Basic Family Budget Calculator

You may find the Economic Policy Institute's (EPI) online family budget calculator to be of interest. It's a simple menu-driven calculator that tells you the average cost of living for a family living in US metro areas. Here are the numbers for the Greater Cleveland metro area.

Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria, OH
2 Parents/2 Children
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Monthly housing--$594
Monthly food--$510
Monthly child care--$692
Monthly transportation--$240
Monthly health care--$204
Monthly other necessities--$342
Monthly taxes--$296
Monthly total--$2,878
Annual total--$34,531
Percentage of all people in state living below family budget line * 21.9%
Number of all people in state living below family budget line * 473,000

* Families with 1-3 children and positive earnings.