Is this a realistic budget for med school?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

EMDO2018

Membership Revoked
Removed
7+ Year Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2013
Messages
1,885
Reaction score
1,271
rent+util= 7200
food= 3000
gas= 1500
car mant.= 1200
clothes=1000
phone= 600
household and hygiene= 1200
___________________________
= $16000
Can I live off this budget? Im I being impractical? Insurance is covered in tuition and fees. I want to take out as few loans as possible. Is there anywhere I can cut expenses?



Im a single guy, I don't eat much. I live in the south where there is cheap rent available.

Members don't see this ad.
 
$600/month for rent seems doable in parts of the South. You might be able to spend even less on rent if you get a roommate or rent a room in a house. If I were single back in medical school, I'd have rented a room in graduate/professional housing (as in a house with mostly grad students and professionals--not on-campus graduate housing). It's what I did when I was living in Berkeley, and that cost me about $650 with utilities, and while my room was pretty small, it was a pretty nice house. So I think you could spend even less in the South for something similar. It was relatively quiet, surrounded by smart/motivated people, but also lets you get away from all the medical stuff you'll see all day. But some people prefer medical student roommates.

$250/month for food sounds doable to me. If you eat out it will be more, but if you're really thrifty I know some people spend even less. Don't forget a lot of medical school get-togethers resolve around food. And especially for the singles, around going out to bars. You'll probably want to add an "entertainment" budget, because the odds are you'll go out at least a bit.

I usually budget $2000/year for car maintenance, but I have been fortunate to rarely need to spend that much most years (some years it's a few hundred, some years I reached that $2000 limit). So your estimate is probably OK, but it depends on how old your car is, if it has any current known problems, etc.

I think you could get away with spending less than $1000 on clothes. Dockers ($20-$25/pair when on sale) and Kohls is a great way to be dressed up for the wards and comfortable but save money. If you want to be thrifty, I find 3-4 pairs of Dockers/year works well before they start wearing out, and I like to have 7-14 dress shirts (which last longer than a year, at least for me). I found second-hand stores are great places to get ties--they're about $2-$3, and you can find some nice ones (as well as some ugly/gross ones--so look at them carefully!). You just have to assume there might be only one or two decent ties worth buying, at best, each time you visit a second-hand store, so it takes a while to build up a collection.

If you dress nicer than I do then you'll spend more--but you really wont need many nice clothes until 3rd year. You could probably do fine with two pairs of nice slacks and 3 dress shirts/ties during M1-M2. Honestly, you'd probably be OK with just one pair of nice slacks and two dress shirts/ties. Unless there's a dress code for lectures...

$50/month for a phone sounds reasonable, assuming you already own the phone or got a free one. During M1 and M2 I don't think there's any reason to have to have a smartphone (it's a nice luxury, but really not necessary). I didn't buy one until intern year--up until now I just used a cheap phone with no data and an iPod touch (my med school and hospital had WiFi) to access e-mail, as well as Mircomedex/Epocrates (both can work offline) and MedCalc. Nearby computers handled anything else I might need. Even now I rarely use cellular data on my iPone--I just wanted to consolidate my phone and iPod into one gadget, and I also thought a smartphone would look a little more "professional."

I'm not sure what "household and hygiene" really refers to. If it's soap, deodorant, 409, etc, then I just include that in my grocery budget.

It's worthwhile to borrow extra your first year so that you have a little bit of a backup in case of a rainy day (you can't always ask the financial aid office for extra funds--I think October of each year is the latest you can request additional funds). Plus that could give you some flexibility while you figure our what your budget will really cost you. I budget a certain amount each month, but little things always come up here and there that you didn't budget for, so a miscellaneous category is always helpful.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Wow, the car maintenance budget seems a little high, unless it includes oil change and registration fees. The other reason why it may cost too much is if your car is old. I have a 2005 Toyota Camry, and I like to believe that it is in a good condition. I just changed the tires and I'm planning on doing the tune-ups before school starts. Since I will be commuting 21 miles to school each way, I'm estimating to need approximately $50 a week for gas. That also includes 150 miles/week to run personal chores. My car registration costs $100 if no smog check required or 150 if I need to do the smog check, so I'm going to call it $125/year or $10/month. I will need to change oil and do car service once every 3 months and that costs $75, so it'll be 25 a month. My auto insurance costs me 58 a month, but let's call it 60. So far, I need 200 for gas + 10 for registration + 25 for oil change and service + auto insurance = 295. I was planning to allocate 55 a month for maintenance so I could have a total transportation budget of 350 a month, but after reading this thread, I'm thinking to up this to 400 a month to include 105 a month (1260/year) car maintenance.

I am married and have a kid, so I have to maintain a certain standard when it comes to food. Therefore, my food budget is going to be 600/month.

I will have a clothes budget of 1200 a year. I know it's little, but I have plenty of cloths (and will have more when I shed another 10 lbs.), so the money will mainly be for my wife and kid.

My rent, bills and household items will cost me around 1500 a month. There's very little flexibility I have in this category.

All in all my monthly budget will be ~2600 (or 31k a year). This is twice as much as that of the OP :)
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Looks reasonable. Don't forget to budget for school needs not included in your tuition and fees. You can probably find most of the preclinical materials in the library or online, but there are some things it's worth investing in if you think they will positively impact your performance in school (ultimately your career). For MS1, there probably aren't any big ticket items, but for MS2 there will be exam fees and board prep if you choose to take a class. Membership in professional organizations, hard copies of texts that I thought would help me, question bank subscriptions, exam fees, and board prep materials all add up.

To keep a handle on your budget, I would suggest using a site like Mint and consider investing in things that will make you more likely to save money. By this I mean a nice portable thermos so you aren't buying coffee at school every day, or a good lunch box and tupperware that is easy to clean out and carry around.

A certain amount of extra spending is probably inevitable--you need friends and a social life, and you need to manage your time well (ie, going to happy hour with classmates or grabbing lunch at the cafeteria on a busy day). Seek out and apply for scholarships; they're around.
 
Looks reasonable. Don't forget to budget for school needs not included in your tuition and fees. You can probably find most of the preclinical materials in the library or online, but there are some things it's worth investing in if you think they will positively impact your performance in school (ultimately your career). For MS1, there probably aren't any big ticket items, but for MS2 there will be exam fees and board prep if you choose to take a class. Membership in professional organizations, hard copies of texts that I thought would help me, question bank subscriptions, exam fees, and board prep materials all add up.

To keep a handle on your budget, I would suggest using a site like Mint and consider investing in things that will make you more likely to save money. By this I mean a nice portable thermos so you aren't buying coffee at school every day, or a good lunch box and tupperware that is easy to clean out and carry around.

A certain amount of extra spending is probably inevitable--you need friends and a social life, and you need to manage your time well (ie, going to happy hour with classmates or grabbing lunch at the cafeteria on a busy day). Seek out and apply for scholarships; they're around.


Fin aid hasn't come out yet, but I think Ill have a sizable need based scholarship. I will need to buy dental and vision insurance though. I have one tooth that broke off, another that is on its way. I need a tooth pulled, fillings, a cleaning etc. A lot of dental work and the dental that comes with the school sucks! I'll have to buy it independently. So if a dental plan has an annual deductible of $50 is that al I have to pay for the entire year?
 
Fin aid hasn't come out yet, but I think Ill have a sizable need based scholarship. I will need to buy dental and vision insurance though. I have one tooth that broke off, another that is on its way. I need a tooth pulled, fillings, a cleaning etc. A lot of dental work and the dental that comes with the school sucks! I'll have to buy it independently. So if a dental plan has an annual deductible of $50 is that al I have to pay for the entire year?

Depends on the plan. You could have copays, and there could be limits on how much a plan will cover (ie, $1,000 for orthodontics over the life of the plan or whatnot). I'm not too familiar with dental insurance, as I don't have it myself (the cost didn't make sense given that I don't have any dental problems, and the coverage, like you said, isn't great). I just pay out of pocket for cleanings. Remember the plan has to make money for the company, so just read the fine print when you're shopping around for policies to make sure that your prior issues are covered, and that they'll be covered to an extent that makes financial sense for you. Do you have a dental school associated with your university? You can go to the student clinic for care.
 
Top