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Excludes:
- $100/month gas covers travel 1-2 weekends per month to visit friends and family in neighboring states. But I also take a few trips per year involving hotel and sometimes airfare. Total cost varies.
- Vehicle maintenance beyond oil changes. Last year I replaced all 4 tires and had some other work done. I lack the skills and tools to DIY.
- Health insurance via employer
- Charitable giving
- Income taxes
What could I cut?
If I didn't work and didn't care about my social life, I could cut this to ~$700/month. The car is not a need except for work and going places to see people and have fun. Although no job would mean new health insurance cost not included above.
3000 mortgage
1000 re tax & ins
450 car payment
180 car insurance
360 house cleaner
200 pets
1000 food/restaurants/Costco(non convid-19 times)
150 dry cleaning
100 gas
150 cable/internet
100 cellphones
200 amazon crap
Just under 6800 a month
Real cashflow though taxes/insurance are something I pay 1-2 times a year @ 14,160 or 1180 a month. Most months we are closer to 5620 per month
I just did some budgeting last week actually, I had a "predicted budget" for when I moved to a new house (in Henderson, NV), and I wanted to update it to the real, actual budget. The completely fixed costs are $3,650 per month for my wife and I combined, but that doesn't include any food or supplies whatsoever, so I'd say the actual cost is closer to $4,300 or $4,400. There is some fat in there, "fixed" doesn't mean necessary for life, it just means fixed as it in re-occurs every month or every quarter or every year (I took the non-monthly ones and figured out what each month's portion would be, like property taxes, bi-monthly pest control, etc.). Of that, about $1,000 is insurance related including health insurance for two people, auto insurance for two cars and people, home owner's insurance, and a large liability policy (umbrella policy above the standard $1 million liability for home and auto).
Then another $1,050 is the mortgage, about $580 in property taxes on top of that, $65 HOA dues, and a lot of smaller expenses. There are a few that will decline, like the cell phone bill goes $42 lower at the end of the year because her phone will be paid off. It's 0% interest so there's simply no reason not to have them cover it and gradually repay it, I make more than that even in my cash account lol. Other things are like fiber Internet and cable, which is expensive but we both work from home doing media-intensive tasks (photos and video production), so it's necessary for us, and appreciated as I'm a big gamer and work in film, so I like to stream a lot. Pest control and pool maintenance. Various streaming services. Small gas and water bills, basically no electric bill (solar power).
In actual reality, I figure we spend closer to $5,700/month because my wife before the Coronavirus situation flew monthly to visit her family back home, I buy some video games and sports collectibles from time to time, we eat out or go to shows on the Strip from time to time, etc. I'm typically less concerned by what I actually spend and more concerned with what my baseline lowest possible costs are to maintain my lifestyle, because in a financial hardship I have many years of living expenses in cash, so I could cut back to slow the burn rate and make it last longer. I'm never spending even close to what I'm making, but I do value keeping my expenses fairly low because I like the peace of mind that brings.
The thing is, I think our monthly budget is a little bit of a sham because that doesn't include travel, which we will be doing more of and have done recently, and it doesn't include anything set aside for home repairs and routine upgrades to smart home devices or whatever else like that. I'm sure that would add thousands per year, broken down per month, should have $300 in there anyway per month to save for that stuff. Again, though, I'm more focused on what would happen if cashflow stopped for two years, and how much could I reduce expenses. It'll look prettier once the mortgage is gone, though.
Because of our location, our monthly budget has some numbers that look to be high. And they are, but we save in other ways
Monthly
trash $50
innernet $130 [ we need a land line]
water' $150
propane: $150
Phone: $160 [ only one carrier available
Taxes: $85
Home insurance: $110
car insurance: $90
Hulu: $57
Planet fitness black card$48
life insurance: $170 [ i so want to get rid of this and had Bobby convinced, the coronavirus hit, so he wants to wait
clothes:$20 {that is an average. Ussually I buy no clothing.
Vacation fund: $350
food: $400
gas: $40
Gifts: $100
work on house [fixer upper[$100
miscelaneius $150
So, our bills for all of us comes to about $29,500. our income is less than that, but we count points and miles from our credit card as income, money for eggs income, the money we get from online surveys helps us to pay our bills and be able to put more in our retirement account.
Your bills seem really low overall, so I wouldn't be worried about it. I mean sure a few are higher than normal maybe, but the others are so much lower, I think you're doing fine. There are certain utility things I just find funny how they vary by location for reasons beyond my understanding. In the Portland, OR, area we paid $50.40 per month for trash and recycling, and we were given the world's TINIEST trash bin they called a "medium." It was barely big enough for just the 2 of us and we'd fill it up every week pretty much. It held 2 garbage bags, that's it. Now in the Vegas area, I pay $50 per THREE MONTHS for a garbage bin that's easily 3 times as big. In the past, they used to have pickup twice a week, so my uncles and aunts here think it's a rip off compared to how "things used to be." For me, I was like holy cow you guys get 3x the garbage size (it's literally 3x as big, I looked at the listed measurements) for 3x less money, so it's 9x cheaper per gallon of trash or whatever than what I paid.
Water is the other funny one, like our water bill is $50/month and I have an 11,000 gallon pool and a 750 gallon spa in the middle of the desert, yet water in Las Vegas is actually very cheap if you ask me. I think it was more expensive in Portland where it rained constantly and was an abundant resource.
Rent: $1,800
Hawaii condo mortgage payment (its rented out, but I still pay over each month out of pocket): $1,000
Student loans: $350
TSP: $250
Gas: $150
Food: $600
Career starter loan payment (will be paid off this year): $500
Netflix/Amazon Prime/Other Entertainment: $30
Car insurance: $80
Cable/gas/electricity/water: $100
Cell phone: $30
Miscellaneous: $200
don't really know many expenses, on bill pay for most all bills, I know HOA is $400 a month, expenses for gas, electric, cell aren't remarkable. Medicare and supplemental probably 500/600 a month. Eat out probably 15/20x a month lunch or dinner. Enjoy travel. Always have money left at the end of the month for 529's and savings.
Location: Unlike most on CD, I'm not afraid to give my location: Milwaukee, WI.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UCisannoying
None of your business.
Your screen name here should be: IAMannoying
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