<p>i was reading online at UCLA that it's expected to be around 28k for people living either on or off campus not living at home, and 22k for people living at home. Do you find this figure to be accurate and do you spend this much per year? if not then how much would you say you spend? i'm asking because i'm thinking of living on my own this fall, and want to know if this figure is, as i believe it to be, bogus</p>
<p>10,300 for tuition and fees alone.</p>
<p>Books will easily cost at a minimum 600 for the year (although you may be able to get some money back)</p>
<p>Living on your own? Is that with parents, family, or on your own with rent. Rent is what you decide to pay - I’m sure it could be 500-2000 a month.</p>
<p>Food - Depends on who you are. I could live on 20 bucks worth of groceries per week, if not less. But most people have to eat out, have to grab coffee, etc…</p>
<p>i was kind of looking for first hand experience like “in my first year i paid such and such, and then i found out that i could save money by doing blah, and i saved etc.” I actually mainly want to know how much people would generally spend on room and board, transportation, and personal sections. assuming i pay like 600/mo, and spend like 60/mo on groceries, it would be close to 8k, and i’m wondering if this is a realistic figure. i’m not sure how much i’d spend per year on the other two.</p>
<p>also, for anyone interested, here’s UCLAs fees/tuition page</p>
<p>[Fees</a>, Tuition, and Estimated Student Budget - UCLA Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/budget.htm]Fees”>http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/budget.htm)</p>
<p>binks09, what do you buy with your 20 bucks every week? I’m interesting in saving some money.</p>
<p>20 bucks? dude thats just plain insanity. then again you can get 20 tacos from jack in the crack and allocate resources accordingly</p>
<p>$60/month on groceries?</p>
<p>not happening. $100 easy</p>
<p>I need at least $200 per quarter for impulse internet purchases that distract me from sub-par academic performance.</p>
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<p>Just wondering, are you a guy or a girl? But yeah, I don’t blame you if you just HAVE to get that deer head trophy.</p>
<p>Here’s my off campus expenses.</p>
<p>1) Tuition per quarter: $1 billion dollars, or whatever UCLA tuition is now. But last year it was around $3,000 per quarter.</p>
<p>2) Rent per month - Living with 3 other people in a 2 bedroom apartment in Westwood: $768 per month, including rent ($550), parking spot ($50), internet and cable tv ($18), food ($120), electricity and gas ($30). Add anywhere from $30-90 for gas.</p>
<p>3) Textbooks - I’m a north campus major: Around $150-250 per quarter. I have spent less per quarter before, including once only $40. Of course, this varies with the classes you take.</p>
<p>4) Misc - including going out to movies, concerts, Disneyland, baseball games, UCLA football games, etc: I don’t know haha. In the past 2 weeks I have gone to Disneyland ($100 after ticket and food), and eaten out at restaurants/fast food joints several times ($45). So add another $145. This varies of course as I don’t always go to Disneyland…trust me it’s usually less than $145 every 2 weeks haha.</p>
<p>5) Furniture - includes dinner table, couch, bed, and desk: $729.
Note**: You can pay less as I got “nicer” desks and beds. A lot of my friends got free couches, beds, and desks. Although it tends to be crap quality, so you get what you pay for. Everything else I brought from home (i.e. TV, computer chair, carpets, etc.)</p>
<p>6) Toiletries and other related cleaning stuff: I actually have no idea, but I would say $50 a month.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>The only thing I’ve learned to save on is food. Shop wisely. I usually spend $30 a week on groceries.</p>
<p>@notaznguy: that was actually exactly what i was looking for, thanks for taking the time to write all that.</p>
<p>how the hell do you spend only $120 on food?</p>
<p>I’m guessing ramen noodles consists a sizable majority. xD</p>
<p>“how the hell do you spend only $120 on food?”</p>
<p>You just need to know how to shop and what to look for. For instance, instead of buying the more expensive $2-3 Wonderbread, I would buy Count Von Kempt bread, which is literally only .89 cents a loaf (IMO, it tastes the same).</p>
<p>I also shop at 99 Ranch Market (asian supermarket) and buy my vegetables there. The veggies there are significantly cheaper than at Ralphs and other American stores. There are also other cheap, and healthy things to eat and buy like tofu ($1 per box, can last 2 meals), homemade noodles (NOT ramen). Hell, even things like spaghetti can be cheap and last a while. One box of noodles (.99 cents) can last me like 3-4 meals. You can also add your own “toppings” to it. I usually add tomatoes and onions ($3), and hot link sausages ($4 for a pack of 12). Milk and juices aren’t very expensive either…</p>
<p>I don’t buy some things that others would. For instance, I don’t buy ice cream, cakes, yogurts, chips, popcorn, candy, soda, energy drinks etc.</p>
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<p>sucks if you don’t have a car. vegetables are expensive ****. more expensive than meat.</p>
<p>one option is rice, beans, eggs, chicken, ramen, water</p>
<p>After living in my own apartment for a few weeks, I can attest to being able to comfortably live off of $20 groceries per week. If you abstain from meat and vegetables like me (either from laziness to cook or the sheer cost), you could easily survive off of $15/week.</p>
<p>Here’s how I do it. What a typical week’s off food looks like for me:
- two 6 pk of bagels ($2 each, $4 total)
- four or five 18 oz. pack of spaghetti noodles ($1 each, $5 total)
- two jars of spaghetti sauce ($2 each, $4 total)
- half 15 oz. box of cereal ($2 each, $1 total)
$14 total</p>
<p>That leaves $6 in between for fruits, vegetables, eggs, or other items. For protein, a dozen eggs is only like $3 or $4 and can last a person 2 weeks if they didn’t go bad. If you’re rooming with a lot of people, eggs could be really cheap (like $1 a week). </p>
<p>$5 can buy you some vegetables and fruit.</p>
<p>You could also substitute spaghetti noodles for rice or other cheap foods. Note that I do splurge on bagels. A loaf of Van De Kamp bread would be even cheaper. Buying only 1 bag of bagels would open up $2 which would give you a more comfortable fruits and vegetables budget.</p>
<p>DON’T BUY: CHIPS, SODA, CANDY, SNACKS, etc. I’ve found the only truly affordable snack is microwave popcorn ($2 per 3-pack) and I wouldn’t even advise wasting your hard earned money on that. </p>
<p>All this was from Costco or Ralph’s. You don’t even have to drive to the Chinese supermarket!</p>
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Ramen noodles and canned foods actually turn out to be pretty expensive if you eat it every day. I can’t touch that stuff without going over budget!</p>