Would you mind sharing your monthly budget? - Page 5

[Tradd]

I'm single, but hey, I'll join in. :-) I live in Chicago - VERY expensive city

Take home $1250 every two weeks (min. $40K year - I get overtime). My health insurance of $10/paycheck comes out of that. I will soon begin contributing 6% into my 401K. I have $32K in an IRA (rolled over from 401K at my previous job). $400 in savings (I had more, but had to take some out for some car work). I have NO credit card/student loan debt (cc paid off and cut up, never had student loans)

$650 rent - ALL utilties included
$55 landline phone/DSL
$10 Tracfone cell (average)
$116 car & renters insurance
$260 (minimum) car payment - 2005 Ford Focus bought new (only $6K left - paying it down)
$150 car gas (I have a 40 mile/day roundtrip commute)
$200 groceries (this does include things like toilet paper, feminine supplies, etc.)
$100 eating out
$240 church tithe
$75 missionary support (friends)

That leaves $644 left over, which I use towards paying extra on car loan, clothes if I need them (only several times a year), savings, helping a friend who has needed it right now. Buy the occasional book. Don't have a TV, so no cable bill. Could be better on groceries/eating out, but it's something I'm working on. I'm VERY lucky all my utilities are included in my rent - even central a/c! It really cushions my budget. Virtually all of my bills are the same each month, which helps. Really food is the only variable.

[Mama Dragon]

This month:
Rent 950
Power 160
Gas (furnace) 20
Phone 10 (normally 160, I got a credit when I renewed out cell plans a while ago)
Student Loans 100
WoW 30
Geico 135
Satellite 70
Food 700-800
Gas (auto) 100-200

[msjd123]

Originally Posted by mightymoo

It does seem like even when you make more, there is always something else that sucks the money away. You think that if you just made more, you'd have so much extra, but once you make more, there is something else you need or should pay for.

Very, very true. We have added expenses as our income has gone up, but it's always been stuff that we really do need. In the last 3 years, we've added private disability insurance (we're not covered by the state) and life insurance, we've added to our retirement contributions, and we've started contributing to an emergency fund. Those all seemed optional 5 years ago, but now, not so much.

[yogamama]

Thanks for posting everyone. I am going to work on a new budget. The one thing that I know for sure is that our current mortage is only $1400 and that is cheap, cheap, cheap for our high cost of living area (Chicago). We have been in our house for almost 9 years and it has more than doubled in value. The housing market is so insane... even as prices flatten out, the prices are still sky high.

[Scribe]

Sounds like my mortgage is about the same size as yours, yogamama, so I'll post what we're doing. Much as it bugs me...

Joint Budget:

More or less fixed:
Mortgage (inc. property tax): $1,400
Car payment: $400 (we're trying to pay it down faster, I think our actual required payment is around $300)
City (includes water, sewer, electricity, trash): $150
Gas: $50
Cable: $120
Internet: $55
Cell phones: $85
Netflix: $20
Pet insurance: $30
Groceries: $400
Eating out: $150

Variable or not paid monthly:
Dog food/meds/vet costs: $200
Gifts: $100
Entertainment: $100
Car insurance: $60
Misc: $80

Total: $3,400

Personal budget:

To joint account: $1,700
Credit cards: $700 (going up to $900 next month)
Student loan payment: $260
Misc (includes doctor's co-pays, prescriptions, and all manner of irresponsible spending): $340

[Godaime]

Housing: 1365 (rented 1 bed apt...sigh I hate high cost of living)
Electric/Gas 90
Water/sewer 13
Car Insurance 114
Cable/Internet 55
Cell phone 55
Food 300
Gas for car 50
Train Pass 40

Total 2082 Theres probably more costs...like health insurance directly out of paycheck, and I'm not exactly sure how much we spend on entertainment.

Looks like I have the highest housing ...even though I'm only renting a one bedroom apt...sigh..

[Mizelenius]

Originally Posted by yogamama

The one thing that I know for sure is that our current mortage is only $1400 and that is cheap, cheap, cheap for our high cost of living area (Chicago). We have been in our house for almost 9 years and it has more than doubled in value. The housing market is so insane... even as prices flatten out, the prices are still sky high.

On the plus side, as crazy as Chicagoland prices are, they don't hold a candle to California.

Any Californians on this thread? I just want to know how you manage!

[yogamama]

I don't know how families in California or other super-high cost of living areas survive. It is hard enough here where we are...

I am going to take a stab at our budget. I pulled this info off of a Quicken report of our actual monthly spending:

Mortage $1457
Insurance (car & home) $108
Natural gas (heat) $ 102/mo on 12 month plan
Electric $120/mo average (more during summer!)
DSL & Phone $90
Cell phones $90
Car Loan $280
Gasoline (2 cars, we each fill the tank about 3-4 times per month) $400
Childcare (about 15-20 hrs a week) $400
Groceries and household $500
Debts $400
Church & Charities $150

Total fixed expenses = $3697

Of course we also buy clothes, gifts, eat out, rent videos, make repairs on the house and car, etc... I am also not including contributions to our retirement and direct withdrawls from our paychecks for health insurance.

Our utlilities and debts are the hardest for me to swallow. We have a 4 bedroom house in a modest neighborhood, but the heating and cooling costs are high. I just recently returned to work part-time and now we need to pay off debts that accumulated over the past few years.

I think we are going to refinance to pay off credit card debt. Ouch. We spend alot of money.

[Maggi315]

Hey, everyone with an insane mortgage payment, I am right there with you! I totaled our housing costs including: mortgage, insurance, taxes, electric, trash, water/sewer, and added in $100 for maintenance/repairs: $3000

Ouch!!! If we could find a decent 4 bedroom house for less, I would gladly move. but around here, you either have to move way, way out (gas and time would be a major problem) or you have to live right downtown, which we did until last year when crime and drugs became too much to bear!

[**Shiney**]

I'll join in. We are in Ca and heres our budget:

Rent: 1500.00
gas:60.00
Electric: 100.00
Water: 70.00
Cable/dsl: 80.00
Phones: 100.00
Dance: 30.00
Baseball: 30.00
Gas Cars: 400.00
Car/renters insurance: 160.00
Groceries: 400.00
Kids ins: 30.00
savings 300.00 split into various savings for us and the kids
eating out: 100.00

I am sure I am forgetting something but if I am its nothing big. We have roughly 4000.00 a month income. On paper we look like we should be doing ok but something always comes up and we are short some weeks. Thats life for ya

[attachedmamaof3]

We're in TX and here's ours: (Family of 5, two in diapers, one tween in sports)

Rent: $950
Elect: $300 if we're lucky
Water: $40
Phone/DSL: $85
Cell: $100 (DP's work phone)
Car Ins: $107/mo
Gas: $120/mo (DP drives 45min-1hr for work daily)
Food: $300-600/mo (depending on other expenses...like elec!!)
DS#1 soccer fees- $65/mo (plus uniform for changes/indoor fees, etc)
Health Insurance- $280

Total Average of $2447

[SleepyMamaBear]

ours for two adults, one almost 3 year old and a soon to be newborn, just outside of portland oregon.
i am pulling NO income right now (was making $400ish a month) and DH makes $2112 BEFORE taxes. and we have NO health insurance cause we cant afford another $375 coming out of our budget.
Rent: $605
car payment: $360
car insurance $80
cable/phone/internet $150
vacuum payment $60
collections payment $100
gas for car $50-75(depending on how much driving gets done)
electric $55-90 (depending on what season it is and what we use)
groceries $4-500
cellphone: $45

so at the least: $1905 at the most: $2065

and there are not many things we can actually cut back on. and thats BEFORE my dear sweet DH has takeout for lunch at work (NOT budgeted, so it comes out of our family money or the special treats that sometimes happen.

[Mizelenius]

Originally Posted by yogamama

Our utlilities and debts are the hardest for me to swallow.

Actually, the gas (for the cars) and cellphone seems high to me-- almost $500 right there. Is there any way you can trim those costs? If you could sell one car, maybe you would not have to work? Between the car payment (which would be gone), gas (cut down), and childcare (gone), you might save enough. I am not saying you should have only 1 car forever, but maybe just until the other debt is gone?

I'm just throwing ideas out . . .only you know your situation.

[Benji'sMom]

Originally Posted by mamagoose

Hello, I am really trying to become better at managing my money, especially now that dh and I are separated and I'm trying to really get a handle on my finances. I know this is money management 101 and I really should know this by now, but I'm having a hard time figuring out a reasonable budget. It seems that by the time I pay for the absolute necessities (rent, utilities, groceries) I'm out of $ and I can't figure out how to pay down debt and put $ in savings. I know I'm spending too much on groceries and other things, and I know that one thing I need to do is track every expense for a month so I can really see where $ is going, but in addition it would also help if I could get a sense from others what a realistic monthly budget for 2 is. Thanks in advance for sharing --

I didn't read through all the responses so sorry if this has been repeated already. It might be more helpful to think of it in terms of percentages, since everyone is going to have a different dollar amount. For example, housing should be no more than 25% of the total income, most Americans spend about 15% of income on food. So if you wanted to be frugal, spend less than those percentages. Not sure how much you should spend on electricity but I'm sure you could find out somewhere on the internet.

[CarsonBookworm]

Monthly budget for 2 (in our case)

Rent: 550
Gas/Electric: 75
Landline Phone+ Internet: 75
Cable: 45
Food: 150
Household Needs: 40
Bus Pass: 23 (We share one pass)

Grand Total: $958

We've been putting money aside to help out when I leave my job after having the baby......especially because DH is currently unemployed with no job in sight.
So, We save about 300 a month.

[cjr]

health club 72
house security 30
car payment 385
property taxes 150
viehicle gas 300

grocheries (this includes
toiletries, cleaning supplies,
household items) 800

car/house insurance 178.81
cable 75
utilities/gas 260
studen loan 85
phone 100
mortgage 1300
hair cuts 100
cloths 200
preschool 90
guitar lessons 120

family activities (includes
sports lessons and
a monthly family
sports facility pass) 200

entertainment 100
automotive 100
vacation 200
gifts 100
allowances (for
dh/kids and myself) 280
cell phone 32
savings 500

We have a good income, but it is expensive to live in our city...very expensive. We try to buy family passes whenever we have the option to give us lots of activities to do at a more affordable price. Health and fitness is very important to me. This is the budget I just put together. The cash is seperated in a little file folder. This still leaves us some money in our account for those unbudgetable expenses. For the most part I tried to budget for everything. If we don't spend the budgetted amount within the month it will get carried over to the next month. This way when we need $500 for car repairs we should have it accumulated and it should be available when needed. I saw this form of budgetting on a financial show and thought it was an excellent way to keep track of spending.


It's important to us that we are able to those extra things, without going crazy. We have no credit cards and only live on cash or pre-authorized payments (sports center, preschool and such). We were in serious debt 4 years ago (like $90,000) and dug ourselves out. Now we are in a position not to be so skimpy on the budget, but want to still be responsible.

[Maggi315]

Since we are talking about budgets, anyone have a decent size "cushion" fund? We seem to just be able to live paycheck to paycheck. We hear how we should have a few thousand dollars in the bank, but that seems to be a dream!

[Rainbowbird]

We do have a few thousand in the bank, but we haven't been able to add to it much lately. In fact it went DOWN from a rather high amount to about 4 grand because of some expenses/home repairs and some overspending. So we are cutting back to build it up again.

I would love to know how those of you who are spending so little on groceries ($150 to $400 a month) do it! What are you eating?? We spend so much on food (see my other thread) and it's not like we're, you know, overeating, I don't think...we're healthy, fit people but I'm just finding it hard to cut back on the grocery bill without eating less healthfully.

[cjr]

We have a big chunk of money invested in RRSP's and in dh's company's defered proffit sharing. That is where our saving are. No extra savings in the bank. Dh's company matches contributions so we feel it's better to put it here. We contribute $500/month and the company contributes $500/month. This of course is for retirement, kids education, dh loosing his job...those sort of things. We are trying to live in our budget so we can keep a little in the savings account. If we live to the budget then we should have a few thousand in there by Christmas, but something always comes up.

[mightymoo]

I think we have about $3000 cushion between each of our accounts at the moment.