Sources A

All stats assume 4 people in household, and represent the total cost to the household. This was chosen because the most common apartment type at Olympia Place is the 4 bedroom. 

Heat, Hot Water, & Electric

Data from Dept of Energy RECS survey, table CE3.7: “End-use expenditures, Totals and averages, Northeast homes”
Data is for the average 4-person household in Northeast USA, as of 2009 (most recent year available as of this writing)Heat & hot water: $1444 / year – $120 / monthAir conditioning, refrigerators, and all other appliances: $1677 / year – $140 / month 

Internet:

Pricing based on Xfinity 200Mbps, price retrieved from Xfinity.com on 11-15-2017. Note: Our internet is 1,000 Mbps, while Comcast’s best offering is 200 Mbps. It’s not really a fair fight… 

Water / Sewer:

According to Massachusetts Dept of Environmental Protection, people in Amherst use an average of 55 gallons / person / day of water.

The Town of Amherst billing rates are currently: $3.80 for water and $3.75 for sewer per 100 cubic feet of water usage.

55 gallons x 4 people x 365 days = 80,300 gallons per year

There are 748 gallons in 100 cubic feet

80,300 / 748 * $3.80 = $408 / year for water
80,300 / 748 * $3.75 = $402 / year for sewer

Total: $810 / year or $67 / month 

Trash & Recycling:

Rate for a 96 gallon bin is $8.50 / week from Amherst Trucking. Rates not available online, they were retrieved by phone on 11-16-2017.

Sources B 

On-Campus Meal Plans:

UMass offers 3 “on campus meal plans”, and for our purposes we have picked the middle-priced one, called the “unlimited”, which costs $2,978/semester for fall 2017, according to http://umassdining.com/meal-plans/residential-meal-plan. To convert “per semester” cost to “per month” cost, we used the Fall 2017 semester. Classes began 9/5/2017, and finals end 12/20/2017. This is 106 days, or 15.1 weeks, or 3.5 months. 

Off-Campus Grocery Cost:

Figure of $332 is based on data from the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. They report that an average single person will spend between $51-$102 per week on groceries, based on their spending habits.  We have taken the average of these 2 figures, and used $77/week for our estimate.

Source: https://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/CostofFoodSep2017.pdf.