Food budget

[Wordead]

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30k isn't going to make an appreciable difference? If you invest that for 30 years at a 5% interest rate that compounds annually you'll end up making 130k off of it. Make it 8% and you'll make 300k off of it. Neither of those numbers are insignificant when you consider what you can get with that.

In terms of food, my budget is 200/month. If I spent 400/month I'd be spending an extra 10k/year on food, so 40k extra over 4 years. And that's only food. To me, being able to potentially make an extra 300-500k in the long run (or even a million if the investments are smart) is worth living a little more prudently now. To each their own though.

I'm not gonna post anymore on this topic after this because its been beaten to death and I'm tired of arguing with people who have 0 understanding of money management.

Your example is a fallacy. First of all, you do not GET all that money to invest. You are simply not taking that out as loans. There is no 5% growth bull****. Your food savings doesnt turn into a 401K, dude. Even if we use your example (which was an absurd extreme example I used as nobody is spending an extra 30K), if at the end of your residency, you wish to catch up on your savings you can. You can literally make up all that 30K savings in less than a year as an attending by prioritizing your savings. You can live as a resident an extra year or you can live like a hobo for all of medical school and residency, you tell me which makes more sense.

 

[Stagg737]

I'm not gonna post anymore on this topic after this because its been beaten to death and I'm tired of arguing with people who have 0 understanding of money management.

Your example is a fallacy. First of all, you do not GET all that money to invest. You are simply not taking that out as loans. There is no 5% growth bull****. Your food savings doesnt turn into a 401K, dude. Even if we use your example (which was an absurd extreme example I used as nobody is spending an extra 30K), if at the end of your residency, you wish to catch up on your savings you can. You can literally make up all that 30K savings in less than a year as an attending by prioritizing your savings. You can live as a resident an extra year or you can live like a hobo for all of medical school and residency, you tell me which makes more sense.

I'll start by saying, I don't live anywhere close to a hobo. I live rather comfortably, I just don't spend my money on stupid crap that I don't need. Obviously you don't GET all the money to immediately invest, and savings don't turn into a 401k. But when you graduate with less loans you have more of your actual paychecks to spend or invest as you please. Also, I'm not sure why you would question the 5% growth as you can easily get that roi on mutual funds. So I'd be interested to hear why you think that's BS. I will give you that you can just live like a resident for an extra year or two, but considering I'm planning on having a family then, I'd rather be able to invest more of my paychecks into them rather than a debt payment.

 

[amichel]

30k isn't going to make an appreciable difference? If you invest that for 30 years at a 5% interest rate that compounds annually you'll end up making 130k off of it. Make it 8% and you'll make 300k off of it. Neither of those numbers are insignificant when you consider what you can get with that.

In terms of food, my budget is 200/month. If I spent 400/month I'd be spending an extra 10k/year on food, so 40k extra over 4 years. And that's only food. To me, being able to potentially make an extra 300-500k in the long run (or even a million if the investments are smart) is worth living a little more prudently now. To each their own though.

Maybe check your math there. An extra 200/month = 2500/year or 10 000/4 years.

Unless I'm missing something...

 

[Stagg737]

Maybe check your math there. An extra 200/month = 2500/year or 10 000/4 years.

Unless I'm missing something...

You're right, I did per week instead of per year, oops. I'd still be curious to hear from @Wordead as to why he thinks the 5% growth is bs.

 

[Giovanotto]

Seriously. Love how people come on here and say it's so easy to spend less than x amount on food. I'm 240lbs and eat the amount of meat he does in a month in usually a few days. 18 eggs for a month? That's 3 days for me.

It's silly comparing food budgets with no reference point.

I agree with you, but go easy on those eggs, my god.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I agree with you, but go easy on those eggs, my god.

LOL -- I was thinking the same thing, six eggs day?!!

 

[pd1112]

I'm not gonna post anymore on this topic after this because its been beaten to death and I'm tired of arguing with people who have 0 understanding of money management.

Your example is a fallacy. First of all, you do not GET all that money to invest. You are simply not taking that out as loans. There is no 5% growth bull****. Your food savings doesnt turn into a 401K, dude. Even if we use your example (which was an absurd extreme example I used as nobody is spending an extra 30K), if at the end of your residency, you wish to catch up on your savings you can. You can literally make up all that 30K savings in less than a year as an attending by prioritizing your savings. You can live as a resident an extra year or you can live like a hobo for all of medical school and residency, you tell me which makes more sense.

I'll start by saying, I don't live anywhere close to a hobo. I live rather comfortably, I just don't spend my money on stupid crap that I don't need. Obviously you don't GET all the money to immediately invest, and savings don't turn into a 401k. But when you graduate with less loans you have more of your actual paychecks to spend or invest as you please. Also, I'm not sure why you would question the 5% growth as you can easily get that roi on mutual funds. So I'd be interested to hear why you think that's BS. I will give you that you can just live like a resident for an extra year or two, but considering I'm planning on having a family then, I'd rather be able to invest more of my paychecks into them rather than a debt payment.

Your examples of ROI are also inflated because it doesn't appear that you're accounting for taxes on interest, dividends, capital gains, etc. I'm very much a novice at finance, but many posters on this thread and numerous others make it seem like investments are a simple, clear-cut, no-risk way to make absurd amounts of money with little to no effort. People that spend every hour of their lives watching the market can't predict it or ever guarantee a safe investment. But when you're a physician and have minimal time on your hands to develop an investment strategy, I'm sure there will be hundreds of them assuring you they can do both.

 

[Stagg737]

Your examples of ROI are also inflated because it doesn't appear that you're accounting for taxes on interest, dividends, capital gains, etc. I'm very much a novice at finance, but many posters on this thread and numerous others make it seem like investments are a simple, clear-cut, no-risk way to make absurd amounts of money with little to no effort. People that spend every hour of their lives watching the market can't predict it or ever guarantee a safe investment. But when you're a physician and have minimal time on your hands to develop an investment strategy, I'm sure there will be hundreds of them assuring you they can do both.

Absolutely, but I used 5% because it's a pretty safe number for mutual funds. Most investors will tell you that you can expect between a 6-8% ROI there. Say those profits get taxed at 30% (I honestly don't know what those rates are since I've never withdrawn from my investments), you'll still make between 4.2-5.6% in that range. Idk how much someone would actually make in the end, I was just trying to point out that I don't think 30k is an insignificant amount of money as some other posters seem to believe.

 

[pd1112]

Absolutely, but I used 5% because it's a pretty safe number for mutual funds. Most investors will tell you that you can expect between a 6-8% ROI there. Say those profits get taxed at 30% (I honestly don't know what those rates are since I've never withdrawn from my investments), you'll still make between 4.2-5.6% in that range. Idk how much someone would actually make in the end, I was just trying to point out that I don't think 30k is an insignificant amount of money as some other posters seem to believe.

Makes sense. But also, the $30k came from an exaggerated hypothetical example in response to an exaggerated hypothetical example to make a point. That'd be $7.5k/year or over $600/month. I've eaten whatever I felt like, whenever I felt like it, for the past 2+ years of medical school & there's still no way in hell I'm spending over $600/month total, let alone $600/month MORE than all of the misers here.

 

[Kaustikos]

Just spend your loan money. Think of it as a tax reimbursement for the people you give the money to lol

 

[Mad Jack]

Incoming M1 here, a little concerned about managing my money when it comes to grocery shopping + eating out

I'm coming straight out of undergrad and I will say that I was a little privileged in that I didn't do much grocery shopping; I had a meal plan for 3 years and the last year I did some grocery shopping but mainly ate out

I'm planning on buying groceries once a week for 1 week's worth. What should my groceries budget be if my only source of income is student loans? How often did you guys eat out? Also, any tips on how to be frugal with grocery shopping are appreciated!

thanks

I can eat very well off of $200-300 a month. This varies largely by area though- groceries are far more expensive in big cities, for instance. Alcohol, eating out, and entertainment can also sap your budget fast if you aren't careful, so make sure to prioritize your food budget in a way that keeps it untouched if you tend to enjoy going out often or a good bottle of Scotch here and there.

 

[Kaustikos]

I can eat very well off of $200-300 a month. This varies largely by area though- groceries are far more expensive in big cities, for instance. Alcohol, eating out, and entertainment can also sap your budget fast if you aren't careful, so make sure to prioritize your food budget in a way that keeps it untouched if you tend to enjoy going out often or a good bottle of Scotch here and there.

Starve myself for scotch? Way ahead of you.
Honestly, by fourth year, I'd figured out where all the free food and coffee was located that I spent way less on it. I especially loved when they had visiting applicants for medical school. You just had to show up and chit chat for 5 secs with these guys and you got a free breakfast. Actually, I even told that once to the applicants.

 

[Mad Jack]

Starve myself for scotch? Way ahead of you.
Honestly, by fourth year, I'd figured out where all the free food and coffee was located that I spent way less on it. I especially loved when they had visiting applicants for medical school. You just had to show up and chit chat for 5 secs with these guys and you got a free breakfast. Actually, I even told that once to the applicants.

Free food is the best food.

Join all the free clubs you can just to get on their mailing lists OP, that's another way to milk the free food gravy train. That and go to any advertised conferences, they almost always have something to draw people in. Usually you can swing 3+ free meals a week if you keep up on all the clubs, presentations, etc on campus. I usually don't do any of this because I've got plenty of cash in my food budget for my needs so I don't have to, but plenty of people play the game, and five bucks saved here and there really adds up over the year.

 

[JP2740]

I love scotch

 

[fancymylotus]

I love scotch

Scottish Pine Sol is the biggest waste of money, ever. And also probably Kaus' single biggest expense in his med school food budget.

 

[Stagg737]

Free food is the best food.

Join all the free clubs you can just to get on their mailing lists OP, that's another way to milk the free food gravy train. That and go to any advertised conferences, they almost always have something to draw people in. Usually you can swing 3+ free meals a week if you keep up on all the clubs, presentations, etc on campus. I usually don't do any of this because I've got plenty of cash in my food budget for my needs so I don't have to, but plenty of people play the game, and five bucks saved here and there really adds up over the year.

True dat. One of my buddies said he probably spends around $50/week just on coffee which blew my mind. I'm sure plenty of other people do the same with coffee or alcohol. That by itself only adds up to around 10k over 4 years, but when you take everything into account, like food, rent, and entertainment, it can definitely make a difference. I know many of my classmates are taking out the max loans for COA (~26k) while I needed a fraction of that. Some of it is situational, but I know a pretty significant portion of my classmates who are basically trying to live like physicians now, and they'll have the debt to prove it later on.

 

[Kaustikos]

Scottish Pine Sol is the biggest waste of money, ever. And also probably Kaus' single biggest expense in his med school food budget.

Laguna Seca Blue money pit

 

[nOchemallday]

If you are in a situation where you're not taking out the full COA in loans I would agree with @Wordead and others ITT:

Whatever miniscule amount of money you save is not worth eating pasta and ramen and whatever other garbage every day.

But I'm basically at the cap for COA this year (north of 78k), after origination fees (especially the 4.27% on GradPLUS loans) and tuition that's really only ~17k for ALL living expenses for the entire year. So it's less of a choice and more of a necessity to stay on budget.

 

[JackieChanFan]

Here's a tip:
If you eat a lot of bread, consider buying a bread maker machine. That thing will pay for it self in a few months, plus you can enjoy eating fresh delicious bread anytime.

 

[FindMeOnTheLinks]

Just curious and too lazy to figure it out on my own, but does your school build the loan origination fees into their estimated COA? If not, seems....rude.

 

[nOchemallday]

Just curious and too lazy to figure it out on my own, but does your school build the loan origination fees into their estimated COA? If not, seems....rude.

My school lists a loan fee of ~$400 in the COA calculation which is about the same for a few different schools I just looked up, but doesn't indicate which loan that's for. Some quick math suggests it's the origination fee for only the Direct unsub loan (~1.04% of the max ~42,700/year). But COA doesn't include the origination fee on PLUS which was a little more than 1.5k for a 36k loan (4.272%).