Thanks! why do you prefer florida? just curious--trying to figure things out!

Hi everyone!
I am new here. My name is Rachel, and I currently live in Manhattan but am moving to Florida in one month. We are moving for a few reasons, not least of which is financial--Manhattan as you can imagine is ridiculously expensive

I have 2 boys, aged 3 and 6 and we homeschool. DH runs his own business, which was doing wonderfully for many years but is now in a total slump due to the economy. His income has gone from 6 figures to low to mid 5 figures over the last year.

So anyway, I have been using mint.com for the last year and it's been a wonderful resource for me to track my expenses and lower them too. I am adjusting my budget to account for the lower cost of living in Florida and I want to see what people think--am I being realistic? We've never owned a car so that's a new expense added to the mix!

I am going to put our current budget up against our projected Florida budget.

NYC/Florida
Rent: $3700/$1300 (and our apt in NYC is considered "a steal"...Imagine!!)
Utilities $100/$150
Internet access:$40
Phone $75
Cable: $15/$15??
Transport (subway here, gas in Fl): $200/$125
Car Insurance-$0/$85
Car Payments: $0/$240 (we're trying to find a good used Honda maybe 2007. I don't want our payments to exceed about $240)
Groceries/month: $750/$450
Netflix $15/$15
Health Insurance: $1200 (we pay out of pocket and it's killing us)/$600
Dining Outt: $150/75
Clothes $20 month?
Babysitting 6 hours each week: $288/nothing (mom sitting!)
Hobbies (Scrapbooking and Knitting) $30/$30
Homeschool/month (online school) $75/$75 (we pay once a year so this is amortized)
Books $50/0 (great library system)
Entertainment (movies/bowling/minigolf etc) $100/$75
Tae Kwon Do for 2 boys/month $300/$150
YMCA Family Membership $0/$75 (this includes childcare and lots of activities for the boys, so it's worth it to us)
Unexpected expenses-$100

Total MONTHLY Expenses NYC: about $7200
Total MONTLY Expenses Florida: about $3650

My husband works for himself and his income varies TREMENDOUSLY--a year ago his business was doing very well (and had been for many years) but the recession has really affected it. He said to expect about $3500 a month coming from him. I do graphic design from home and earn approximately $1000 a month, although this varies from 800 to 1200.

Please don't say anything negative about our current NYC budget. I know it's A LOT but I am trying to be honest and upfront about our current situation and try to get a feel for how drastically I can cut expenses after our move to Florida.

We hope to buy in a year or two if the market is still depressed and our finances look up again. We do have college savings for the boys, and no credit card or school loans. We pay off our debt every month, but given the current trend of DH's business, we have decided to be proactive and move away from nyc in part to reduce our expenses (and we want to be closer to family too )

Thank you for any advice.

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ETA: I'd like to get our expenses to 3000 a month, so my earnings are "gravy". They're unreliable earnings and I know we need them, but I'd be more comfortable if our budget was lower.

Thanks for helping everyone. It's been such a help.

Yes, we just get the basic (abc, nbc, etc) we don't want to pay for the other channels. Plus, with Hulu and all the free programs on it for kids, I feel like we don't need it!

I would look into a HD antenna with one of the digital converter boxes. You may be able to get the same channels that you are paying $15 for for free. I have lived in Florida most of my life. I did spend 5 years in Texas. We were about 45 minutes north of Austin. If I had to pick between the two I would pick Florida hands down. I think you will really like it here.

don't pay the $15 bucks.



she is right spend the 40 bucks and get the digitial convertor box then another 40-50 bucks for a really good antenna and you will get all those basic channels plus some more for the one time cost. we did that last year for awhile why we did not have satelite we got over 20 channels.