MEMBER PROFILE

Bonnie Comella A Home Expansion Experience

Bonnie and her husband Mike came to Alternatives after researching their options for home expansion. "The Future Value Home Equity Line of Credit seemed to be just what we were looking for," Bonnie told us. "We were so relieved to find a financial institution that was willing to see our expansion as home equity and not new construction! We loved the relaxed and helpful atmosphere. It left us feeling like the Credit Union wanted to do business with us - not just make a loan.

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Rent
HUD's fair market rent is $527 for 2003 for Tompkins County and includes all utilities except telephone.

Source: Housing and Urban Development

Transportation
According to Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council, 81.4% of Tompkins County residents use private transportation, 1.2% use public, 8.1% walk, 2.3% bike, 7.0% other.

Public transportation costs $1.00 each way, or $10.00 per week, plus 3 other trips for shopping, totaling $16/week or $69.33/mo or $832/year.

Using a car, according to the Consumer Expenditure Survey for consumers in the second quintile (those whose incomes are between the 20th and 40th percentile) is $2442.

Claritas estimated $33 per year expenditure for bicyclists. We assume that walking incurs no extra costs.
A weighted average can be computed like this:

(.814)(2442) + (.012)(832) + (.081)(0) + (0.023)(33) to get an average of $1,998.53

Sources: US Department of Labor Consumer Expenditure Survey, WOW Self-Sufficiency Study, Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council, Bureau of Transportation Statistics website - www.bts.gov, Claritas Consumer Spending Patterns

Food
Low-cost plan from USDA Food Stamp Program for ages 20-50 is (monthly) for males $172.50 and for females $150.80 - the average is $161.65 (March 2003).
Source: USDA Food Stamps

Telephone
$26.50 from Verizon for unlimited local service, Ithaca area
Source: Verizon

Health Care
Health Insurance Premiums at Alternatives for 2003:
Aetna Individual coverage costs $2034/year. Staff pays 25% =$508.56

Consumer Expenditures Survey average per capita for Medical services, drugs and medical supplies = $591

$591 + $508.56 = $1099.36/annual; $91.61/month

Source - Sharon Kinnan, Human Resource Manager, Claritas Spending Patterns Survey for Tompkins County

Recreation/Entertainment
This category is more subjective than the others. We included expenses such as sports and recreation, reading materials, TV/radio/sound equipment, computer hardware/software. The final total came out to $114.75/mo. or $1,377.00/year.
Source: Claritas Spending Patterns Survey for Tompkins County

Savings
We kept the figure from previous studies of $50 per month.

Misc
Clothes (average of male and female apparel and footwear spending), personal care items, housekeeping, small appliances, and miscellaneous household equipment. This came out to $1,382.50.
Source: Claritas Spending Patterns Survey for Tompkins County (Note: WOW assumes miscellaneous expnditures will run at 10% of the costs of other basic needs, which would be a comparable $1365.67)

Taxes
These were calculated by Gerry Ruggiero, CPA

Day Care
up to 2 = ~$628.30/mo
Aged 3,4 = ~$541.60/mo
Source: Estimated by Day care, Day Care Council

Sources:
HUD = Housing and Urban Development, a government agency,
http://www.huduser.org/datasets/fmr.html

Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council
http://www.co.tompkins.ny.us/itctc/index.html

Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey
http://stats.bls.gov/cex/2001/Standard/age.pdf

WOW = Wider Opportunites for Women, Self-Sufficiency Study for Tompkins County
http://www.sixstrategies.org/files/Resource-StandardReport-NY.pdf

Claritas, Consumer Spending Patterns
http://216.239.51.100/search?
q=cache:55o20n5ZaYYJ:www.velocity.claritas.com/ExpressMarketing/
pdf/csp.pdf+claritas+consumer+spending+patterns&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

USDA= United States Department of Agriculture
http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/using3.htm

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