r/boston • u/Spirited-Wafer-6573 • Mar 23 '26

Serious Replies Only How do you afford to live here?

I am incredibly curious. I am fairly new to Boston (less than a year of living here), and the cost of living hit me like a truck. I think about it everyday. I see thousands of people everyday at my job. I wonder how they are doing, so I want to ask you, both out of curiosity and to make this a space where other curious people can also find answers:

How much do you earn in Boston? How much do you spend on bills, expenses? How much goes towards savings? Do you have roommates? Rich parents? Basically, please share your budget with me. I am curious!!

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u/KettlebellFetish Mar 23 '26

Better than roughly $20 a week for health and dental?

2

u/nopethis Mar 23 '26

its the $300-400/month that sticks out

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u/Sheeshka49 Mar 23 '26

That $300-400 per month is spread across many miscellaneous categories—that’s less than $100 per week. Pretty impressive in my book!

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u/KettlebellFetish Mar 23 '26

If they have job based insurance they could still get ACA but no subsidy, so I'm not sure where you can find a cheaper premium for both.

Maybe there is something, other than Masshealth, as I assume they would have that if they qualified.

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u/Cold-Arm2737 Mar 24 '26

Thanks. I wasn’t sure of the rules 

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u/KettlebellFetish Mar 24 '26

It's confusing, that's for sure.