A college grad and his money will soon be parted.

I have bad news for most college graduates. The new car, the great clothes, and the good booze are probably still a few years away. Or at least the should be. For those of you looking forward to the high life, read this blog and then run some numbers of your own.

Let's say you negotiate a starting salary of $30,000 and benefits. (Lucky you!) How does that break down in terms of your ideal post-college lifestyle.

Let's start with taxes. The year you graduate may be the first year you tackle your own income tax return. It can be quite a shock to see where all of your money is going. If you aren't sure about how tax withholding is done, Turbotax has a great summary. But let's assume that 30% of your money will go out the door in taxes before it ever reaches your bank account.

That leaves you with $21,000 a year to live on or $1,575 a month. Not bad compared to the Raman noodle salary from Pizza Express, but how do you budget that?

First: Pay yourself. I always put savings first in my discussions of money and so should you. You should ideally put 10% of your net earnings each month into a savings account for emergencies. Let's face it Pollyanna, your car will need new breaks, you will need to buy a prescription for the flu you'll get. You will probably have to renew your driver's license, etc. If you haven't put money away for these contingencies, where will it come from? Plastic. That means you will pay interest to someone else later which you could have saved by paying yourself first. Once you're in the plastic revolving door, it's hard to get out.

Once you have 3 months salary in that account, you shouldn't stop saving! Instead start another account for your goals like travel, new clothes, Christmas gifts, etc. That leaves you with $1,418.

Let's look at housing. If you can stand another year or two of living with a roommate, you will save thousands of dollars a year. Splitting rent on a $1,200 a month apartment means an extra $7,200 a year you can save not including utilities. Many students just head home and live with mom and dad for awhile. I say if they’re game, go for it. (Just be sure to help out wherever you can.) You might even ask them to charge you "rent" that can go into a special savings account to be used toward the purchase of a new home or other big expense later on.

But if you just have to have the thermostat your way and naked Tuesday, then so be it. Let's conservatively pull $700 a month for a room of your own in a quaint little place. Where you live will really effect this number, so know what the average rent is for your preferred community. That leaves you with $718 for the month.

Transportation is the next big ticket item dreamt of by many a college senior. And automakers make it hard not to be tempted by low financing and rebate offers for recent graduates and first-time buyers. But if you can hold on to the families old Volvo for one more year, assuming it is still fairly reliable, you could save yourself upwards of $5,000 in car payments and insurance. Unless your old jalopy is about to give up the ghost and just can’t be counted on to get you to your job on time, hang on to it.

Better yet, examine public transportation. Even your old jalopy will need gas and servicing and at today's gas prices you could be looking at big bucks. The American Auto Association figures you spend about 55 cents a mile to hop in the car and go when all of your expenses are figured in. As of this writing, gas is north of $4.00 a gallon, so I would call that a very conservative estimate!

So let's say you are lucky to live 5 miles from work. that means you are spending $5.50 a day to get to work and back (no extra trips, please). Throw in another 30 miles of driving on a slow weekend and you are in for a rounded figure of $130 a month. That leaves you with $588 if you don't have a car payment. (Please don't go and get a car payment)

Student Loans. They made it possible for you to earn that degree and now you have to start paying them back. A $30,000 loan on a 10 year term at 6.8% will cost you approximately $350 each month. You get 6 months before you have to start paying those loans. If you are wise, you can take that payment, write the check to yourself, put it in the bank and have a nice little nest egg stored before you have to start making payments.

You can also consolidate or refinance your loans and get longer terms, but paying off your loan when you are eligible for AARP discounts may not be the wisest fiscal course of action.

Now you have $238 for the month. Not bad. If you had parents, a kind aunt or are enough of a brainiac to have gotten a full ride to college and have no loans. Congratulations! You have lots more money to spend.

Of course you haven't eaten anything yet. You must be hungry.

You have waited years to indulge yourself in the good stuff. Food, wine, and drinks that don’t have to be consumed through a funnel at lightening speed to be enjoyed. Don’t throw your Raman noodles and generic macaroni out just yet. Breakfast can be a pretty cheap meal, but when you start throwing in eating lunches out, double lattes and dinners with friends, you can really start to eat into your budget. Taking your lunch (and COFFEE) to work will save you upwards of $10 a day. So let's budget $5 a meal or $15 a day for your food as bought at the grocery store. That's $450 for the month. Now if you can stick with cereal and milk for breakfast, a Lean Cuisine lunch, and an inexpensive dinner, you can cut that back to $7 a day pretty easily or $210 a month. You now have $28 left.

So far you're doing well, but here's the kicker: we haven't budgeted for anything fun. Unless you live at the library, you have a problem.

First, let's hope you don't have any debt to pay off. If you are the fortunate one reading this prior to graduation then... DON'T GET INTO DEBT. If you do, you have to figure those payments into this budget.

Next let's look at entertainment.

A night out with a few friends after work can quickly as much of a financial headache as a hangover. You slap down your credit card and run a tab. You sign the bill around 2am. About noon the next day, you go through your pockets looking for a Chapstick to apply to your dehydrated lips. Your fingers find the old receipt and you immediately wad it up and put in the trash. Then you wonder why your credit card bill is so high three weeks later. Turns out those three drinks you had were $6 each. That’s $18 plus the tip of $3, and you have $21 not including your dinner. Do that a few times a month and you tack between $100 and $200 a month, (plus a few pounds from the empty calories.)

I’m not going to try to tell you not to go out. This isn’t a fiction blog. But I am going to tell you to do three things. 1) Don’t buy drinks for others. 2) Buy cheap beer. 3) Pay cash as you go. You’ll find that these are the three things that will keep your bar tabs down to a manageable level.

Movies are also a costly indulgence. With tickets at $8 and popcorn and a Coke (disclaimer: I own stock in Coke, so buy as much of that as you want. I can use the extra dividends.) at $8, you need to budget these evenings carefully.

And I haven't even gotten into concerts, weekend trips, and travel. If you don't save your money, you may not get into them either.

The moral of the story is that even though the $30,000 salary is a heck of a lot better than you are doing now, it doesn't go that far when you leave the comforts of your dorm room.