2008 Actual Spending and 2009 Budgeted Spending

[accountingsucks]

33, single, home paid off

Spending is tracking to just under $18,500 for the year and this includes a new stove. No car repairs needed this year on my 8 year old car so that was nice. I was not able to take a vacation this year due to a job change (although I did take my 3 weeks vacation and stayed at home).

Next year I plan to replace my fridge and take a nice vacation so am aiming for $20,000 as my budget for 2009.

I live in Canada so health care is not a factor for me. Also my professional dues are paid by my company (about $1500 per year). Overall I was pleased with my spending (or lack thereof) in 2008.

[accountingsucks]

Here is the detail

Utilities 2,800
Groceries&toiletries 2,748
Property taxes 2,518
Eating out 1,902
Insurance 1,798
Cable 1,376
Gas & Vehicle maint/registration. 1,054
Entertainment 760
Phone 498
Cash or unknown 372
Parking 364
Gifts 524
Clothing 169
Optical 165
Haircut 174
Pets 76
Home maintenance 65
Banking charges 58
Other 80
Stove 722.00

[tmm99]

Quote:

utilities 2,800

yikes!!!

[accountingsucks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmm99 yikes!!!

As in it's a lot? I live in Canada so in Winter I can have $400 a month gas bills. -30 at the moment right now.

[albundyz]

57, married, house and cars paid off. living in So Cal. 2009 budget
total to be spent=60,000

property taxes............5000
house insur................1800....(incl Earthquake)
utilities......................5700 ...(incl elect,gas,cable,phone,HOA,water,water softener,trash)
health insur premiums..5520
car insur...................1200
medicines.................1100
car maint..................1320
groceries...................5400
gasoline....................3000
husband allowance......7200 ($600 a month)
wife allowance............7200
wierd items*..............6000 (includes any unusual items that pop up)
pleasure travel...........8000
Christmas fund............1500
total......................59940

*I've been tracking my costs for 3 years now and I've yet to find a month where something unusual hasn't happened. Maybe it's excess dental costs, house repairs, washer or dryer goes out, travel to attend family funeral, marriage, birth, money to help kid's emergency. This also includes all Walmart trips which averages 150-175 per month.

Our allowances also pay for entertainment, clothes, and stupid things that my wife spends her money on that I cannot criticize cuz it's "her" allowance.

[shotgunner]

Dex, I know we all approach our personal budgeting and accounting differently but I was surprised to see $700 tires as an "unusual item". Tires are a periodic expense no doubt but replacement of wear and tear items on a vehicle are not. Yesterday I spent $350 on my 5 yr old toyota truck as it needed new front brakes and a battery. Tires were my big expense last year. In my experience after a vehicle is 2 to 3 years old it is quite normal to spend $700 or more annually on it's upkeep; tires, brakes, exhaust, shocks/struts, alignements, periodic servicing at milage intervals etc.

I budget $1500 a year on repairs/service, if I spend less yea me! If I go over that amount I find it's time to evaluate replacement of the vehicle.
I drove my last Toy truck for 16 years and 183,000 miles and sold it for $2300.

[simple girl]

We spent approximately $46K this year for basic living expenses. We currently are renting.

On top of that, we invested $74K in our taxable account, $10K in our IRA's, and probably around $8K in DH's 401K. (Some of this was from cash reserves we had built up.) Geesh...I can barely stand to look at what these investments are currently worth right now....

Plan for 2009 is similar except hope to increase investments even more, as cash flow permits. Staying the course, despite the turbulent ride.

[dex]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shotgunner Dex, I know we all approach our personal budgeting and accounting differently but I was surprised to see $700 tires as an "unusual item".

Unusual is a category in actual spending is to explain that it isn't part of my "Run Rate"* and in theory it comes out of my "amortized items" - see budget above.

I also separated it out so others could get a little detail as to my actual spending.

My 2008 travel spending would be in the area of $7K - I didn't track that too much.

I didn't want to get into the concept of "amortized items" in this discussion.

*"Run Rate" is the concept of annual basic operating spending - no unusual items. In my case it would be the "Basic Spending" amount of $19,400 - see above

[ziggy29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shotgunner Dex, I know we all approach our personal budgeting and accounting differently but I was surprised to see $700 tires as an "unusual item". Tires are a periodic expense no doubt but replacement of wear and tear items on a vehicle are not.

I guess we all have different levels of granularity we want to see. For my budgeting, new tires would be an expense under auto maintenance. I don't break it down farther but if I did, there would be something for oil changes, tires, brakes, that sort of thing.

[frayne]

Went over 08 expenses last night and looks like I'm in the ball park of about $35K vs. $38K in 07. Age 57, DW is 54, own our home, vehicles, have an HSA and no debt whatsoever. Work part time for H&R Block which covers the costs of my golf and motorcycle vacations. Not planning any major changes for 2009. Net worth has dropped by 24% over last year due to losses in the market.

Also use a simple Excel spreadsheet for crunching the numbers and have done so forever.

[W2R]

Single, age 60, living alone and still working. My actual average monthly(/yearly) spending for 2008:

electricity $78/$941
natural gas $38/$451
water/trash/sewer $16/$198
cell phone $37/$449
land line phone $23/$272
cable TV and internet $59/$706
fitness $52/$622
groceries $234/$2809
clothes $33/$402
medical $12/$143 (plus premiums deducted from salary)
gasoline $40/$483
car maintenance & registration $105/$1262
insurance, car $94/$1128
insurance, house $166/$1996 (flood + homeowners')
home improvement $20/$239
home repair/maintenance $243/$2920
property taxes $72/$864
travel $43/$517
books $14/$172
miscellaneous (home electronics, etc) $288/$3453
cash (entertainment, restaurants, all other expenses)$483/$5796

TOTAL $2152/month, $25822 for the year.

Overall, I am happy with what I spent. My expenses from 2002-2007 averaged $1450/month, but I was expecting to spend a little more this year due to changing circumstances, not to mention hurricane evacuation and damage plus much higher car maintenance.

I expect to spend about $22000 in 2009, since I don't normally get as much hurricane damage as I got from Hurricane Gustav and since my car cannot possibly need as much maintenance next year. I will be comfortable spending between $20K-$25K.

Thanks for the thread, because I really needed to sit down and figure all of this out.

[Moemg]

Well I usually don't check mine out until Jan.1 but I took a peek and I will not bore you with the month to month expenses they run about $3,000 but what I'm most impressed with that even after giving almost $3,000 in gifts ,spending $1800 on care for My Mom , $5,000 on travel and $6,160 on my house plus a lot on medical this year I'm still under budget over $36,000 but well under my budget of $56,000 so I'm happy . Forgot to add single living in sin .

[FinanceDude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moemg Forgot to add single living in sin .

I did that once, but it was in my younger years........

[FinanceDude]

AMAZING how little one can live on when HOUSE is paid off..........

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FinanceDude AMAZING how little one can live on when HOUSE is paid off..........

So true, and when not counting retirement savings! It seems like usually:
1/3 of my income went for housing,
1/3 towards my future (savings or paying down my house), and
1/3 for other stuff.

Now that my house is paid off, a lot more can go to the other two categories.

After I retire, I'll only have the "other stuff" category to worry about.

[FinanceDude]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Want2retire So true, and when not counting retirement savings! It seems like usually: 1/3 of my income went for housing, 1/3 towards my future (savings or paying down my house), and 1/3 for other stuff. Now that my house is paid off, a lot more can go to the other two categories. After I retire, I'll only have the "other stuff" category to worry about.

Well, I am currently working on our 2009 budget, which is coming along nicely. Let's just say I have to use bigger numbers for right now.....

Although, I did take the plunge and get a new A/C and furnace last week, and got $250 in energy credit rebates, a 10 year parts and labor warranty, and estimated energy savings of 20-25% a month going forward. All I have left to do is windows, and my 20 year old house is like new, I guess I need a house warming party........

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FinanceDude All I have left to do is windows, and my 20 year old house is like new, I guess I need a house warming party........

Sounds great! A 20-year-old house with a new HVAC is essentially new. Well, except for the fact that it is going to need a new roof at some point....

[Moemg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FinanceDude Although, I did take the plunge and get a new A/C and furnace last week, and got $250 in energy credit rebates, a 10 year parts and labor warranty, and estimated energy savings of 20-25% a month going forward. All I have left to do is windows, and my 20 year old house is like new, I guess I need a house warming party........

That was one of my big expenses this year . Next year I'm remodeling a bathroom and having several rooms painted I want to be ready in case the housing market picks up and I can sell .

[ziggy29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moemg That was one of my big expenses this year . Next year I'm remodeling a bathroom and having several rooms painted I want to be ready in case the housing market picks up and I can sell .

When we bought our current house -- built in 1944 -- all it had was window-mounted AC units and gas lines coming up from the crawl space to hook to natural gas-fired space heaters. (One of those little heaters, which looked like it was built in the 1920s and still worked, came with the house.) For a couple of months after we moved in -- which included a July and an August -- it was pretty miserable in here.

So our first big project was to install a central heat pump for heating and A/C. But that also required some electrical upgrades as well, to provide for more amperage. And all the duct work had to be new, and so on and so on...

It wound up being something like a $7,500 job. But the thing works great, and the brutal summers are a lot more bearable now.

[bbbamI]

2008 Actual Spending $80k

2009 Budgeted Spending $40k