What is your monthly budget?

lifeonthehill · September 2014

A spin off of my last post.

What do you pay out each month?

How many months of an e-fund do you choose to keep on hand?

strickland8052 · September 2014

I look forward to seeing others to see if I'm overspending in some areas.

Here is a rough idea of ours. Some months are less; some more:

Mortgage and escrow: $1200
Utilities (gas, power, water): $175
Pest control: $25
Security alarm: $20
My car payment: $260 (paid off in January.. woohoo!)
Car Insurance: $120
Car gas: $200
Groceries: $450
Netflix: $10
Internet: $40
Cell Phones: $80
Fun Money: $120
Other: $300 (This is for stuff like car maintenance, dog's annual shots, hair cuts, etc.)

Total = about $3,000

We have 10 months of those expenses saved in an e-fund. BUT, our e-fund is technically money in H's ROTH that just is not invested, so we are working on building a different e-fund so he can reinvest some of that.

brij2006 · September 2014

We just have the $1,000 Efund for DR's baby step #1, but right now we're in baby saving mode so we have more than usual in there.
Once we are on baby step #3 and all debts are paid off, then we plan to do 4 months Efund which will be about $10k.

Sorry, I don't feel comfortable posting our income portion as I know many people who lurk here, IRL.

Housing:

Mortgage: $400

Cell Phones: $163

Electricity: $77

House Gas: $126

Water & Sewer: $76

Netflix: $8

Internet: $50

Home Insurance: $88

Transportation:

My car payment: $350

My gas: $275 ($250 reimbursement from work)
H's gas: $300 (he drives 100 miles/day)
Auto Insurance: $185 (full coverage on 3 cars)
Car Maintenance: $150 (this is to build in a buffer and slowly build a savings)

Food:

Groceries & Toiletries: $400

Dining Out: $75

Student Loans: (these have both come such a long ways!!!)
H's: $64

Mine: $296

Misc:

Clothing: $75

Postage: $15
Entertainment: $75

Tithe: $100

Gifts: $50
We also do $20 each in "Mad money" on months we feel aren't tight, but lately that hasn't been happening since we've had short weekend trips instead.

formerlyGDaisy09 · September 2014

What do you pay out each month?
we have $5061 budgeted each month, however I subtract out the following things to determine our e-fund goal...if we're in an emergency situation we would not be spending money on them:

fun money ($100)

Entertainment (drops to $25 from $125)

Shopping ($125)

Agility classes...for the dog ($75)

Car fund ($75) (we own H's car but put $75 aside a month for repairs or future DP)

our monthly NEED is $4,585

How many months of an e-fund do you choose to keep on hand?

We feel comfortable with $2000 in our e-fund, right now, as we take care of debts and accomplish some other goals we plan to build the e-fund higher....we have a goal to have about 3 months in there before TTC.

that said, we usually have close to 3 months in savings, distributed amongst various earmarked accounts (vacation, home improvement, car fund, appliances, savings)...things are actually a little low right now since we went on our big vacation at the end of June, replaced the roof on the house, and just registered both cars...so we have to work things back up again....in the event of an emergency those accounts would be funds we could draw on.

Once our student loans are paid off ($55k) we're planning to build the e-fund to 6-months (we're working on this less agressively right now). by the time we get to this point we'll have eliminated SL obligations ($821/month), PMI ($143), and car payments ($347) from our monthly obligations so we'll need $21K to have 6-months in an e-fund.

hoffse · September 2014

Whoo-whee... I almost wish I hadn't suggested this

It's one thing to critique others, it's entirely different to post your own!

We have a good bit of fluff too. And I'm seriously into debt leveraging, so we have a (high) car payment when we could have paid cash, etc.

Here we go:

Mortgage+taxes+insurance: $1845

Electric: $350

Natural Gas: $75 - don't ask me what's powered by gas in my house. We have no idea.

Water: $25

Sewer: $0 - septic

Internet: $35

Cable/TV: $55

Hulu + Netflix: $16 - probably will cancel these now that we have cable

Security: $40

Cell phones: $140, but $100/month is reimbursed

My law loan: $758

H's undergrad loan: $180

H's law loan: $1,650

Life insurance: $15

Car insurance: $108

Health insurance: $250 - heavily subsidized by employers, deducts automatically, & includes max HSA contribution for me

Car payment: $585 - new car, 36 month term @ 0.99%.

Gas: $300

Parking for H: $107 - deducts automatically

Groceries: $400

Eating out: $100

Prescriptions: $110

Haircuts: $15

Misc spending: $500 - includes clothing, gifts, random stuff for the house. We almost never spend all of this, but I budget that much in case I run into a deal.

After-tax savings accounts, including Roths: $3,500

*******************************

For savings, we keep about $10,000 liquid and another ~$25,000 invested that we could liquidate if need be. We've spent down our "house fund" and our "vacation fund" in the last month, so those are being built back up right now.

My law loan and 2/3 of my H's law loan is financed through my parents. So if we lost a job or had a true emergency, they would suspend them until further notice. We're very lucky that we don't have to include most of our student loan debt in our e-fund calculation. That's also a huge reason why I'm in no hurry to pay them off. We have a good rate, and my parents get a good return for their age. Win-win.

But yeah if we lost our jobs, our bare-bones monthly expenses (for e-fund purposes) is right about $4,500 per month. If we both lost jobs then we would probably liquidate investments to pay off the car and possibly H's undergrad loan just to get those out of cash flow.

So we have around 7-8 months right now.

strickland8052 · September 2014

@hoffse - just throwing ideas out there, but is the natural gas maybe for your hot water heater? If so, be ready for some serious increase in the winter time. Our gas bill is like $30 in the summer, but goes up to $100 in the winter. That is solely for stove and hot water; the house is heated by electricity. It blows my mind.

hoffse · September 2014

strickland8052 said:

@hoffse - just throwing ideas out there, but is the natural gas maybe for your hot water heater? If so, be ready for some serious increase in the winter time. Our gas bill is like $30 in the summer, but goes up to $100 in the winter. That is solely for stove and hot water; the house is heated by electricity. It blows my mind.

That's what we thought it was, but nope... it's electric too. A/C, water heater, dryer, all appliances, heat... all electric. We might ask for an audit because we seriously can't figure it out.

Our electric is super high because living in Alabama necessitates the A/C running almost 24/7 this time of year. Winter is usually less, though. Spring and fall is much less. I had actually never heard of buying propane (is it propane?) for the winter until these boards, but it sounds like half the country does that every year.

mana8503 · September 2014

We're in a HCOL area. I budget $7100 bring home (based on H's minimum weekly wage, but it's higher in the busy seasons). Health insurance is already taken out ($200/pay), and my TSP retirement ($320/pay).

House:

Mortgage + escrow + insurance: $1900

Electric (budget): $97

Home Security: $ 43

Gas (home - budget): $114

Sewer/Water/Trash: $84

HOA: $38

Internet/Cable/Phone: $130

Netflix: $8

Cell Phones (4 lines): $208

Home supplies (TP, cleaning stuff, etc): $50 (usually do a BJ's run every 3 months)

Transportation:

Car payment: $350

Car Insurance (2 cars): $160

Gas (cars): $400

Food:

Groceries: $400

Eating out: $300

Misc:

Child Support: $600

Deck: $200

Chiropractor for me: $100

Gym:$20 (will be canceling this and getting a family membership to the YMCA this winter I think that's $60ish)

Personal spending: $200 ($100 each)

Hair cuts: $50

Health and beauty: $50 (shampoos, deodorant, lotion, etc sometimes added to BJ's run)

Pet: $50

H's XM radio: $16

-----

Total: $5556 (from my spreadsheet, I think I got it all)

We have 10K in an efund, so 2 months if you cut out the eating out, chiropractor, etc.

brij2006 · September 2014

strickland8052 said:

@hoffse - just throwing ideas out there, but is the natural gas maybe for your hot water heater? If so, be ready for some serious increase in the winter time. Our gas bill is like $30 in the summer, but goes up to $100 in the winter. That is solely for stove and hot water; the house is heated by electricity. It blows my mind.

That's what I was thinking too. Our hot water heater and dryer are both gas. Things you wouldn't think of that would be.

Also @hoffse I see that you pay for health insurance after taxes. Are you able to deduct that as an expense on your tax return? It's looking like that is what I need to do through my work for an dependents (they can't take it straight out of my check), but I wasn't sure if I could claim that afterward.

jessica490 · September 2014

We are in HCOL

Mortg + Condo fee- $1221 but we pay down extra (especially lately)

Electric- $100-$250 (summer vs.winter)

Home and Auto Insurance- $218 for 10 months only with refund check in December

Car lease payment- $279

Gas for cars- $220

Groceries-$400

Cell Phones- $123 (will be lowered at end of Oct)

Phone/Internet/Cable- $185 (will be lowered in Nov)

Dog apts/special food- $100

Fun $- $400 or less (pays for all the xtras like h.cuts, gifts,entertainment)

That should be it

After paying all these bills, we see what's left to stash into our different savings account while leaving a small buffer in our checking as well.

We have no consumer debt or student loans

We have about $10K in our E-fund

hoffse · September 2014

brij2006 said:

strickland8052 said:

@hoffse - just throwing ideas out there, but is the natural gas maybe for your hot water heater? If so, be ready for some serious increase in the winter time. Our gas bill is like $30 in the summer, but goes up to $100 in the winter. That is solely for stove and hot water; the house is heated by electricity. It blows my mind.

That's what I was thinking too. Our hot water heater and dryer are both gas. Things you wouldn't think of that would be.

Also @hoffse I see that you pay for health insurance after taxes. Are you able to deduct that as an expense on your tax return? It's looking like that is what I need to do through my work for an dependents (they can't take it straight out of my check), but I wasn't sure if I could claim that afterward.

****STUCK IN THE BOX******

We pay health insurance before taxes, actually - I just didn't mark it well. I know you can deduct medical expenses, but I'm pretty sure they're subject to a % of your AGI. So you can only deduct what is over that percentage. As I recall, it's pretty high for medical. I'm pretty sure medical is not in the 2% group. Here's an article from TurboTax on it:

http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/2013/03/04/what-are-tax-deductible-medical-expenses/

cbee817 · September 2014

For 2014, we bring home about $8,100/month (after taxes, health insurance (including dental), 401K/403B contributions).

We pay out $7,400/month on average based on our monthly spreadsheet we keep (Oct-December are projections).
1. mortgage, taxes, insurance: $1,330
2. gas, electric, water: $198
3. cell phones: $146
4. day care: $1,700
5. Target/BR/JCrew credit cards: $379
6. Capital One credit cards for house and repairs (huge sewer repair job, new side entrance door, 8 dining room chairs, new clapboards for 1 side of the house): $1,126
7. Citibank credit cards for everything else (we charge everything): $2,311
8. misc checks (birthdays, weddings, holidays, donations, DD#1 dance class, etc): $210

All bills are paid in full each month and SL/cars are paid off. Our day care bill will drop 50% in 1 year and be completely gone in 3 years (DH and I will be able to get newer cars at that point!)

Our mortgage was refinanced in 2010 to a 15 year loan and will be paid off in 2025 at the latest.

We have 9 months of expenses on hand between checking, savings, CDs, and our vacation savings account. We also have a 401K, 403B, 2 Roth IRAs, 2 529 plans for the girls, state pension, and a private company pension.

jlaOK · September 2014

We live in a LCOL area and a family of 4. We are on baby step 3b and are currently renting while we build out forever home.

Rent: $869
Cable/internet: $171
Utilities: $70
Electric: $140
Insurance: $170
Food/household: $600
Daycare: $1340
Cell phones: $140
Life insurance: $20
Netflix: $8
Storage unit: $100
Personal spending: $120
Family spending: $160
IRA: $100
Weight Watchers: $42
Gas: $300
2nd bank account (used for Christmas, birthdays, oil changes, and other expected but non-monthly expenses): $275
Other: $295

We have $20k as an emergency fund which is 6 months bare bones budget and 4 months regular budget.

brij2006 · September 2014

hoffse said:

brij2006 said:

strickland8052 said:

@hoffse - just throwing ideas out there, but is the natural gas maybe for your hot water heater? If so, be ready for some serious increase in the winter time. Our gas bill is like $30 in the summer, but goes up to $100 in the winter. That is solely for stove and hot water; the house is heated by electricity. It blows my mind.

That's what I was thinking too. Our hot water heater and dryer are both gas. Things you wouldn't think of that would be.

Also @hoffse I see that you pay for health insurance after taxes. Are you able to deduct that as an expense on your tax return? It's looking like that is what I need to do through my work for an dependents (they can't take it straight out of my check), but I wasn't sure if I could claim that afterward.

****STUCK IN THE BOX******

We pay health insurance before taxes, actually - I just didn't mark it well. I know you can deduct medical expenses, but I'm pretty sure they're subject to a % of your AGI. So you can only deduct what is over that percentage. As I recall, it's pretty high for medical. I'm pretty sure medical is not in the 2% group. Here's an article from TurboTax on it:

http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/2013/03/04/what-are-tax-deductible-medical-expenses/

Aghk! Sucky. I was really hoping that I could deduct it if it was paid after taxes. We just may hit the % of AGI to deduct it in 2015 with the birth of the baby plus the monthly insurance premiums for adding it, but that's likely to be the only time.

hoffse · September 2014

brij2006 said:

hoffse said:

brij2006 said:

strickland8052 said:

@hoffse - just throwing ideas out there, but is the natural gas maybe for your hot water heater? If so, be ready for some serious increase in the winter time. Our gas bill is like $30 in the summer, but goes up to $100 in the winter. That is solely for stove and hot water; the house is heated by electricity. It blows my mind.

That's what I was thinking too. Our hot water heater and dryer are both gas. Things you wouldn't think of that would be.

Also @hoffse I see that you pay for health insurance after taxes. Are you able to deduct that as an expense on your tax return? It's looking like that is what I need to do through my work for an dependents (they can't take it straight out of my check), but I wasn't sure if I could claim that afterward.

****STUCK IN THE BOX******

We pay health insurance before taxes, actually - I just didn't mark it well. I know you can deduct medical expenses, but I'm pretty sure they're subject to a % of your AGI. So you can only deduct what is over that percentage. As I recall, it's pretty high for medical. I'm pretty sure medical is not in the 2% group. Here's an article from TurboTax on it:

http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/2013/03/04/what-are-tax-deductible-medical-expenses/

Aghk! Sucky. I was really hoping that I could deduct it if it was paid after taxes. We just may hit the % of AGI to deduct it in 2015 with the birth of the baby plus the monthly insurance premiums for adding it, but that's likely to be the only time.

Yeah the medical deductions rules are stupid. Honestly, all insurance premiums should be deductible if we're going to let people do pre-tax payments through employer plans. It's unfair.

It's also way too high to be reasonable for most people. Paying that much of your AGI in medical bills usually means there's something very wrong. And of course a deduction only saves you a percentage of taxes... not a dollar for dollar savings.

brij2006 · September 2014

hoffse said:

brij2006 said:

hoffse said:

brij2006 said:

strickland8052 said:

@hoffse - just throwing ideas out there, but is the natural gas maybe for your hot water heater? If so, be ready for some serious increase in the winter time. Our gas bill is like $30 in the summer, but goes up to $100 in the winter. That is solely for stove and hot water; the house is heated by electricity. It blows my mind.

That's what I was thinking too. Our hot water heater and dryer are both gas. Things you wouldn't think of that would be.

Also @hoffse I see that you pay for health insurance after taxes. Are you able to deduct that as an expense on your tax return? It's looking like that is what I need to do through my work for an dependents (they can't take it straight out of my check), but I wasn't sure if I could claim that afterward.

****STUCK IN THE BOX******

We pay health insurance before taxes, actually - I just didn't mark it well. I know you can deduct medical expenses, but I'm pretty sure they're subject to a % of your AGI. So you can only deduct what is over that percentage. As I recall, it's pretty high for medical. I'm pretty sure medical is not in the 2% group. Here's an article from TurboTax on it:

http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/2013/03/04/what-are-tax-deductible-medical-expenses/

Aghk! Sucky. I was really hoping that I could deduct it if it was paid after taxes. We just may hit the % of AGI to deduct it in 2015 with the birth of the baby plus the monthly insurance premiums for adding it, but that's likely to be the only time.

Yeah the medical deductions rules are stupid. Honestly, all insurance premiums should be deductible if we're going to let people do pre-tax payments through employer plans. It's unfair.

It's also way too high to be reasonable for most people. Paying that much of your AGI in medical bills usually means there's something very wrong. And of course a deduction only saves you a percentage of taxes... not a dollar for dollar savings.

Correct. It would be nice if they did something different with that. My employer only has 12 employees, so they just write out a check monthly to pay for their employee's insurance and they deduct it on their taxes, but they can't do that with dependents. So we will write my company a check to pay for our childs' health insurance, after taxes. I wish it were different, but they don't have the ability to offer that since they are still small enough to only pay quarterly taxes too. I should be able to deduct this. Especially since it's going to cost us close to $300/month.

kmurphy2131 · September 2014

We bring in ~$6400/month. We also bring in anywhere from $100-300+ (up to thousand more when H isn't teaching) extra between H's side job & my yoga teaching. Plus we have two additional paychecks a year so there is another $6400 not in the budget anywhere.

Rent: $1750 (HCOL area...we are kind of trapped right now and it actually doesn't save money in the long run to move out, so we are staying out the lease then we will either buy or move to my parents to save the rest of a down payment)

Utilities (water, gas, electric, cable/internet): $233

My student loans: $598 (20 year plan, only a few years in, hopefully we can speed that up at some point, but right now we would rather be saving)

My car payment: $221.56 @ 0% interest, done 7/2015

H car payment: paid off last month!!!

Groceries/toiletries/cleaning products: I budget $800 but have been spending $1000 and am making changes to get back to $800 or less

Cell phone bill: $50 (I pay my parents for mine, and apparently my inlaws don't know they are paying H's cell phone bill haha)

Gas: ~$250 is what we spend (lower in the school year), but I budget $400 to account for extra gas/toll money/car inspections & maintenance

Car/renters insurance: $195/month (I put this in savings and we pay in full yearly)

Personal spending: $400 each

Health insurance comes directly out of H's paycheck, as does money for flex spending (total of ~$1000/year) so I do not budget separately for medical expenses & we usually can cashflow the rest since we are lucky to have a good plan with low-deductible/copays.

H has a 403B and teacher retirement he pays directly into from his paycheck. I am stuck without any retirement right now, because I paid into a 401K at my old company from Jan-April (and two years prior) and now work for a small clinic without a 401K. Thanks to some crazy laws I can't start an IRA until a new calendar year since you cannot pay a 401K and IRA in the same year.

The rest goes to savings. I have a goal of a 6 month emergency fund ($29,000 current budget, $22,000 bares bones) then we will start a downpayment fund. Currently we have $18,566 in savings, $400 is car/renters insurance I set aside and the rest is e-fund.

Feels weird to put all those numbers out there, even though that's what this is all about.

SlurpeeLove · September 2014

Ours changes a bit from month to month. Here's September:

Income: Varies each month, average is $3800

Tuition: $166

Credit Card Payments: $327

Groceries: $400

Rent: $1210

Electricity: $41

Phone & Internet (including TV): $260

Gym: $80 (final payment)

Pets: $40

Laundry: $20

Car Payments: $417

Gas: $100

Car Insurance: $184

Train card: $95

Savings: $392

Total: $3732

Currently have $1000 in savings

vlagrl29 · September 2014

Just calculated this last month! For this school year we will be paying out about $2,200 per month. We keep 3 months of expenses on hand. One day we may keep more in there but we don't really worry about loosing our jobs since we are self employed.

formerlyGDaisy09 · September 2014

hoffse said:

strickland8052 said:

@hoffse - just throwing ideas out there, but is the natural gas maybe for your hot water heater? If so, be ready for some serious increase in the winter time. Our gas bill is like $30 in the summer, but goes up to $100 in the winter. That is solely for stove and hot water; the house is heated by electricity. It blows my mind.

That's what we thought it was, but nope... it's electric too. A/C, water heater, dryer, all appliances, heat... all electric. We might ask for an audit because we seriously can't figure it out.

Our electric is super high because living in Alabama necessitates the A/C running almost 24/7 this time of year. Winter is usually less, though. Spring and fall is much less. I had actually never heard of buying propane (is it propane?) for the winter until these boards, but it sounds like half the country does that every year.

ha, it is propane! here in New England we fill our 500 gallon tank twice a year...usually November February/March..

als1982 · September 2014

This is so timely!! Right now, we're saving for a major bathroom remodel and a big trip, but I'm seriously thinking about talking to H about buckling down and getting "gazelle intense" about paying off our student loans and mortgage.

vlagrl29 · September 2014

I forgot to post all the numbers in my last post. Our income varies every month.

My school loan - $86.06

Automatic withdrawal for property taxes and Insurance(life,auto,home) - $460

Internet - $62.29

Lawn care - $60

my website hosting - $7.95

Electric - $118

Gas - $70

Water - $70-$78

DD Preschool - $120

DD Dance - $49

Eating Out - $150

Groceries - $400

Gasoline - $300

Target - $100

There are a few things that aren't every month

Hair cuts for me and DD - $60

Dry Cleaning for DH work clothes - $70-$80

Grooming for Dog - $42

Clothing - $150 twice a year for DD, as needed for DH and I.

Health insurance, DH disability insurance and our cell phone bill comes out of DH's business account:

Health insurance - $106 for family

Disability - $50

Cell phone for 2 - $100

Xstatic3333 · September 2014

Sorry to be late to this party! I needed my home computer to remember everything and then last night go busy.

Below is the budget I calculated for e-fund purposes. In parentheses is what we ACTUALLY pay on certain debts. I'll add in the non e-fund stuff at the bottom. All numbers rounded up a little slightly 'cause that's what I do!

We take home $5,122 after health care (already paying for family plan) and H's mandatory 9% pension plan contribution.

Mortgage/Property Tax/Insurance/PMI: $1,200

Heating Average: $100 (this will go down once we switch to a gas boiler)

Electric Average: $120

Food: $300 (That a is the e-fund situation minimum; we really spend about $450 in good times)

My SL: $228

H's SL: $311

My car: $138 (really paying a lot more)

H car: $256 (pays $356 at minimum, closer to $500 lately)

Car insurance: $108

Water: $40

Sewer: $30

Gas to get to work: $350

Phone: $160

Internet: $65 (Yes, we've shopped around and bargained. That's just what it is in RI.)

Total basic minimum budget: $3,406

The remaining tends to go to:

Fun-includes eating out, entertainment, and alcohol: $400 total

Debt-Our current priority is paying off the cars. Spent around $1000 on this last month

Retirement-temporarily down to $130 a month because I think we can pay off the cars in time to still max out my 2014 Roth

Cash flowing occasional expenses such as car tax, CSA, diving and running costs, random things like the $100 I spent towards a friend's baby shower this month

Rock Gym for H-$45

Our e-fund is currently at a little over 3 months. However, I'm considering pulling some of it to get a gas boiler. I know that is not an emergency. However, it could save us SO much money in the long run. We'll see. I probably shouldn't; the odds of us both losing our job at the same time are actually pretty decent because a government shutdown of a couple of months would do it. I could also get a 0% loan on the boiler, but I really want to free up cash flow to make TTC possible.

CuriousKiddosMama · September 2014

So our budget is a bit of a guess right now until we start getting regular monthly bills at our new house. We have tried to overestimate for the utilities, and are currently saving for our full estimated tax bill, even though we were told that we will probably only have to pay the land only taxes this year, and pay based on the house next year.

Our take home (DH's pay+ rental income - 401k and insurance) $8366
Every month required bills:
water: 55
electric: 235
retirement (roths) 916 this would be cut if we ever needed to
mortgage 1259 (when we find out who owns our mortgage we will put the rest of what we got from the sale of our old house, and that will allow us to recast the mortgage down to below $900. we will still probably pay this as we want to get the house paid off in 10 years or under)
C's college fund 250
copays 20
car insurance 118
real estate taxes (our home and rental) 1280
homeowners insurance (both) 240
trash 20
id protection 10
gas for the house 50
cable/internet (just cut to internet only) $50
phone (want to cut this somehow) 157
internet phone 4

Savings funds every month:
home savings (long term projects like a deck) 200
vacation 250 (we live across the country from our families)

general monthly things (we almost always allocate $ here, but what we do varries)
donation 1000
gas-car 350
home decor 100
lunches 50
grocery 300
craft fund 10
cleaning 10
clothing 45
toll tag (DH drives on a toll road to work) 150
baby 200
repairs/tires 100
gifts 50 (this seems like a lot to me, but includes birthdays and Christmas- and DH's side of the family is very generous so we have to reciprocate)
entertainment 100
restaurant 200
post office 5
pocket money 200

3 funds we chose not to fund this month:
hair care/cuts
health/beauty
newspaper

We tend to have a very detailed budget. We also don't switch it up too much at the beginning of the month unless we know of something big coming up. We will switch things up during the month when we need to (diapers on sale, and wanting to stock up, or something). We use the envelope system and so money from one month to the next will carry over in those envelopes. So I don't spend $45 on clothes every month, but when I do go clothes shopping that means I will have 100-200 to spend on what we need/ want. Once we do figure out monthly bills, I will want to try to pay more towards the mortgage if possible, but we would have to make decisions about what to possibly cut. I am also trying to get an in home tutoring business started so that I can continue to work with students while not teaching. If that works out we could add 100-500+ a month to our mortgage/budget.

Our required monthly expenses are: 3982
We have 25k in our emergency fund which means about 8 months if my foggy morning math is even close to correct.

maple2 · September 2014

Very interesting. I'm just going to use rough estimates rather than exact numbers, and I'm going to use last month since we are still figuring out our new budget with some big changes in employment and child care. Seeing all your budgets makes me really excited for when we no longer have daycare expenses!

Mortgage/escrow - $1,500

Internet/home phone - $90

Cell phone - $20

Water - $10

Electric - $60

Propane - $100 (averaged over the year)

Child care - $1,700

Groceries - $600

Insurance (home, auto, life) - $200

Auto (including gas) - $75

House cleaning - $200

Gym - $75

Travel - $150 (averaged over the year for trips to visit family)

Misc. (clothes, haircuts, eating out, gifts, etc.) - $300

IRA savings - $200

So, we budget for just over $5,000/month, including some saving and investing. Our e-fund is around $20,000, but we have other money available that we could access in a true emergency. DH's job is very secure (at least for a few more years), and there is a lot we could eliminate or reduce in this budget so the $20,000 would last longer than 4 months.

Wulfgar · September 2014

Here is my information minus what ever raise I got with my promotion:

Take home income roughly $5000 a month, we both are paid twice a month on the same days:

Mortgage: $700 including all extras

Utilities: $225 maximum a month? MW pays this out of her money.

Cable/ Internet: $125

Cell Phones (mine is smart): $120

MW's SL's: $400 a month

My SIL's: $230 with most at 1.63%

My car loan: $240

MW's car loan: $225 ?

Gas total: $350 ish, mine is budgeted at $200 and MW has to drive to work once a week.

Car insurance: I know less than a thousand a year but more than $800 this is an increase because of my two speeding tickets.

Home improvement loan: $155

Credit Card: $120 (will pay off before the end of the year)

Food: $520 plus some extra at times not including 3 to 4 trips to BJs a year at roughly $150 a shot above what we may use grocery money for.

Preschool: $112

MIL babysitting: $625 (an increase since we are no longer on their cell phone plan).

Our emergency fund is roughly 2k this includes semi-annual and annual bills.

My goal next year is to watch my over spending work on tracking our money a little better. This may include saying no a little more.

dragonstarjk · September 2014

We have a lot of fluff we could cut out if we ever needed to. We also don't follow most of the same MM rules that a lot of people on here follow, but it works for us.

Mortgage: $833

Gas/electricity: $190

Water/trash: $54

Internet: $47

Phone: $45

My car loan: $275 (It's actually $245 but I pay extra)

H's truck loan: $417

Car insurance: $100 (Full coverage for 3 vehicles)

Groceries: $400 (Includes toiletries)

Eating out: $200

H's student loan: $138

Gas in vehicles: $150

H's cell phone: $40

Roth IRA contribution: $120

Furniture Row: $100 (0% interest, will be paid off before offer runs out)

E-fund: $25

HSA contribution: $90

Vacation savings: $100

Home improvement savings: $100

Onstar: $20 (I will probably cancel this once the phone minutes run out)

Daily Burn online fitness subscription: $15

Online newspaper subscription: $8

Pet food/supplies/misc: $60

We have $1,000 in our e-fund and I am contributing $25 a month to build it up. I'm okay with not having a huge e-fund because we've already made a plan for where we would cut and what we would do if one of us lost our job or was unable to work.

We don't budget 'fun money'. Anything that's left after all of the above items are paid, including funding savings and retirement, is 'fun money'. That's used for anything not included in the above categories--such as haircuts, clothes, entertainment, etc.

purplehaze11 · September 2014

Since I'm mobile I'm just going to post the general. Right now our income varies (based on if I get extra hours), but at minimum it's $5700 per month, but for the rest of the year will be closer to $6300 per month (my pension, and health insurance taken before this). Regular monthly expenses are $5000, but closer to $3500 barebones. Right now we have just over 6 months in an Efund, with 10k of that being very easily accessible. We also have another 10k or so in specific accounts for the house, travel, car, Christmas, and specific DD activities. Extra monies from any month go in these accounts to maintain a minimum balance. We are planning to hopefully have a second child, so have been working hard this year to get our savings into good shape, because it will be a lean couple of years with double daycare.

blondie42107 · September 2014

Here's an estimate...

Mortgage $1050
Electric/natural gas $150
Water $50
Internet/phone $65
Cell phones $150
Hulu/Netflix $16
Auto insurance $150
Gas $300
Groceries $400
Eating out $100
Daycare $800
Preschool tuition $80
SL $90
SL (H) $165
Auto loan $200
Auto loan $240
Credit card $250

So about $4256/month going out.

Fun money, entertainment, trips, etc we plan a head for and save the funds accordingly.

uncreatedsnow · September 2014

My take home is roughly $1,750. My retirement, health/dental/life insurance and parking is all taken out automatically.

Envelopes:
$200 - Food
$100 - Gas
$100 - Miscellaneous
$100 - Hobby(SCA, spend way more in Spring/Summer, so evens out throughout the year, this also includes my vacation which is a 1-2 week event in the Summer)
$50 - Car Miscellaneous(Car washes, routine maintenance, repairs, etc.)
$50 - Personal Care

Bills:
$260 - Car Payment(next to go in snowball, can't wait!)
$125 - Car Insurance(Living in a frat house is KILLING me on this one)
$80 - Cell Phone
$125 - Student Loans(On Public Service Loan Forgiveness)

All leftover funds go into savings, which is kept separate from my E-Fund. I have $2,500 in my EFund, which is more than the recommended $1,000, but the Frat Mom life isn't as stable as I'd like it to be. If for some reason they were to lose their charter or house, I would be out of a (second) job and house. I also, right now, have about $1,400 in my regular savings, which will go toward paying my car off early some time next year. I want it paid off by my 30th birthday next September.

JoanE2012 · September 2014

From our take home, we pay:

mortgage, interest, taxes - $2,700

electric - $120 (equal payment plan)

natural gas - $12

sewer/water/trash - $90

oil - equivalent of $300/month (looking to convert to gas soon!)

groceries - $500 (does anyone else notice prices going up at the grocery store?!)

cable, internet, phone - $200

cell phones - $160

car insurance - $120

car - $500 (paying off 5 year car loan in 3 years)

gas for 2 cars - $400

gym - $150 (for both of us)

vacation fund - $1,000 (DINKS, we love to travel!)

Of the rest of our take home, we put most of it towards various savings accounts (especially the "house" fund!) and into DRIP investments. We also take some for "fun" money when we need it. We are fortunate to not have any student loans, no credit card debt (we pay off each month) and one car has already been paid off early.

We have a solid one year emergency fund. We could live off of one salary though, so that helps. And we have money in other savings/DRIPS if the shit hit the fan.

What is your monthly budget?

Re: What is your monthly budget?

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