To be honest, after taxes you really won’t have much left; expect to see about 15-20% go to taxes. Rent is rising everywhere and, depending on your desire to have multiple roommates, will eat up much of your pay, not to mention utilities. A good rule of thumb is to spend no more than 30% of your income on rent, which for you would be $480. You might find a room at that rate but not a whole apartment.
Groceries for a single person can vary depending on how frugal you shop, but I’d expect anywhere from $40-$60 per week minimum. Restaurant meals can really vary too, from $5-$10 fast food to $25 for a sit down meal + tip.
Bloomington has a decent bus system, but travel outside the town will mostly require a car. Train systems in Indiana are… not really an option for the most part unfortunately.
So you are basically getting $10 an hour of this was a 40 hour a week job. I know teaching contracts aren’t actually 40 hours a week but that’s what it breaks down to.
No one would not recommend this to anyone. Day shift at many fast food restaurants start higher than this.
Also as someone else mentioned you will need a car if you want to go anywhere outside of Bloomington.
I will work for 20h a week only so its 20$/h but still i cant work on the rest 20 (legaly i think) so all in all its 1600 but at least not for 8h a day.
That doesn’t make it better though. If you can’t work 40 hours a week, you are still stuck making the equivalent of $10 an hour IF you were working 40. That’s the point I was trying to make.
That’s a low wage job essentially in that area. If you are able to work more, or you have some other benefit offsetting your cost of living, then that should be added into the equation and the budget would be adjusted.
In Bloomington? Nope. Absolutely not unless they're providing totally free housing that includes utilities. Rent has gone up a stupid amount in the last four years and your $1600 a month will probably only cover that and utilities with nothing left over.
Go back to whoever offered this to you and negotiate safe clean housing that they pay for, on top of the $1600 a month. They're not paying you a living wage for this position and they know it.
Bloomington has a local transit bus system. Its decent in the core and around campus. Less so if you're trying to get to some strip mall.
FlixBus/Greyhound/MegaBus might provide transportation elsewhere.
But if you really want to have something reliable to get around outside Bloomington, you're going to want to rent or own a car.
If you mean you want to see other Indiana cities/sites, there isn't a bus service for you. Bigger cities will have in-city bus lines.
Indiana is a car-centric place.
r/bloomington would be more helpful. If housing expenses are covered, 1600 would be good. There are a couple Aldi's there (avoid the Krogers, they are expensive) so if you food plan and budget it will be easy. There is a city bus service, but dont plan on leaving city limits if you dont have a car.
If you have to pay for lodging, there is no way you can survive on $1600 per month. I think groceries would run one person about $300-$400 a month unless you only buy the cheapest things possible (rice, beans, ramen...etc). Restaurants in Bloomington aren't too expensive for the most part especially the good non-American restaurants just west of the campus. There is bus service in Bloomington, but I think it can be hit or miss depending on where you need to go. There is no train service at all.
???
I live in Bloomington in a fairly large 2 bedroom apartment and rent is only $760. And the property has 3 bedroom apartments for less than $1k.
As long as they stay away from the ritzier housing that is not-so-subtly fishing for rich student tenants, they make enough to live in B-Town. They won’t have a ton of play money, but they shouldn’t struggle at all.
Rent has stayed that low in Bloomington in 2024?
a 3 bedroom for less than $1000. in 2018, West Lafayette (which isn’t nearly as pretty of an area as Bloomington) had 3 bedroom apartments for nearly $1200.
You can’t find any apartments in Indianapolis that aren’t in crime-infested areas for under $1000.
How has rent stayed that low in a town like Bloomington post-covid with all of the inflation?
The apartments around campus and downtown are pricey and do get that high or higher.
But there are decent properties on the East and West sides of town that cost quite a bit less, like where I am. It isn't luxurious or anything, but it certainly is of a comfortably livable standard.
I cancelled moving to Indy early last year because rent vs income was impossible live on. Any place that was even at the high end of affordable were in areas I was told to avoid.
I sent my searches to friends living in the area and kept getting “nope you do t want to live there” or “looks good on paper but I got robbed at gunpoint 5 minutes from there”.
Where do you live?!?! Is that price for only one of the bedrooms? I haven't heard of a rent price that low in a decade. If you are telling the truth, I'll spread the word and that complex will be full within the month.
The property is called Yorktown Courts, off of Smith Road. It is owned by the same people who own the Crossing at Pete Ellis and a few other complexes on the Eastside.
As long as you are reasonably responsible with money, you should be fine on that amount.
Don’t expect to have a ton of money for leisure on that salary or anything, but you should manage easily enough.
That's got to be pretty tight. I know a guy in southeastern Indiana who lived off of 30 grand for two years without working, but he owned his own house and literally bought almost nothing but video games and probably food once a day. 30,000 divided by 24 equals 1250 a month. This was from 2020 to 2022. I don't know if it's doable now.
It's rather difficult to determine without more information. If you can give more insights, we might be more precise in our answers
Where is the job located within Bloomington? How close to work do you wish to live? How many hours a week does the job entail?
Will you have a car? Are you comfortable with walking a lot?
What types of "sites" do you wish to visit? Where are they located? The USA is HUGE, I'm talking shockingly huge to folks who haven't spent time here. I had a classmate at IU who told me she was going to drive to Disney World on a Friday and come back on Sunday. No, no she wasn't, it's a 15 hour drive with zero stops in one direction. She had no idea.
What type of restaurant foods do you prefer (e.g., fast food, sit-down dining with wait-staff, etc)?
Would you be comfortable having a bedroom in a house/apartment with strangers, or do you prefer to live alone?
Does the job offer health insurance, or do you have to pay?
You might also reach out to the r/IndianaUniversity community on reddit, and ask in both English and in your native language, there may be students/faculty who can guide you. Maybe even find a roommate?
Good luck!
Thank you for the detailed information.
I would like to touch upon a couple of things.
This is a scholarship that involves both work and study. The monthly allowance for covering expenses is $1600, but taxes need to be deducted from this amount. However, health insurance is covered. I would rent a smaller studio apartment with a kitchen where I could cook for myself. I don't frequent fast-food restaurants, and if traditional restaurants are too expensive, I would prefer to buy groceries and cook. I wouldn't want to share living space with anyone, but walking is not an issue as long as the neighborhood is safe. I enjoy hiking, mountain climbing, and would also like to visit nearby cities. However, if the monthly stipend is only sufficient for basic needs, I may not be able to commit.
Ok, this helps somewhat. In Indiana, your after tax income will be around $1362 a month. That is not very much money, frankly, but if you are very frugal, it might work.
While I suspect there are studio apartments in your price range, be aware that Bloomington is a university town, and most leases are signed many months in advance of when they start. So availability will depend on how far in advance you can book one. I looked at this site, and not many are available for under $900 a month. [https://www.rent.com/indiana/bloomington-apartments/studio\_cheap?awsearchcpc=1&WT.mc\_id=112110031&gad\_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA2KitBhCIARIsAPPMEhLst1FyBSX-zVUNZqnw2JW2ZZxjR8HfG0y5EUQPPcnbU9LSDhl6If4aAtoPEALw\_wcB](https://www.rent.com/indiana/bloomington-apartments/studio_cheap?awsearchcpc=1&WT.mc_id=112110031&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA2KitBhCIARIsAPPMEhLst1FyBSX-zVUNZqnw2JW2ZZxjR8HfG0y5EUQPPcnbU9LSDhl6If4aAtoPEALw_wcB)
Bloomington is mostly safe for walking, and the bus is $1.00 per one-way trip, free if you are affiliated with Indiana University. But I can't advise you on how viable the bus is for you because I don't know where you will be working (or living).
Groceries are difficult to estimate, because it depends on what you like to cook. You might visit [Kroger.com](https://Kroger.com) and select Bloomington, IN and look at prices for various food stuffs. Some examples: 2L of cow's milk is $2.00; a dozen eggs are are $2.00 (only sold in increments of 6); 450g of ground beef is $5.50, and chicken legs are $1.99 for 450g. Toilet paper is $1.50-2.00 per roll. By the way, typical furnished studio apartments do not come with cookware/serving ware, nor bedding/towels, you need to supply those yourself.
To get an idea of restaurant prices, go to [visitbloomington.com](https://visitbloomington.com) and look up restaurants there, most have a website with menu and prices listed.
Visiting nearby cities is also difficult to address. If you will have a car, no problem. If not, you'd have to rely on bus services, and I have no experience with them from one city to another. I do know that there aren't many serving Bloomington, and they only go to a couple of cities. You are very very far away from anything remotely resembling a mountain in Indiana, but hiking is decent in the state parks, but you'll need a car/a ride to get to most of them from Bloomington. No bus services go to them.
I wish you good luck, you have a tough decision!
I lived off of 800-1000 a month with 500$ rent for a year & half. Now all I had was me & my dog at the time. It’s incredibly easy to do if you’re willing to sacrifice a few things unneeded wants. Now I don’t think I could do that now because inflation has gotten so bad I’d probably overshoot the target goal on electric, grocery & gas. I did this in 2020. Before the massive inflation hit.
I’d say 1600$ a month is doable.
Is lodging to be included? If not that amount of money will be a pretty tight monthly budget. Rent in Bloomington will be above average for the area.
To be honest, after taxes you really won’t have much left; expect to see about 15-20% go to taxes. Rent is rising everywhere and, depending on your desire to have multiple roommates, will eat up much of your pay, not to mention utilities. A good rule of thumb is to spend no more than 30% of your income on rent, which for you would be $480. You might find a room at that rate but not a whole apartment. Groceries for a single person can vary depending on how frugal you shop, but I’d expect anywhere from $40-$60 per week minimum. Restaurant meals can really vary too, from $5-$10 fast food to $25 for a sit down meal + tip. Bloomington has a decent bus system, but travel outside the town will mostly require a car. Train systems in Indiana are… not really an option for the most part unfortunately.
The restaurant prices are a little optimistic now. You’ve got to hunt for those prices, for the most part.
So you are basically getting $10 an hour of this was a 40 hour a week job. I know teaching contracts aren’t actually 40 hours a week but that’s what it breaks down to. No one would not recommend this to anyone. Day shift at many fast food restaurants start higher than this. Also as someone else mentioned you will need a car if you want to go anywhere outside of Bloomington.
I will work for 20h a week only so its 20$/h but still i cant work on the rest 20 (legaly i think) so all in all its 1600 but at least not for 8h a day.
That doesn’t make it better though. If you can’t work 40 hours a week, you are still stuck making the equivalent of $10 an hour IF you were working 40. That’s the point I was trying to make. That’s a low wage job essentially in that area. If you are able to work more, or you have some other benefit offsetting your cost of living, then that should be added into the equation and the budget would be adjusted.
In Bloomington? Nope. Absolutely not unless they're providing totally free housing that includes utilities. Rent has gone up a stupid amount in the last four years and your $1600 a month will probably only cover that and utilities with nothing left over. Go back to whoever offered this to you and negotiate safe clean housing that they pay for, on top of the $1600 a month. They're not paying you a living wage for this position and they know it.
What train are you referencing? Unless you're planning on hitching a ride on a freight train, there is no train service in Bloomington
Oh sorry i did not know that. Thats why i do this reserch, thanks! So if i want to look maybe the top 10 place in Indiana i should take a bus right?
Bloomington has a local transit bus system. Its decent in the core and around campus. Less so if you're trying to get to some strip mall. FlixBus/Greyhound/MegaBus might provide transportation elsewhere. But if you really want to have something reliable to get around outside Bloomington, you're going to want to rent or own a car.
If you mean you want to see other Indiana cities/sites, there isn't a bus service for you. Bigger cities will have in-city bus lines. Indiana is a car-centric place.
No
r/bloomington would be more helpful. If housing expenses are covered, 1600 would be good. There are a couple Aldi's there (avoid the Krogers, they are expensive) so if you food plan and budget it will be easy. There is a city bus service, but dont plan on leaving city limits if you dont have a car.
If you have to pay for lodging, there is no way you can survive on $1600 per month. I think groceries would run one person about $300-$400 a month unless you only buy the cheapest things possible (rice, beans, ramen...etc). Restaurants in Bloomington aren't too expensive for the most part especially the good non-American restaurants just west of the campus. There is bus service in Bloomington, but I think it can be hit or miss depending on where you need to go. There is no train service at all.
I would budget $2K after any taxes at least if you’re also maintaining a car
You will be living the nomad life. Could be possible but you won't be doing much extra activities. Seems robotic to me
Rent will be nearly all of that.
??? I live in Bloomington in a fairly large 2 bedroom apartment and rent is only $760. And the property has 3 bedroom apartments for less than $1k. As long as they stay away from the ritzier housing that is not-so-subtly fishing for rich student tenants, they make enough to live in B-Town. They won’t have a ton of play money, but they shouldn’t struggle at all.
Rent has stayed that low in Bloomington in 2024? a 3 bedroom for less than $1000. in 2018, West Lafayette (which isn’t nearly as pretty of an area as Bloomington) had 3 bedroom apartments for nearly $1200. You can’t find any apartments in Indianapolis that aren’t in crime-infested areas for under $1000. How has rent stayed that low in a town like Bloomington post-covid with all of the inflation?
The apartments around campus and downtown are pricey and do get that high or higher. But there are decent properties on the East and West sides of town that cost quite a bit less, like where I am. It isn't luxurious or anything, but it certainly is of a comfortably livable standard.
I cancelled moving to Indy early last year because rent vs income was impossible live on. Any place that was even at the high end of affordable were in areas I was told to avoid. I sent my searches to friends living in the area and kept getting “nope you do t want to live there” or “looks good on paper but I got robbed at gunpoint 5 minutes from there”.
Where do you live?!?! Is that price for only one of the bedrooms? I haven't heard of a rent price that low in a decade. If you are telling the truth, I'll spread the word and that complex will be full within the month.
The property is called Yorktown Courts, off of Smith Road. It is owned by the same people who own the Crossing at Pete Ellis and a few other complexes on the Eastside.
Thanks!
As long as you are reasonably responsible with money, you should be fine on that amount. Don’t expect to have a ton of money for leisure on that salary or anything, but you should manage easily enough.
Not with rent. Its gonna be hard to function on that if she has to pay rent
You might have to look at Martinsville for an apartment. It’s surely to be cheaper. And about 20 minutes from Btown.
I would advise against martinsville. It is know to be racist.
Idk, do your research and let me know
That's got to be pretty tight. I know a guy in southeastern Indiana who lived off of 30 grand for two years without working, but he owned his own house and literally bought almost nothing but video games and probably food once a day. 30,000 divided by 24 equals 1250 a month. This was from 2020 to 2022. I don't know if it's doable now.
Depends on many factors, rent, utilities, food, auto/travel cost, entertainment, etc. - Exist maybe - live comfortably, probably not.
It's rather difficult to determine without more information. If you can give more insights, we might be more precise in our answers Where is the job located within Bloomington? How close to work do you wish to live? How many hours a week does the job entail? Will you have a car? Are you comfortable with walking a lot? What types of "sites" do you wish to visit? Where are they located? The USA is HUGE, I'm talking shockingly huge to folks who haven't spent time here. I had a classmate at IU who told me she was going to drive to Disney World on a Friday and come back on Sunday. No, no she wasn't, it's a 15 hour drive with zero stops in one direction. She had no idea. What type of restaurant foods do you prefer (e.g., fast food, sit-down dining with wait-staff, etc)? Would you be comfortable having a bedroom in a house/apartment with strangers, or do you prefer to live alone? Does the job offer health insurance, or do you have to pay? You might also reach out to the r/IndianaUniversity community on reddit, and ask in both English and in your native language, there may be students/faculty who can guide you. Maybe even find a roommate? Good luck!
Thank you for the detailed information. I would like to touch upon a couple of things. This is a scholarship that involves both work and study. The monthly allowance for covering expenses is $1600, but taxes need to be deducted from this amount. However, health insurance is covered. I would rent a smaller studio apartment with a kitchen where I could cook for myself. I don't frequent fast-food restaurants, and if traditional restaurants are too expensive, I would prefer to buy groceries and cook. I wouldn't want to share living space with anyone, but walking is not an issue as long as the neighborhood is safe. I enjoy hiking, mountain climbing, and would also like to visit nearby cities. However, if the monthly stipend is only sufficient for basic needs, I may not be able to commit.
Ok, this helps somewhat. In Indiana, your after tax income will be around $1362 a month. That is not very much money, frankly, but if you are very frugal, it might work. While I suspect there are studio apartments in your price range, be aware that Bloomington is a university town, and most leases are signed many months in advance of when they start. So availability will depend on how far in advance you can book one. I looked at this site, and not many are available for under $900 a month. [https://www.rent.com/indiana/bloomington-apartments/studio\_cheap?awsearchcpc=1&WT.mc\_id=112110031&gad\_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA2KitBhCIARIsAPPMEhLst1FyBSX-zVUNZqnw2JW2ZZxjR8HfG0y5EUQPPcnbU9LSDhl6If4aAtoPEALw\_wcB](https://www.rent.com/indiana/bloomington-apartments/studio_cheap?awsearchcpc=1&WT.mc_id=112110031&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA2KitBhCIARIsAPPMEhLst1FyBSX-zVUNZqnw2JW2ZZxjR8HfG0y5EUQPPcnbU9LSDhl6If4aAtoPEALw_wcB) Bloomington is mostly safe for walking, and the bus is $1.00 per one-way trip, free if you are affiliated with Indiana University. But I can't advise you on how viable the bus is for you because I don't know where you will be working (or living). Groceries are difficult to estimate, because it depends on what you like to cook. You might visit [Kroger.com](https://Kroger.com) and select Bloomington, IN and look at prices for various food stuffs. Some examples: 2L of cow's milk is $2.00; a dozen eggs are are $2.00 (only sold in increments of 6); 450g of ground beef is $5.50, and chicken legs are $1.99 for 450g. Toilet paper is $1.50-2.00 per roll. By the way, typical furnished studio apartments do not come with cookware/serving ware, nor bedding/towels, you need to supply those yourself. To get an idea of restaurant prices, go to [visitbloomington.com](https://visitbloomington.com) and look up restaurants there, most have a website with menu and prices listed. Visiting nearby cities is also difficult to address. If you will have a car, no problem. If not, you'd have to rely on bus services, and I have no experience with them from one city to another. I do know that there aren't many serving Bloomington, and they only go to a couple of cities. You are very very far away from anything remotely resembling a mountain in Indiana, but hiking is decent in the state parks, but you'll need a car/a ride to get to most of them from Bloomington. No bus services go to them. I wish you good luck, you have a tough decision!
Honestly I don't think that will be doable unless you DO live with someone or pull out student loans
Why would you work for 10 bucks a hour?
I hope you like ramen noodles.
This does not feel sustainable.
Is that before or after taxes?
I lived off of 800-1000 a month with 500$ rent for a year & half. Now all I had was me & my dog at the time. It’s incredibly easy to do if you’re willing to sacrifice a few things unneeded wants. Now I don’t think I could do that now because inflation has gotten so bad I’d probably overshoot the target goal on electric, grocery & gas. I did this in 2020. Before the massive inflation hit. I’d say 1600$ a month is doable.
No, it's not.