Your electric bill makes a big difference if you live downstairs. In our 1000 sq ft 2 bedroom apt, the bill was 100/month! Upstairs people were paying sometimes over 200! You just get that extra insulation being downstairs.

Food if you are an average eater would be around 200/month. If you are frugal you can get it cheaper. Also going out to eat alot can make it more.

Cable is around 35 to 50 bucks for a basic plan. We have dish network and we get 4 rooms for 50 bucks! Your apt may let you do satellite. We get quite a few channels but no HBO/extras. Those can get steep.

Water bills are sometimes free in apartments, but would probably run you around 35 bucks if you had to pay for it.

Wireless internet is also about 50 bucks/month. I think I am paying 59.99 for internet card for my laptop but I can take it anywhere. You can get DSL for about 20 a month now but you have to pay for the wireless receiver and it is for a desktop or laptop but you cannot get too far from the receiver. I would recommend cell phone internet card if you have a laptop so you can take it anywhere. It depends on what you want.

Okay, so:

700 Rent

100 Elect

35 Water

50 Cable

200 Food

50 Wireless Internet

1135? Just a practical figure….

Hope that helps.

Mom in Ft. Worth