2008 Actual Spending and 2009 Budgeted Spending

[dex]

2008 is my 2nd full year of ER - Single, No debt (except for 906 in interest free furniture loan)
29,258 Total Spent
Unusual Items:
1,400 2 New computers - desktop and Asus eee
700 Truck tires
450 Dr. bills
906 Interest Free loan
25,802 Adjusted Spend

I'm estimating my 2009 budget at $30K

I think I need to step up my traveling and spend more.

So you young dreamers - it might not take as much to ER and you think. My estimate while working was $40K/yr growing at 4%/year plus 5K/yr in amortized items.

I break down my budget into:
Basic - estimate if I just stayed home the whole year
Incremental - travel and fun
In the Basic estimate there is about $600/month that could be added to the incremental budget for when I travel. So when I'm Rving, I have the incremental budget plus $600/month extra. If I were to travel for the whole year I would have the $9K in incremental plus $7.2K available in the Basic budget.

 

[tmm99]

Hi Dex,

I wish I could read the attached thumnails (too small for me to read and when I enlarge them, the letters get blurry.)

I have a question. before you retired, how much were you spending?

 

[ziggy29]

One thing that isn't said is the source of income -- how much, how secure, and whether or not it's inflation-adjusted.

 

[dex]

Hi Dex,

I wish I could read the attached thumnails (too small for me to read and when I enlarge them, the letters get blurry.)

I have a question. before you retired, how much were you spending?

Try clicking on them twice - or download into paintbox and enlarge them - clicking on them twice should work - it does for me.

Before ER - I don't have those exact numbers - I would guess about the same or about 4K less than I am now because I didn't travel as much but I didn't pay much for health ins. while working.

After ER I found little items to reduce my basic budget like getting rid of a phone land line - save about $720/yr.

 

[dex]

One thing that isn't said is the source of income -- how much, how secure, and whether or not it's inflation-adjusted.

I'm 53 - all my investments - mutual funds, so I have 9+ years until SS kicks in - that's it.

 

[FIREd]

Married, DINKs, still working. Source of income: jobs. How secure: seems fairly secure at least until early 2010 (next planned RIF). There are still talks about bonuses and pay raises for next year, so our income should more than keep up with inflation.

2008 spending: $56,321 YTD. Still a few bills to pay before the end of the year, but we should end the year below $60,000 including:

Home (mortgage, taxes, repairs, improvements, insurance): $13,385
Cars (repairs, gas, insurance, taxes): $4,088
Groceries: $6,900
Insurance (life, disability, health): $6,331
Utilities (cable, internet, phone): $5,527
Vacations : $4,348
Furnishings / durable goods: $5,815
Pets: $1,256

Last year we spent $69,128. Next year our goal us to remain under $60,000 again. I am looking at ways to cut back on our grocery bill. Now that we are done decorating the last room in the house, I hope that our furnishings / durable good budget will go down a little bit. Other categories targeted for reductions: clothing and water/electric. But I think that our travel budget might go up next year since we have 2 European trips + 1 west coast trip planned. We might use some of our accumulated airline miles to soften the blow though.

 

[tmm99]

Thank you Dex for your info on before ER. Also thanks for your tip on double-clicking. I can see the thumnails now!

tmm

 

[TromboneAl]

I wish I could read the attached thumnails (too small for me to read and when I enlarge them, the letters get blurry.)

Try clicking on them twice

I've been complaining about this for a while. It is a terrible interface, and makes the great feature of being able to upload photos much less useful.

 

[freebird5825]

i will be going thru this very exercise in January.
i use my credit card for almost all expenses, a single credit union account autopays my household bills, and except for a few stray checks, i have all my data in one place.
all year long, i throw all the credit card stmts and misc bills in a folder, or a piece of paper indicating a stray check for a bill or service was written.
then next step is to update the detailed spreadsheet i custom made for the household before i FIREd.
the granularity of my data is dependent on my mood that day.
if this sounds a tad haphazard, recall i did nothing but w*rk with data for 25 yrs. i'm FIREd now.
actually, my data collection method is flawless. it is the recording where i get a bit...um....LAZY.

 

[socca]

Dex, do you think that your HOA gives you good value for the money? I've always said that I would never live in a house that is subject to a HOA, so it would be interesting to hear whether I should be more open-minded.

 

[HpRyder]

i throw all the credit card stmts and misc bills in a folder,

Your might short cut this data collection by downloading the credit card statements in pdf, opening the pdf and saving as a text file, then edit the text file, using a global search & replace to convert the spaces to a "," and save as a .cvs file.

or a piece of paper indicating a stray check for a bill or service was written.

Using bill pay and online checking allows you to download the list of paid bills and cashed checks, typically as a csv file.

it is the recording where i get a bit...um....LAZY.

You then have comma delimited files to import into a spreadsheet, saving a lot of manual data entry.

 

[dex]

Dex, do you think that your HOA gives you good value for the money? I've always said that I would never live in a house that is subject to a HOA, so it would be interesting to hear whether I should be more open-minded.

They take care of everything outside - Painting the outside, landscaping, sealing the deck, pool maintenance. I think it is close to equal to owning your own house and paying for the services.

 

[Rambler]

Dex, do you think that your HOA gives you good value for the money? I've always said that I would never live in a house that is subject to a HOA, so it would be interesting to hear whether I should be more open-minded.

Friend of mine says its the best $40 bucks a month he ever spent...I think they don't do much except lawn maintenance, but that is all that is important to him. I think it really depends on what you want out of an HOA and what they are able to consistently provide, for the buck.

R

 

[dm]

I retired in 07, My wife and I spent $67,500 that year after taxes, that includes around $10,000 for health insurance. It looks like we are going to come in around $66,000 this year. We have no debt.

In 05 and 06 we spent $100,000 per year, not including health insurance, but I was still working and I had two kids in college.

Our income when working ran around $200k to $250K.

 

[shotgunner]

Dex you and I are on the same page. I own my own home, pay for high deductible health insurance and my lifestyle costs about 30K a year too. I am turning 52. Like you it's my portfolio and SS at 62. Of course I am working P/T too by choice. I agree if one has practiced and become accustomed to a LBYM lifestyle it does not take as much to be ER'd as some think (Provided we are and stay in good health).

 

[tmm99]

I am right on the dot with my spending budget. I am still working and I will have spent about $45K this year, including $1000 for gifts, $3000 vacation and $2400 gift money to my mom. The $45K also includes $20K/year for rent (I live in Silicon Valley). If I owned a house outright (in some place outside of this area where I can actually purchase a home - which I plan to do when I retire), my spending would probably be around $33K per year ($25K plus property tax plus heath insurance). My newly found frugal ways are definitely paving the brighter future for me.

tmm

 

[Urchina]

Dex, thanks for the reminder that I need to enter my data into Quicken, clean it, and then run the numbers.

Is it just me, or does anyone else find Quicken not intuitive? Any suggestions? (I just checked a guide to Quicken out of the library and will be working on it over our Christmas break, in time for the New Year).

 

[Notmuchlonger]

I use Quicken. I think it sucks or not intuitive. This year I might look for something else. Might just go back to the pen and paper method. The old guy I am.

 

[freebird5825]

Your might short cut this data collection by downloading the credit card statements in pdf, opening the pdf and saving as a text file, then edit the text file, using a global search & replace to convert the spaces to a "," and save as a .cvs file.
Using bill pay and online checking allows you to download the list of paid bills and cashed checks, typically as a csv file.
You then have comma delimited files to import into a spreadsheet, saving a lot of manual data entry.

thanks for the advice. honestly and truly.
but i need to pull out one of my favorite FIRE sayings...
"I'm FIREd and I'm too lazy to do all that".

 

[Frugality_of_Apathy]

I use Quicken. I think it sucks or not intuitive. This year I might look for something else. Might just go back to the pen and paper method. The old guy I am.

www: OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

Use Spreadsheet. It's just like pen and paper but you can have it do repetitive math tasks for you. Like adding up totals or making custom amoritization tables for your specific loan amount even using random loan payment amounts in 2 minutes.

 

[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]

utilities 2,800

yikes!!!

 

[accountingsucks]

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.