How much did you SPEND in 2005?

[Jay_Gatsby]

Jarhead, who agrees with ReWahoo, that Texas is the best college football team in the country.

Or at least has the most interesting cheerleader uniforms in the country.

 

[KB]

I'm glad this thread is here because I wouldn't have looked to see what my 2005 total was without it.

I was very surprised, even though some expenses were one time expenses and I prepaid 2006 property tax, orthodontia treatment and charity.

My total was 49,500 and I spent about 10K on prepaid or one time expenses.
So actually I'm in the 39K range, which is just where I wanted to be. My largest expense was health care and next was property taxes. When my last kid at home joins the Army this year, my healthcare and car insurance will drop.

 

[Andre1969]

Lessee, here are some of the highlights...

Property taxes: ~$2550
New garage (24x40): ~$20,000 and rising (they still need to pour the floor slab)
1976 Pontiac LeMans: $3000
Car insurance: ~$2200
Repairs to pickup truck (new gas tank, carburetor work, etc): ~$1200
Maintenance/repairs on Dodge Intrepid: ~$500
HELOC payments: $5600
Heating oil: ~$800
Electricity: ~1350
Home telephone: ~$660
Directv: ~$950
Cell phones: ~$1300 (both my roommates' phones are on my account, and they reimburse me)
Homeowner's insurance: ~$800
Gasoline ~$2500
New 32" tv with stand: $368
Trip to Florida/Disneyworld: ~$800
Christmas shopping: ~$1000
Food: have no idea, probably <$1000, because roommates pay for most of that
Clothing: <$200 (this has been a good, cheap year for me, nothing really wore out)
Beer/alcohol: ~$600

So I come out with $47,378. I know I'm probably forgetting a lot of stuff, but that's the meat of it I guess.

 

[Nords]

Nords:  I saw nothing on your recurring costs,
Property Tax, Car Ins., Utilities, grocerys, Ho's ins. blah, blah, blah, that make living in Hawaii any more expensive than most areas in the U.S.

As a matter of fact, your property tax, versus the valuation of property is a downright bargain, versus most areas on the Eastern Sea-Board.  Your utilitiy costs are comparatively non-existant.  (No surprise).

When it comes right down to it, wouldn't you agree that it is the initial cost of housing that scares most folks?

Jarhead, I've forwarded your post to the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau as my nomination for their annual resident-recruiting cash award.  When Ed McMahon knocks on your door wearing an aloha shirt and a maile lei, tell him I said "Hey brah".

But speaking for the "I've got mine, now stay away" contingent, what ARE you thinking?!?  Hawaii doesn't have fire ants or rattlesnakes like Texas, so we have to scare wannabes off with $300K condos, eight-inch centipedes, hurricanes, & $5 gallons of milk. It'd be most unwise to let slip that Hawaii is one of the nation's most tax-friendly states for retirees as well as the nation's healthiest state with the longest life expectancy. Anyway you can't drive for hours in a straight line or enjoy the changing of the seasons, so who'd want to sacrifice that for all this sunshine & beach stuff?

I've never lived in the Sierras so I don' t know if I'd like it.  How's the surfing?

The truth is that I've spent a lot of time in the Rockies with my family (they moved when I joined the Navy, but I tracked them down).  I can adapt to life at altitude if I survive long enough to restore my thermal resistance, and snowboarding might even be an acceptable (albeit expensive) substitute for surfing.  I could always pay someone to shovel my sidewalk, my driveway, and my roof.  But what's the point in making those compromises?

Or at least has the most interesting cheerleader uniforms in the country.

There we go again... another post making fantastically unbelievable claims without any evidence or links to back them up!

 

[MJ]

I cut back on the expense details last year but here goes,

Groceries...............1500
Eating Out................500
Bicycle supplies..........341
Lottery......................40
Personal Misc...........1066
Electricity.................601
cooking gas...............208
phone......................309
internet......................71
cable........................279
property taxes..........2850
heating gas..............2517
ho' insurance............1128
ho' maint..................483
car insurance.............891
petro.......................164
bicycle usage credit....-467 (credit)
car maint..................420
health insurance........3389
ltc...........................1366
dental.........................70
medical.....................324
travel......................1283

Total tab was $19,700 in NYC. This is my first partial ER year and so the medical insurance kicked in 4 months from the end of the year. My budget for 2006 may more than double depending where I will live or travel.

 

[bbuzzard]

OK, there is something clearly wrong here, quite possibly with MY math. Our friends consider me and my DW to be tight-wads, and we are. We live the the cheapest house (of our frinds), only have one child, drive modest cars till they have 120-140K miles on them, rarely by clothes, have old furniture, do not have cable, only have one cell phone (my wife insisted), go out to eat only one ro twice a week (Normally less than $30 for three), do not drink or smoke, have not expensive hobbies, etc. etc. We do splurge on vacations ($3-$3.5K/year for 2-3 weeks of trips to Alasaka or Montana or other backwoods destinations). That is the ONLY area I can think of that most people would consider us to be big spenders. Given all this, how come I spend more than almost anyone on this board? Have a calculated my expenses wrong, or is everyone else low-balling there numbers? I think MOST likely a spend a lot more than I realized. I am going to double check my number this weekend.

Don't get we wrong, I am VERY happy with my lifestyle. No complaints at all.

 

[SteveR]

OK, there is something clearly wrong here, quite possibly with MY math. Our friends consider me and my DW to be tight-wads, and we are. We live the the cheapest house (of our frinds), only have one child, drive modest cars till they have 120-140K miles on them, rarely by clothes, have old furniture, do not have cable, only have one cell phone (my wife insisted), go out to eat only one ro twice a week (Normally less than $30 for three), do not drink or smoke, have not expensive hobbies,  etc. etc.  We do splurge on vacations ($3-$3.5K/year for 2-3 weeks of  trips to Alasaka or Montana or other backwoods destinations). That is the ONLY area I can think of that most people would consider us to be big spenders. Given all this, how come I spend more than almost anyone on this board? Have a calculated my expenses wrong, or is everyone else low-balling there numbers? I think MOST likely a spend a lot more than I realized. I am going to double check my number this weekend.

Don't get we wrong, I am VERY happy with my lifestyle. No complaints at all.

You are only seeing what people want to report so take it with several grains of salt. Also, many how might be spending a lot more many not be posting so again the numbers may not be a good cross representation of reality.

Someone who has the time and stomach to deal with the 50 or so definitions of "what is spending" might create a poll on this.

 

[HFWR]

Don't keep an anal-retentive comprehensive budget, but major living expenses were about $25k, with savings/investments about $15k.

 

[CybrMike]

If it makes you feel better I'm sure I spent like 200K. Although I'm not even going to attempt to add it all up.

OK, there is something clearly wrong here, quite possibly with MY math. Our friends consider me and my DW to be tight-wads, and we are. We live the the cheapest house (of our frinds), only have one child, drive modest cars till they have 120-140K miles on them, rarely by clothes, have old furniture, do not have cable, only have one cell phone (my wife insisted), go out to eat only one ro twice a week (Normally less than $30 for three), do not drink or smoke, have not expensive hobbies, etc. etc. We do splurge on vacations ($3-$3.5K/year for 2-3 weeks of trips to Alasaka or Montana or other backwoods destinations). That is the ONLY area I can think of that most people would consider us to be big spenders. Given all this, how come I spend more than almost anyone on this board? Have a calculated my expenses wrong, or is everyone else low-balling there numbers? I think MOST likely a spend a lot more than I realized. I am going to double check my number this weekend.

Don't get we wrong, I am VERY happy with my lifestyle. No complaints at all.

 

[bongo2]

Thank you. I feel better anyway.

 

[bbuzzard]

You are only seeing what people want to report so take it with several grains of salt. Also, many how might be spending a lot more many not be posting so again the numbers may not be a good cross representation of reality.

Someone who has the time and stomach to deal with the 50 or so definitions of "what is spending" might create a poll on this.

I should have said, spend more than anyone who has posted on this thread. I am glad to see someone stated they spent 200k last year. That blows me out of the water and makes me feel better.

 

[Cut-Throat]

We spent about $77,600 last year.

About $40K were spent on some Lavish Home Re-modeling and Vacations. These could easily be cut in Bad times and our spending could easily be cut to about $40K without much effort.

Spent $5K on groceries. I agree with the parenthisis dude () - What are these other people eating?

 

[justin]

Spent $5K on groceries. I agree with the parenthisis dude () - What are these other people eating?

I shop at Super Walmart. Always low prices.

 

[kat]

- What are these other people eating?

Whatever I feel like eating.

 

[haha]

OK, there is something clearly wrong here, quite possibly with MY math.

I have had this problem with acute incredulousness since I first came here 3 years ago.

People buy all kinds of nice electronics, travel, etc- and report that they spent $30,000 for 2 or 3 people.

I know what I spend, because I keep double entry books, and it is only slightly less than $30,000 for one. And I am really cheap and have a paid-up house.

I prefer not to starve, but I almost always buy groceries on sale. If the broccoli is cheap, I buy it. If it’s cauliflower this week, I buy cauliflower. I don’t however buy some horrible can of something.

My favorite poster on this topic is the guy whose groceries cost very little because, as he later admitted, he mostly eats at his friends' houses. 

We all need more friends like this.  In fact, I know several guys who would nicely fit the definition of gigolo. They are ”companions" to well off women of a certain age. (By well off I don't mean 1 or 2 million.) These guys are relatively young, well educated, good conversationalists, good dancers, know which forks to use, etc., but have not been particularly successful at earning money by the usual routes.

I imagine that they would also report very low expenses. Kind of like living with your parent, except instead of earning your board by taking out the garbage, you have other more intimate duties. Plus, you had better stay on your good behavior as defined by your benefactress.

Ha

 

[LOL!]

I think few people know in reality what they spend. It's pretty much like their YTD investment return. On that thread I saw a lot of wishful math.

For us, figuring out how much we spent was pretty straightforward because we do not withdraw funds from our investment accounts ever, so ...

Spending = Total W2 income earned (on the paystub, not what we get direct_deposited)
- Money_transfers_to_investments

That includes then everything: taxes, insurance, etc. And it includes the dreaded catch-all miscellaneous category.

 

[Cut-Throat]

I know exactly what I spend, as I track everything through Quicken. All of the $ is put into categories. All income is tracked.

I do have a Misc. category however that has about $2K of money that 'went' as Cash.

My 77.6K includes property taxes and Sales Taxes but no Income Taxes (Fed, State, SS etc.)

 

[kat]

I agree with you, Ha. There's lots of variables that change food budgets. If I go out to eat, I usually end up bringing food home, and get three more meals out of a restaurant portion.... It's not a goal, just the way my appetite works. When I shop, I buy what I want, and it's never something over-priced. I have a good sense of what the prices should be and it's easy and ingrained behavior for me to decide on something that I like that also fits the weekly sales. I have never felt deprived by that. I also, frankly, had the best models in my parents. There were seven of us, and one of my brothers has hypoglycemia, so we had a very protein rich diet and no junk food or dessert. They were and still are very mindful of the sales. They never went out to eat (didn't want to) and never made a casserole. It was always meat or fish, potatoes, two vegetables, and wine or milk. I had my fill of meat, so never buy it, but have enough when I'm eating somewhere else. Had dinner with a friend tonight, and got the roast beef since it had been awhile......

I'd ask how people spend $5,000 on groceries, but I really can't relate, so I won't, and won't judge anybody for their choices.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

What are these other people eating?

Not sure but their neighbors are very curious about why they never have to mow their lawns, and why their pets keep disappearing...

 

[kat]

Not sure but their neighbors are very curious about why they never have to mow their lawns, and why their pets keep disappearing...

Actually, they admire my tomato plants.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I should have taken a photo of the cherry tomato plant that grew in my yard last year. Apparently a tomato fell off one of the potted plants I had sitting on the patio 2 years ago and rolled off the patio and remained there until the following spring when its seeds sprouted. I saw it and just left it to its own devices, figuring it wouldnt stand much of a chance. By mid july, that plant had spread to cover about 9 square yards.

As of this writing, I dont wanna even look at a tomato at the grocery store...

 

[kat]

As of this writing, I dont wanna even look at a tomato at the grocery store...

Me neither. They're tasteless in the store.

 

[sgeeeee]

Does not include income tax.

Insurance………………………… $5,754
Real Estate & Property Taxes $2,518
Mortgage…………………………. $9,906
Household Expences………….. $5,420
Liesure Activities………………. $7,940
Personal Living………………… $9,983
Transportation………………….. $9,196
Misc………………………………. $7,368
TOTAL……………………………. $58,085

 

[retire@40]

I'm curious why people are not including income taxes in their budget. Isn't it an expense like everything else?

 

[sgeeeee]

I'm curious why people are not including income taxes in their budget.  Isn't it an expense like everything else?

I don't keep track of it on the same spreadsheet and I was too lazy to look it up.