How much did you spend in 2006?

[audreyh1]

Oh Wow! It looks like the federal income taxes owed for 2006 might be greater than my spending!

Audrey

 

[peggy]

Peggy, 3% of $1,000 is $300? More like $30 is 3%. Hope it was great meal. I doubt I could spend $1,000 eating out even if I tried.

No, I wasn't clear. We were reimbursed for $300 and then get 3% back from the credit card on the total amount.

 

[peggy]

WOW... how many people Divided by 30 days that is $33.33 per DAY.... did you eat out every meal

Almost. It was a bad month, for a lot of reasons. And an aberration, thank God. (Normally, our dining out is about $350 per month.)

 

[free4now]

What I find personally interesting about this thread is how many people say something along the lines of "Well, my total spending was $X, but if you exclude {taxes, vacation, college tuition, one time expenses, whatever}, it was only $y." Mentally we seem to want to believe that we spend less than we actually do. JMHO.

Dealing with lumpy expenses is one of the hardest parts of budgeting. In my case I lived on 50k for the year, which is almost exactly 4% of my net worth. I consider 4% my safe withdrawal rate. Even though my actual spending was exactly "safe", I know that I didn't have any lumpy expenses this year... no car replacement, no major condo maintenance, no major hourshold purchases, no significant medical bills. It's clear that any year that I have lumpy expenses I'll be pushed above SWR, assuming I continue spending as I did this year. So even though mathematically I'm "safe", in reality I know I'm actually living above my SWR a little.

 

[donheff]

Thinking about that $750/mth on eating out reminded me that DW and I are going to the Inn at Little Washington with friends this Saturday. The meal is $168ea without tip, tax, or wine. I considered getting the full wine service but that is $140ea so we will just order a bottle. By the end of the night we will end up around $500 for the two of us.

Not something we do frequently. Maybe not at all once DW quits working

 

[Lancelot]

Travel $5,244
Recreation 1,634
Rent 2,942
Electric 123
Medical 839
Misc 3,659

Total $14,441

Travel includes three months in the Philippines, one week in Cambodia, two days in Singapore and various trips around Thailand. Misc includes income tax.

I use Quicken and record all expenses in a cash budget. Every few days I count my cash on hand and make a reconciliation. When I was working I never budgeted; now I don't mind tracking expenses at all

Lance

 

[kcowan]

Wow a lot of people here are doing much more counting (accounting) than ever imagined. Maybe this counting is a key to FIRE? Never had a budget prior to FIRE and only reconciled once a year for tax reasons. Yet FIREd in 2002 and so far so good...

 

[REWahoo]

Wow a lot of people here are doing much more counting (accounting) than ever imagined. Maybe this counting is a key to FIRE?

I'm not sure it was key to my being able to FIRE, but it was definitely a requirement for me to understand exactly what my expenses were before I pulled the trigger. No way could I sleep at night plugging a guesstimated/estimated annual expense number in FIRECalc.

 

[Khan]

Wow a lot of people here are doing much more counting (accounting) than ever imagined. Maybe this counting is a key to FIRE? Never had a budget prior to FIRE and only reconciled once a year for tax reasons. Yet FIREd in 2002 and so far so good...

In late 2003, when I considered an early retirement opportunity, I turned it down because I didn't think I could live on the pension.

So I went back and reconstructed two years of spending (and went to a retirement seminar) and realized I was spending less than the estimated pension.

I took the next early retirement offer in December 2004.

 

[Telly]

Never had a budget, still don't. But knowing where it's going is important.

CY '06 looks like 47k.
CY '05 was 37k.

All for 3 people. All college-related expenses for last child not included, handled separately.

Most of the increase from '05 to '06 was expected one-time charges for new equipment (DIY, of course). And some larger than usual dental.

 

[lowflyer]

Thinking about that $750/mth on eating out reminded me that DW and I are going to the Inn at Little Washington with friends this Saturday. The meal is $168ea without tip, tax, or wine. I considered getting the full wine service but that is $140ea so we will just order a bottle. By the end of the night we will end up around $500 for the two of us.

Not something we do frequently. Maybe not at all once DW quits working

Now THAT is eating out. Sounds like fun. It better be darn good for that money.

So after looking at the $750/month comment....it might not be quite that much, but it is alot. No question about it. And then there's all that coffee, Starbucks, etc. It really adds up.

Regarding the question about being overweight, sorry, no. We eat out way too much, but always small amounts and lots of exercise.

lowflyer

 

[soupcxan]

.

 

[piano88]

Budget for Two 50 year olds working full time

cable and internet and land phone $1,700
car gas $2,300
car payment $0
car ins $2,850
car repair $1,500
charity $1,800
clean house $2,600
clothing $2,800
entertain $3,900
food $6,400
garbage $300
haircuts $750
gifts $1,500
health $1,600 out of pocket
house insura $650
house taxes $6,200
life ins $700
maint $1,700
music less
other $1,200
outside $2,000
paper $340
programs $0
phone cell $1,200
safe box $100
sports $0
subscript $350
stamps $150
tax help $800
savings $0
church $4,100
travel $8,000
utility $3,200
water $300

Total $60,990

Taxes/FBene 34% $20,737 (inc. health insurance, income taxes, FICA)
Grand Total $81,727

 

[Sam]

Oh Wow! It looks like the federal income taxes owed for 2006 might be greater than my spending!

Audrey

Congratulations! I wish I could pay that much tax, seriously.

 

[Texas Proud]

cable and internet and land phone $1,700
phone cell $1,200

WOW!!! I know where I could save some money...

Sorry Piano... I am not trying to be mean... and thanks for posting your info... but I just can't see paying $240 per month for these items..

 

[kat]

I read through pages 1 - 3, then jumped to 10.

My expenses are about $16,000 with no mortgage and fine car paid for in cash a previous year.

And that's without trying.

Sometimes I go off on an expensive vacation, but mostly use my parents' vacation place since it's close by and can do on a whim.

Favorite hobby -- hiking in the Adirondack High Peaks -- is free. So are the barbecues with friends later.

kate

 

[rjk514]

Have no debt and spent exactly $28,857.83. for my wife and I and we did all the things we wanted to do , couple golf vacations ..etc and were quite happy with life...are we walking in high cotton or what?