Let's Share Budgets!! PLEASE?!?

[holidaymama]

We are just coming off a one month vacation with our family at their house...sounds cheap, right? Not so much. I have gone through our budget and we were $700 over :( We have a great chunk in savings, but we are trying to buy a new house so that doesn't justify it! I feel as though we have been very frivolous for the last six months and with me in grad school as well, we have been going through at least $300 of savings/month (kinda planned with grad school, but we should have plenty to make it through the month without!)

Ok, so here is our budget that we have NOT been sticking to:

Income: $5800/month

Mortgage (insurance and taxes): $1000

Savings: $230

Car Payment: $500 (it is actually $296 but we want to pay it off a couple of years sooner)

Grad School: $820 

College Debt: $295 (my $283 is deferred)

HOA: $64

Dish/Internet: $116

Phone: $155

Insurance (car): $130

Electric: $200 (that is an average)

Water: $110

Groceries: $900

Gas: $400

Piano: $95

Dog: $65

Car: $50 (oil and maintenance that hubby does)

Boys: $200 (sports/clothing/birthday parties, etc...anything related to the two kids)

Me: $100

Hubby: $100

Eating out: $100

Clothing: $100

Medical: $50

However...this has not happened in a long time.

I was thinking that other people's budgets and how you stick to them would help put my world in perspective. I feel crappy with how much we spend...but feel like I just don't even think about it when I used to be SOOO good at sticking to a budget. I feel like the more we make, the worse I get with budgeting :( 

[micah_mae_]

We just found out that we’re pregnant (yay) so our budget has changed to accommodate paying a mw and chiro care.

We are both "nickel and dimers", so we find that we work better if we use Dave Ramsey's "Envelope System".

Income: 3800

Rent: 500 (750 sq ft duplex in the ghetto, thought we’d save money..wish we hadn’t.)

Cells/Internet: 260 (This is too much but we are under contract. We will be getting rid of it asap.)

Star Card: 100 (Worst mistake ever.)

Water: 60

Electric: 150 (Our AC is weird and not working optimally, I think that's why our electric is so high.)

Van: 417

Insurance: 209 (Cars and renters.)

Gas: 600 (We are 30 min from DHs office and my kids have therapies several times a week=lots of gas.)

Kids: 120 (Diapers, pull ups, toiletries, etc)

Other: 60 (In case we need toilet paper, milk, etc)

Food: 300

Farmers market/csa: 100

ADT: 50 (Necessary in this area)

Chiropractor: 100

Midwife: 200

Savings: 300

Personal money/entertainment/family fun: 240 (This includes eating out, taking the kids to the Children's museum, etc)

[JollyGG]

We find that we stick to our budget fine Sept. - May, but as soon as summer childcare, trips, camping, summer sports, etc. start happening our budget goes to crap. I'm, right now, just accepting that I need to budget a bit more for some things just until back to school expenses are behind us and then I anticipate things returning to normal. 

[SunRise]

Ill play.

income / mth 5300 (im paid bi-weekly so this does not included the 2 extra pays every 6mths with in a month nor bonuses)

mortgage (taxes, insurance etc): 843.16
house maintenance: 156.84
home improvements: 200

savings: 500
ira: 500
other investments: 500

travel (vacation): 300 - 350
spending money (clothing, home stuff, misc): 100

"sinking" fund: 125 (covers - 600car insurance; 300vet; 200dentist; 300car (for the year))

food (groceries, eating out, pet food, etc): 500

car: 0 (paid of a few years ago, will drive another few years)
gas: 60 / mth (i walk/bike to work)
maintenance: oil changes etc, covered under sinking fund

health insurance (kids): 393.48

utilities: 80 in summer up to 350 in winter
water bill: 45 / quarter
phone&dsl: 54 / mth

debt: 0

daycare: 500-600 (for now, may increase in a year for montessori tuition)

extra curricular (through the school year): 60 / mth (violin); 25 / leagues
summer camps: approx 600

287 / mth left over which goes to clothing budget, overflow eating out, , misc.

need to get & add to budget
health insurance for me: none (ridiculous amounts - 1300 / mth w/ deductible - which I had and dropped and refuse to pay. waiting it out)
life insurance: none (budget in 80/mth)
new car: budget in for 300 / mth
 

*this is my written down budget, but I am currently doing a kitchen reno so the home improvements account is more, travel is less, but once the reno is completed this is what I want to follow for the year.

*bonus & 2 extra pay checks go into mostly savings, or big car maintenance expense or a little splurge or presents...

* budget for one adult, 2 kids.

* i am also considering buying a new home next spring, one that is already fixed.

Edited by SunRise - 7/13/12 at 9:58am

[holidaymama]

Happy to say that I changed our phone plan today so that should save us about $30/month and our Dish package to the lowest, so that will save us $40/month! I told my husband that he can either watch golf on TV or he can take the $40 we save and golf two times :) He liked that option!

[JamieCatheryn]

Mortgage (tax, ins) 950

Car insurance 140

Gas and Electric 130

Water 65

Phones and Internet 100

Credit Debt/soon will be student loan debt 500 (plus any large windfalls)

Gas 160

Grocery/Eating out/Garden/Pet food 800

Midwife 100

Clothes/Home/Car Maintanance/Homeschooling/Gifts 200 (plus any small windfalls)

2 adults, 2 kids+1 on the way, 1 dog, 2 paid off cars. 1 Income of 3k/mo give or take a couple hundred.

Vacations (family visits) kinda ruin us and we end up catching up for a while, hence the credit card debt this year. We may move closer to those we visit most often, that will help save half the cost to go visit them (2 hotel nights and the gas to get out there). Also DH may be getting a promotion and raise and we would move to rent a house half the cost of our mortgage, giving us an extra thousand a month to clear debt fast and save up.

[phathui5]

Income: $3000

Rent: $850

Tuition: $500 (haven't been able to pay this in full every month)

Childcare: $400-600

Water: $100

Electric: $80

Gas (house): $80

Phones: $140

GEICO: $120

Life ins.: $52

TV: $60

Weight Watchers: $42

That's doesn't factor in groceries or eating out (which we've been doing lately and need to stop).

[EmsMom]

Income: 3193

rent(includes heat and water)          1000
electric $                                             45
intenet and phone:                              65
food                                                  350
gas 150 budgeted, use about           100
therapist                                             60
cell                                                      30
renters ins.                                         10
car ins.                                               90
life ins.                                               22
kids tuition                                       350
violin lesson (1 per month)                60
divorce attorney 100                        100
netflix                                                 14

total 2236, everything else is either saved or invested unless I need new clothes or we go away or something.  Kids clothes generally come from another source so I rarely buy them.  And I don't usually use up the whole grocery budget. Health insurance is blessedly through my soon to be ex.
 

[suprgrl]

Income (including child support for my two kids) $1300

Rent: 425

Electric: 75

Propane: 30

Phone: 55

Food: 200

Gas: 160

Internet: 20

Car maintanence: 30

Clothes/Toiletries/Eating out: 40-60

I don't have health insurance. There's no way I can afford it right now. My ex pays our car insurance, so that helps. And my car is payed for.

I try to save about $200/month and use about $100/month toward paying off my grad school loans while I'm still in school. But this summer has meant a lot of extra expenses with childcare, trips, and keeping the kids from being bored to death. Also I bought us plane tickets to visit my brother and his family at Christmas time so my kids can meet their new cousin... so that ate up the money I would have been putting into savings over the last couple months... but it will be worth it.

I stick to my budget because I have to. My other option is to live on school loans, which I did for a few months through the winter and the thought of having to pay it back started giving me panic attacks. So I work really hard to stay inside my budget so that I can have a good life for my boys in the future without owing people (banks) a chunk of my future paycheck (which will hopefully be a lot more than what it is now!).

[Drummer's Wife]

These electric bills are shocking me! The bill I got today is $465.

I might be brave enough to post a budget soon. Maybe.

[honeybee80]

Income:  2700 (includes child support, could go up soon; does not include raise that should be reflected in my next paycheck)

Rent:  1005 (includes all utilities (except electric) + wifi) 

Electric:  30

Student Loan:  500

Before/After care for kids:  500

Car/renters insurance:  72

Kids life insurance:  24

Food:  400

Gas:  120

Miscellaneous:  75

Entertainment:  50

It looks like it falls short every month, but I do get an extra paycheck 2 months out of the year that is used for additional expenses and to make things work the rest of the year.  My raise is much needed (and I thought it was coming in today's paycheck, but it's not :().  I also have been paying more on my student loans than I need to (my bill says 282/mo), as I really dislike having debt, but it's still going to be quite awhile till that is paid off.  Either way, it's really tight and I would like to try to cut my food bill down a little bit.  A few years ago I was really good at keeping food expenses down, but I think my kids have started to eat more ;)  I'm also really lucky to have my car paid off and to have my parents pay my phone bill--I'm on their family plan.

[MrsBone]

Our budget and bills are about to drop significantly, so here's what it will look like:

income: 3641.00

Mortage-                                                             $0.00

car payment-                                                       $0.00

gas-                                                                    $330.00

utilities-                                                               $701.00

entertainment-                                                      $23.00(this is like movie rentals, netflix, games..etc)

groceries -                                                           $680.00(trying to lower this, includes alcohol)

restaurants-                                                         $200.00(small stops for bottles of water, snacks for the kids and I and eating out for dates for DH and I)

pharmacy-                                                           $140.00

home and education-                                            $291.00

insurance(life, health, car, homeowners)-                $832.71

miscellaneous(gift giving, charity)-                          $120.00

personal care(make-up, hair care, etc)-                   $23

taxes on our house-                                              $300.00

savings-                                                                none right now :(

[sundaya]

This is us:

Income: 3850

Mortage-                                                         1040.00

vehicle gas                                                             200

electric and water                                                      210

groceries (includes toiletries, alcohol, et )              837

cell-phone, cable, internet                                    90

life insurance                                                       33

sinking funds (home maint/vehic maint/vehic insurance/other)   700

cash personal spending                                          40

savings                                                                 700                                             

[cristina47454]

Where do you all live that your housing cost is so low???? We are in CT and dh was bemoaning the fact that this is such an expensive state to live in. I grew up in CA, where things are CRAZY, so CT seems moderate to me. But our rent is $1700/month!! Yes, we rent a house, so maybe that's a luxury (??), but with three kids and dog (who has recently passed on), apt. living wasn't really an option...and there aren't really apartments here anyway. When we lived in MA, the house we rented was $1275, and that seemed really affordable...but even that is much hgher than a lot of you are paying.  Can't even imagine if we were to buy a house and had to worry about taxes/insurance/maintenance.  I'm feeling like it's hopeless :(

ANd, want to add, it's not like we are living in a beautiful home. We looked for a rental for a LONG time, and this was the most affordable one we could find, and seems to be on the low end of the going rate.

[MrsBone]

We live in Texas! Housing is low cost here! :) 1100.00 included our mortgage, and taxes! Our house is 1850 sq. feet but we also live in a rural area, that's why we moved out here.The low mortgage was offset by the price of gas to go anywhere though!

[Vancouver Mommy]

This thread makes me sad. My mortgage pmt and taxes on a 1100 sq ft townhouse is $2,700/mo.
 

[Bokonon]

Originally Posted by cristina47454 

Where do you all live that your housing cost is so low???? We are in CT and dh was bemoaning the fact that this is such an expensive state to live in. I grew up in CA, where things are CRAZY, so CT seems moderate to me. But our rent is $1700/month!! Yes, we rent a house, so maybe that's a luxury (??), but with three kids and dog (who has recently passed on), apt. living wasn't really an option...and there aren't really apartments here anyway. When we lived in MA, the house we rented was $1275, and that seemed really affordable...but even that is much hgher than a lot of you are paying.  Can't even imagine if we were to buy a house and had to worry about taxes/insurance/maintenance.  I'm feeling like it's hopeless :(

ANd, want to add, it's not like we are living in a beautiful home. We looked for a rental for a LONG time, and this was the most affordable one we could find, and seems to be on the low end of the going rate.

I live in San Diego, and there are no single family home rentals in decent school districts for under $1700, and even that is pushing it.  Most home rentals I've seen have been over $2000/month, and we've paid as much as $2500/month for 1500 sq.ft. with very little yard, but in a fairly nice neighborhood.

[Bokonon]

Originally Posted by Vancouver Mommy 

This thread makes me sad. My mortgage pmt and taxes on a 1100 sq ft townhouse is $2,700/mo.
 

Is that in Canadian dollars though?  Does it include homeowner's association fees?  That amount sounds pretty comparable to what you would pay in good areas of San Diego for 2 or 3 bedroom condo, including taxes and HOA (which are usually $350-500/month).

[cristina47454]

Some of the newer posts make me feel a little less like I'm crazy. We have been struggling financially for several years. If I were to go back to work, even part time, it would really help, assuming childcare costs wouldn't eat up my salary. DH talks about moving somewhere more affordable, but I'm less than an hour from my 80 yr old parents and there is something so final about moving far away :(. And yet looking at some of the housing costs posted here (esp in relation to income) I feel like we're stupid NOT to move. Something's gotta give (and sorry for derailing the thread)

[SunRise]

I live in a low cost of living area but the taxes are one of the highest taxes by value of house in the US.   Half my payment covers property and school taxes. I also bought a house half of what I qualified for ... but if I went all out, lets say 150,000 house would be taxed @ 7000 / yr. Its not a state to retire in  because your monthly tax payment would still be very high.  Also, in this city, most of the houses are from the early 1900's and lots of updating is usually required.