2008 Actual Spending and 2009 Budgeted Spending

[Frugality_of_Apathy]

The breakdown is as follows:

Housing: $2,889
Utilities: $506
Cash: $1,583
Medical: $648
Food: $458
Entertainment: $670
Travel: $2,007
Consumer goods: $1,119
Gifts: $501
Misc: $234

Total: $10,614

What's are you calling consumer goods if they aren't food, entertainment, gifts, or misc?

 

[Maurice]

Its basically retail spending. Here are the subcategories of Consumer Goods:


Retail - Electronics
Retail - Books & Music
Retail - Household & Kitchen
Retail - Clothing
Retail - Office/Art Supplies
Retail - Computer non-HW
Retail - Furniture & Décor
Retail - Hair & Other Services


The big two items there were electronics (I bought a new Mac, printer, and camera this year) and clothing (that would be DW).

 

[NanoSour]

Budgeted/Actual Spending 2008

I'd have to say I failed on the budget front for 2008. Although, I must say I purposely set the budget aggressively as I believe it helps DW stay somewhere close. I don't think she's really happy unless she exceeds the budget every month It doesn't bother me since I've learned to build it in.

Here are the numbers:

Insurance (Life, Auto, Home) : 2,870
Medical Insurance : 821
RE Taxes : 3,359
Utilities:
Cable/Internet : 765
Electricity : 2,555
Heating Oil : 1,650
Phone : 1,441
Water/Sewer : 773
Household (all other stuff including food) : 48,788
Mortgage : 15,360

Totals : 78,381
Budgeted: 70,891

Better luck in 2009.

 

[piano88]

Hope this format is readable. This is budget for 2009.

cable/internet/phone





1,200
car gas 2,600 car ins 1,000 car maint 700 charity 2,700 house cleaning 500 clothes 2,000 entertain 5,000 food 6,200 garbage 420 gifts 1,200 haircuts 600 health 6,000 home tax/ins 7,200 IRAs - lawn/drive 1,000 life insurance 500 maintain 2,100 misc 2,200 newspaper, subscrip 750 postage 130 tax prep 1,000 telephone cell 900 tithe $ 3,500 travel $ 10,000 utilities $ 2,300 water $ 630 YMCA $ 1,000 SubTotal $ 63,330 Taxes 23% 14,566 Total Budget $ 77,896

 

[audreyh1]

We use Quicken for tracking spending. Quicken has various expense categories, and when you download/input a transaction it automatically assigns a category if it recognizes the vendor which is 95% of the time - otherwise you assign it and Quicken remembers for next time. This work across all accounts too - checking, investment, credit cards, etc.

This makes is so easy to generate reports and see where the money is going. Been doing this for years.

Audrey

 

[OAG]

We use Quicken for tracking spending. Quicken has various expense categories, and when you download/input a transaction it automatically assigns a category if it recognizes the vendor which is 95% of the time - otherwise you assign it and Quicken remembers for next time. This work across all accounts too - checking, investment, credit cards, etc.

This makes is so easy to generate reports and see where the money is going. Been doing this for years.

Audrey

MS Money does about the same thing; but I still use Excel to forecast.

 

[oma]

Single guy here trying to predict my FLA retirement budget.

What do you single/couples usually spend per month on groceries anyway?

 

[Moemg]

Single guy here trying to predict my FLA retirement budget.

What do you single/couples usually spend per month on groceries anyway?

There are two of us and I usually spend about $400 a month . That is for three meals a day .

 

[FIREd]

Single guy here trying to predict my FLA retirement budget.

What do you single/couples usually spend per month on groceries anyway?

You are a guy? LOL! With a screen name like "oma" I was picturing you as an silver-haired German grandmother!

We spend about $550 a month on groceries for the 2 of us.

 

[W2R]

For the last couple of months I spent about $300/month - $350/month at the grocery store for one person, not including 3-4 restaurant meals/week. I am NOT frugal when it comes to food. I do not skimp on groceries at all, and buy whatever I want including steak and many other expensive items. Also, the food prices in New Orleans are high in comparison with some other areas in the South and Midwest. Food prices in southern Missouri, where we plan to retire, seem to be about 75% of the prices here.

I would expect that your food expenses as a single man in Florida will very likely be under $350/month. If you are a little thrifty, they will very likely be under $300/month. If you are even more frugal, you could probably get them down to $200/month.

 

[oma]

Thanks. I'm like you - don't really look at the price if I want it, but that's while I'm fully employed and never on a budget since college days (Ramen and Mac 'n Cheese).

Thanks for the replies.

 

[haha]

Single guy here trying to predict my FLA retirement budget.

What do you single/couples usually spend per month on groceries anyway?

I'm single and I spend $340 per month. That is for about 16 -18 meals a week. That figure is also down from about $400/month that I spent the first year I was on this board. I shop more carefully now, and I also eat less/weigh less. Includes groceries, paper towels and TP, cheap Trader Joe wine, but no liquor or personal care products or cleaning products.

Ha

 

[Gone4Good]

Dang, this is why I have to move. Here in NJ I'm budgeting about $20K just for health insurance and property taxes (no mcMansion either. Just a modest 2 bedroom condo).

 

[Notmuchlonger]

Single guy here trying to predict my FLA retirement budget.

What do you single/couples usually spend per month on groceries anyway?

2 in California.

We do not keep groceries separate. However, we averaged 1235 a month for the last two years.

That includes food, booze,household cleaning supplies and personal grooming products.

This year for whatever reason we are on tract to spend less.

 

[accountingsucks]

I'm single and in my thirties. Mortgage is paid off and last year I spent $18,200 but that included a $700 stove. I do track my monthly expenses, and my goal is to keep these costs to under $18,000 excluding any vacations I might take. Last year I didn't vacation anywhere but I probably will this year- a decent all inclusive is usually only $1200 though.

 

[ziggy29]

I spend about $300/month - $350/month at the grocery store for one person, not including 3-4 restaurant meals/week. I am NOT frugal when it comes to food. I do not skimp on groceries at all, and buy whatever I want including steak and many other expensive items.

Same here. We usually wind up spending over $500 a month for the two of us because we have fairly pricey tastes in our main courses. The flip side of this is that we know we could probably come close to cutting this in half if we really needed to economize in all areas of our life (read: if I got laid off). But for now we can afford it and it adds enjoyment to our lives to eat well. We all need to prioritize our own budgets and, to the extent you have the slack in your cash flow to do it, decide where you can easily cut back and where you'd rather not cut back unless you really needed to.

 

[Shawn]

Single, living alone. In a typical year, I spend about $150/month on food. That's for everything (food, soda, junk food, restaurant meals, etc). I pretty much buy/cook all my own food, although I don't hesitate to take advantage of (somewhat rare) freebie's at work.

My goal for this year is to spend less than $1000 on food, or about $85/month (less than $3 a day). I was a little above that rate in January and February, but I've also been buying too much junk food, particularly candy. I'm trying to get back on track for March.

While I hope to keep this up for the entire year and meet my goal, there's a decent chance that I'll succumb to gluttony and go back to my spendthrift ways.

 

[Moemg]

My $400 a month for two includes wine and cleaning supplies . We do not skimp on food . We usually eat salmon or shrimp or some seafood twice a week , lots of chicken dishes because we like them and steak regularly . I try to do one meatless meal not for frugality more for health .We usually eat out once a week which is not included in the $400. I noticed when I lived alone my grocery bill was only slightly lower than when I was married .

 

[Koolau]

Someone called the financial TV programs "financial porn". If that's true, then this thread is "financial voyeurism" (you show me yours and I'll show you mine, heh, heh.) Unfortunately, I'm shy. Actually I just don't keep the records which would tease out the way we spend our money. Having said that, I see that we spend much less than most on "groceries" but that's because we eat at least one meal "out" everyday. That could be anything from semi-fine dining (rare) to what we did today - ate a chunk of cooked ahi ($4.71) and washed it down with a shared fountain Diet Coke @ $1.09- both from Sam's. Oh, and, uh, that's after we "grazed" the aisles for freebies.

Not sure why this stuff is so interesting. Apparently it's just fun to see how we differ on various priorities. One of the expenses we could easily cut in half (or with difficulty cut to perhaps 15% of current) is our transportation budget. We keep 2 cars with the requisite insurance, depreciation, gas, maintenance, etc. Just selling one car would make a big difference. Selling both and riding The Bus would make a huge difference.

Our tax bill is ridiculous compared to most I've seen here 'cause we're converting IRA's to Roths.

Our "bill" for the kids' Roths are near $6K. IMO that's better even than paying their student loans - which we'll eventually help them with, anyway. Just don't tell THEM that, heh, heh.

Our heat bill is "0.00" but that's because I can't find a single electric heater on the island. Dang it's been cold lately. Neighbor read 57 F a couple of mornings ago. Brrrrr.

So I didn't take it all off as some of you have, but I hear it's "better" if you just show a little. Leave something to the imagination. YMMV

 

[Notmuchlonger]

Someone called the financial TV programs "financial porn". If that's true, then this thread is "financial voyeurism" (you show me yours and I'll show you mine, heh, heh.) Unfortunately, I'm shy. Actually I just don't keep the records which would tease out the way we spend our money. Having said that, I see that we spend much less than most on "groceries" but that's because we eat at least one meal "out" everyday. That could be anything from semi-fine dining (rare) to what we did today - ate a chunk of cooked ahi ($4.71) and washed it down with a shared fountain Diet Coke @ $1.09- both from Sam's. Oh, and, uh, that's after we "grazed" the aisles for freebies.

Not sure why this stuff is so interesting. Apparently it's just fun to see how we differ on various priorities. One of the expenses we could easily cut in half (or with difficulty cut to perhaps 15% of current) is our transportation budget. We keep 2 cars with the requisite insurance, depreciation, gas, maintenance, etc. Just selling one car would make a big difference. Selling both and riding The Bus would make a huge difference.

Our tax bill is ridiculous compared to most I've seen here 'cause we're converting IRA's to Roths.

Our "bill" for the kids' Roths are near $6K. IMO that's better even than paying their student loans - which we'll eventually help them with, anyway. Just don't tell THEM that, heh, heh.

Our heat bill is "0.00" but that's because I can't find a single electric heater on the island. Dang it's been cold lately. Neighbor read 57 F a couple of mornings ago. Brrrrr.

So I didn't take it all off as some of you have, but I hear it's "better" if you just show a little. Leave something to the imagination. YMMV

I find it interesting. Mainly to see what people spend in different parts of the country. I asked awhile ago what a gallon of milk costs people to compare. If you plan on moving after retirement these things are to be considered Oh right now its 2.99 a gallon for me in Northern California.

 

[NW-Bound]

To tell the truth, I have no idea how much we spend on food a month. If I ask, my wife can pull it up on her Excel spreadsheet, but she probably doesn't know off hand.

We do not pay much attention to food cost because we do not enjoy eating out, and cooking at home is cheap enough. My wife watches sales flyers from local grocery stores, and we have several within a few miles of our home. I do not watch the cost, but rather my calorie intake. Food is still relatively cheap in the US, unless you are constantly splurging.

 

[W2R]

For the last couple of months I spent about $300/month - $350/month at the grocery store for one person, not including 3-4 restaurant meals/week. I am NOT frugal when it comes to food. I do not skimp on groceries at all, and buy whatever I want including steak and many other expensive items. Also, the food prices in New Orleans are high in comparison with some other areas in the South and Midwest. Food prices in southern Missouri, where we plan to retire, seem to be about 75% of the prices here.

I would expect that your food expenses as a single man in Florida will very likely be under $350/month. If you are a little thrifty, they will very likely be under $300/month. If you are even more frugal, you could probably get them down to $200/month.

I just figured out what I spent during all of 2008, and it came to an average of $236/month for groceries, lower than I thought earlier today. Apparently my recent expenditures of $300-$350 were higher than usual.

 

[TromboneAl]

Our grocery bill comes to $455/month for two of us. This seems very high to me, since we we're pretty efficient.

For example, we'll load up on seven whole chickens when the price gets to $.79 a pound or less (sometimes $.59/pound). One chicken will result in one roast chicken dinner, one open-face chicken dinner, 2-4 churkey sandwich (like turkey sandwich but with chicken) lunches, plus one soup dinner from the broth (e.g. cream of celery), and one leftover soup lunch. Plus we often make beans or chili with dried beans.

$450/month comes out to $5/meal.