How much did you SPEND in 2005?

[Nords]

My gut feeling is that I wouldn't enjoy my life much with a $13K budget, but that's just me.

You're just living it in the wrong country...

 

[Lancelot]

With a budget like that, I could have completely retired in my early 30s with the net worth I had back then.

My gut feeling is that I wouldn't enjoy my life much with a $13K budget, but that's just me.

Sure, fair enough. In my mind, I enjoy a financial arbitrage here in Thailand and I would most likely spend around $20k / year in the USA.

Later this year I may try South America or Africa and see what it costs me to live there...

Lance

 

[LOL!]

OK, I really spent only $5,173.15 in 2005. It was my family that spent all the rest of it.

 

[REWahoo]

OK, I really spent only $5,173.15 in 2005. It was my family that spent all the rest of it.

Somebody tell Diogenes his search for an honest man is over. 8)

 

[Eagle43]

Just thank god you dont have wild asparagus or worse still...creeping bamboo.

I had that..bamboo; in fact 20 years later, and it still comes back.  It's impossible to get rid of it without a nuke.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Mmmm....tomatoes. Our growing season is ~ mid march to ~mid november. In late august the 'mater bush started to decliine in production. A week later I came out to about 3000 little yellow flowers. I pulled the bush and composted it. When I told my wife I'd yanked it up, she looked relieved and said "thank you". We just ate our first store tomatoes since then last week...

That creeping bamboo is insidious. I had a friend who managed to kill it all back to one corner of his yard, where he didnt mind it. The following year it had crept under his wide driveway and was cropping up in his front yard.

 

[getoutearly]

Cash            2800
   Grumpy

Grumpy, am curious about the "cash" as a budget item. From a budgeting perspective, that doesn't really give you a lot of insight. We have the same problem. A lot can get hidden there....

 

[TromboneAl]

I've included college and taxes here. If I take those out, the total drops to $41,000.

Please, no "I shouldn't have chosen such as expensive college" discussions. What's done is done.

Also, I didn't see the light until July (thanks in part to your guys), and went into super-frugal mode then (as seen in the bar chart). DD left in September, but most of the drop is from SFM.

 

[retire@40]

Good expense detail, except $13K is a lot for "Miscellaneous."

 

[grumpy]

Grumpy, am curious about the "cash" as a budget item. From a budgeting perspective, that doesn't really give you a lot of insight. We have the same problem. A lot can get hidden there....

getoutearly,

You are right, a lot can get hidden there. However, I am not anal enough to track the cash outlays to specific categories. About once a month I go to the ATM and get $200. I put it in an envelope in a desk drawer. When our wallets get toward empty DW or I pull out a $20. The approx. $230 a month that goes out in the form of cash is not a large percentage of total monthly spending (<4%) so I don't sweat it. We are spending less in total than my pre-retirement budget plan anyway. If we were to get into a financial bind, where I really need to control our spending more tightly, then I would have to track the cash expenditures more carefully. For now my time and energy are going toward more enjoyable pursuits.

Grumpy

 

[REWahoo]

Sometimes a larger than would appear reasonable miscellaneous category is a necessary evil. In my case, our budget includes a category called “Food and Household” (AKA: miscellaneous), which is a planned % of our annual budget. DW, although not a big spender, is one of those who rebels at detailing what she spends and does not like budgeting, at least in a formal sense. So our way to keep peace in the family and live within a budget is this Food & Household category. (It's actually just an allowance, but I never use that term around her. ) I deposit 1/12 of the annual F&H budget amount in her checking account each month and she spends it as she sees fit. She doesn’t have to account for any of it and I don’t care what she buys with it as long as there are decent groceries in the pantry and refrigerator. This is something we’ve been doing for years, long before we retired.

Outside this Food and Household category, I track and monitor our expenditures and budget. We discuss any major purchase, such as the replacement dishwasher and microwave we bought last year.

Works for us...

 

[retire@40]

Sometimes a larger than would appear reasonable miscellaneous category is a necessary evil...DW, although not a big spender, is one of those who rebels at detailing what she spends and does not like budgeting...Works for us...

I hear ya. That is why there is a distinction between "Accounting Theory" and "Accounting Practice."

 

[REWahoo]

I hear ya. That is why there is a distinction between "Accounting Theory" and "Accounting Practice."

Is that why all those bean counters keep using the term "GAP"?

 

[Jarhead*]

We have used a variation of that system Re:
money since we were married.

We decided we wanted children, and agreed my wife would be a stay-at-home mom.  

I have always deposited enough in the checking acct. to be pretty sure that it would cover the bills, and allow my wife enough slack to pay all the monthly bills, and not have to check about spending whatever she needed for herself.

If my wife, especially early on, when things were financially tight with a young family, would have had to come to "her daddy", and ask for
money for shoes, etc. etc., it would have been "Caine Mutiny" time.

We still use the same system, and although we've had our share of knock-down-dragouts over the years, I can't remember the last time it had to do with money.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

$3400 a year on "Al's pink panties"?

 

[TromboneAl]

$13K is a lot for "Miscellaneous."

Around the middle of the year I got a lot more anal about categorizing things that had come undeer Miscellaneous.  The chart shows how that was reduced in later months.

That, and I removed the pink panties.

Actually the pink panties are for the stuffed beaver.

 

[REWahoo]

That, and I removed the pink panties.

Al, you really do live on the wild side! I've heard that about you musicians...