1. In calculating the cost of living on our own, we learned the importance of budgeting and finding the best rates for services such as insurance and utilities. This project put into perspective how much living in Los Angeles costs, and how much money we will have after taxes, renting a house, buying a car, getting car, health, and renters insurance, the cost of household items and utilities, leisure activities, savings, and other essential living costs. We realize the importance of knowing what we can afford, and budgeting our time and money accordingly. We learned that we need to save more money on our house and car if we want to have plenty of savings and emergency funds, and that a starting salary for a recent college graduate is not enough to live lavishly--we will have to spend our money after mandatory taxes, insurance, a home, and utilities wisely. Since Tammy had a salary of $55,000, which was greater than Sarah’s salary of $45,000 by $10,000 dollars, we each had to budget ourselves very differently. Sarah had to make sure she spent less money on leisure costs, such as travel and eating out. She also had to put less in her savings account in order to have enough in her checking account. On the other hand, Tammy had plenty of money left over, so she was able to put more in savings and invest more in her future. This project gave us the tools that we will need to apply very soon. We learned to buy products according to marginal benefit and marginal cost by not buying what was not necessary and spending our core salaries on what was. After we graduate from college, we both plan to live on our own, so we will have to budget our money very similarly to how we did in this project. We are excited to put these new life skills to the test and be able live efficiently and productively in the near future. <br />