My first apartment was $300/month and that included rent, all utilities, and basic cable. That was in 1993. I was making roughly $700/month, give or take. My car was paid off and I worked two miles from where I lived. My buddy and I both worked at pizza restaurants so the majority of our food was free. It was a good time.

In 2004 I was paying $400/week for daycare. Things escalated quickly.

I was moving my office around and I found a post-it note in a book of Assembly Programming. It had my bills on it. I can't imagine what year it was from but I think I got my "A" in Assembly Programming in maybe... 2004?

Rent: $318 (the fact that I called it rent means that I did not have a house yet, so this would have been between 1998 and 2005)
DirectTV: $41
Phone: $46
"Cable Modem" (I assume this is all internet) $56
Student Loan: $60
Gasoline: $40
Electricity: $40
Car Insurance: $55

Looks like my bills were $656. I got rid of some of those bills! I was living alone but now I live with someone. Oh and student loans past principle are theft.

I don't have DirectTV or any sort of television bill. My phone is $61. That price has stayed kind of low. I am SHOCKED that Verizon doesn't do the bitch move these companies do and raise it a few bucks every couple of months until suddenly it's $150 for the same thing. Our internet bill is $75 a month and it's satellite internet and I am ditching it as soon as we have another option. I think my gasoline bills amount to maybe one tank every month. Probably less. Our electricity is more expensive and our car insurance I think is maybe about the same, we have three cars we insure instead of the one noted above and I think it's around $150 a month for that. (Of course, our mortgage as opposed to rent is much much much more.)