Residents Salary & Debt Report

[v-girl]

We don't have debt from training (just a mortgage and a car loan), but we also have no savings.

[alison]

We didn't have any debt in residency. But we also didn't have kids, and I worked. We lived in Chicago in a tiny apartment ($875/month), had one car, never ate out (fancy for us was Chipotle! In fact, I remember a heart to heart with dh over not eating at chipotle more than once every two weeks).

We didn't do anything nor go anywhere ever. It was bare bones, and our credit card bills were $700 a month, except when we'd travel to my or his parents.

We didn't have school debt nor save much either, and had to borrow $3000 from my parents when we moved for fellowship.

[metroguy]

we don't have debt from med because i pay for it out of pocket. i'm older than dw and build up a decent size savings before dw went to med school. it also helps i live at home with my parents so expenses was minimal.

[spaz]

We didn't have any debt in residency. But we also didn't have kids, and I worked. We lived in Chicago in a tiny apartment ($875/month), had one car, never ate out (fancy for us was Chipotle! In fact, I remember a heart to heart with dh over not eating at chipotle more than once every two weeks).

We didn't do anything nor go anywhere ever. It was bare bones, and our credit card bills were $700 a month, except when we'd travel to my or his parents.

We didn't have school debt nor save much either, and had to borrow $3000 from my parents when we moved for fellowship.

Sounds like us. The first year we were married we lived off of the 18,500 that I made. Our apartment cost 500 a month. We never, ever went out to eat. A splurge was for us to smuggle a coke and popcorn into the dollar movie. Our tiny apartment was full of hand me down furniture. We had a credit card that we never used. We had a ledger book and any money we spent we wrote down in the book so we could see how much money we had left in each category as we went. It was one of the happiest years of my life. In residency, his residency paid more than that and we lived off of that and saved my entire salary. I felt like we were so rich. We still only had our hand me down furniture. We still didn't go out to eat. Even now we only go out to eat once or twice a month. And you are only allowed to order water to drink as drinks are so incredibly expensive. The kids knew that when they outgrew the kid's meal they also lost the soft drink.

[alison]

Sounds like us. The first year we were married we lived off of the 18,500 that I made. Our apartment cost 500 a month. We never, ever went out to eat. A splurge was for us to smuggle a coke and popcorn into the dollar movie. Our tiny apartment was full of hand me down furniture. We had a credit card that we never used. We had a ledger book and any money we spent we wrote down in the book so we could see how much money we had left in each category as we went. It was one of the happiest years of my life. In residency, his residency paid more than that and we lived off of that and saved my entire salary. I felt like we were so rich. We still only had our hand me down furniture. We still didn't go out to eat. Even now we only go out to eat once or twice a month. And you are only allowed to order water to drink as drinks are so incredibly expensive. The kids knew that when they outgrew the kid's meal they also lost the soft drink.

One thing we still do is share a single drink when we eat out at restaurants. Either that, or I drink water. Old habits die hard!
When we'd go to Starbucks, we'd get a grande drink and share it. This meant we had to agree on what we were drinking! A splurge was when we got our own drinks!