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

[Koolau]

Yes, I did. $1600, Ouch!

Yikes! More than 10% of your budget - and it's not really a BTD! More of a necessity.

On the bright side, you aren't stuck in some airport hoping you'll get home in a week. Gotta count the blessings, I suppose.

 

[foxfirev5]

The end balance in my B&M checking account is about the same as last year. Therefore I assume my expenses are about the same. All nondiscretionary expenses go this route.

 

[perez99]

This is my first year in retirement and I ended up spending much, much more than what I planned when starting. $189K total.
Gifts & Donations 30,430
Home Related & Improvement 29,618
Travel 35,887
Solar System Investment 17,625
Food & Dining 13,169
Hobbies 11,610
Legal Services 8,807
Utilities / Phone 6,259
Extra Covid Expenses 5,042
Health Related 4,570
Shopping 4,164
Auto & Transport 3,992
Parents Support 3,420
Fees & Charges 2,690
Entertainment 1,204
Other 1,871

There were very significant deferred home related expenses, plus half of my investment in a solar system impacting this year. Also I gave a substantial monetary gift to one of my daughter to help her in buying a home. Lastly I ended up having to stay about 10 extra days (in quarantine) in Europe due to getting covid in the last few days of our vacation.
I'm still 100% in Firecalc, but I will be significantly reducing for 2023. I don't expect markets to suddenly turn around and provide tailwinds for the financial picture.

 

[Koolau]

17 years in and I think our first two years were the scariest. We blew through most of our cash and realized THEN that we hadn't really set up our funding of retirement very well. We had "enough" but it wasn't structured well (what with "too much" in 401(k) and tIRAs.) It has all w*rked out now, but at first, we had some second thoughts.

 

[aaronc879]

Yikes! More than 10% of your budget - and it's not really a BTD! More of a necessity.

On the bright side, you aren't stuck in some airport hoping you'll get home in a week. Gotta count the blessings, I suppose.

Yeah, it was a big purchase for me but I think it will help me keep this new job longer by reducing my physical labor outside of work so it should be worth it. Things could be a lot worse and i'm glad they are not.

 

[calmloki]

Well, our net worth is about $25k less than last year at this time. Thanks Mr. Market. Our state and federal taxes were about four times what we spent on living. The flood in our California house cleared out a lot of the clutter and has provided new carpet and fresh paint on the new drywall and got us to kick in for a new Saltillo tile floor (Many thanks to USAA homeowner's insurance for being very good). Think we were around $35k for regular expenses.

 

[athena53]

I have maybe $200 more in expenses through EOY but it looks like about $71,000 excluding travel and charity. Of that, $9,000 was window replacements that were semi-discretionary. Not falling apart but you don't want to get to that point. Another $18,000 was state and local taxes including property. My SS and pension income runs about $60K/year so one way of looking at it is that the investment income makes the difference between the basics and the fun stuff.

 

[Rianne]

Wow! Many ER impressive numbers. I only saw 2 posts close to ours.
Spending is spending and should include donations, travel, taxes, and everything that goes out. Explaining what or why takes away from the bottom line. It doesn't matter which savings account spending is from.

Our average is $80,000
No mortgage, 2 paid-for cars, an expensive pet, food we love, all living expenses, and I consider us relatively frugal.

 

[Koolau]

Wow! Many ER impressive numbers. I only saw 2 posts close to ours.
Spending is spending and should include donations, travel, taxes, and everything that goes out. Explaining what or why takes away from the bottom line. It doesn't matter which savings account spending is from.

Our average is $80,000
No mortgage, 2 paid-for cars, an expensive pet, food we love, all living expenses, and I consider us relatively frugal.

It's true that the bottom line is what money went out - no matter what it was spent for. I think it's tempting, however, to list items that are essential and then those that are discretionary. It gives (me) an assurance that I could live on a lot less if I had to. Living where I do, over half of our spend is still discretionary (contributions, travel, gifts - especially to kids, etc..) If I were willing to move back to an average COL area, I'm sure our current spend would be 2/3 discretionary. YMMV

 

[joesxm3]

Looks like my spend will be about $70,000. Up from around $60,000 in the previous years.

Total portfolio drop was significantly more than that. Running close to 20% when I checked last week.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

My 2022 spending results are in. I use Quicken to categorize all my spending. I traveled quite a bit this year. Other big ticket items include a new driveway, replaced all kitchen appliances, a new computer and a new OLED TV. About $3000 of the Travel expenses are for upcoming 2023 trips that I paid for in 2022. My spend of $82,157 for 2022 compares to $45,492 in 2021, so a pretty big increase.

Surprisingly, my Groceries/Household category is only up about $300 from 2021. I suspect this is lower because I was traveling for several more weeks this year than last year. It sure seems like I'm spending more on groceries, for sure. Eating while traveling is included in the Travel category.

The Taxes category is for income and property-related taxes.

Of Note, I got $1544 back in credit card rewards. I put that in the Cash & ATM category you see below. It more than offset the amount I actually took out of the ATM through the year.

I'm happy with the year. I expect to spend a comparable amount on 2023 travel. I don't expect to spend as much on the home (fingers crossed) or big ticket electronics/appliances.

 

[jollystomper]

Our 2022 total spending was $104,188. About $2,000 less than 2021. We ended up in "savings" mode. We need to improve our BTD techniques .

The top spending areas that accounted for about 90% of our total spending:

1. Taxes (federal/state/property): $24,313
2. Giving (Charity and gifts): $17,401
3. Medical(Premiums, visits, medicine, supplies): $14,355
4. Vacation/Travel: $12,105
5. Auto (insurance/gas/repairs/supplies/maintenance): $8,386
6. Food (Groceries, restaurant dining, takeout): $8,185
7. Utilities (electric, cable, internet): $4,431
8. Fun (Recreation/Entertainment): $3,786

Details that may interest only me:

- Living expenses (no taxes or giving): $62,474

- Food breakdown: Groceries 69% Restaurant Dining 19% Takeout 12%

- Fixed income (Pension and SS) coverage of total spending: 77%

- Fixed income (Pension and SS) coverage of living expenses: 128%

- Savings rate: 8%

- Biggest spending category increases: Vacation, Auto, Insurance

- Biggest spending category decreases: Household, Medical, Fun

 

[skyking1]

I mentioned the travel portion because that one has been and will be very lumpy. 2023 will see no expenditure on travel, for example.

 

[W2R]

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[/-] $1747 Miscellaneous (=$[-]121/mo[/-]) (=$146/mo)
$98 Video games (=$8/mo)
$[-]2,449[/-] $2,572 Groceries (=$[-]204/mo[/-]) (=214/mo)
$[-]4,455[/-] $4,424 Restaurants (=$[-]371/mo[/-]) (=$369/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[/-] $6,661 Medical (Medicare, BCBS, prescriptions, etc) (=$[-]554/mo[/-]) (=$555/mo)
$245 Dental (=$20/mo)
$[-]28,689[/-] $29,100 TOTAL spending for 2022 (plus income tax) (=[-]$2391/mo[/-]) (=$2425/mo)

And I was right! My totals changed just in the last 10 days of the year, due to last minute Christmas presents, an unexpected prescription, and some grocery shopping. I put the new (changed) numbers in blue. Hope this is not too OCD but at least now it is correct.

 

[Tom52]

I track all expenses. Total spending for 2022 was $62,866. That compares to $60,963 total spending in 2021. That is roughly a 3.1% personal inflation rate.

Biggest categories in 2023 were:

Home Repairs/Improvement $9199
Medical $8,183
Travel/Vacations $6,511
Groceries $5,638
Utilities $4,705
Property Tax $4,015
Car parts/repairs $3,134
House/Car Ins. $2,919
Dining Out $2,441
Internet/TV $1,923
Yard Maint. $1,541
Gifts $1,428
Clothes $1,402
Federal Tax $1,200
Gasoline $1,041

2023 spending should be similar + inflation unless we buy a new car or replace the roof. Since I will start collecting SS next month, all of our normal yearly expenses will be covered by DW and my SS. Not a bad place to be.

 

[Echard]

Very interesting to see the wide range of expenses.

 

[aja8888]

Very interesting to see the wide range of expenses.

Also what is interesting is seeing the large number of people here who keep excellent detailed records of their spending. I can bet that the average person on the street wouldn't have a clue what they spend annually if you asked them.

 

[PatrickA5]

Total spending $164,210 UGH!

Of the total, $81,588 was spent on 3 items that we won't have for the foreseeable future (new car, major home improvements, wedding).

Kids are off the payroll, no more weddings, two new cars that won't need to be replaced for a while and we pretty much have taken care of all of the deferred maintenance on the house. I'm hoping this is finally the year we start spending like we're retired (DW will retire this year). Expenses going forward should be in the $80K - $90K range. With a little work, we could probably get down close to the $60K range if we really needed to.

 

[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.

We ended 2022 at 103.7% of 2021 spending... shows you what I know.

 

[Koolau]

And I was right! My totals changed just in the last 10 days of the year, due to last minute Christmas presents, an unexpected prescription, and some grocery shopping. I put the new (changed) numbers in blue. Hope this is not too OCD but at least now it is correct.

Heh, heh, OCD is authorized where tracking spending is concerned! For many of us, it's how we got to FIRE. Carry on.

 

[REWahoo]

Total 2022 spending was $83,500, similar to what we spent in 2021. I did not include what we spent to purchase an EV and a hybrid SUV. They were paid for from the proceeds of the sale of our RV and truck, and and from the trade-in value of our old SUV.

 

[Vincenzo Corleone]

Our fixed expenses went up by 10.5% from last year.

 

[Dtail]

Final spending 97,898 for 2022. Budget was 102k.

 

[Music Lover]

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.

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.

Interesting. We cook most meals and only eat out or order in about once a week on average as we get sick of restaurant food quickly.

 

[kgtest]

This is fairly easy for me to compute since I run a 0 cash balance. $$ either gets spent, or goes into the market.

If I subtract what we invested from our total Gross Pay (still w*rking)...

$207,445.44

Includes all expense items like FICA, Health/Dental/Vision Insurance, Life Insurance, Childcare expense, food, travel, households expenses, auto expenses/repairs, activities, donations and also business expenses.

I have a LOT of room for improvement in 2023.