I think a huge thing to consider right now with young kids is how you want them to be as adults. While our income is not at your level, we are a little more than half your monthly with one stay at home parent, we have made a point to not give them everything. They receive half their age in pocket money per week till they are 17. From that they must pay for any extras such as gifts for family, extra clothes that we don’t consider essentials ie you have five pairs of shorts already for summer, you want those blinged out ones they’re on you... they get $10 a term for tuckshop. Any extra is from pocket money and that goes fast on chips and drinks!
There is a huge upside to this for their future adult selves, with them having a saving habit from the start, rather than a spending habit. My eldest is 17 now and has had a part time job for 2.5 years. She has $10,000 saved up to buy a car in a few months. My youngest is 13 and still in the speedy stage and blew all her $400 saved up pocket money on nothing much last month, then this month wanted to buy a concert ticket to go with all her friends but bad luck, there’s nothing left in her account. This sort of accountability will in the future have your kids thanking you so much.
On the flip side, one of my daughters friends had $50 a week pocket money, money put into a savings account for when she leaves home, her university education paid for her by her parents. She’s been working for 3 years part time, more hours per week than my daughter and has $200 in the bank and no knowledge of the cost of things. She wanted to move away for university and found a house that said $250, so she thought that was $250 a year for rent. No concept of money what so ever!
I live in Brisbane, so I understand the cost of things in Aus...
OUTGOINGS
Monthly Yearly
Mortgage $4,884 $58,608
Overseas property
costs (mtg, ins etc) $2,458 $29,500
Groceries $1,300 $15,600 - this could be cut some, but we struggle to get it below $1000 even with careful meal planning, budget meals. I assume this includes toiletries, cleaning supplies etc. This is not ridiculous seeing as your eating out is only $100.
Allowance fund 2 $950 $11,400 - I do think this is a license to spend money. I used to have a $220 allowance, but I’ve asked hubby to delete that from the budget, and I’ll just spend what I have to on necessity. And mine includes kids and hubbys clothes and essentials as well. Basically whatever I have to buy at the shops. If either of us wants something, for example the current want on his side is an Xbox one as all our Xbox 360 remotes are dying and can’t get new ones. So we are talking about that, and will put a bit aside each month so we can get one in the future. We buy lunch once a month. He buys coffee twice a week, and that’s his only thing, no gym, no pub...
Allowance fund 1 $750 $9,000 - again, permission to spend Willy nilly.
Childcare $688 $8,256 - pretty low by aus standards.
Health Insurance $455 $5,460 - low by aus standards.
Kids savings $375 $4,500 - saving for? Uni assistance?
Kids things (clothes) $300 $3,600 - not sure what you spend $300 a month on, I might have spent $300 summer, $300 winter back when I was buying both kids clothes. My 17 year old buys her own now.
Cleaner $240 $2,880 - cheap by aus standards, and I don’t begrudge this with both parents working.
Council Tax $208 $2,500
Cable, Internet $205 $2,460 - this is a question mark for me, I’m assuming there is a full every channel foxtel package in here? Our internet is $90 a month unlimited, nbn fiber to the node with optus. We have Netflix, plus a logon to foxtel go free from a friend. We never get around to watching the foxtel. Do you get the benefit from it, especially with working full time, kids in after care and weekend activities? I think foxtel/cable is always low hanging fruit now with Netflix available.
Wine $200 $2,400 - other than myself, I have yet to meet an Aussie mum that doesn’t have a glass of wine at the end of every day! It’s a thing people. Wine o’clock. Not a bad number considering...
Household items $200 $2,400 - Whats in this? I assumed groceries wasn’t just food but cleaning stuff, loo paper etc as well?
School Fees $192 $2,300 - well done! We went the private school route to get all girls. Ours was $100 a week per child.
Train (work travel) $180 $2,160 - on par
After school care $170 $2,040 - cheap. $40 each for morning and afternoon if you’re lucky.
Kids Birthdays $167 $2,000 - $668 per child per year for birthday? I spend $200 per child on gifts, this gets them a nice amount, not over the top. They get cash and gifts from family members to add to it. Do you spend a ton on parties? Ours get a party every second year only, and the party has to cost less than $100 all up. Pizza sleepovers, I bought some black lights so we did fluoro discos one year, ‘pool’ party where I bought cheap blow up pools to put in the yard, stuck a sprinkler on a pole and set up a slip n slide.
Gas $158 $1,900 - normal
Electricity $158 $1,900 - lower than ours
Petrol $150 $1,800 - normal
Home Insurance $144 $1,728 - good price considering your house
Water $142 $1,700 - good
Swimming $133 $1,600 - is this lessons? If so good on you. If just using the local pool, do you have a beach nearby?
Kinder $133 $1,600 - normal
Excursions, camps $125 $1,500 - if they’re all in school this is about right.
Gym $104 $1,248 - I don’t do gyms, so I can’t comment on the necessity of this, but cheap.
Babysitter $100 $1,200 - seems reasonable. Decent babysitters are $20 an hour plus here.
Eating out $100 $1,200 - well done
Life Insurance $78 $936 - cheaper than ours
Car Tax $67 $800 - normal
Car Insurance $58 $700 - normal for that price car
Kids Athletics $58 $700 - very worth doing. I regret not putting mine in little aths.
Netball $50 $600 - horrible horrible sport for injuries. Every girl my kids knows does it or did it and they all have terrible knee injuries, wrist and finger injuries!
Car Service $42 $500 - super cheap.
Kids Soccer, Auskick $25 $300 - cheap
Netflix $15 $180 - dump foxtel!
Google play $12 $144 - movies? Or music?
There are three main things in my opinion to look at. Spending on kids such as clothes and ‘savings’, the spending allowance for each of you, which if you both are interested in FIRE should be super easy to just wipe out altogether. Also whoever goes to the gym should be including that in their allowance anyway I think. Lastly the internet/cable thing. With the whole family out of the house all week I really can’t see how you have time to watch and get value from both Netflix and Foxtel. I hope this is helpful.
There are other ways to cut if you are super keen, like all the kids activities, ours were only allowed to do one activity per term. So they did swimming lessons till they were 6, then had to choose. One did tennis for a while, the other girl Guides. Then they’d swap and do some dance for a year or so, scouts etc. They really valued their time on those activities as it was more special, and we had more family time at home rather than racing around all weekend.
Good luck!