How much did you spend in 2006?

[bbbamI]

$ 57,225

$20K was paying off mortgage and home inmprovements.

 

[Helen]

Well, I'm relieved. I thought everyone here lived on $40k per year.

I usually figure this out when I do my taxes. I have my spreadsheet for my future savings plan and I stick to that through auto deductions. After that I spend what's left guilt free.

I did get some gift money this year that was spent vacations. I think my 2006 spending will be the highest yet.

 

[Corporateburnout]

So far only a couple of people living on 40K or less per year both are single. As I've stated on a few occasions it would extremely difficult to achieve this level of spending unless you plan to deprive yourself.

2006 Spending 129,000

major contributors:

40,000 Total taxes including Property
16,000 Home remodeling (new windows)
15,000 Mortgage
9,000 Food
7,000 utilities

 

[ERD50]

4800 Mortgage principal

I sometimes wonder - should mortgage principle be considered 'spent' money? It seems like more of a 'transfer' of money from one account (cash) to another account (Home equity).

Of course, it does need to be considered from a 'cash flow' POV - it moves from liquid to less-liquid, but, IMO, it is not really 'spent'.

Same thought on home improvements. If I spend $10K on a remodel, do some of the work myself, and I can reasonably expect it to add $10K to the value of the house - did I 'spend' the money, or just 'transfer' it from cash to Home Equity?

Those two examples just seem different from spending the money on something (pure consumables) that does not add to your net-worth.

-ERD50

 

[DRiP Guy]

Expenses 1/1/2006- 12/31/2006

Home/exp $17,781
Auto/exp $14,904
Travel/dine/ent $5,516
Cash-Misc $4,297
Groceries $3,412
Utilities $2,353
Insurance $1,280
Charity $872
Computer $768
Clothing $210
Medical $106
Bank Chrg $30
TOTAL $51,528​

2007 should be nice -- I can expect no mort and no car payments, so even though I will still have costs, they will be a lot less - those two alone were $32586 [edited to correct, I had grabbed the wrong cell)
(taxes not included)

 

[LOL!]

A little bit more than last year. We expended $145K with about $50K of that being taxes.

 

[Meadbh]

Personal spending approximated $90K in 2006. That included $45K for a piece of property, a nonrecurring event. The remaining $45K is a reasonable estimate of basic expenses in retirement, since all work related expenses are channeled through a corporation. However, taxes would be reduced in ER.

(all figures Canadian)

 

[dex]

I feel like a piker with my spending estimate compared to what others have posted. Maybe when I get a bit more comfortable with my spending rate; I'll increase it.

I'm single and don't have any debt.

I don't have my 2006 spending to contribute. Considering I worked have and was RE the other half I don't thing it would have much value anyway.
Here is my budget for 2007. The only item I don't have an estimate for is income taxes.
I will be using Quicken to track my expenses in 2007 so I'll be able to give better info the (unless I pull a DanTien).

Basic Living
House
(2,700) House RE Tax
(2,496) House HOA
(960) House Gas & Electric
(439) House Ins.
(300) House Misc Purchases
(55) House Misc Items
(6,950) Subtotal House

Car
(354) Car Routine Maintance
(926) Car Ins
(120) Car Registration
(1,200) Car Gas
(2,600) Subtotal Car

Personal Expenses
(1,200) Cash - Misc
(480) Health Club
(336) Cell Phone
(2,000) Food
(600) Wine
(204) Netflix
(588) House Internet Access
(2,000) Dining Out/Entertainment
(2,244) Health Ins.
(300) Clothes
(498) Misc
(10,450) Subtotal Personal Expenses

(20,000) Total Basic Living

Incremental Living
(17,165) Travel/Education/Etc
(275) Hobby Membership
(1,054) Misc Hobbies
(906) Furniture Loan - No Interest
(600) Storage
(20,000)Total Incremental Living

(40,000) Total Basic + Incremental

Accruals
(500) Auto Repair
(2,000) Auto Replacement
(500) House Repair
(400) House Appliance Replacement
(1,400) Unexpected
(200) Computer Replacement
(5,000) Total Accruals

(45,000) Total Budget

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

here's this piker's budget for 2007 based on last year (sorry about the columns off, it looked better when i was typing it.

mortgage 5018.16 (about ~$70k left, might pay off in 2007)
real estate tax 1123 (cheap since selling house 2day would bring county $10k)
wind insur 2980 (2006 was 1/2 that, this is a projection only)
liability 1266
flood insur 365
water/trash 936
electric 1500
cable/dsl 540
cell phone 576
auto pymts 4963.2 (lease on t-bird ends april, will pay cash on next car)
auto gas 2114 (includes road trip based on last one to blue ridge mtns)
auto tires 400 (probably over estimate but i can be hard on tires)
auto maint 240 (considering bmw so i'll save on maintenance lol)
auto ins 1250 (& that's after all the tickets came off)
auto msl 500 (sometimes i hit stuff on the highway)
food & cash 10500 (no idea where all the cash goes, i'll track this better in 07)
medical ins 6354 (06 estate paid, 07 300/month budget here incls deduct)
rx 840 (eye drops not covered by insurance, the creeps)
home improv 1959 (this was mostly two bamboo hedges i put in in 06)
la fitness 432.48 (vanity, um, i mean health at any cost)
restaurants 667 (based on cc bills, not cash)
books/cd's 170
tolls 40
clothing/msl 1088
dental 217 (need to increase this as i'm not taking out dds ins.)
techno 411 (computer craps out ever 3-4 years it seems)
msl 500 (always pad the expenses)
46949.84
36968.48 (07 budget after house paid & after paying cash for car)

 

[DRiP Guy]

here's this piker's budget for 2007 based on last year (sorry about the columns off, it looked better when i was typing it.

Yeah, I noticed there was a table button in the tools, but I done went and forgetted any HTML I ever knew, so I just let it be, myself.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

cool. thanx. more buttons to push. i love pushing people's buttons.

 

[DRiP Guy]

cool. thanx. more buttons to push. i love pushing people's buttons.

Here is some BB code help. I am gonna mess with the following bits in just a moment. If I get 'er done, then I will share my methods!

http://docs.simplemachines.org/index.php?topic=57

This is a table.
" "Inserts a table. It can't be used alone, or it has no sense!
["tr] "Inserts a row into a table. This BBCode can't be used alone.
" "Inserts a column into a table. This BBCode can't be used alone.

 

[DRiP Guy]

Well, the mechanics of it are here, but unless there is a way to expedite moving row/columnar data and incorporating the BBcodes, this is a lot more trouble than it's worth!

 

[DRiP Guy]

Okay, Excel will generate HTML code for you from your spreadsheet data if you like (I guess I knew this but never messed with it) but it is exceedingly sloppy. I did a simple 8X8 cell table and it looks to be about 100 lines. Plus you would then need to strip that down, and exchange the HTML format tags for the BB format tags... ugh.

And oops, I guess I have wandered way off topic here, sorry.

 

[DRiP Guy]

Expenses

Billy&Akaisha

Me


Housing

27.0%

34.5%


Transportation

21.0%

28.9%


All other expenses

15.0%

18.0%


Medical

12.0%

0.2%


Food

12.0%

6.6%


Entertainment

10.0%

10.7%


Phone/Internet/postage

3.0%

1.5%

 

[DRiP Guy]

Okay, I did it, (above) and you can quote the above post to see the dirty work, but taking from Excel and then 'strip/convert' to BBcode was a lot more trouble than it's worth. I know there must be a better way, but I don't have it tonight!



I promise, no more messing with tables on this thread.

 

[JustCurious]

For the two of us, $78,500. That excludes payroll taxes and savings, and includes everything else.

 

[Nords]

I sometimes wonder - should mortgage principle be considered 'spent' money? It seems like more of a 'transfer' of money from one account (cash) to another account (Home equity).

Of course, it does need to be considered from a 'cash flow' POV - it moves from liquid to less-liquid, but, IMO, it is not really 'spent'.

Same thought on home improvements. If I spend $10K on a remodel, do some of the work myself, and I can reasonably expect it to add $10K to the value of the house - did I 'spend' the money, or just 'transfer' it from cash to Home Equity?

Both the credit union and my spouse tell me that the money is "spent". Or at least they made interesting predictions of what would happen if I stopped transferring money from my checking account...

 

[JohnDoe]

deleted

 

[Texas Proud]

WOW.... a lot of big spending by some who talk about LBYM... your means are WAY more than most... I could live way below my means with what you guys SPEND...

BTW, I have no idea how much I spend..... I don't keep track... I just think, do I need it Do I want it even if I don't need it If I answer yes to both I get it...

And I have saved some money every month even with my Egypt vacation...

 

[saluki9]

WOW.... a lot of big spending by some who talk about LBYM... your means are WAY more than most... I could live way below my means with what you guys SPEND...

BTW, I have no idea how much I spend..... I don't keep track... I just think, do I need it Do I want it even if I don't need it If I answer yes to both I get it...

And I have saved some money every month even with my Egypt vacation...

how can you make judgements about LBYM when you don't know the M?

If I make $200 and spend $90k am I worse off than somebody who makes $70 and spends 40?

 

[dmpi]

Not including income tax, I spent $25800.
About the same as the year before.
There are only two of us and we have no kids so we can live pretty cheap.

 

[Tracy42]

too much! got to get a handle on the spending if ER is in the future! My name is Tracy and I am (apparently) a shopaholic. About 183,000--90,000 of which was taxes. UGH.

 

[Bikerdude]

It appears that some of the people answering this question are retired, others are semi retired and still others are still working. So this is an apples to oranges comparison. I don't know the real purpose although it is interesting. For my part I'm retired and did so at age 52. No spouse still working, no part time job, just full time retirement. Worth every penny.

 

[LOL!]

.... So this is an apples to oranges comparison. I don't know the real purpose although it is interesting.

I didn't think the purpose was to make comparisons. I thought there could only be 2 reasons:
A. A subtle suggestion to everyone to track their spending, so they could spend more or spend less if they wanted to.
-or-
B. A chance to ask nords about his charitable contributions.