Vet School Budget

[GeeQued]

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So since I'm spending my spring break laying in a hospital bed I figure I should do something constructive besides listen to the person next to me trying to die (sorry lovely thought I know)

But anyways I was trying to put together a realistic budget on my expenses of the year can anyone add anything to the list that I should factor in:

Tuition
Books
Supplies (toner, pens, etc)
New computer
Housing
Utilities
Food
Gas
Car Insurance
Clothing expenses
Horse's Board
Horse's Shoeing/vet

Im sure I left a ton of stuff out.

 

[bunnity]

Health insurance and rabies shots, if you need those.
And sorry to hear you're in the hospital and your roommate sucks 🙁 Can you get a private room?

 

[tpad40]

Second what bunnity says, hope you're ok 🙁

Some things to add:

Extra Fees for School (notes, "technology fee")
Travel (to go home or visit family)

 

[GeeQued]

My uncle offered to have a private room arranged (he happened to have a meeting with the hospital president the morning I was omitted) but I'm suppose to get out tomorrow so I figured I could stick it out for the couple days I was suppose to be in. I can at least get up and walk shes been in the bed for a couple days now not moving so I feel bad for her..


Im not looking forward to getting the rabies shots, I should have had them give them to me when I was under for surgery.

 

[GeeQued]

Second what bunnity says, hope you're ok 🙁

Some things to add:

Extra Fees for School (notes, "technology fee")
Travel (to go home or visit family)

Thanks Tpad! I'll add those to my list. If my blood work comes back ok that they just took I'll get to go home today so keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[themightyfuzz]

Monies set aside for car maintenance as well?
Entertainment?

Feel better soon from me as well. A bit OT, I just noticed you're from Chino. Haven't met many folks online from there. 😉 I used to live there and my family lived there for 20+ years before they escaped other states.

 

[VAgirl]

I like to divide things out by category. I'm incorporating what's already been mentioned with stuff I can think of.

School Expenses
Tuition and fees (if you're doing a budget for more than one year, plan for tuition increases)
Books
Supplies (toner, pens, etc)
New computer
Parking permit (or bus pass)
Club fees/dues (including SCAVMA, but also other student clubs, usually $5-$25 per club)
Class and/or club t-shirts/sweatshirts

Regular Bills
Rent
Gas/Electric
Water and Sewer
Internet
Cable (if you watch tv)
Land telephone line (if you want one)
Cell phone
Car insurance
Health insurance (you might get this through school, so it would be a fee up in the school column)

Living Expenses
Groceries
Eating out (including lunch at school if you're not going to pack lunches)
Gas for car
Clothing expenses
Horse's Board
Horse's Shoeing/vet
Food/veterinary care for animals (you may have stipends for some of this)

Entertainment
Dinner out with friends
Going to the bar/movies, whatever you like to do
Netflix, etc.
Various party/fundraisers held through the vet school with cover charges

Unplanned or Infrequent Expenses
Car repairs
Oil changes/safety or smog inspections
Doctors visits (copays, deductibles, etc.)
Christmas/birthday gifts for friends/family
Conferences (usually have student rates, etc.)
Travel (to go home or visit family)

Hmm...ok, I'm tapped out for now, but I'm sure there's other stuff I'm leaving off. I'll look at my own budget later.

 

[GeeQued]

Monies set aside for car maintenance as well?
Entertainment?

Feel better soon from me as well. A bit OT, I just noticed you're from Chino. Haven't met many folks online from there. 😉 I used to live there and my family lived there for 20+ years before they escaped other states.

Yeah I dont find to many people in Chino either, I lived there for school purposes (actually just moved out since the owner of the house we rented couldnt make his mortgage) but its seriously changed in the last few years. Growing up it was ALL dairies and now theres hardly any left. Kinda sad and they keep pushing more and more out to put in these gigantic planned housing communities

 

[robeezy08]

Thanks for organizing VAgirl!
Thought we'd just add to your list..and i've included my all time favorite thing to do: laundry 😉

School Expenses
Tuition and fees (if you're doing a budget for more than one year, plan for tuition increases)
Tech fee
Books
Supplies (toner, pens, etc)
New computer
Parking permit (or bus pass)
Club fees/dues (including SCAVMA, but also other student clubs, usually $5-$25 per club)
Class and/or club t-shirts/sweatshirts
Rabies shot

Regular Bills
Rent
Gas/Electric
Water and Sewer
Internet
Cable (if you watch tv)
Land telephone line (if you want one)
Cell phone
Car insurance
Health insurance (you might get this through school, so it would be a fee up in the school column)

Living Expenses
Groceries
Eating out (including lunch at school if you're not going to pack lunches)
Gas for car
Clothing expenses
Horse's Board
Horse's Shoeing/vet
Food/veterinary care for animals (you may have stipends for some of this)
Laundry

Entertainment
Dinner out with friends
Going to the bar/movies, whatever you like to do
Netflix, etc.
Various party/fundraisers held through the vet school with cover charges

Unplanned or Infrequent Expenses
Car repairs
Oil changes/safety or smog inspections
Doctors visits (copays, deductibles, etc.)
Christmas/birthday gifts for friends/family
Conferences (usually have student rates, etc.)
Travel (to go home or visit family)

 

[GeeQued]

So do these seem like accurate amounts (I know it depends on area, I left some stuff off because I'd have to figure that in once I do more research on them )



My school didnt list a tech fee so I just estimated I'm sure its pretty off and a lot I just estimated on.

 

[lazyjayn]

What are you including in utilities? Is landline or cell phone in there? If you're not sharing housing, you utilities look low for winter, about on for summer. I pay some pretty low rates for gas and electric and with that plus internet ($50/ mo) roommate and I are running about 200/ month total for utilities. that's about 275 KWH electric per month, for ~$30, so about $100-120 for gas to heat 750 sqft. to between 58 and 64*. With window quilts and no entry through the front door.

How about a section for random splurge money- you know, just pocket cash, so you don't feel like you're deprived. Even $5 or 10 a week can make a huge difference in the way you feel.

Also- household supplies- don't know if you break them out of your food stuff or not- TP, paper towels, paper plates and Tupperware, cleaning supplies, stuff like that.

.. Do you have *real* winter clothes? You can get by for a while with fall/ spring stuff, but when it's 15 below and windy you're really going to want two pair of long underwear, a half dozen sweaters, warm boots, gloves, hat, and coat. At the same time.

 

[GeeQued]

What are you including in utilities? Is landline or cell phone in there? If you're not sharing housing, you utilities look low for winter, about on for summer. I pay some pretty low rates for gas and electric and with that plus internet ($50/ mo) roommate and I are running about 200/ month total for utilities. that's about 275 KWH electric per month, for ~$30, so about $100-120 for gas to heat 750 sqft. to between 58 and 64*. With window quilts and no entry through the front door.

How about a section for random splurge money- you know, just pocket cash, so you don't feel like you're deprived. Even $5 or 10 a week can make a huge difference in the way you feel.

Also- household supplies- don't know if you break them out of your food stuff or not- TP, paper towels, paper plates and Tupperware, cleaning supplies, stuff like that.

.. Do you have *real* winter clothes? You can get by for a while with fall/ spring stuff, but when it's 15 below and windy you're really going to want two pair of long underwear, a half dozen sweaters, warm boots, gloves, hat, and coat. At the same time.

The utilites included only gas, electric, water, trash (anything of that sort) I was planning on finding an apartment that included at least heat since that seems to be on the more expensive side of utilities. I'll up that more, coming from socal winters are cheaper for us since we dont run A/C all that time so I wasn't even thinking about the fact I'm sure I'll have the heater cranking 🙂
For cell phone I have a corporate account through my employer which will stay inplace since I've worked there so long so for me I did not include that and wasn't intending on getting a landline. Internet I have to pay for separately but a wireless card from AT&T with my phone is $40 a month unless I can get it cheaper through the utility companies there.

I didnt even think of household supplies so I'll need to add that in to and same thing with some allowance for spending money

As far as winter clothes I have a feeling I'll have a major cold shock when I get there, up until interviews the coldest I have ever been in was 30 So I'll definitely be in for a major wardrobe change 😀

 

[VAgirl]

I also meant to include under my unplanned/infrequent expenses that you probably want to set aside some money for emergency situations. Not sure how this works if you're living entirely off of loans, thought, and not sure what people would suggest for that. When I was working, though, I tried to put some amount of money into savings every month, both because it's good to get in the habit of saving and because it's good to have some emergency money stashed.

Again, no idea as to the wisdom of doing this with borrowed money. Maybe if your parents are willing to bail you out in case of emergency, you should skip it. But for future working budgets, its always a good idea. (Of course, for budgets when you're working, you want to have a nice chunk going to savings, but that's a different story.) 🙂

 

[vnair2]

Thanks everyone. This topic owned. It took all the "work" out of working on my budget. I especially appreciated well formatted excel spread sheet GeeQued. A couple quick additions, a few number changes, and I was done. Now, if only I could bring that total cost down, I would be a very happy camper.

 

[nonvideas]

The biggest surprise to my budget when I started school was things like club dues, club activities, club t-shirts, etc. First year I bled myself dry on these little things, before I realized I didn't need every single sweatshirt or raffle ticket that a club put on sale. There were also things like coveralls, boots, and additional scrubs that I hadn't really figured in. Parking tickets hurt too. Try to avoid those.

 

[robeezy08]

Parking tickets hurt too. Try to avoid those.

I agree avoid parking tickets... if you're going to Penn, philly parking authority can suck you dry!

 

[TSUJC]

If you had to give a number, what have other members of the forum estimated their total annual living expenses to be for their 1st year of vet school?

I have done the math and think mine will be about 14,000

GeeQued, I am sorry that you are not feeling well. Hope you are back on your feet soon. Don't worry about the rabies vac I just finished mine and they weren't that bad. The second and third were obviously worse then the first just because the immune response is a lot stronger. I had a swollen lymph node and a little tenderness but it was NOTHING compared to the HPV shot. That thing was a killer!!! It felt like fire being pushed into your arm!

 

[vnair2]

If you had to give a number, what have other members of the forum estimated their total annual living expenses to be for their 1st year of vet school?

I have done the math and think mine will be about 14,000

When you say living expenses, what are you including? Also, out of curiousity, what is your rent? because that is a big part of "life expenses".

 

[GeeQued]

If you had to give a number, what have other members of the forum estimated their total annual living expenses to be for their 1st year of vet school?

I have done the math and think mine will be about 14,000

GeeQued, I am sorry that you are not feeling well. Hope you are back on your feet soon. Don't worry about the rabies vac I just finished mine and they weren't that bad. The second and third were obviously worse then the first just because the immune response is a lot stronger. I had a swollen lymph node and a little tenderness but it was NOTHING compared to the HPV shot. That thing was a killer!!! It felt like fire being pushed into your arm!

Thanks! I'm back at home now. I'm a wimp when it comes to shots, you should have seen them trying to put the IV in my hand for surgery prep I know I passed out at least once. I heard the HPV one was awful which is a huge factor in me avoiding it and I'm sure I'll put off rabies until they tell me I absolutely have to

 

[Angelo84]

I live on a bit under $1000 a month--that includes rent, utilities, cell phone, food, and gas.

 

[Angelo84]

I live on a bit under $1000 a month--that includes rent, utilities, cell phone, food, and gas.

 

[nonvideas]

I live on a bit under $1000 a month--that includes rent, utilities, cell phone, food, and gas.

Same, maybe 1000-1100/month. Rent is $675 of that.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

I heard the HPV one was awful which is a huge factor in me avoiding it

*steps up on off topic soopbox*

You probably have heard this up the wazoo, and this is an aside....but get it. Take it from someone who (is NOT promiscuous in *any* way shape or form) who recently found out they are positive for a high cancer risk associated strain of HPV and *possible* abnormal cervical cells. It is really not worth wondering if, even though almost everyone clears the virus in a year or so, you might be one of the ones that gets cancer.

Back on topic, my expenses also round out to about 1000 a month (550 rent, 100 to 150 bills, 50 animal food and expenses, 150 food, 50 gas, 50 to 100 extra spending money for any clothes or movies per month), but that does not count insurance which I pay quarterly.

 

[vnair2]

Back on topic, my expenses also round out to about 1000 a month (550 rent, 100 to 150 bills, 50 animal food and expenses, 150 food, 50 gas, 50 to 100 extra spending money for any clothes or movies per month), but that does not count insurance which I pay quarterly.

Just out of curiousity, for those of you who spend <$150 a month on food, do you bring your lunch everyday and cook dinner every night? Im the sort who generally buys lunch, but cooks dinner. Spending an average of $7-8 bucks a day on lunch plus groceries for dinner and Im easily spending >$300 a month just on food. Granted, Im in New York, so everything is a little more expensive, but still. How do you spend so little?

Thanks

 

[natalieises]

Just out of curiousity, for those of you who spend <$150 a month on food, do you bring your lunch everyday and cook dinner every night? Im the sort who generally buys lunch, but cooks dinner. Spending an average of $7-8 bucks a day on lunch plus groceries for dinner and Im easily spending >$300 a month just on food. Granted, Im in New York, so everything is a little more expensive, but still. How do you spend so little?

Thanks

I feel your pain on expensive food eating out. I live in chicago, where food is everywhere. I save a lot of money not eating out. If you think about $8/lunch everyday it really adds up. Making a sandwich and adding some veggies, chips, etc is really cheap when you divide out the costs of bread/meat/cheese/etc. You can eliminate those costs by only eating out on special occasions or set a max. amount of times to eat out per week.

 

[Poochlover11]

Just out of curiousity, for those of you who spend <$150 a month on food, do you bring your lunch everyday and cook dinner every night? Im the sort who generally buys lunch, but cooks dinner. Spending an average of $7-8 bucks a day on lunch plus groceries for dinner and Im easily spending >$300 a month just on food. Granted, Im in New York, so everything is a little more expensive, but still. How do you spend so little?

Thanks

I would totally recommend Aldi's if you have one around you (do they have those in New York?). They have AWESOME prices for food! Or Sam's Club-you can buy in bulk and save yourself some extra money.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Buying in bulk and growing your own (if you can or know someone who dies)! I have a large veggie garden in my yard and that helps a LOT in the summer! Free tomatoes, peppers, berries,herbs, etc. Even a few tomato pots or something on your apt balcony can be nice.

Farmers markets can also be good places depending on what you are looking for. Local meat and eggs are usually more expensive while fruits in season are usually cheaper than grocery stores.

And you know those big rectangular, colorful booklets of advertising that grocery stores all mail out? Don't throw those away! Keep them and look at what's on sale and plan your meal options for the week around that.

 

[DVMorBust]

Buying in bulk and growing your own (if you can or know someone who dies)!

So you can take over their garden?

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

DOES That is what a week of spring break does to my smarts.

 

[GeeQued]

I think $1000/month on living expenses is a fair assumption. I dont eat out much (except finals week) but typically my entire day consists of an apple, 4 oz yogurt, 1 piece of grilled chicken, and a salad so Im gonna say my food expenses are lower than most.

 

[vnair2]

I like eating too much to reduce my food expenses. I will just have to cut something else from budget, like text books.

 

[GeeQued]

I like eating too much to reduce my food expenses. I will just have to cut something else from budget, like text books.

It took me 4 years of college to learn that sharing text books made so much sense. As for cutting back on food, I love food, my body hates it so I guess thats a win for my budget LOL.

 

[Angelo84]

I almost never buy lunch. When we make dinner we make enough for dinner that night and lunch for both of us the next day. There are also lots of lunch time talks that have free food so that can help.

I will only buy lunch (and then $2 soup) if we messed up the night before by making a new recipe and it didn't make enough for the lunches.

 

[jglovicz]

This is a bit off topic, but what are the chances there will be a community fridge for students to store lunches? I'm a graduate student now (in a small department) and we have a number of refrigerators, but it may be a very different story in a much larger department with hundreds of students...how do you keep your food cold? This would definitely be a factor in bringing lunch from home vs purchasing it on campus...any ideas?

 

[EqSci]

Lunch box and ice pack! I use one of those soft cooler lunch bags, but I've also used a hard plastic mini cooler in the past and both work well. The ice packs easily last until lunchtime. I also freeze half a bottle of water the night before and then fill the rest with water in the morning... acts as a second ice pack and gives you ice cold water to drink. You'll have to play with it a bit to see how much you need to freeze the night before in order to have most of it melted by the time you eat lunch.

 

[flyhi]

Thanks GeeQued and VAGirl for the budget stuff - very helpful...i just plugged VAGirl's list into a spreadsheet and viola. I also added a column for *actual* expenses so i can keep track of the first year and then budget for the next year even more accurately. It will help determine just how much i have to work over the summers 😕

 

[flyhi]

I think $1000/month on living expenses is a fair assumption. I dont eat out much (except finals week) but typically my entire day consists of an apple, 4 oz yogurt, 1 piece of grilled chicken, and a salad so Im gonna say my food expenses are lower than most.

Wha??? A 7 year old eats more than that! I would be one cranky monster on that diet 😡 I presume you ride....i would think you would burn this off just from your exercise?

 

[jglovicz]

Wha??? A 7 year old eats more than that! I would be one cranky monster on that diet 😡 I presume you ride....i would think you would burn this off just from your exercise?

Haha, agreed, I eat that for lunch 🙂

 

[GeeQued]

Wha??? A 7 year old eats more than that! I would be one cranky monster on that diet 😡 I presume you ride....i would think you would burn this off just from your exercise?

Well in actuallity I can't even tolerate that much food at the moment, thats my doctors goal for me by June to tolerate that much. Right now my day consists of 1 cup of soup, 8 oz of juice, 4 oz of yogurt, and 8 oz a sugar free instant breakfast. Everything has a protein mix addded to it so the protein gives me the ability to ride and what not. I dont have an eating disorder I promise 🙂 I had a 2 inch cyst removed from the innerlining of my stomach which required removing part of the stomach wall so my stomach cant handle a lot and it takes me like an hour to eat a 4 oz portion.

 

[GeeQued]

This is a bit off topic, but what are the chances there will be a community fridge for students to store lunches? I'm a graduate student now (in a small department) and we have a number of refrigerators, but it may be a very different story in a much larger department with hundreds of students...how do you keep your food cold? This would definitely be a factor in bringing lunch from home vs purchasing it on campus...any ideas?

Depends what school your at, I know Minnesota has a room for each year with a fridge and microwave along with other stuff. I think Kansas had fridges in the back of class rooms and a few other schools I toured did as well.

 

[twelvetigers]

OKSU has a fridge or two available for students 1-3 years, but I think food theft could be an issue - I left a bag of chips there once and they were gone within two hours, lol. Of course, the same thing happened to me a while later with the staff room fridge! Hungry lunch-ers must be more prone to theft or something.

4th year students will usually have a fridge somewhere during their rotation, and I know a lot of people bring lunches then. Also, everyone brings food on the last day of each rotation (Friday Feast) and I always enjoyed scrounging the leftovers, especially the dessert...

 

[runnerDC]

Tufts has refrigerators for students, as well. They sometimes get crowded, but I've never not been able to fit my lunch in there somehow. Also, the ice pack + lunch bag combo works well. And there are microwaves in several buildings for student use.

I almost never buy lunch, as it easily adds up to $5-7/day for about 20-22 days per month.

This is a bit off topic, but what are the chances there will be a community fridge for students to store lunches? I'm a graduate student now (in a small department) and we have a number of refrigerators, but it may be a very different story in a much larger department with hundreds of students...how do you keep your food cold? This would definitely be a factor in bringing lunch from home vs purchasing it on campus...any ideas?

 

[ckgilabert]

hey! can someone expand a bit on 'winter' clothes? lol. where can i buy some? and what exactly do you wear when it snows? i get cold when it's 70 degrees outside.

and what shoes do you guys recommend? for snow or for icy, slippery floors?

thanks!!!

 

[GeeQued]

hey! can someone expand a bit on 'winter' clothes? lol. where can i buy some? and what exactly do you wear when it snows? i get cold when it's 70 degrees outside.

and what shoes do you guys recommend? for snow or for icy, slippery floors?

thanks!!!

Were just gonna freeze our butts off at school. I know long underwear (which i dont even know what that looks like) but I know you can get them at outdoors type stores (Chicks? or sports chalet). I dont think we'll be able to find much around here except for liek snowboarding stuff going up to big bear.

This gives some help on what we'll prolly need http://collegeuniversity.suite101.com/article.cfm/warm_winter_clothes_for_students

 

[pyxystyx]

Were just gonna freeze our butts off at school. I know long underwear (which i dont even know what that looks like) but I know you can get them at outdoors type stores (Chicks? or sports chalet). I dont think we'll be able to find much around here except for liek snowboarding stuff going up to big bear.

This gives some help on what we'll prolly need http://collegeuniversity.suite101.com/article.cfm/warm_winter_clothes_for_students

Oh my jeez,... we're in SoCal guys, I understand that, but... you don't know what long underwear is??? ...Long Johns? You can find long johns @ Target, Wal-Mart, camping stores, (like REI) all kindsa places.

And snowboarding jackets and stuff is probably pretty close to what you'll need/want. Maybeh not teh pants though... but the jackets sure are nice.
🙂

 

[zpinkpanther]

This may be obvious if you've had your own apartment before coming to vet school, but I didn't, so hadn't thought about it: don't forget cleaning supplies (mop, broom, paper towels, cleaner) and garbage bags and other little things.

On a semi-serious note, your "emergency budget" could come in handy if you unexpectedly adopt a new kid (the 4-legged kind, of course) while you're at school. My roommate and I never expected when we left the house for school this past Friday that we'd be returning with 2 little puppies. 🙂 Of course, this could probably be avoided if you have some semblance of will power, which I apparently don't. 🙄

 

[twelvetigers]

I'm fine in jeans, but Oklahoma only gets down to the teens usually - we never see anything below zero (F). That very well may warrant some long underwear. Or, some leggings... those work too.

In general, I'd get a coat or two. Maybe one woolen peacoat or something like that... warm, but you can wear it with nice clothes, or out to a nice restaurant. The other should be waterproof and have a hood. Columbia makes some really nice coats, but they're pricey too. But, you'll use it a lot.

Also have some gloves, maybe scarves, a hat. Some shoes or boots you could walk through snow in - whatever's fine, as long as it's waterproof and high enough.

Other than that... maybe some long-sleeved shirts, sweaters (that don't itch, watch out for itchy ones!), and personally, I love hoodies. If it's really cold, you could layer a tshirt with a hoodie and then your coat.

Also, there's always a summer, and after one cold winter 70 will be HOT and you'll want your tshirts then. So keep all your summer clothes too, or at least some of them. 🙂

Don't be scared - snow is awesome.

 

[pyxystyx]

The utilites included only gas, electric, water, trash (anything of that sort) I was planning on finding an apartment that included at least heat since that seems to be on the more expensive side of utilities.

Um, hun,... your heat is powered by either a gas or an electric heater. So the energy to use it is included in either your gas or electric bill.

You're gonna have a hard time finding a place that includes the "heat" part of that utility bill, since there's really no way to separate how much of that energy was used for what appliance. 😀
luv you. 🙂

 

[twelvetigers]

If you live in an apartment and happen to get one in between other apartments, the heating bill is usually pretty reasonable. When I had an apartment, the electric bill never went over $100, and we had vaulted ceilings too. The neighbor's apartments were great insulators, and we only had two sets of windows and a door... pretty efficient.

 

[GeeQued]

Um, hun,... your heat is powered by either a gas or an electric heater. So the energy to use it is included in either your gas or electric bill.

You're gonna have a hard time finding a place that includes the "heat" part of that utility bill, since there's really no way to separate how much of that energy was used for what appliance. 😀
luv you. 🙂

Actually back in Mn all the apartments have heat paid for since it is produced by a boiler system, at least thats from what everyone at the apartments Ive talked to that list heat included. Its not quite like SoCal.