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So I literally killed the last thread, and therefore am not going to get any more answers there, but here is a re-post (if this is not okay, please let me know). I will be starting a PhD program in the fall and have to move to a new city and state in the process, so between move-in expenses, relocation expenses (new driver's license? car registration?), and setting up a new apartment (furniture, mostly) I have an additional set of costs to budget for beyond the daily/weekly/monthly as well. Fortunately, my move-in expenses should be largely taken care of by a summer job I am working, which will pay $4250 before taxes and have basically no living expenses associated with it thanks to the included room and board. Because I don't get paid until the END of September, however, and need to be there by mid-August, the first month may be a little rough. For the school year, I am going to be making $21,000 September-May, before taxes. My tuition, school fees, and health insurance are all completely funded by my funding package, which means that this $21k/academic year should go entirely towards actual living expenses, minus the cost of various supplies (pens, books, paper, etc) at the beginning of the semester. I am expecting to be able to work the same job I have had the previous few years, which will take care of much of my summer expenses. Nevertheless, everyone in the program I am starting recommends we save every month to spread our stipend out over the entire year. I am not very good at math or experienced in finance, but by my reckoning that means I should save $583 out of my $2333 pre-tax stipend payment towards summer expenses; anything I get paid from summer work can therefore go towards paying off my modest student loans. That means I will have $1750 a month to work with. Here are all the approximate expenses I can think of, based on how I've been living the last few years: Grad School Monthly Budget 2013-2014 posted:$750 Rent How is that for a start? And here was the only lengthy reply before the thread was killed, to which I responded: dopaMEAN posted:Hooray for grad school! Thanks! It took a lot of doing (and two years of (fully funded!) MA work to get here. dopaMEAN posted:Now then, what program are you in? If you're in any sort of research program you should give up on any dream of taking a job during the summer. It's absolutely inappropriate, you need to be there full time whether you're getting paid or not. My advisor says that this is just the way pay works, even when you're further into academia (he's tenured) you will still frequently get paid a little more per month for 9-11 months. I knew one person in another lab who took a part time job at a golf course to cover her unpaid month, but again, this is beyond inappropriate. Basically, your yearly pay is for 12 months of work, it's just dispersed over a shorter period. I suppose it's possible that other PhD programs have different norms - find out what is normal from your fellow grad students. In my field we can't afford to stop researching for multiple months a year, but you might be in a different situation. I'm in Classics, which means that I need to develop my general knowledge through coursework for the first 2.5 years. Research will not be a significant component of my academic work until I am in my third year and am putting together my dissertation prospectus, at which point I will probably be able to save a LOT on rent because I will be living in the library.  I will be applying for a lot of external awards and fellowships that should allow me to basically get paid to do my research, or stuff related to my research, starting essentially the moment I arrive. This could include getting a fellowship for summer study at the American School in Athens, or the Intercollegiate Center in Rome, or Rare Book and Manuscript School at wherever. But as it is, I will not have enough work until dissertation time for me to be able to justify not doing some kind of paid summer work, which may consist of teaching, research assisting, or some kind of freelance editing/coaching/tutoring/etc. for which I am qualified and can do <20hrs/wk. When it's dissertation time, though, yes, I will definitely need to maximize my time for research and writing and only take on commitments as a way of holding myself to a schedule and getting out of the house. dopaMEAN posted:Do you know if they'll be taking taxes out? If they aren't taking taxes out (this happens with fellowships) you will owe taxes at the end of the year. I think I owed $1000 or $1500 the first year, when I had a fellowship. Now that I'm just getting paid as a TA/RA they tax me up front and I get a refund each year. In my MA program for the last two years I have indeed been taxed every month, however, I appreciate this question because I THINK I am, in fact, on a fellowship the first year. I will check to be sure--I do know that the $21k/yr figure does NOT include tax withholding. dopaMEAN posted:Also, are you sure they're covering all of your fees? I still owe about $300-350 every semester and during the summer, even though I'm fully funded. There are always going to be fees that aren't covered, so check with the other grad students to see what's normal. In the Graduate Guide put together by the grad students from my department, the only expenses mentioned by the current students as not covered by the funding are a $16.25 "activity fee" and parking permit. The parking permits seem to be $303 per year, at least for the lots where it would make sense for me to park, and even though I'm 100% committed to the idea of bicycling and not driving to campus unless absolutely necessary, having the option to park on campus during the day could make a lot of things much easier down the road (no pun intended). dopaMEAN posted:Is there a reason you aren't planning to get a roommate? Every grad student I know either has a roommate or a spouse, it's a waste to pay rent on a place by yourself. Besides, $330 extra per month is basically nothing, given that you'll need it to cover any shopping/restaurants/bars/etc. You're not going to make it. Since I graduated from college, I've lived 3 years with roommates and 2 years without roommates, and I really really prefer not having roommates. It makes everything easier for me: I don't worry about waking up my roommate if I have to come home late, I don't get woken up by my roommate for similar reasons, I don't have to clean up after other people and vice-versa, I can have people over without clearing it with a roommate, I can leave work/projects/board games out without getting in someone else's way, I don't have to worry that my roommate will be late paying his or her share of the rent/utilities/cable, etc., I can paint the walls of the place the way I want, decorate the way I want, and feel like I live in a space over which I have control. All of those things carry a huge bonus in peace-of-mind with them, and given the amount of work I will have to be doing in the coming years, it is really important to me to be able to avoid any chance of interpersonal conflict with roommates over shared spaces.
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May 14, 2013 16:43
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