Final 2022 Cost of Living - Total Household Expenses (Not Including Travel)

[pb4uski]

Well, you made me look. According to Quicken our YTD 2022 spending is 100.23% of our 2021 spending... but we still have 10 days left and will be traveling for the holidays so I think when all is done we'll be at 101-102% of 2021.

 

[Surewhitey]

My question--how on EARTH are ya'll spending $500/mo on groceries??!!
I shop at several stores to get the best prices, we eat fairly cheap cuts of meat (burger, chicken). Now, I don't separate alcohol purchases out, but STILL!

I'm curious how you do it!

I think we eat pretty good and have at least one dinner for 8 / mo... We don't shy away from red meat and DW loves her "exotic" salads and berries. We steer clear of cheap veggies, rice and potatoes and go with asparagus, sprouts, cauliflower for veggies. We do our fair share of chicken and pork, but plenty of shrimp and salmon. We do a lot of our shopping at Sam's and Sprouts... And lots of bacon! Probably should be a budget on it's own.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

It might depend on where you live. It helps to have competing lower costs grocery stores around. Our local Consumer Checkbook found a around an $8K difference in annual grocery costs for an average family between the highest priced and lowest priced stores that sell groceries in the Bay Area - "The price winners were FoodMaxx, Foods Co., Grocery Outlet, Smart & Final, Sprouts Farmers Market, Walmart, and WinCo Foods—where many families could save $1,800 to more than $3,700 per year." Source - https://www.checkbook.org/san-franc...Stores-Offer-the-Best-Prices-and-Quality-2054

I have a master grocery spreadsheet where I have price shopped the foods we normally eat in a month and we can eat pretty healthy with a lot of produce and mostly organic foods and wild caught fish for $450 a month if we stick to the master list. But it does involve keeping a price list and shopping at different stores over the course of the month. Like a soup DH likes is $4 at one store and $2 at another. The stores in my local neighborhood are usually twice as much if not more on nonsale items than if I shop at Walmart or Grocery Outlet for the exact same items.

I think a master sheet would depress me now! I know which places typically have the best prices for what I buy and have mental set points that are becoming rapidly outdated. I don't know what a good price is for a dozen eggs anymore but I know that the cheapest is too much! I've actually started looking at grocery ads to keep a pulse on places I don't usually go. Also, before shopping, or sometimes while shopping, I can pull up SAM's or Walmart's app and compare the sale price where I am to their current "pick up" price as well as check availability. I know my personal inflation rate (to maintain the same lifestyle) has been much higher than my spending increase due to me substituting or balking completely.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I think a master sheet would depress me now! I know which places typically have the best prices for what I buy and have mental set points that are becoming rapidly outdated. I don't know what a good price is for a dozen eggs anymore but I know that the cheapest is too much! I've actually started looking at grocery ads to keep a pulse on places I don't usually go. Also, before shopping, or sometimes while shopping, I can pull up SAM's or Walmart's app and compare the sale price where I am to their current "pick up" price as well as check availability. I know my personal inflation rate (to maintain the same lifestyle) has been much higher than my spending increase due to me substituting or balking completely.

My master list and other tactics saves us $450 a month, which covers our monthly entertainment budget, and most of the entertainment budget is made up of various specials and deals as well. So combined that is around $900 or more savings a month, which makes me very happy. YMMV.

Our grocery budget used to be very high compared to the Consumer Expenditure Survey, but I found a lot of good tips, including the price spreadsheet, from The Tightwad Gazette books.

 

[wmc1000]

Ok, looks like we spent more this year over last after a huge reduction from 2019 and 2020.



Included travel this year although it was not much overall but since 2020 and 2021 had no travel our overall increase this year before travel was 8.5%

As a further breakdown of the $7058 for groceries, it consists of 938 on alcohol, 1668 dining out and 4452 on actual groceries. That's for 2 people other than holiday dinners.

 

[Midpack]

My question--how on EARTH are ya'll spending $500/mo on groceries??!!
I shop at several stores to get the best prices, we eat fairly cheap cuts of meat (burger, chicken). Now, I don't separate alcohol purchases out, but STILL!

I'm curious how you do it!

I guess the two of us eat better than you do, buy more organic, eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. We spend over $650/mo on groceries - but that includes personal care and household items like soap, shampoo, laundry, cleaning products, etc. We have dinner out 3 nights/week, and track liquor separately - not included in the $650/mo. We cook/bake everything from scratch too, we don’t buy processed or ready to eat junk (so not why we spend more). We could/will trim expenses if needed, but I have no intention of dropping to ***

You do you…it’s not a contest?

I don't know how people are spending $500/mo on food either. I spend less than $200/mo.

$200/month is $6.67 a day, *** $500/month is $8.33/day each for 2 people. No thanks…

 

[Dtail]

That's for one...so $500/2 isn't that far out of the realm.

Our monthly budget for 2 next year is 1,400 all in with groceries, liquor, restaurants. We basically don't cook anymore and this category is one of our pleasures of retirement.

 

[W2R]

2022 spending

I don't feel very certain when doing this before December 31st! But everyone else is. Just bear in mind, that my figures (like everyone else's) are tentative for another 10 days.

$1,447 Miscellaneous (=$121/mo)
$98 Video games (=$8/mo)
$2,449 Groceries (=$204/mo)
$4,455 Restaurants (=$371/mo)
$308 Gasoline (=$26/mo)
$2,017 Car (=$168/mo)
$7,315 House (prop. tax, insur., maint., etc) ($610/mo)
$3,620 Utilities (electric, nat. gas, water, internet, cell) (=$302/mo)
$57 Clothes (=$5/mo)
$6,642 Medical (Medicare, BCBS, prescriptions, etc) (=$554/mo)
$245 Dental (=$20/mo)
$28,689 TOTAL spending for 2022 (plus income tax) (=$2391/mo)

Comparing with prior years:
2021: Covid brain fog, no firm numbers but probably the same
2020: $29,791 TOTAL (plus income tax)
2019: $26,641 TOTAL (plus income tax)

We basically don't cook anymore and this category is one of our pleasures of retirement.

We don't cook anymore either! I spent 23 years of married life cooking almost every single day and now that I'm unmarried and retired, I decided enough was enough. Frank is fine with that. My numbers are for just me since we don't share our money.

 

[aaronc879]

Our monthly budget for 2 next year is 1,400 all in with groceries, liquor, restaurants. We basically don't cook anymore and this category is one of our pleasures of retirement.

If I had the money I would be eating out or ordering in twice a day(or more) 365 days a year. As long as you can afford it then go for it. I can barely afford the $150/mo that I spend so that's all I get to spend.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Until about 4 months ago I could easily only spend 200/month on groceries. I rarely eat out. But food has been skyrocketing even with shopping at Winco. Besides 3 cups of coffee a day I mostly drink water from the tap. I do cook for company weekly. Now I am spending closer to 250.

 

[Dtail]

If I had the money I would be eating out or ordering in twice a day(or more) 365 days a year. As long as you can afford it then go for it. I can barely afford the $150/mo that I spend so that's all I get to spend.

Understood.
Actually we buy prepared dinners 4x weekly and order in/pick up/go out 3x weekly.
Breakfast is at home, mostly cereal or eggs.
Lunch is typically a sandwich/salad or leftovers from dinner.

 

[Dtail]

I don't feel very certain when doing this before December 31st! But everyone else is. Just bear in mind, that my figures (like everyone else's) are tentative for another 10 days.

$1,447 Miscellaneous
$98 Video games
$2,449 Groceries
$4,455 Restaurants
$308 Gasoline
$2,017 Car
$7,315 House (prop. tax, insurance, maintenance, etc)
$3,620 Utilities (electric, nat. gas, water, internet, cell phone)
$57 Clothes
$6,642 Medical (Medicare, BCBS, prescriptions, etc)
$245 Dental
$28,689 TOTAL spending for 2022 (plus income tax)

Comparing with prior years:
2021: Covid brain fog, no firm numbers but probably the same
2020: $29,791 TOTAL (plus income tax)
2019: $26,641 TOTAL (plus income tax)


We don't cook anymore either! I spent 23 years of married life cooking almost every single day and now that I'm unmarried and retired, I decided enough was enough. Frank is fine with that. My numbers are for just me since we don't share our money.

I hear ya.
My DGF feels the same way and cooking is a chore for me. If you double your food number theoretically for 2, it is somewhat closer to my number in fact.

 

[W2R]

I hear ya.
My DGF feels the same way and cooking is a chore for me. If you double your food number theoretically for 2, it is somewhat closer to my number in fact.

Yes, it's pretty close!

We love not cooking, and regard all the eating out as a retirement luxury expense. Some retirees buy boats or planes, some travel internationally, but not us - - our luxury is to not cook any more.

I would have loved to have the option of retiring at such a young age as Aaron, but I could not afford that luxury. There was no ACA back then and private insurance was sky high; so I had to continue working until I qualified for retiree insurance from work.

 

[aaronc879]

Yes, it's pretty close!

We love not cooking, and regard all the eating out as a retirement luxury expense. Some retirees buy boats or planes, some travel internationally, but not us - - our luxury is to not cook any more.

I would have loved to have the option of retiring at such a young age as Aaron, but I could not afford that luxury. There was no ACA back then and private insurance was sky high; so I had to continue working until I qualified for retiree insurance from work.

If you knew then what you know now would you have retired earlier? You have said you can afford to spend twice as much as you need to spend so you probably could have been able to afford expensive health insurance for a few years.

 

[W2R]

If you knew then what you know now would you have retired earlier? You have said you can afford to spend twice as much as you need to spend so you probably could have been able to afford expensive health insurance for a few years.

Nope! Guess what? I got that money by living like a student (as you do) plus at the same time busting my rear working all those years in far from ideal circumstances and saving that money. And "for a few years"? Well, nobody knew that ACA was on its way, so I would have been a blithering idiot to quit with no subsidized retiree insurance, such as what I have now. I asked here on the forum at that time, and people here who I truly respect (such as the late Rich_in_Tampa) very rightly advised me that I had to continue and get that subsidized health insurance in place (or pay the gargantuan prices for unsubsidized health insurance, back then, which I couldn't afford). He was right.

 

[aaronc879]

Nope! Guess what? I got that money by living like a student (as you do) plus at the same time busting my rear working all those years in far from ideal circumstances and saving that money. And "for a few years"? Well, nobody knew that ACA was on its way, so I would have been a blithering idiot to quit with no subsidized retiree insurance, such as what I have now. I asked here on the forum at that time, and people here who I truly respect (such as the late Rich_in_Tampa) very rightly advised me that I had to continue and get that subsidized health insurance in place (or pay the gargantuan prices for unsubsidized health insurance, back then, which I couldn't afford). He was right.

You retired at basically the perfect time as far as stock investments go. No way you could have know you would retire at the start of the biggest bull market in decades. If stock went down your first few years things would be a lot different and you never know that ahead of time. Seems you made a great choice.

 

[W2R]

You retired at basically the perfect time as far as stock investments go. No way you could have know you would retire at the start of the biggest bull market in decades. If stock went down your first few years things would be a lot different and you never know that ahead of time. Seems you made a great choice.

Yes, waiting until I was SIXTY-ONE and a half years old probably sounds like a mah-vel-ous choice to somebody like you, who retired in his 30's or 40's IIRC? Go back to work for another 20-30 LOOOOOOOOOOOONG years and then tell me what an easy ride I've had.

I know you've had a rough time of it, and I don't mean to say things have been easy for you because they haven't been, I know it! My point is that most of us have a rough time at some time in our lives and we all do the best we can. And whining about it like I did in the last paragraph doesn't seem to make anything easier.

 

[JoeWras]

I tried to post a very detailed table here but failed.

In lieu of that, I'd like to share a few highlights.

Our expenses were about 60k (not including tax and charity).

We had home repairs of 15k. Ouch. That won't happen every year. Hopefully next year only a few hundred.

Our entertainment budget was high (3k) due to attending NHL hockey playoffs. Expensive. We won't do that again and instead will plow into travel.

Our groceries were in the 6k to 7k range, and dining out 1.5k to 2k. Amazing to see many others had very similar for empty nest couple.

Outside of home repairs, medical insurance was our biggest expense of almost 8k. And that's a great deal compared to what some others are paying.

I think it is a fun idea to compare.

 

[bigcmagor]

Quicken says $198k. Included $40k in household improvements and hurricane Ian repairs. Additional $242k in federal taxes. Gotta love profitable S corps.

 

[Koolau]

I did mention excluding discretionary expenses in the OP. How can you live on $10k? Do you live in a Tent? Seriously, Our Taxes, HC and insurance alone are over $10k

Yeah our HOA dues and RE taxes are $1000/month without batting an eye.

We don't consider our travel to be "discretionary" though we proved that it actually is during the pandemic. Otherwise, we travel to the mainland every year.

 

[aaronc879]

My total expenses for 2022 will be $12,621 give or take $20 or so if I spend a little more or less on food than I expect in the next couple weeks. This is for a single person in a paid off 1200sqft house in small town Wisconsin. Property taxes were a killer at $3156 but healthcare was free with ACA subsidies and general good health.

This thread was definitely started a couple weeks too early. I made a couple fairly large purchases in the last couple weeks of the year so my total expenses are now $14,510 instead of the earlier estimate of $12,621. That should be it since I don't plan on going out for NYE.

 

[tmm99]

This thread was definitely started a couple weeks too early. I made a couple fairly large purchases in the last couple weeks of the year so my total expenses are now $14,510 instead of the earlier estimate of $12,621. That should be it since I don't plan on going out for NYE.

Did you get a new snow blower?

 

[aaronc879]

Did you get a new snow blower?

Yes, I did. $1600, Ouch!

 

[W2R]

Yes, I did. $1600, Ouch!

Good decision! From what you said, you needed that snow blower, for sure.

 

[tmm99]

Yes, I did. $1600, Ouch!

Good for you! I'm sure it will make your life much easier.