Q: we would not live downtown, we will rent and will pay for utilities. ***some suggested we could rent basement for the mean time until money is more than enough. do you think this would help? ***do you have rundown of all possible budget, how can we make it work?we don't intend to live downtown.
A: It would be very tough living in the Vancouver area on that income, we lived in the Okanagan area on that income back in the mid 90's and couldn't afford to buy a home. We moved to New Brunswick and haven't looked back since. Good luck. P.S. You are asking for a rundown? To rent a house will cost you say $1200. a month minimum, more if it has a finished basement for you to rent out. Power, phone, heating would easily be another $250.00 per month. Groceries for a family of 3 will run you at least another $500.00 per month. Start adding gas for your vehicle or bus passes, car insurance and you'll be looking at another $500.00 per month. That's somewhere around $2500.00 per month minimum times 12 months and you are in the $30,000.00 range and that is without any emergencies or recreation. Hope this helps you and if there are taxes off the the wage you speak of, you won't have much left after these expenses and this is without clothes, any luxuries. Vancouver is expensive and I may even be low in these numbers.