So, after last week's post <a href="http://karolinkabulgaria.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/to-live-within-your-leva/">To live within your Leva</a>, I've gotten tons of feedback and encouragement on my blog and in person.

In the States, the following breakdown is a pretty standard recommendation for how we should spend our money each month is something like this:
<table width="287">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Housing</td>
<td>33%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Food</td>
<td>15%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Auto–transportation</td>
<td>15%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Entertainment and clothing</td>
<td>10%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Debts and Savings</td>
<td>10%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Medical and insurance</td>
<td>10%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Misc.</td>
<td>7%</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Thus I am wondering can I apply the same breakdown to salaries in Bulgaria to figure out how I should be thinking about spending my money in Bulgaria? My initial response to this question is that it doesn’t seem possible to use the US guidelines to budget in Bulgaria because here are the numbers I came up with based on a salary of 560 leva.
<table width="287">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Housing</td>
<td>184 L</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Food</td>
<td>84 L</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Transportation</td>
<td>84 L</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Entertainment and clothing</td>
<td>56 L</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Debts and Savings</td>
<td>56 L</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Medical and insurance</td>
<td>56 L</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Misc.</td>
<td>39 L</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
The thing is I have a hunch that housing and food cost much more in Bulgaria for a single person than the numbers I arrived at.