Final 2022 Cost of Living - Total Household Expenses (Not Including Travel)

[NW-Bound]

... That $10K includes $3K+ on property taxes on a <$150K house.

Wow, that's outrageous property tax! Does it include any services?

This made me look up my RE taxes. While you pay more than 2% on the home value, I pay about 0.4% for my 2 homes.

 

[NW-Bound]

Agree. What's the point of tracking only essential spending? It's like if I my car's odometer only showed mileage to & from work and nothing else.

Well, it helps to know if the stinky hits the fan, you only need that much to survive. And survive with a level of comfort people elsewhere in the world could only dream about.

 

[DrRoy]

Why skip travel or other discretionary? It was spent. Travel is my largest expense. I spent more on it this year than you did on everything else. To be fair, it was a Covid catch-up year as several things that had been postponed finally landed, and this will go down next year. What is your Total Total?

 

[aaronc879]

Wow, that's outrageous property tax! Does it include any services?

This made me look up my RE taxes. While you pay more than 2% on the home value, I pay about 0.4% for my 2 homes.

Not services like lawn care or snow removal if that's what you meant. It covers the usual, police, fire, good public schools... The school cost is more than half of that and it went up 17% from last year. We have no tolls so road costs come out of that I believe. Technically they say the house is worth $168K but there is no way that I would get that even at the top of the market last year. I would be lucky to get $125K now, maybe $150K at peak if I found someone stupid enough.

 

[athena53]

Well, it helps to know if the stinky hits the fan, you only need that much to survive. And survive with a level of comfort people elsewhere in the world could only dream about.

I agree. I look at what I spend in a year and it's crazy, but the WD rate is sustainable and I know that a huge % can be peeled back if things got really awful (although our church Treasurer would cry ). It's reassuring to know that my predictable income (SS plus two small pensions) would still allow me to live in the house I love, maintain it (but maybe not upgrade), drive a decent car and pay the grocery and utility bills.

 

[NW-Bound]

Not services like lawn care or snow removal if that's what you meant. It covers the usual, police, fire, good public schools... The school cost is more than half of that and it went up 17% from last year. We have no tolls so road costs come out of that I believe. Technically they say the house is worth $168K but there is no way that I would get that even at the top of the market last year. I would be lucky to get $125K now, maybe $150K at peak if I found someone stupid enough.

I was thinking more like garbage collection.

 

[NW-Bound]

I agree. I look at what I spend in a year and it's crazy, but the WD rate is sustainable and I know that a huge % can be peeled back if things got really awful (although our church Treasurer would cry ). It's reassuring to know that my predictable income (SS plus two small pensions) would still allow me to live in the house I love, maintain it (but maybe not upgrade), drive a decent car and pay the grocery and utility bills.

Yes. I feel blessed to have the security that many others don't. And I try not to forget that.

 

[aaronc879]

I was thinking more like garbage collection.

$190 for garbage is included in that annual bill.

 

[grasshopper]

Little house, big land, GMC PU, 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe,Honda 4 wheel, VLCOL

Auto-Automobile Expenses 1,469.71
Auto Insurance-Auto Insurance 818.00
Auto Service-repairs 132.24
Beer & wine 581.93
Clothing-Clothing 146.00
Computer-Computer 77.90
Electric-Electric 1,006.00
Federal Estimated Taxes 1,750.00
Groceries-Groceries 7,435.90
Home Repair-Home Repair & Maint. 118.95
House Insurance-Insurance 727.00
Household 486.66
Internet-Internet 566.07
Invest Exp-Investment Expense 63.53
Medical-Medical Expense 8,314.76
Pets 2,086.70
Propane-Gas 896.07
tax preparation 48.80
Telephone-Telephone Expense 432.55

OVERALL TOTAL 27,158.77

Add another $10000. for non essentials, travel, dining out, recreation,gifts.

2021 $28310 add $3000. no travel

Precovid total average annual spending $52000.00 a year.

 

[TheWizard]

In my tenth year of retirement, I don't categorize or track my spending and have no plans to.
Nonetheless, I can still come up with gross numbers for the calendar year. So I'll do that when I get home in a few days...

 

[marko]

My total expenses for 2022 will be $12,621

That's what my property tax bill is.

 

[Philliefan33]

We spent less than our income. I guess old habits die hard?

Next year may be different as we will have a new house to furnish. (We sold/donated most of the furniture from our old place)

 

[workmyfingerstothebone]

Total expenses for "everything" is about 80k in 2021. This includes 11k for travel.

It does not include the tuition we pay for the grandkids, so I guess not everything .

One graduating 2024, one started in 2022 and one expected to start in 2025. Looks like we'll be done with all that in about 7 or 8 years.
All funds are already put aside.

Property Tax 3500 on a 2100 sq.ft. home in California, paid for.

Vehicles paid for , one 17 yrs old (only 62K miles on that one) and one 7 yrs old(23k).

I have three scenario budgets, the "just scrape by" budget is 40k.

The "need to cut back some" budget is 60k.
And our current budget, 80k
Feeling very luckly for our position but also know we put in the work to get here.


Merry Xmas to all and Happy Holidays

 

[Teacher Terry]

I see someone mentioned pets as discretionary and for me I couldn’t live without them nor would I want to. My 2 Maltese cost 180/month excluding vet visits.

 

[karen1972]

This is where we are at, MCOL, 2 people. excludes taxes. We didn't take an ACA subsidy this year. Our spending is still in flux due to my BF randomly picking up side gigs so ACA subsidy and discretionary spending varies a lot still.

Personal inflation factor of 7.1%, biggest impacts

• Food up 6.5%
• Health care (up 31% no subsidy)
• Utilities only slightly up, mostly losing cable/internet introductory deal.
• Auto was down as while gas was up, cars didn't need any major maint.
• Discretionary/travel was higher this year due to a milestone bday splurge

Next years budget is already created and expect to spend about 12% less between ACA subsidy and less discretionary spending but who knows the BF is upstairs interviewing for a job right now.. retirement for him is really taking odd jobs he thought he might like but never was willing to risk applying for when he needed the money.

	Itemized	YTD Total
Homeowner		$14,537
Property Tax	$3,958
Home Insurance	$672
Mortgage	$9,908
Utilities		$5,397
Gas	$500
Electric	$908
Cable	$2,170
Cellphone	$1,250
Water	$509
Security	$60
Home Maint		$4,001
HOA Dues	$2,114
Home Supplies	$506
Home Services	$1,381
Food		$13,375
Health		$17,678
Premiums	$10,590
Dentist	$783
Eye Doctor	$1,018
Doctor	$2,122
Prescription	$1,087
Health	$2,078
Pet Care		$979
Auto		$5,164
Insurance	$1,127
DMV	$128
Property Tax	$253
Gas	$2,294
Service	$1,214
Parking & Tolls	$149
Fees		$195
Umbrella Ins	$252	$252
Discretionary	$16,503	$16,503
Travel	$3,673	$3,673
Total		$81,754

 

[SecondCor521]

I don't disclose specific expense numbers, but I'm between @aaronc879 and @athena53 (along with probably most of the rest of America).

Percentage-wise:

College 34%
Food 17%
House 10%
Kids 9%
Auto 8%
Recreation 6%
Utilities %
Christmas 4%
Health 2%

With a few other very small categories filling up the rest.

Like someone else posted, I don't really consider the College category to be part of my budget, because those expenses were all paid for from college savings accounts which are separated out in my budget, balance sheet, and mindset.

Comparing 2022 to 2021, my spending is down about 19%. Key reasons for this are:

1. One of my kids stopped going to college for a while so no fall semester bill this year.
2. My ACA marketplace subsidy went up this year so a lower insurance premium.
3. I gave one of my kids some of their leftover college money for their house down payment fund, and that shows up as an expense the way I do my books.

Ex-college expenses, I'm spending almost exactly what I spent six years ago.

 

[workmyfingerstothebone]

This is where we are at, MCOL, 2 people. excludes taxes. We didn't take an ACA subsidy this year. Our spending is still in flux due to my BF randomly picking up side gigs so ACA subsidy and discretionary spending varies a lot still.

Personal inflation factor of 7.1%, biggest impacts

• Food up 6.5%
• Health care (up 31% no subsidy)
• Utilities only slightly up, mostly losing cable/internet introductory deal.
• Auto was down as while gas was up, cars didn't need any major maint.
• Discretionary/travel was higher this year due to a milestone bday splurge

Next years budget is already created and expect to spend about 12% less between ACA subsidy and less discretionary spending but who knows the BF is upstairs interviewing for a job right now.. retirement for him is really taking odd jobs he thought he might like but never was willing to risk applying for when he needed the money.

Itemized YTD Total

Homeowner $14,537

Property Tax $3,958

Home Insurance $672

Mortgage $9,908

Utilities $5,397

Gas $500

Electric $908

Cable $2,170

Cellphone $1,250

Water $509

Security $60

Home Maint $4,001

HOA Dues $2,114

Home Supplies $506

Home Services $1,381

Food $13,375

Health $17,678

Premiums $10,590

Dentist $783

Eye Doctor $1,018

Doctor $2,122

Prescription $1,087

Health $2,078

Pet Care $979

Auto $5,164

Insurance $1,127

DMV $128

Property Tax $253

Gas $2,294

Service $1,214

Parking & Tolls $149

Fees $195

Umbrella Ins $252 $252

Discretionary $16,503 $16,503

Travel $3,673 $3,673

Total $81,754

I like the way you broke down these categories.
I should do the same ...... maybe I'll see how much work that is first though.

 

[aaronc879]

After struggling to push my snow blower thru 4 inches of wet snow I broke down and bought a real snow blower for almost $1600 after tax. My spending for the year will now be over $14K.

 

[scrabbler1]

After struggling to push my snow blower thru 4 inches of wet snow I broke down and bought a real snow blower for almost $1600 after tax. My spending for the year will now be over $16K.

"Blow that dough"? Or would it be, "Blow that Snow?"

 

[TheWizard]

Ok, I just finished doing a quick top down analysis of my income and spending for 2022.
I'm single, in my tenth year of retirement, with no loans or mortgages to deal with.

So to compute my top down spending, I simply total up my gross income for the year and then subtract the amount going from that to savings and investments, in my taxable account since I have no earned income.

When I do that, I come up with a total of $117,300 spent in 2022, ruffly.
Following are a few of the big ticket items comprising that amount:
$42,400 for state & federal income tax
$5928 for Medicare
$10,000 for real estate property tax
$6000 for gift Roth IRA contribution for adult son

That leaves about $53,000 in expenditures for everything else: food, clothing, utilities, transportation, Red Sox, and lots of travel...

 

[youbet]

Ok, I just finished doing a quick top down analysis of my income and spending for 2022.
I'm single, in my tenth year of retirement, with no loans or mortgages to deal with.

So to compute my top down spending, I simply total up my gross income for the year and then subtract the amount going from that to savings and investments, in my taxable account since I have no earned income.

When I do that, I come up with a total of $117,300 spent in 2022, ruffly.
Following are a few of the big ticket items comprising that amount:
$42,400 for state & federal income tax
$5928 for Medicare
$10,000 for real estate property tax
$6000 for gift Roth IRA contribution for adult son

That leaves about $53,000 in expenditures for everything else: food, clothing, utilities, transportation, Red Sox, and lots of travel...

Our spending categories looks similar to yours Wiz except our numbers are a bit higher since there are two of us. Between fed and state income taxes, RE taxes, Medicare premiums and IRRMA, etc., taxes and health insurance are by far our biggest spending category. Just glancing over the numbers, looks like these items account for over half of our annual expenses, just as yours do.

We don't make much effort to track details of routine household spending or discretionary spending.

 

[Midpack]

We'll spend

• $40K+ on income taxes (Roth conversions for a couple more years)
• $15K+ on personal expenses. DW and I
• $10K+ each on Health Care, Home, Entertainment & Food
• $5K+ each on Cars, Utilities & Vacation
• $4K on everything else

Not sure what comparing expenses does for anyone? I don't care about anyone else's expenses...

 

[ncbill]

I don't think my numbers would mean much since I'm still doing Roth conversions up to the top of the 12% bracket, plus 5% state.

 

[TheWizard]

I don't think my numbers would mean much since I'm still doing Roth conversions up to the top of the 12% bracket, plus 5% state.

Yes, but the OP asks for household expenses, so you're supposed to break down the categories...

 

[TheWizard]

We'll spend

• $40K+ on income taxes (Roth conversions for a couple more years)
• $15K+ on personal expenses. DW and I
• $10K+ each on Health Care, Home, Entertainment & Food
• $5K+ each on Cars, Utilities & Vacation
• $4K on everything else

Not sure what comparing expenses does for anyone? I don't care about anyone else's expenses...

Agree that we don't care.
But until this thread, I wasn't sure how much I actually spent in 2022.
Now I kind of know.
But still, I'm not sure how much it matters...