow it if that person will be working more than 40 hours in that week. Either way, I don't think it's fair for someone to pay more money on the same thing the other person is using just as much just because of however much money someone makes. It's my choice to be working this job because I couldn't finish high school and I don't apply to awesome jobs very often because they never call me. Anyway, my expenses have shown to be more than I can handle but I'm managing somehow; must be those government cheques or the fact that my dad helps me out a lot by giving me some cash almost every single week. I smoke cigarettes too which doesn't help. Smoking alone costs about $160-$200 per month give or take. Here's a list of my expenses:

Rent - $447.50 (that's my half)
Internet/cable/phone - $90 (we got a good deal on a package but we haven't cancelled the movie channels and I had to have the Dejaview channel so it's now $90 instead of $70 each)
Cell phone - $62.15 (give or take but for the most part this is what I pay every month for my crap iPhone)
Transportation - Nick picks me up after work every day which is really convenient for me so I usually give him like $40 a month or so for gas and to get to work I take the bus so that's $2.90 each time. So $2.90  X 5 days a week X 4 weeks in a month that's around $58 so let's just round it up to $100 a month on transportation. Still better than having a car in my opinion.
Food - We eat out a lot like almost every single day and spend around $20 each time. Well, I'm probably over exaggerating. Maybe 3 times a week so that's about $240 a month on fast food and for groceries we spend around $300 a month and that's buying like steaks lol. So my half of that is about $270 
Miscellaneous - $40 a month if that. (razors which is haven't had to buy yet because I moved out with a few packages, deodorant, toilet paper, paper towel, laundry soap, dish soap, cleaning products, etc.)

Total = 1,009.65 

Oh, wait, I almost forgot. I smoke. I'd be saving almost $200 a month if I didn't smoke so I literally spend every single dollar I earn on living out of my parents house. So where's the extra money going that's given to me? Sometimes I splurge and take a cab down to the bus terminal which costs $7 but mostly, I buy food with it. We have quite a bit of food in the house but when we have a ton we eat a ton. I also have a pretty bad problem with gambling. It all started when I went to the casino for my birthday one year and won $3,000 off $40. The max bet was $10 so I spun it 3 times and realized I had $10 left so I put my bet down to $3 and the first spin the bells went off and people started swarming my personal space in curiosity of how much I had just won. So, I'm pretty much trying to get that amazing feeling back to me but even when I win over $1,000 it makes me really friggin happy but I want to win more than $3,000. So I play slots online and win some and lose some, sometimes I play pro-line or lotto max, and now I'm buying lots of McDonalds trying to win something from that Monopoly thing they have going on right now. Roll up the rim is another bad time of year for me - I get really shaky from all the caffeine I have lol.

So if you're thinking about living on your own working a fast food job or any minimum wage job I would reconsider. I'm making a little more than minimum wage and have somebody to split all the bills with. I'm having the time of my life don't get me wrong but when it comes down to it I wouldn't recommend it to the average person because if you go out with your friends all the time say, to a bar, you can pretty much forget about that you'll want to drink at home because it's cheaper and don't think you'll be able to have friends over and get all drunk and loud because you know what's gonna happen? You're gonna hear from your landlord. If you want to save your money and go on a vacation, you can forget about that for at least a few years. Want a hair cut maybe some foils or something? LOL you'll realize you'd rather have milk for your cereal every day and a case of beer for the weekend to relax you from the craziness of the work week. Sure, you probably don't gamble or smoke and could MAYBE afford those things but if you're smart you'd throw that extra money in a high interest savings account and pray to god you'll be able to afford a house one day because living under someone in a basement isn't really ideal especially when you grew up in a house. I want a house one day in the next 5 years or so but I literally don't have the money to save to get a down payment on a house. Sure, I could give up gambling and smoking I could save around $200 a month and with whatever money I get save that too that's another few hundred dollars but at the end of the day those things keep me sane and even if I saved that - it wouldn't be enough to get a house in 5 years. Maybe a decent condo but not my dream house. When I get a house I want it to be absolutely perfect - something that I will live in for at least 25-30 years before downsizing.

Anyway, think about what I said and if you're going through the struggles of living too - I'm proud of you for doing it! Hell, I'm proud of myself.