1. Research on Craigslist, if you can not do at least that much then you are not ready to be out living on your own.2. Depends on your eating habits. Want to go out every night? Will you use coupons at Ralphs? Costco membership? 3. Depends on what calling plan you opt for. Sprint has an Everything plan for $99.00. Same as if you lived in New Mexico or Florida. Time Warner Cable high speed internet is around 48 bucks or so. 4. No car? You need to not move to Los Angeles then. 5. Depends on what you earn.6. What bills? How can we possibly know what your bills will be?You shouldn t even entertain the thought of moving to Los Angeles because it is clear you will struggle trying survive there.
Rent: $1200 per month for a 1 BR place in a decent area. BH and Santa Monica are much higher, $1500-$2000. Check westsiderentals.com and craigslist.Food: Up to you. Figure $150 per week.Internet:Which is it? Internet through the phone or cable company runs about $33 to $50. A cell phone with data plan costs about $40 for the phone and $30 for the data plan.Transportation: No car? Be prepared for a VERY tough time. Let me put it this way: Living in LA without a car can be done, but it s like swimming to Catalina. After doing it for a couple hours, you wonder why the h3ll you didn t just take the boat. Monthly bus pass depends on whether you are a student. Check out www.metro.net for prices.Taxes: What sort of taxes are you talking about? Property taxes? none. Sales tax is added to everything you buy, and it depends on the city and county. Some areas are up close to 10%.Bills: Isn t that what we were just discussing? It all depends on the apartment complex where you live. Some include utilities such as gas, electricity, and water. Others don t. Other bills you might have to deal with:ElectricityGasWaterCable/TV/InternetPhone (land line)
Taking into consideration what Gray and OM have already said, just figure that your combined incomes should at least total 45K or higher. I d lean a little more to the higher side because one of you might want to live a little more extravagantly than the other one. Like buy a car? Use a better grade of TP, etc.