your monthly budget before entertainment?

[youbet]

Actually, the raw numbers do say a lot. You have to pay them, comfortable or not, LCOL or HCOL area.

As some others have mentioned, we no longer keep a budget or track spending in detailed categories. We just weren't generating much actionable data when we did. Most all our money passes through our checking account, so I just noodle cash flow monthly and if there is a change that surprises me, I tunnel down to the source.

 

[Golden sunsets]

Our monthly expenses, not including food, entertainment, federal and state taxes and one off big ticket items is a bit over $8,000/mo.

 

[RetiredHappy]

I am not sure the goal of the thread.

It is kind of like when my father asked me about how much I was spending on stuff or when I took him to a nice restaurant, I lied about the bill. Otherwise he would call me a spendthrift and would refuse to have me take him out again.

 

[Zona]

What “services” are lacking in these places that taxes can be that low? I must be missing something!.

Well you did mention you are in the New Jersey area, so maybe the rest of us pay less for “waste management”…[emoji23]

(Not trying to perpetuate stereotypes, I just couldn’t resist throwing in the “Sopranos” reference…still one of the best shows ever)

 

[Still Learning]

We are in a HCOL area and have included food (cook/take-out) and spending allowances.


Food $600
Allowance $520
Electricity $129.17
Heating $47.69
TV/Internet $185
Cell/Telephone $110.06
House Insurance $60.50
Health Insurance $835.25
Vehicle insurance $119.12
Umbrella Insurance 26.00
Dental Insurance $65.83
Fishing Boat Insurance $6.25

Water Tax: 23.75
School Tax $234.01
Property Tax $185.09
Lawn Mowing Service $42.80


Total $3,236.94

 

[rodi]

Hmmm. Looking at quicken data for the last 12 months...
Up until last month it was a household of 4. Older son moved out last month.
Younger son heads to college next week, so day to day household expenses (food/hot water, gas for the car) go away for 9 months.
And do I count the big tuition/dorm bills I just paid?

Inclusive of all that - we spent just over $9k/month for a family of 4* That includes everything - including healthcare for all of them and education.

Pulling out Groceries, dining out, college expenses for the kids, we're at $6300/month.

Does travel count as entertainment? What about streaming services? Cable TV? Now we're at $5400/month.

Hey - do I count the insurance we have on our rental unit? It's an expense - but one that is offset by income...

I could go on for a while. Everyone's spending is different. Everyone's categories are different.

Did you include health insurance? That's not food or entertainment...

To use your categories - again, for a family of 4....

Mortgage: $0
Property Tax:$310
Home Owner Insurance: $98
Electric: (includes natural gas since that's the way our bill comes): $164
Internet: $80 (that's part of our cable bill... but that's what it would be if we didn't have cable.)
Ring: $0
Gas: - $319 (4 drivers again... I'm assuming this is auto - our utilities combine gas and electric in one bill.)
Water/Sewer/trash: $160 - but that's for 6 people because it includes our granny flat rental.
Pool/yard maintenance: $0
Cleaning: $0
Mobile Phone: $120 (4 lines, because 4 people)
Gym: $0 (quit for covid - work out at home now)
Insurance (car,) $488 (4 cars because 4 people - two are young male, expensive to insure, drivers.)

Things you didn't have:
Health insurance, Umbrella Insurance, Travel, auto repair, auto fuel, ...

 

[RetireAge50]

Monthly cash flow averages:
Food, Utilities, and Misc.$2,000
Travel and Recreation$1,753
State Taxes$519
Giving$374
Home$346
Auto$263
Major Purchases$195
Health$137
Federal Taxes$77
Total $5,664

 

[Koolau]

We don't budget and we don't track expenses - we just make certain there is enough in the checking account.

I'm curious as I don't see most folks "budgeting" for replacement costs: Appliances, roof, HVAC, driveway, plumbing, exterior painting, interior rehab, cars, etc. YMMV

 

[scrabbler1]

Hmm... Nobody is paying any Federal/State income taxes?

That is one of our larger expenses.. Same question for pet/vet costs? and maybe even clothing?

Perhaps folks are answering the "what are you housing costs" question.

-gauss

Income taxes are so small now (now that I have altered my portfolio to generate much less of it to get back on the ACA subsidy train), I can just lump it into my broad "everything else" category. In 2020, one of the stimulus checks became a tax credit so it erased my tax liability. For this year, the midyear enlarged ACA credit formula will more than wipe out any tax liability. I still have a state tax liability, but it is small (under $1,000) so it doesn't really count for much.

I have no pets, and I rarely have to buy any new clothes.

 

[USGrant1962]

Taxes are by far our largest expense category, led by fed and state income taxes.

It seems for these types of discussions, it would be best for the op establish a template and we could just fill it in. Otherwise it seems like these posted "budgets" are some miscellaneous numbers.

+1 on both counts.

Taxes are our biggest expense (I do have consulting income which gets hammered with SE tax), and random exclusions (food? what you don't eat) make no sense.

 

[FANOFJESUS]

When is see a thread like this I share what the OP shares. I don't worry about what he left out. I figure he wants to see our numbers in those areas.

 

[RobbieB]

Taxes, insurance, utilities and rent, about $3500/mo.

 

[Dash man]

No such thing as a budget in our house. I make sure there’s money available in our checking account. I check our net worth quarterly at a minimum to see how we’re doing. It’s never gone down more than one quarter in a year, so no worries.

 

[WhenIsItTime]

I use Mint with a lot of categories to capture all the details. I monitor spend through general awareness and a detailed check once per year. Fortunate last couple years investment growth has reduced my WR by 1/3 (expenses also flat).

Curious if this thread is about budget $ amount, # or type of categories, interest in only categories mentioned, category specific saving techniques,

 

[RobbieB]

No budget, just estimated expenses.

 

[skyking1]

No budget, just estimated expenses.

There's deposits, we pay the bills and a little math gets me to the average spend. Without any travel we are running about 3K a month. My GOC is simply broken when it comes to the finer details.

 

[DireWolf]

I don’t really budget either, but I do have accounts linked to Personal Capital and it’s pretty easy to glance at where my spending is and have a sense how large one-off expenses average out.

I didn’t include taxes because we have the option to not pay any right now. Or, pay a lot by converting to Roth (and saving later). It’s pretty detached from our month-to-month expenses.

As for property tax and car insurance prices, I’m in NC (Triangle area). County rate is .60 and town .35 (per $100 assessed value). I can’t believe what some areas are charging. Small wonder we have so many transplants

 

[Teacher Terry]

When I look at the OP’s categories I spend 1200/month. I have other expenses of course such as pet insurance, food, vet expenses, my health insurance, medical bills, etc. My property taxes in Reno are 35/month on a condo I recently paid 211k for. Retired Happy, I spent my career in human services and services are definitely lacking. I worked in both Wisconsin and Kansas in my field and was shocked when I arrived here. Our homeless population has really increased. Homeless people are camping by the river, in Idlewild park, downtown, etc . If you go to the park early in the morning to walk you will see them.

 

[street]

About $1325 for all expenses, except food and large item things we buy. We have never used a budget and haven't in retirement either. I had to go back 5 years ago when preparing what are expenses were for a month/year for retirement projection. I had to adjust some but monthly expenses are now ~1325$.

 

[TheWizard]

I don't budget in retirement either, but it seems like my basic monthly expenses, on average, are around $2000/month or a bit less.

But that depends on how you account for predictable recurring expenses. For instance, I plan to buy a new AWD hybrid Mustang in the next year or two, whenever Ford gets around to making them. Unlikely to be a car loan; I'll shuffle some investments into checking and just pay cash.
So I could attribute $500/month to that eventual expense...

 

[TheWizard]

I saw some later replies about including income taxes as an expense.
So if I do that, my basic expenses go from $2000/month to around $4500/month...

 

[doneat54]

Our "Essentials" budget is around $5500/mo. No mortgage, but includes $1500/mo for healthcare. Taxes are around $650/mo.

 

[brett]

The question is pointless if the goal is some sort of comparison.

Does it not depend on where you happen to live and on your standard of living or how you live? Married, single, supporting others.

Our itemized budget, if we even had one, would be of no use to anyone. How can you compare cost of living or budget in East Rubber Boot to that of NYC or SFO?

 

[Koolau]

The question is pointless if the goal is some sort of comparison.

Does it not depend on where you happen to live and on your standard of living or how you live? Married, single, supporting others.

Our itemized budget, if we even had one, would be of no use to anyone. How can you compare cost of living or budget in East Rubber Boot to that of NYC or SFO?

All true, but it's fun (for some of us) to talk about. YMMV

 

[Livefree]

Our expenses total around $3200 per month..that includes food, spending money, Health Insurance utilities etc. It does NOT include taxes.


This obviously doesn't include discretionary spending, restaurants, vacations, home repair etc.


We typically end up spending around 5k per month.