I thought I would share my income vs. budget and see if there is any room for improvement. I live in Alberta where utilities and the like are sky high and real estate is on the higher end too.
Gross Income - $130,000 (without bonuses)
Net Income - $86,800 (without bonuses, minus 5% each for RPP's)
Monthly Income - $7233.33
Were 30 and 32 years old, one two year old son.
Budget:
Mortgage - $1725.00 (House bought at $280,000, owe $210,000, worth $330,000. Should be paid off in ten years)
Utilities - $80
Heat - $60-$165
Power - $90-120
Property tax - $220
Home Maintenance - $100.00 (our house was severely neglected before we bought)
Internet and Telephone - $85
Daycare - $700
Groceries - $750 (we shop all organic everything as well as humane meat)
Entertainment - $150.00 (includes eating out and once a month babysitter)
Clothes and Gifts - $200.00 (includes Christmas)
Cellphone - $-10.00 (my company gives me $100, my bill is $90)
Life Ins - $91
Home Ins - $86
Car Ins - $156 (two older models, clean records)
Car Maint/Registration - $60 on average
Car Fuel - $275-$320.00
RRSP - $750
Investments - $700
RESP - $100
Savings - $300 (new to me car when this one dies)
Other - $325 (supplements, haircuts, medicine not covered, etc)
Total - $7173.00
Some areas that will probably get attention is the Gas - I work about 20 kms from home in a industrial park. We live as close to work as possible. Biking is not option as the park is gravel roads with no shoulders and big rigs flying by. Both of our cars are smaller.
Other - About $125 of that is natural supplements I take to keep my mental health that I temporally lost after having a child and developing PPD this will probably never be an expense I can lose due to crap-ass genetics in this area.
If you have any ideas I am all ears. I am eager to find a way to put more money away each month.
Thanks in advance.
My take:
Utils $80 - is that water?
Heat - Gas? Not bad
Power - electric? Not too bad, probably could go down a bit but if you have electric hot water... Actually, this could go down a bit, just thinking - ours has gone up a LOT lately but we're using cloth nappies
Home maint - usually they say budget 1% a year so I'd suggest doing that...
Internet/phone - do you need a home phone?
Groceries - Even if organic is twice as much as non, and I know it is (but don't pay the organic premium premium - ie not only are you paying more for organic, you're paying more for buying at a small shop as well), you should be able to do $450. If you can, do cloth diapers - might be a bit late now but never mind.
Ents, Clothes, Gifts - $350*a month*?? Woooah. That's a LOT.
Cell phone - Koodoo have unlimited for $60-odd so you can certainly get cheaper than $100!!!
Life ins... do you *need* this? Do you have enough assets to look after your child until they reach 18? Coz if you do.. IMHO you're throwing money away.
Car Ins seems high, but I don't know what it's like in AB; here in ON it was "brutal" for me to begin with when I immigrated but it's getting better - we're at $50 a month with one car only (other car off the road for the winter/wife on mat leave)
$300 on fuel? Small*er* cars? Smaller than an F150? ;) A Civic at 6l/100km.. gas is cheap(er) in AB right? $1/l? So say $6/100km, $12 a week going to work (40km a day x 5) = $50 a month. So how do you spend $300 - not sure how far the other car goes...!
I assume you're putting money into a TFSA? Are you doing Couch Potato investing? Have you heard of the Smith Manoevre - HELOC becomes a tax-deductible investment loan - it's leverage, but with low interest rates might help accelerate your net worth growth..