A $3,000 monthly budget

[W2R]

Me either.

 

[limpid lizard]

So far, I am so thrilled about not going to work that every day seems as if I am on a vacation.

 

[oma]

Dave Ramsey's Envelope Budgeting System

Thanks - I wondered what that was all about.

 

[ashtondav]

For anyone thinking about retiring in the UK this is our budget per month (converted to $ at 2 to the UK pound). House paid off, no rent.

Housing tax $230
Heating $260
Groceries $400
Fuel $300 (gas here is now $10 a gallon)
Car insurance (2 cars) $400
Car repairs, servicing, tax etc $200
House Insurance $600

...so, about $2,390 on the basics.
Then...

Eating out, going to the pub $200
Clothes, cosmetics $100
Gifts $200
House maintenance/improvements $500
Gym subscription $80
Football season tickets $120
Theater, cinema $90
Cds, books, newspapers $100

...so, about $1,390 on fun stuff, which we cut down on when the market tanks.
Then...

Travel, vacations etc $200 to $1,000 depending on how "lucky" we feel at the end of an investment year.

 

[kaudrey]

JohnDoe - I'm with you! I also budget $10K a year for travel.

I probably spend about $3-5K on travel a year now.

 

[Notmuchlonger]

Doesn't anyone take a vacation here or budget for it?

I know when I retire I would like to have a minimum of 10,000 per yr budgeted for vacations. After all, that's a big reason for ER, for me.

Yes, our retirement budget has a good deal towards traveling. Currently we don't spend near that though due to lack of time.

 

[W2R]

For anyone thinking about retiring in the UK this is our budget per month (converted to $ at 2 to the UK pound). House paid off, no rent.

Housing tax $230
Heating $260
Groceries $400
Fuel $300 (gas here is now $10 a gallon)
Car insurance (2 cars) $400
Car repairs, servicing, tax etc $200
House Insurance $600

...so, about $2,390 on the basics.
Then...

Eating out, going to the pub $200
Clothes, cosmetics $100
Gifts $200
House maintenance/improvements $500
Gym subscription $80
Football season tickets $120
Theater, cinema $90
Cds, books, newspapers $100

...so, about $1,390 on fun stuff, which we cut down on when the market tanks.
Then...

Travel, vacations etc $200 to $1,000 depending on how "lucky" we feel at the end of an investment year.

Although I am not planning to retire in the U.K., it is interesting to get an international perspective on this. I am surprised at how high your house insurance is - - $7200/year! Even here in New Orleans, where insurance is understandably high, I only pay $1600/year for homeowners' and flood insurance on my home.

Also house maintenance/improvements of $6000/year seems pretty steep. I probably pay about $1000-$2000 on most years depending on what breaks, though this year I've already paid $800 for a new water heater and $480 for installation of two new doors. I don't know that I'd include house maintenance/improvements in the "fun stuff" category! But then, I'd like to replace the carpet in my living room and have been waiting to do that, so perhaps that sort of improvement would be fun stuff and replacing the hot water heater would be a necessity, for me.

On the other hand, your housing tax seems quite low, compared with many locations in the US.

 

[W2R]

JohnDoe - I'm with you! I also budget $10K a year for travel.

I probably spend about $3-5K on travel a year now.

I'm so glad that some ER's are spending this kind of money on travel!! You can buoy up various travel industries and contribute to higher employment worldwide.

As for me, you would have to approach me with a cattle prod to get me to travel at all, other than for work or else traveling by car to visit potential ER locations and such.

I think it's so cool/amazing that people are as different, and yet as nice and intelligent as people are on this board.

 

[FinanceDude]

My current budgeted costs are $5200 a month, but I am not FIRED yet, so I expect that to drop a lot in the next couple years..............

If I had no mortgage or car payments, I could EASILY live on $3000 a month, even though I am in a high property tax state..........

 

[Zoocat]

My current budgeted costs are $5200 a month, but I am not FIRED yet, so I expect that to drop a lot in the next couple years..............

If I had no mortgage or car payments, I could EASILY live on $3000 a month, even though I am in a high property tax state..........

Ditto. Anyone know how I could get rid of my mortgage so I'd have an extra $1510/month for travel? Can't pay it off because there's still 27 years to go. Can't buy a cheaper place for cash unless I move to Springfield MO like Want2Retire, or some place similarly cheap. Although I could buy a manufactured home and live in a mobile home park here.
It's always a trade off.
Seriously, I don't think living on $3000/month is possible for me. And the budgets that I've seen here don't account very much for emergencies and depreciation of assets. In my budget I put away money every month for car repairs and buying a new car in the future,home repairs and replacement of appliances. It adds up!

 

[W2R]

Ditto. Anyone know how I could get rid of my mortgage so I'd have an extra $1510/month for travel? Can't pay it off because there's still 27 years to go. Can't buy a cheaper place for cash unless I move to Springfield MO like Want2Retire, or some place similarly cheap. Although I could buy a manufactured home and live in a mobile home park here.
It's always a trade off.
Seriously, I don't think living on $3000/month is possible for me. And the budgets that I've seen here don't account very much for emergencies and depreciation of assets. In my budget I put away money every month for car repairs and buying a new car in the future,home repairs and replacement of appliances. It adds up!

So much of this is regional - - I agree!! And you are so wise to put away money for new car, car repairs, home repairs, appliance replacement, and emergencies. For me, anyway, that sort of thing adds up to a significant amount, and they come up so irregularly that it's difficult to get a handle on them. I did a rigous budget analysis over 5 years, and found that they came to 45% of my expenses during those particular years (and that didn't even include a new car).

Just for fun, I did an analysis of my spending in February 2008, other than those expenses. I inherited several times my net worth during February, and I did go on a spending spree in February though I am trying not to throw caution to the winds and spend it all. I spent:

$38.50 electricity
$90.87 natural gas
$15.21 water/sewer/trash
$22.40 phone
$34.24 cell phone
$58.47 cable TV and internet
$237.25 food
$400.00 money from ATM, mostly for restaurants but any other miscellaneous expenses such as TurboTax and paint
$8.00 books
$171.78 clothes
$31.00 gym
$17.97 e-filing taxes
$190.09 miscellaneous fun purchases
$8.00 insurance
$1323.78 TOTAL

Plus, $800 on my new water heater which is in the emergency category. The above included a spending spree which accounts for all of the miscellaneous fun purchases and clothes, and some of the restaurant money. So overall, I guess I am still spending in a reasonable way (thank goodness - - I need to be me, still!) It doesn't include most insurance or other things that are paid yearly - - this is not a budget, but is just what I happened to spend last month. Prior to now, my expenses of this sort were $800 month average over several years, plus $650/month for types of extra emergency/replacement expenses OldBabe mentioned (other than another car since I haven't bought one in a long time), including insurance.

I live alone in a 1558 square foot, 3 br 2 bath house in metro New Orleans, and last month I was turning the heat up on cold days and spending a lot more than I usually do on most everything.

 

[rs0460a]

Doesn't anyone take a vacation here or budget for it?

I know when I retire I would like to have a minimum of 10,000 per yr budgeted for vacations. After all, that's a big reason for ER, for me.

Our retirement travel budget remains the same as when we both worked (I'm retired - my DW next year) at 20% of our total budget.

"Those who have not traveled have only turned the first page of life"...

- Ron

 

[tuixiu]

That Arizona budget strikes me as a little high in both the property taxes and electric for a small 2 BR house.

We've got a 2BR and the annual property taxes run a little over a grand, electricity on level payment plan at $125/month.

 

[W2R]

That Arizona budget strikes me as a little high in both the property taxes and electric for a small 2 BR house.

We've got a 2BR and the annual property taxes run a little over a grand, electricity on level payment plan at $125/month.

I think that was the town of Arizona, Missouri (wherever that is), maybe? He said Arizona MO, and that he was in the midwest. Confusing..

 

[ziggy29]

About a month ago I built a "layoff budget" which would reflect what I think would be approximate expenses if I lost my job. (These ignore all taxes except property tax which doesn't change with job loss and loss of an income stream.)

I was able to pare down our current operational $4400 "budget" to $2500 a month by slashing discretionary spending by anywhere from 30% to 100% -- but then I had to add $700 back in for health insurance through COBRA since I wouldn't have it from Megacorp any more. So that would be $3200 a month. (We have no house payment and about $35K in liquid emergency fund cash.) We could probably live on less than that, but we wouldn't have to like it.

 

[W2R]

About a month ago I built a "layoff budget" which would reflect what I think would be approximate expenses if I lost my job. (These ignore all taxes except property tax which doesn't change with job loss and loss of an income stream.)

I was able to pare down our current operational $4400 "budget" to $2500 a month by slashing discretionary spending by anywhere from 30% to 100% -- but then I had to add $700 back in for health insurance through COBRA since I wouldn't have it from Megacorp any more. So that would be $3200 a month. (We have no house payment and about $35K in liquid emergency fund cash.) We could probably live on less than that, but we wouldn't have to like it.

I built one of those a few years back, though it looks like I won't need it now due to my unexpected windfall. Times have changed, too. I was thinking of going from cable modem internet to dial-up, for example, and I think dial-up will be history by the end of the decade.

 

[ziggy29]

I was thinking of going from cable modem internet to dial-up, for example

Broadband Internet is one luxury I will NEVER give up, even if I have to clean a few toilets a month to pay for it.

 

[trixs]

Edit: After reading some others posts I figured I should add some..

Wow - you live expensively!

Lets see

Mortgage - $950 ( a 3 bedroom 2000sq foot house. Built in 2003)
HOA - $40/ year - Dont really count this as it just comes out of misc once a year.
Landscaper - $0 - Cant see paying someone to do something that takes an hour every two weeks.
Maid $0 - See above
Health Insurance - Military - $0
Electric - $150 and I have lots of computers running 24/7
Water/Sewage - $35
Phone - $40 (who needs to have phone internet and text)
Trash - $30
Insurance - $10 (Liability only)
Cable - $120 - I need my internet/tv
Spending money - $1000 (gas, food, entertainment, ext)
Eating out - I eat out almost daily for lunch and dinner . Comes out of spending money.

Of course some of these bills change but in general my living expenses are $2200-2300 a month.

 

[Anne]

This is the budget I'm figuring by for after I leave my salary position. These numbers are for one person living in a condo in Chicago:

Taxes $265 - assume you mean property tax. $120/month
Home Ins $50 - 0 (included in HOA assessment)
HOA $150 - $225
Med Ins (Medigap & son's insur $300) - figuring $100/mo for HDHP premium + $250/mo. put in HSA
Electric $200 - $40 for electric + gas
Sewer & Garbage $70 - $0 (included in HOA assessment)
Water $60 - $0 (included in assessment)
Tel (reg line & Internet line) $60 - $70 (cell + internet)
TV $75 - $0 (included in assessment)
DSL $45 - $0 (included above in "Tel" line)
Landscaper $100 - $0 (included in assessment)
Maid (twice a mo) $160 - $0 (though I admit this would be a nice luxury to have)
Eating Out (two people) $240 - $200
Eating In $600 - $200
Misc (all other stuff) $900 - $600 (misc. plus $500/month for travel and fun money)
Car Insur $200 (two vehicles) - $0 because I don't have a car, but I use public transportation which is $75 for a monthly pass
Gas $ 160.00 - $0

So $1880/month.

 

[outtarentals]

For anyone thinking about retiring in the UK this is our budget per month (converted to $ at 2 to the UK pound). House paid off, no rent.


Fuel $300 (gas here is now $10 a gallon)

.

Ashton, Did I read that right? Gas is $10 a gallon in the UK!!

 

[trixs]

I hope its not $10 a gallon! I'm moving to Germany in about two months and wont be doing much traveling with those gas prices...

 

[ziggy29]

Ashton, Did I read that right? Gas is $10 a gallon in the UK!!

Yeah, but with current exchange rates on the dollar, that's probably about a pound and a half these days.

 

[oma]

I hope its not $10 a gallon! I'm moving to Germany in about two months and wont be doing much traveling with those gas prices...

I'm in Germany now - paying Post Exchange AAFES prices at about $3.20/gal. Need special coupons. I think Germans pay $5-6. They have an outstanding mass transit system over here - very dependable and safe.

 

[FinanceDude]

I'm in Germany now - paying Post Exchange AAFES prices at about $3.20/gal. Need special coupons. I think Germans pay $5-6. They have an outstanding mass transit system over here - very dependable and safe.

With a $4-$5 "gas tax" in place for 25 years, they could afford it........

Keep in mind that Europe is the size of the MidWest, for perspective, so it's easy to see why mass transit works, it's a small area compared to the USA.........

 

[landover]

Some of you may remember that I moved from the US to a third world country. Here is my expenses, hashing my expenses in already provided format:

Taxes $265 - assume you mean property tax. Ours is ~$0/mo
Home Ins $50 - 0
HOA $150 - $9.
Rent this was not here originally $215
Med Ins (Medigap & son's insur $300) - No medical insurance $400 deduction from income for tax, $12,500/yr limit hospitalization only benefit - free from employer - I guess cost appx. $600/yr, including parents 60+ yr old.
Electric $200 - $40/mon average
Sewer & Garbage $70 - 0/month
Water $60 - $0
Tel (reg line & Internet line) $60 - $40/month including cell phones
TV $75 - $0 - no cable
DSL $45 - $0 included in phone but 3GB/month only
Landscaper $100 - 0.
Maid (twice a mo) $160 - $50 month
Eating Out (two people) $240 - $100/month
Eating In $600 - $200/month.
Misc (all other stuff) $900 - $600, $200 school fee, $200 travel budget (rail travel is very cheap), $200 cloths etc
Car Insur $200 (two vehicles) - $45/mo with comp/collision for the most part
Gas $ 160.00 - $100, gas is around $4.5 gallon, 1.25/liter.

So Total is $1400 ($1200 without rent), I used to spend around approx. $2000 in US not including rent. This is with 2 kids.

There are other differences, a civic cost as much as a entry level luxury car , houses are more expensive barring a few areas in E/W coast.