Basically, I make all my non-health care insurance and rent payments through my credit card. Last month it was $170.69, the month before $255.75, the month before $174.35...etc. It is usually in that range with one month where I have some decent sized car/entertainment expense come along and it hits $600-$700 for that month. I get ~2% cash back through my card though
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Not counting health care and rent, utilities and food are my largest expenses. Food/household good costs I keep around $100/month. Utilities are about $70/month for my half. They would honestly be significantly lower though, as a whole, if I didn't have a roommate, he needs cable/half the heat/internet, I just need internet/half the heat, so my costs would be nearly cut in half if I was on my own for that part. Entertainment is mostly free for me (Internet/downloaded movies/free games), except when I buy a computer upgrade or a new computer every 5 years. I walk everywhere except to get groceries, unlike the blogger mentioned, I
really dislike carrying 50 lbs of groceries long distances, I have been using a car that had 115K miles on it when I got it for 7 years now, and it has 145k on it now (My plan for retirement is to eventually get a lightly used car, and keep it for 25 years, the car will actually stop depreciating well before I am done with it). Taxes, well, I essentially don't pay taxes. I buy so few items that sales tax barely applies, I expect to pay property tax in retirement, but I do not do so now (and get a tax credit for renting from the state), and I had $1600 more in income tax credits, than I was actually taxed (so I netted $1.6K), I do not count taxes as a reduction in expenses though, it is more like tax-free income.
That all said, this is a student's budget, essentially. Granted, I have done it for 8 years, and can probably do something close to it while working full time...BUT, there are certain things in life I am interested in having in retirement, like not having a roommate ($$), and having a wife someday ($$$$$ unless I am really lucky). Having no roommate will result in being able to get a smaller house/lower utilities, but you still come out ahead pretty easily when you have a roommate. I doubt my spending habits will change after 10+ years of already living very frugally, but these sorts of lifestyle changes will be expensive, and it is factored into how long I expect to work. Planning on miracles happening, like finding a similarly frugal wife, is not realistic.