Let's Share Budgets!! PLEASE?!? - Page 2

[micah_mae_]

We pay $500/month for rent because we live in a 2 bedroom, 750 sq ft duplex in the ghetto. We have 2 kids, a dog and I'm pregnant. Were moving before this baby is.born though.

[suprgrl]

I pay $425/month because we live in a 1bedroom, 500sf house in the Appalachian mountains where there are no jobs (12% unemployment rate here), so no one would get renters if they charged anything higher.  

[EarthyMamaofDaisy]

$750/month rent

$715/month DH's child support

$25/month DH's cell phone, unlimted minutes, Metro PCS

free - my Safelink phone

$35ish - electric, have electric assistance

$251/ car payment

$64/ car insurance

not sure how much we spend on gas, I don't keep track

internet and satellite are free, my parents live in the other half of the duplex we rent from them and they let us have their internet password and they cover the $5/month for our satellite box on their account.

Food is expensive.  We get $264/foodstamps but my kids have food allergies and I try so hard to eat mostly organic and we spent a lot on food.  Plus my kids and I are on a lot of supplements.  My kids have digestive issues and my son is "failure to thrive" so a lot of money gets spent on supplements!  Then there's the little things like toilet paper and personal care items.  I get a lot from the Frontier co-op and shop sales with coupons for the rest.

[tiqa]

Income = 4500

Monthly Bills

Mortgage = $450

Property/School Tax = $600 (and that's WITH a discount!)

Car insurance = 90

Health insurance = 60

Internet = 50

Phone = 90

Electric = 100 budget billing

Gas = 90 budget billing

Trash = 30

Sewer = 15

Total:  1575

Envelopes/Savings:

Bulk meat = 100 a month set aside

Gas = 200 (a tank a week)

Online food orders (herbs and imports) = 100

Groceries = 400

Vacation fund = 400 (we try to go to Disney once a year)

Spiritual/holidays = 100

Total: 1300

Grand total = 2875

That leaves about 1725 left over... we rarely have that much at the end of the month.  We try to put 1000 in savings a month and the rest goes into a short term fund for car expenses, household stuff, garden stuff, and the occasional larger purchase like a new computer for DH or home gym equipment something like that. We recently moved so we had a lot of set up costs (freezer, lawnmower, etc.).  However, I've been pregnant this summer and pretty ill so we've had to spend way too much money on medicine ($80 a pop!) and fast food and takeout since I couldn't cook.  Stuff like that.  So this summer has been dismal as far as savings, and we actually typically went over for everything.

DH and I get $200 a month discetionary.  The kids get $100 each (although I use it for them).  This includes clothes, toys, for the kids.  It also includes clothes, my thrifting and cat's expenses, DH's nicotine habit and junk food and video games, and any eating out we do.  We usually go over with the eating out part.  =/

[honeybee80]

Originally Posted by 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.

Just wanted to update this to reflect some recent changes--slight increase in income, decision to pay less in loans and more in savings, and some tightening of other categories:

Monthly income:  $2860 (yeah, didn't go up quite as much as I thought it should have)

Rent:  $1005

Before/After School care:  $372

Student Loan:  $282 (minimum payment)

Car/Renters insurance:  $72

Kids Life Insurance:  $24

Electric:  $30

Food:  $300

Gas:  $120

Miscellaneous:  $50

Fun Stuff:  $50

This change allows me to put $400 in savings every month and $155 in a sinking fund to pay for any out-of-budget expenses that come up.  Fingers crossed I can stick to it.  I am a slight impulse buyer at times (not super often, but I do splurge every now and again, usually on things that are totally worth it ;))  Hoping the sinking fund will help to cover my butt on those purchases!  I also revamped my food budget quite a bit and I think I can make $300 realistic.  I am meal planning a month at a time and budgeting $150 to spend at Costco every month, plus $75 on a bigger regular grocery trip at the beginning of the month to stock up on veggies I can chop and freeze for stir fries and breakfast scrambles, and then $25 a week for the other 3ish weeks of the month for other fruits/veggies, etc.  September is going to be my experimental month, so thinking good thoughts for success! :)

[kitteh]

INCOME: around $3700-4000

RENT: $994
GAS/ELECTRIC:  $30
CABLE: $120
CELLS: $150

HOME: $150
LAUNDRY: $35
GROCERY: $380
ALCOHOL: $120 (this will go down once I get pregnant and stop having my nightly glass of wine)
BABY: $75 (this will go up a bit with the new baby, not sure by how much though)
TRANSPO: $25 (we don't own a car and take public transport when needed, but mostly rely on our bikes to get around. Luckily work is less than 2 miles away for both of us)
FUN $: 100-200

BABYSITTER: $75

STUDENT LOAN: $80

LIFE INS: $40
MEDICAL INS: $100

RENTERS INS: $25

CREDIT REPAYMENT: $ $241

SAVINGS: $500-1000 depending on the month and what other unexpected expenses come up

We currently have around $8k in savings and are hoping to get that up to at least 12-16k before the next baby arrives (hopefully next Spring/Summer)
 

[kayleesmom]

subbing

[pollyanna02]

budget

income 950/1050 my hrs vary from week to week

rent               325

electric            50

internet           50

cell phone       60

gas(car)          80

ins(car)           38

studentloan   150(just raised the amount paid to pay it off this yr

savings          (what ever is left over)

i don't have a food budget i get snap and use that (220/m )

i keep to this budget best i can because my hrs vary i could have a month that i might need to use savings to pay bills

[kathirynne]

Family of 5: 1 mum, 2 college-aged boys, 1 highschool-aged son, 1 daughter in Middle School

Monthly Income: $2,000

Rent: $950

Power:$125

Water:$60

Phone/Internet:$52

Groceries:$250

Insurance: $60

Petrol: $40