What is your monthly budget?

[Silver]

We average about $4800 a month in actual expenses. No debts, no mortgage, cars paid for. Health care insurance and expenses are by far the largest expense.

[arky]

Since retiring in Jan 2008, I have averaged a hair under $4000 per month.

[Sea Kayaker]

Either a smidgen under or over 2k monthly.

And it doesn't feel like we are living particularly frugally. Our lifestyle just organically doesn't cost much.

[daylatedollarshort]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sea Kayaker Either a smidgen under or over 2k monthly. And it doesn't feel like we are living particularly frugally. Our lifestyle just organically doesn't cost much.

Good for you. I would love to get to that point. We are working on it.

[Hermit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daylatedollarshort That is a great resource. We compared our budget line by line to the Consumer Expenditure Survey to figure out how to lower our annual expenses in order to semi-ER.

I opened that book and I definitely don't like the first sentence!

"Expenditures of the Aged Chartbook examines the spending patterns of the population aged 55 or older, focusing mainly on the expenditures of those aged 65 or older."

I refuse to think of myself as getting anywhere close to "Aged"!

[daylatedollarshort]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hermit I opened that book and I definitely don't like the first sentence! "Expenditures of the Aged Chartbook examines the spending patterns of the population aged 55 or older, focusing mainly on the expenditures of those aged 65 or older." I refuse to think of myself as getting anywhere close to "Aged"!

Well, I actually use the straight Consumer Expenditure Survey tables and they left out the "aged" part:

CE Expenditure Tables

[F4mandolin]

$4,000 a month is what we can hopefully sustain.......I think even a little over that. We try to hit $3,000 or less a month with the idea that sooner or later that extra $1,000 will be going to something else......like painting the house next year (shouldn't be that much...I hope). We were just under $35K last year in total expenses. Extra for one plane ticket to the UK and a couple thousand to have the septic fixed. March was our bad month......property taxes ($2370), car 30,000 mile check ($766 ouch...damn cabin air filter was over $100), 20 play golf card ($440) which I will probably need one or two more of, vet bill for dog cutting foot ($300) plus all the other normal stuff. Still averaging at $3000 a month for the first 3 month even with that bad month.

[mickeyd]

Like others here, we do not have a budget as such. I track expenses on the first month of each quarter (7 years of history) and compare it to the previous years experiences to see how much of an increase (decrease) we have experienced compared to previous years. It's a simple procedure that I keep on Excel.

Regarding Texas property taxes, I estimate that they are about 1.6%. I have a variety of exemptions that have reduced that from a larger #. Sure wish I had an ag exemption tho...

[Hermit]

More than I planned... I expected to spend a little under 4.5k. Spending a little over 6k over the last 6 months. This jobless and homeless gig isn't all its cracked up to be financially. (Still plenty in the budget for beer. ) A big part of higher expenses has been medical - averaging over $1400/mo the last 6 months. Things should settle down when the hermitage is finished and I get moved in.

[livingalmostlarge]

$5k but it's spend and we still have a large mortgage

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