My gut feeling is that I wouldn't enjoy my life much with a $13K budget, but that's just me.
You're just living it in the wrong country...
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Co-author (with my daughter) of “Raising Your Money-Savvy Family For Next Generation Financial Independence.”
Author of the book written on E-R.org: "The Military Guide to Financial Independence and Retirement."
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Losing my whump
Posts: 22,708
Re: How much did you SPEND in 2005?
Mmmm....tomatoes. Our growing season is ~ mid march to ~mid november. In late august the 'mater bush started to decliine in production. A week later I came out to about 3000 little yellow flowers. I pulled the bush and composted it. When I told my wife I'd yanked it up, she looked relieved and said "thank you". We just ate our first store tomatoes since then last week...
That creeping bamboo is insidious. I had a friend who managed to kill it all back to one corner of his yard, where he didnt mind it. The following year it had crept under his wide driveway and was cropping up in his front yard.
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Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. Just another form of "buy low, sell high" for those who have trouble with things. This rule is not universal. Do not buy a 1973 Pinto because everyone else is afraid of it.
Grumpy, am curious about the "cash" as a budget item. From a budgeting perspective, that doesn't really give you a lot of insight. We have the same problem. A lot can get hidden there....
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Most People are about as happy as they make up their mind to be - A. Lincoln
I've included college and taxes here. If I take those out, the total drops to $41,000.
Please, no "I shouldn't have chosen such as expensive college" discussions. What's done is done.
Also, I didn't see the light until July (thanks in part to your guys), and went into super-frugal mode then (as seen in the bar chart). DD left in September, but most of the drop is from SFM.
Grumpy, am curious about the "cash" as a budget item. From a budgeting perspective, that doesn't really give you a lot of insight. We have the same problem. A lot can get hidden there....
getoutearly,
You are right, a lot can get hidden there. However, I am not anal enough to track the cash outlays to specific categories. About once a month I go to the ATM and get $200. I put it in an envelope in a desk drawer. When our wallets get toward empty DW or I pull out a $20. The approx. $230 a month that goes out in the form of cash is not a large percentage of total monthly spending (<4%) so I don't sweat it. We are spending less in total than my pre-retirement budget plan anyway. If we were to get into a financial bind, where I really need to control our spending more tightly, then I would have to track the cash expenditures more carefully. For now my time and energy are going toward more enjoyable pursuits.
Grumpy
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Texas: No Country for Old Men
Posts: 50,021
Re: How much did you SPEND in 2005?
Sometimes a larger than would appear reasonable miscellaneous category is a necessary evil. In my case, our budget includes a category called “Food and Household” (AKA: miscellaneous), which is a planned % of our annual budget. DW, although not a big spender, is one of those who rebels at detailing what she spends and does not like budgeting, at least in a formal sense. So our way to keep peace in the family and live within a budget is this Food & Household category. (It's actually just an allowance, but I never use that term around her. ) I deposit 1/12 of the annual F&H budget amount in her checking account each month and she spends it as she sees fit. She doesn’t have to account for any of it and I don’t care what she buys with it as long as there are decent groceries in the pantry and refrigerator. This is something we’ve been doing for years, long before we retired.
Outside this Food and Household category, I track and monitor our expenditures and budget. We discuss any major purchase, such as the replacement dishwasher and microwave we bought last year.
Sometimes a larger than would appear reasonable miscellaneous category is a necessary evil...DW, although not a big spender, is one of those who rebels at detailing what she spends and does not like budgeting...Works for us...
I hear ya. That is why there is a distinction between "Accounting Theory" and "Accounting Practice."
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No man is free who is not master of himself. --- Epictetus
Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think). --- Guy Lombardo
We have used a variation of that system Re:
money since we were married.
We decided we wanted children, and agreed my wife would be a stay-at-home mom. *
I have always deposited enough in the checking acct. to be pretty sure that it would cover the bills, and allow my wife enough slack to pay all the monthly bills, and not have to check about spending whatever she needed for herself.
If my wife, especially early on, when things were financially tight with a young family, would have had to come to "her daddy", and ask for
money for shoes, etc. etc., it would have been "Caine Mutiny" time.
We still use the same system, and although we've had our share of knock-down-dragouts over the years, I can't remember the last time it had to do with money.
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Losing my whump
Posts: 22,708
Re: How much did you SPEND in 2005?
$3400 a year on "Al's pink panties"?
__________________
Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. Just another form of "buy low, sell high" for those who have trouble with things. This rule is not universal. Do not buy a 1973 Pinto because everyone else is afraid of it.
Around the middle of the year I got a lot more anal about categorizing things that had come undeer Miscellaneous.* The chart shows how that was reduced in later months.
That, and I removed the pink panties.
Actually the pink panties are for the stuffed beaver.
Quote:
) I deposit 1/12 of the annual F&H budget amount in her checking account each month and she spends it as she sees fit. She doesn’t have to account for any of it and I don’t care what she buys with it as long as there are decent groceries in the pantry and refrigerator. This is something we’ve been doing for years, long before we retired.
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