For 2015, I’m trying to get my budget under control. How much do you guys think you spend a month? For now, it’s my wife and I, so I’m trying for household income. But, I’m interested in any.
I think you’ll get wildly different answers. Itera, for example, lives in the Dakotas, so just the monthly interest expense on his condo probably runs north of $100,000.
I pay ~$2k for my mortgage, $425 on student loans, another $300-ish on cable/internet/cell. Car insurance is $150, and utilities are another $500. So the “fixed” portion of my spending is around $3500. I don’t really know what I spend on the “non-fixed” stuff. The answer might surprise me.
I have no idea.
Monthly costs? $1k mortgage $300 utilities $500 grocery $500 food eating out $120 cable/internet $100 phone $300 property tax (paid annually) $200 car insurance (2 vehicles, paid annually) $300 gas probably between wife and I Then daycare is like $1,500. So about $5K with daycare. We are a two professional income house, we can easily live off one of our incomes. We’ve intentionally done this for security and if my wife wants to take another mat leave.
Probably like $6000 a month.
I picked the wrong country
My budget is relatively constant, usually the discretionary spend too unless I go on a big trip but that’s a couple times a year. Now keep in mind this is for a single guy in a low COL area… Mortgage w/ escrow: ~$1200, utilities/cell phone ~$200 (more in summer though), car expenses ~$100-200, food (groceries + eating out) probably $200-250. Booze/going out probably another $100. So my fixed/consistent monthly expenses stay around the $2k/month mark, and I’d bet I’m one of the lower ones to chime in.
Wrong city you mean. Cost of living is awesome in the fly-over states. Come join us in the heartland. If you’re not obese, you’re pratically guaranteed to be at least an 8 here.
My wife and I net between $6-7K per month after 401K and insurance deductions are taken out.
We pay $475 per month on a 15 year mortgage, but we don’t escrow, so roughly $700/month all in.
$1000/month to student loans is due, we usually pay closer to $2K.
$600 or so in groceries for a family of 4.
Gas/electric average $200/month
$250 to Verizon for cell phones and data for 3 people.
Internet and Directv runs $120/month
$400 in gas every month
$75 in auto insurance
That’s around $4500 of our spending each month.
We usually save about $1000 a month, and the rest likely goes to entertainment, any card payments if we used them for anything(Home Depot is the big culprit here) kids sports fees, clothing, etc.
We’re fortunate that we bought a house for $65K or so in foreclosure. Zillow says it’s worth $155 or so, our market research says $140-$145. We plan on moving this summer, so we’re hammering our student loans and stockpiling cash. Ideally I’d stay under $200K on the next mortgage, and we’ll have $50-$60k to roll into the next house, so that $475 mortgage will likely be $1400 after escrow by next summer.
I don’t know what people make, but I do know that I have the crappiest house and cars out of all my friends, but I also feel like I’m the only one with a healthy retirement account, home equity and a 10 year plan of debt freedom, so I’ve got that going for me. Throw in that I’ll be an empty nester at 40 and they’re just now crapping out kids and I think I’m doing something right. Piss away your 20’s, spend your 30’s crawling out of debt, give the kids a nudge out the door at 40, retire at 50.
I was seriously thinking about it at some point. But my inability (and most importantly unwillingness) to drive doesn’t give me many choices. Plus I would need to relocate my parents (don’t ask it’s a given), and that would be very tough for various reasons.
On a positive note the dating blood bath of NYC has all the potential of saving the childcare costs for me.
We live simply. Our mortgage on the 3BR home we’re looking at will amount to ~$800 a month, including property taxes. No car payments, no cable, no student loans. 10 minute commute. Makes life easy.
Real estate isn’t cheap here, we just have a shit ton of equity by putting spare dollars into the house. We also both had houses prior to getting married so we had combined equity. Our house is worth around $750k. +/- Though that value may be significantly less with oil at $4x…
I see. Saving habit is as usual the king of everything
Rounded numbers.
$1,200 fixed costs (I have very low rent for my area due to a clueless landlord…this includes rent, cable/internet, utilities, student loans, gym membership, cell phone)
$2,000 variable costs (having fun and such)
I save a lot and will continue to do so until bschool.
Sooooo cheap.
Man, I’m looking at a $6k budget and finding little to cut. I am trying to make it pretty comprehensive based on past spending patterns so that I don’t need to adjust too much for surprises. Additionally, it obviously has to be palletable to both parties. At this level we can save about 50% of our income after tax/401k/HC, so from that perspective it’s pretty solid, Iguess. The 6k is accounting for
$300 insurance
$1500 motgage and escrow
$250 utilities
$156 verizon triple play
$280 in home services (cleaning person, exterminator guy)
$500 in groceries
$600 in eating out.
$400 clothing
$200 charity
$100 gifts
$60 nails
$50 beauty products
$150 gym
$100 dry cleaning
$150 taxi
$300 auto gas
$150 alchohol and bars
$100 home furnishing
$30 household products
$30 pharmacy products
$500 other entertainment
I can thank my wife for that. I was a big spender before her, now I’m enjoying the wins of financial responsibility.
^^ Eat in more often and clean your own house. You spend $100/month on home furnishings? Are you in the process of filling empty rooms in your house, or do you buy a new sofa every year?
Good for you 