Budget reality check
Looking for a gut check/second set of eyes on these numbers before my partner and I move forward with purchasing a home. To note, we haven’t found a specific house we are about to offer on, just preparing to buy.
Total take home pay (after RRSP contributions matched by employers) $7,601
Gross monthly take home $10,152
Budgeted monthly expenses:
Phone bills: 100
Insurance and gas: 480
Subscriptions: 113
Estimate house insurance: 120
Estimate hydro/heat: 495 (has potential to be much less depending on type of heat source in house but prefer to estimate on the high end)
Wifi: 50
Property tax: 333 (estimated 3k annual)
Groceries: 800 (again could be less, prefer to estimate higher)
Mortgage: 2,222
Mortgage is based on a $505K purchase price @ 3.89% with 50K down over 30yr amortization.
Also to note on the down payment amount here because I know it’s kind of odd - we would like to take advantage of the 30 year amortization as FTHB but putting down 5% concerns me as in 5 years there wouldn’t a ton of equity in the house to allow for unknowns/fluctuations in the market. Based on my calculations, putting down 50K and using 30 year amortization, after 5 years we should come out pretty even to if we did 5% @ 25 years (I have factored in the slight difference in interest rate). I think the extra ~225/ month difference is nice cash flow wise for the first 5 years then plan to renew for only 20 years (as if we were following a 25 year amortization all along).
This leaves us with an extra 2,888 per month, 38% of our take home for savings and ‘fun’ money. Our total housing falls below 33% of our gross monthly take home and equates to 42% of our net take home.
After down payment and closing costs, we expect to have approx 75K on hand for investments/maintenance/repairs.
Both have stable jobs and reasonable to expect fairly significant raises over the next 5 years.
Have I missed anything major? Does 2,888 extra per month seem too tight??
Edit to add throwaway for obvious reasons.
Posted Dec 29, 2025, 6:34 PM UTC