So I'm not low low cost. Live on the east coast after moving from a high cost area of living so I could buy a home.
Median household income is ~$80,000 here or $40k per person
I spend ~$3300 a month for two people and pets living comfortably. I removed my mortgage and any car payments but that includes everything from auto insurance, home insurance, auto maintenance for two relatively new cars, groceries and utilities.
Home taxes are $1600/year and home insurance is $550 but average around here are closer to $800. Not included in the total above.
Home is ~1500 sqft
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~$200 for electric, no gas so that's mostly air conditioning/heat. Prices go up in summer, don't get much snow here so Winter is mostly off.
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~$50 Water includes sewer since we're connected here. Other commenters can share about being on a well but if your buying off main sewer, expect to pay $$$ when it needs to be replaced. Set aside money as if you had a water payment and take care of it with maintenance.
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HOA includes trash at $70 a month.
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Internet, fiber is $50. Subscriptions are ~$45 on top. Phones are $60 for two lines. Most friends in more rural areas have cable/fiber but a few have satellite or just mobile phone Internet. About 2+ hours from nearest metropolitan city. Satellite is terrible and expensive so recommend checking https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/ before you buy if that's important to you.
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Car insurance $200 for two cars covered 300/100. Gas is $200. Auto maintenance is $165 and includes taxes, and all the other fun stuff related to owning cars. -- If your young, a guy, have accident history insurance will be higher. Don't skip if you can't afford to replace your car and don't get budget insurance to save. Gas is probably going to depend on your commute. And maintenance is going to depend on your car. Taxes are $300-600 a year each car including property taxes, DMV registration, etc.
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Groceries, $400-600. Eating out $200. This is probably the biggest variable expense.
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$400 misc spending for two. Includes random shopping for the household and any fun money.
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$300 for various gifts birthdays, Christmas, and extra spending to host Christmas or other events. Half of this is just building up for winter where we spend a decent chunk. Sometimes this is used to fly home for the holidays.
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$400 home maintenance budget. Saving for big fixes or general repairs. This will be much higher there first two years. For reference I've got a few pending maintenance repairs that are likely to cost ~$6,000 each expected in the next 5-8 years. (HVAC, water heater, roof, landscaping to deal with erosion and eventually some remodeling). Budget also includes collecting tools.
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Pets $200. Food, litter, toys, etc.
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$130 Health related expenses. Doesn't include insurance which is $400/month out of the paycheck.
And I'm going to plug YNAB which is why I have these numbers, it costs $120/yr which is included. Highly recommend doing some kind of budgeting even if it's on paper in a notebook once a month because all these costs can creep up. If you want free electronic use a spreadsheet.
It's definitely tedious to track everything. I do like the import feature and it covers maybe 80% of day to day transactions but yeah it's a pain to go and fix stuff. What your talking about with PayPal is what YNAB considers a transfer and payment and is usually part the 20% I have to fix. Bank to PayPal is a transfer transaction, PayPal to purchase is the payment. It can definitely get needlessly complicated and it sometimes automatically imports correctly, especially reoccurring payments or if the transfer is between two linked accounts.