Hello!
I am a born and raised Mustachian who is finding this forum through a friend. I’ve read a significant amount of the blog posts in sequential order, and have been browsing the forum for a few days. I am eager to create this case study to help further my understanding of my own finances and create a reasonable budget to help me understand what I am “allowed” to spend.
First off, a little bit about me. I feel it’s necessary to state that my parents have worked tirelessly to provide for me – food, shelter, education, and raising me to be a kind and caring individual. They were both raised in less than ideal economic circumstances, and even after I was born we lived with my grandmother for a time to save money. I’m proud to say that their hard work paid off to create a wonderful life for all of us. Fortunately, learning from their frugal lifestyle paired with the people in my family who work in finance, has done me well.
I am currently in a unique job situation. After graduating from college I was able to find a job in my field in an industry that I did not foresee would need my help. That being said, it is a job with an end date. I have worked here for a year and two months, with at least 3.5 months ahead of me, possibly extending to 5 (but hopefully not!). The job has as many perks as it has downsides: free snacks/refreshments, free lunches, outstanding connections, long hours, physically impacting depending on the day (some days standing all day, some days sitting all day).
Currently, I live with my boyfriend. He is three months into a full time job paying $68k/year before taxes. His only outstanding debt is about $10k on his car, which due to our move to a new state needs to be paid off for an issue with the title (loan/car was cosigned), so he will owe an interest free loan to his parents. His investments are in Vanguard accounts and he has made contributions to his IRA.
Because I have been at work for so much longer and we have discussed our couple’s financial situation, I pay for the rent and he tends to pay for our recreation and supplies. When it comes to a Target trip, he’s the one footing the bill. When it comes to random things like ordering online or individual items we pay for ourselves.
Without further ado…
Gross Salary: $62400, or $1200/week. However, my work fluctuates, as there have been/will be a few weeks of unpaid time off and there are few instances of us being busy enough that I pick up an extra day at 1.5x my daily rate.
After taxes my weekly income is $854.99, but the average to this is higher as I am reimbursed for mileage when outside of work trips are necessary. The frequency of these trip changes and is necessary, but I attempt to put as few miles as possible onto my car.
Assets: Checking: $3000
Savings: $6000
Vanguard
Roth IRA: $22k
Investments in Prime Money Market, International, Admiral Shares: $41k
Education Savings: $3k – tax free if applied to more education, can withdraw at 30 with tax
No 401(k) through employer
Monthly Bills: Cell phone: family plan, but my portion is reimbursed by employer
Car and health insurance: car insurance is still temporarily paid by my parents, more out of convenience due to the licensing on it, health insurance by parents also – eventually my boyfriend and I will utilize his work’s coverage but it is not necessary at this point
Rent: Floats right at $1250 as rent check includes water
Electric: Up to $100. Sadly, though we did get our initial summer bill down, we are still experiencing 90 degree days. The air is run at 72 from about 9pm – 5am, and set to 77 from about 5am – 6pm, set to 74 when the first person gets home.
Gas: $65-75 month, rough estimate. I get about 25mpg city, 40 highway… average 350 miles/fill up.
Total expenses: $1,425
Adjusted gross: $1900, ish… (subtracted $100 for various personal spending)
Look into my past 2 months of spending:
October: Haircut $12, gas $36, birthday gift for grandmother $15
September: gas $21, haunted house tickets (2) $40, Air bnb: (2) $30 gas $31, oil change with coupon $26, Goodwill clothing $18, concert (2) and parking: $98, ice cream $8, grocery $16, gas $48, zoo (2) $30. Extra gas and Air bnb was part of a trip to go to the haunted house, with price adjustments for the group splitting.
Total: $429
I do keep at least $20 on me for anything you need cash for, but definitely don’t spend that much cash a month. Continuing to look back over statements reveals more shopping and groceries. Moving into our apartment together did hike up the bills in July as we bought furniture, my split was kitchen chairs, our sectional, and odds and ends supplies. My boyfriend had a $5k moving stipend which covered all of our expenses as he utilized Southwest’s bag check to bring clothes, snuck items in his car that was shipped, and was generally just smart about the travel out to my state.
Paid by boyfriend: Grocery bill: $25-50/week. This one is very difficult to estimate because I have the privilege of snacks and lunch at work, and he gets at least one lunch a month for free. I eat vegetarian, him 99% vegetarian – occasional lunch meat. We are very good with the prices in our area, utilize bulk foods and our own containers, yada yada.
Eating out/entertainment: $20-25/bill, about $100-125/month. Lately, eating out has become our social time and entertainment. We eat out with friends more than we do anything like see a movie.
Odds and ends: $100. A bit of an overestimate, accounts for anything household related.
Total: $250 ish
Paid in full: Gym membership: $215 for two years
Renter’s insurance: $250 for one year
My main focus with getting involved with M3 is to have a better understanding of finance and investments. I would like to come up with a reasonable budget for monthly spending outside of rent and utilities. I believe that my boyfriend and I try our hardest to avoid excessive and indulgent purchases, but the fact that I do not have a monthly budget for myself tends to make weighing purchases more difficult.
Another thing I would like to focus on in joining this forum and posting this case study is figuring out how much time I have before taking up another job when this one is over. Currently, my job takes up almost all my time, making me feel like I haven’t had true rest in a few months. Outside of work my free time is spent at the gym before the work, and weekends are generally social/catch up chore time. Of course social time is my choice, but it is limited to weekends only, making it hard to carve out that rest time. Ideally I would like to have a month’s break in between the jobs. Part of this would be dedicated to restarting a podcast I worked on college. My current dream would be to have a flexible schedule with desired employer #1 and make this podcast a downloaded reality. My current reality would be happy with getting a job with desired employer #1 and doing the podcast on the side, no profits expected, but community profits definitely expected. My current connections make me believe this new employer is an achievable goal, and the work I would do there more aligns with everything I love.
Long term future spending impacts/things to think about (talking out loud here):
When the lease is up, what is the most reasonable living situation considering both of our jobs? Will we renew our apartment lease or find another place to stay?
What will our future gym situation look like? Though this is anti-mustachian in terms of spending, When I am freed of my long work days, I would like to resume regular swimming workouts. For $420, my boyfriend and I can have a year membership to a gym closer to our apartment with everything I could hope for in a facility.
Miscellaneous travel: going home for Christmas, and I would like to visit my grandmother before she is the last family member to move out of Pennsylvania, as I won’t have much of a reason to go back without her.
I have started doing weekly group rides with a cycling group. Since I purchased my road bike off Craigslist I have wanted to upgrade the pedals, but wasn’t riding enough in the past year to justify it. If the group keeps up (which, it seems like we are all committed) I would like to get new pedals, shoes, cleats, and probably a new seat.
There is an engagement somewhere on the horizon – the only thing I can definitely say is we won’t be spending much money in terms of rings as I have a band I would like to use, and browsing for an engagement ring I’m finding them for less than $600. We’re rather simple in that there will be no wedding-zillas, but hey, we’re only doing this once, and definitely want a honeymoon out of it!
So, what do you do think, Mustaches? Can you steer me in the way of a reasonable monthly allowance, and advise me on getting a bit of a break at the end of winter?