Poll: How Much of Your Spending Is Actually Flexible?

[Dtail]

I reread this and understand that you're asking about fixed vs. discretionary spending. As some have mentioned, though, even that distinction is difficult to nail down. You can say you spend $500/month on groceries, but are you shopping at Aldi or Whole Foods?

I still didn't vote because I haven't got a clue. I know how much we spend but I have no detailed breakdown. I can tell you our average credit card bill but that includes a wide range of charges, some necessities, some wants. Basic groceries are on their but so are restaurant meals. Some insurance premiums are there but so are travel expenses. Home repairs are on there but so are charges for new bath towels or curtains.

If something bad happened and we needed to rein in our spending, we absolutely could. I don't need to know the current percentage in order to make that happen.

True not easy, especially for those who don't track expense categories.
For myself, I define discretionary as Travel, Entertainment, a portion of food, the majority of gifts.

 

[Onda]

True not easy, especially for those who don't track expense categories.
For myself, I define discretionary as Travel, Entertainment, a portion of food, the majority of gifts.

I don't track anything and it is fairly easy for me to answer. Housing, Health Insurance and what we eat/drink is 90% of it.

I don't plan to cut on those even if market drops 50%. (I am 98% in equities)

 

[HMMY]

75% of my expenses are core, but they represent a 1.5% withdrawal rate on my portfolio, so I could easily spend a lot more on lifestyle than I do.

 

[Rambler]

I guess it depends on how you define “core”. Our homes are paid for. Our cars are paid for. We have solar, and if we were a bit more careful, our monthly power bill would be zero. We could stop treating the grandkids to an occasional day in the hot tub and save 50% on gas. We could drive only the tesla around town, charged with the solar we didn’t use by turning the thermostat up a few degrees. And if we don’t go out of town, no gasoline bill.

But I digress. I’d have to guess here because core to me does not mean the same thing as core to my wife. For me, it is probably 20-25% of our spending. For her, spoiling the grandkids is more of a core spend than it is for me. So for her, maybe 35-40%. But if we cut Amazon off, and a few connected devices like watches and iPads, boy howdy could we save some money. Don’t really need to, because we probably spend about 2-2.25% anyway, and re-invest a lot of dividends.

 

[SJhawkins]

I did not vote as I'm a year or less out from being done with work.

I have been thinking about this a bit trying to decide how to look at it. For us when we move to the ACA the deductible would double our "core" expense burn rate if something did not work out heath wise. For now I punted and added few extra dollars to our 10 year TIPs ladder to account for that, will see how that works out!

 

[pb4uski]

I took total expenses for 2025 and for last 12 months from Quicken and then reduced it for all recreation (principally golf and travel), 50% of household expenses and 50% of miscellaneous and got ~69%. The other thing that I could exclude are Federal income taxes on Roth conversions and that would put us solidly in the 60-70% range.

 

[Ben]

No... its Evan Williams Vs Angels Envy... LOL

Bottom-shelf Mil Spec handle of "bourbon" for $11 LOL. Pretty sure it's rubbing alcohol with brown dye.

 

[sengsational]

We seem to need to offer a seminar on how to craft a poll as it is clearly not easy to do.

But isn't the point to yammer on about how one should interpret the poll?

You'd get a Three Yorkshiremen set of replies if the question was worded like "If your models suddenly indicated you had a 50% chance of running out of money before you croaked at your expected age, what percentage of your current spending would you cut?"

 

[NW-Bound]

...
But I digress. I’d have to guess here because core to me does not mean the same thing as core to my wife. For me, it is probably 20-25% of our spending. For her, spoiling the grandkids is more of a core spend than it is for me. ...

Grandkids! I remember your past post long ago that your wife was upset that she did not have grandchildren. Obviously, I missed your post talking about having them. I'd like to offer a belated congratulation.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

In theory all our spending is flexible.

 

[Lstansbury]

The Retirement Guy calls it "dignity level" of living, I think. What Quality of Life $ amount do you need to live in a dignified manner for the rest of your days?. E.g., I split clothing budget into "must have" amount and discretionary amount each year. Must have money for new socks when the heels become holey and have money for new underwear and shoes that aren't falling apart and a new raincoat if necessary. The rest of my clothing budget is marked as discretionary.

I do the same for all of my discretionary budget items. Before, when I looked at just my essentials budget, it seemed too low. I had cut clothes and personal care out of it completely! Because who needs the latest pants and $100 skin care treatments when they are broke and afraid of living under a bridge, was my thinking. But It was glaringly obvious to me that with a pension and social security, I wasn't going to have to go a whole year without new underwear if necessary. Or soap and toothpaste. So splitting out some items into the essentials category worked. And now I'm at 70% essential.

 

[Lorenzo]

The Retirement Guy calls it "dignity level" of living, I think. What Quality of Life $ amount do you need to live in a dignified manner for the rest of your days?. E.g., I split clothing budget into "must have" amount and discretionary amount each year. Must have money for new socks when the heels become holey and have money for new underwear and shoes that aren't falling apart and a new raincoat if necessary. The rest of my clothing budget is marked as discretionary.

I do the same for all of my discretionary budget items. Before, when I looked at just my essentials budget, it seemed too low. I had cut clothes and personal care out of it completely! Because who needs the latest pants and $100 skin care treatments when they are broke and afraid of living under a bridge, was my thinking. But It was glaringly obvious to me that with a pension and social security, I wasn't going to have to go a whole year without new underwear if necessary. Or soap and toothpaste. So splitting out some items into the essentials category worked. And now I'm at 70% essential.

"Dignity level" sounds kind of sad. I toiled for 35 years so I could manage to avoid the indignity in my old age of socks and underwear with holes in them?

 

[deserat]

Interesting replies and poll. For me the core is what I need to live my daily life at home, ie, housing, taxes, medical, food, fitness activities, auto expenses, etc. Anything above that would be gravy in a sense. I travel a *lot* (see my responses on travel threads...) so that could be cut from my spending and many times is the largest line item by a mile. However, that is not necessary. I look at core as what I would have to drop down to spending-wise if required. Frankly, it could probably go even lower ie, beans and rice, no auto, no gym (home exercises, etc). There is a range with regard to lifestyle costs and expectations. Sometimes deprivation makes one appreciate the extras one takes for granted. For example, I really appreciated being able to take a shower finally after my knee surgery - or I really appreciated hot food and a soft bed after camping, etc. I love travel, but I also love sleeping in my own comfy bed and cooking/eating the foods I like. I think the change in the perspective and senses in the different situations makes me appreciate things and experiences I have more and also makes me feel alive.

 

[disneysteve]

But isn't the point to yammer on about how one should interpret the poll?

You'd get a Three Yorkshiremen set of replies if the question was worded like "If your models suddenly indicated you had a 50% chance of running out of money before you croaked at your expected age, what percentage of your current spending would you cut?"

I still wouldn't know the answer since that's the very same question just worded differently. I don't know how much of our current spending is discretionary so I don't know what percentage it represents. If we had to cut spending, we would.

 

[marko]

Part of my annual SHTF analysis is to understand what are critical expenses and what are "toggle-able".

If OP is just asking about taxes, utilities, insurance(s), food, gas and spending allowance, then about 55%-60% of our spending is "flexible".

If we want to include spending that is central to our lifestyle (car leases, boats, travel, meals out, charities) and part of our "normal spending" but not critical, then our flexible after that drops to about 35%.

 

[DEC-1982]

If we had to cut spending, we would.

To me, that's the bottom line.

 

[Lstansbury]

"Dignity level" sounds kind of sad. I toiled for 35 years so I could manage to avoid the indignity in my old age of socks and underwear with holes in them?

well, I hope not! My dignity level is about $55k per year spending. and will adjust up every year by 3.5 percent. I came to financial independence late after spending a couple of decades with my head in the sand about money. Between the loss of time, and limited earning power (a woman with a fine arts degree working for a non profit) plus being single and born of a my long-lived gene pool, I need to make the nest egg last to 100. I'm sure your mileage may vary much in a much more dignified way than mine.

 

[Cobra9777]

I used a summary of the last 5 years, since discretionary varies a LOT year-to-year. My approach was: total spending, minus travel, one-shot home improvements, vehicle purchases, and tax on Roth conversions. Answer was 66% core and 34% discretionary.

I have no doubt that in a true SHTF scenario, I could cut further into the "core" spend. But I'm not going to attempt to analyze that any further.

Plus, we have two pensions and one SS that cover the "core" spending. And I can turn on the other SS at any time. So I'm unlikely to change spending behavior at this point.

 

[bluelight]

I used our numbers from 2025 to arrive with 70-80%. DH and I don't have expensive hobbies and due to his food allergies we rarely eat out. I like to travel, which unfortunately DH decided this is his last year of travel, so I assume that number will change for 2027.

 

[NW-Bound]

"Dignity level" sounds kind of sad. I toiled for 35 years so I could manage to avoid the indignity in my old age of socks and underwear with holes in them?

Eh, if you cover the holes with good outer garments, nobody knows and your dignity stays intact. That's why they are called "underwear" anyway.

PS. It's been a while but during the Great Recession, we used to talk about "going commando".

 

[marko]

Eh, if you cover the holes with good outer garments, nobody knows and your dignity stays intact. That's why they are called "underwear" anyway.

As you get older, you start to appreciate the value of good, well fitting undergarments as they relate to your dignity.......if you know what I mean.

 

[sengsational]

I still wouldn't know the answer since that's the very same question just worded differently. I don't know how much of our current spending is discretionary so I don't know what percentage it represents. If we had to cut spending, we would.

I think there's a different flavor to my alternate wording. How many people would be talking of wagu steaks and ultimate top shelf bourbon if they were staring at a 50% likelihood of going to the state sponsored old folks home? Yet with the "core living expenses", the interpretation varies wildly, from Yorkshiremen to wagu.

 

[CO-guy]

It is useful to know what percentage of spending is core living because it shows how flexible a person’s budget really is. If core living is a small share, most spending can be reduced if income falls or markets decline. Core living typically includes housing costs (HOA, property taxes, utilities, insurance, mortgage), food, health insurance and medical expenses, basic transportation, and essential services or subscriptions.

Anything else is flexible play money.

Wasn't sure how to vote. We constructed ADU rentals to offset our housing costs as part of our FIRE plan. Our mortgage will soon be paid off, but currently the rental income covers all housing costs (mortgage, taxes, insurance and utilities including internet and cell service). That makes our current housing costs effectively zero, and our home will soon be an income stream.

My better-half is still fully employed and I consult part-time. The total for food and medical expenses (I'm on her insurance plan) is roughly 20% of our total annual income. Transportation is negligible since we own our vehicle and drive less than 5k miles a year. Same with services and subscriptions. So the remaining 75-80% of our income is flexible, while giving our retirement and investment accounts time to grow. Without "zeroing out" housing costs, core living expenses are (more realistically) closer to 40%.

 

[DEC-1982]

Perhaps you want to know how much you can cut versus how much is core or discretionary.

I consider eating out as discretionary, but if I had to eat at home 365 days a year, that would drive me nuts. So I couldn't completely cut out eating out.

 

[disneysteve]

Perhaps you want to know how much you can cut versus how much is core or discretionary.

I consider eating out as discretionary, but if I had to eat at home 365 days a year, that would drive me nuts. So I couldn't completely cut out eating out.

Same. But there are numerous ways to economize when eating out. Sometimes my wife and I share one meal instead of each getting our own. Don’t get alcoholic drinks or even soft drinks. Just drink water. Don’t get dessert out. Join loyalty programs. Use coupons. I hope to never be in a situation where dining out is something we couldn’t do at all.