Spending like the Money Mustaches

[forummm]

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/01/16/exposed-the-mmm-familys-2014-spending/

In 2014, DW and I spent almost exactly the same as the Money Mustaches (within a couple hundred bucks)! Granted, we don't have a kid. But we also do both have jobs that require us to spend more money than we would otherwise (commuting, semi-obligatory work lunches, etc). We spent about 1/3 of what they did on groceries (and still eat fabulously), but much more on eating out (mostly work related), a bit less on travel, but more on insurance/taxes.

We were $2500 over their 2013 spending. Mostly due to an international trip.

How did you do?

[falcondisruptor]

I haven't finalized our 2014 spending yet, but I think we spent a bit more than the Mustaches.  We've got some room for improvement!   We definitely had more car costs!

[Zikoris]

We spent $26,288 for two people, though that included our rent, so not a completely accurate comparison.

We spend less on food, medical, utilities (included in rent). More on cell phones, internet, and travel.

[Emilyngh]

Ohhhh, now that I've used mint for more than a year, I can easily look at this too!

On the surface, he kicked our ass, *but* if you subtract the child support spent for the 4th family member and the mortgage, we actually spent less than he did (WTF?   and I feel like we're not close to as Mustachian).

 For the year, we spent :$35,765, for our family of 3 here fulltime plus one stepdaughter here on weekends and including child support we pay.   If you subtract out child support (which is ending in four months!!!) we're down to: $30,450.   

If you subtract out the cost of our mortgage (but leave taxes and insurance), we're at: $22,230 (compared to MMM's $25k).  Huh?-crazy.

And really, looking at this just reinforces for me how silly all the calls of "MMM must live in poverty," b/c really, we live lavishly,and apparently spend less.   We buy what we want at the grocery store including tons of fresh produce, we have smart phones, we have cable (shhhhh!), we dress "nicely", live in a very nice home and drive 2 "nice" cars.   Our children participate in extracurricular activities (horse back riding and gymnastics), we have way too many things, and we pretty much buy anything we want.    Also, this year, $2,662 of that was spent on spendy travel for the 4 of us that we won't be doing every year.

[forummm]

And really, looking at this just reinforces for me how silly all the calls of "MMM must live in poverty," b/c really, we live lavishly,and apparently spend less.   

Yeah, I was already very frugal, but once I started tracking our expenses, and even brought them down further, I was surprised at how easy it is to live well for so little money. Sometimes it's hard to understand how people I know with such large incomes are able to spend it all and still "need more". We had 7 trips this year between us (3 cross-country), bought unnecessary things, ate well, got medical and dental care, acquired a lot of great information in many fields, etc. I'd be pretty happy with this life. If we quit working I'd want to do more traveling and other things that would cost some money (like cable/Netflix). But not that much more. I know someone who had an annual household income of about 15x our expenses and she started a 2nd job because she "needed the money".

[NinetyFour]

I spent $15,357 (single, no kids, no pets) in 2014 (after subtracting the mortgage principal and interest).  It's not quite apples to apples, though, because my employer pays a good chunk of my health insurance premium.  I did not feel deprived in any way in 2014.

[Scubanewbie]

How about rather than brag about any comparison with MMM I use that post to encourage me to do better?!?  Some categories are close (groceries $6,764 and that's for four of us) but others are very VERY different.  Daycare x2 = $15K, charity = $9K+, mortgage = $13K+ (but on track to be paid off in 9 years), and that doesn't even touch the true excess that I'd no doubt get face punched for (eating out=WHOPPING $1,800, gifts another $1,800, and last and most punch inducing gas=$4,400).

Eeek, glad I have YNAB so I can continue to check on this from time to time but I want to go back to comparing myself to the Jones so I can be impressed by how well I'm doing.  MMM forum individuals definitely raise the bar!!!

[Monkey Uncle]

Here's our 2014 spending compared to the MMM family.  Our situation is roughly comparable: 2 adults plus our college-age son who lives with us when he's not away at school.  We live in a 2,700 sf single-family house.  If we paid off our mortgage and got our grocery spending under control, we'd be pretty close.

I have not included income and payroll taxes.  Because I am still a working stiff, these are pretty outrageous (over $16k).

Sorry for the sloppy table - those columns looked even in the post window.

 

Category           MMM                Us        Difference    mortgage                        0               9,346           9,346       almost half the total difference property tax          2,120               1,375             -745   includes house, 9 acres undeveloped land, 3 cars Food, total                  7,109             11,476           4,367   our biggest discretionary spending issue groceries                  6,593               8,712           2,119    alcohol                     322               2,052           1,730   yikes! We really aren't alcoholics… restaurants             194                  712              518    health ins.                  3,272               3,417              145   heavily subsidized by employer medical                     996               1,150              154   includes surgery/1.5 days in hospital gas                               71                  984              913    car ins.                     347               1,593           1,246   3 cars and drivers incl. 21 y/o male (will be lower in 2015 due to switching companies) car reg                       72                    90                18    car repair/mtc                 0                799              799    utilities                   1,614        1,978              364    cell phone                      300           888              588   Will be 420 in 2015 internet/phone/tv      360        1,147              787    home repair/mtc        19        2,543           2,524   one-time tree expense accounts for most of this homeowners ins              410           922              512   full replacement coverage home/yard                          0        1,625           1,625   where are MMM's household expenditures? charity                    1,155        1,301              146    gym                               330               0             -330    clothing                       492           351             -141    sporting goods                 76               0               -76    other misc shopping       654               0             -654    books                         61               0               -61    other                               815               0             -815    travel                    5,057            191          -4,866   hotels only - other expenses included in gas and food gifts & greeting cards           0            681              681    life insurance                   0            358              358    entertainment                   0            161              161    personal care                   0            775              775   apparently MMM family members do not bathe, brush teeth, or wipe their asses road mtc.                           0            200              200   for undeveloped property, hopefully soon to be sold postage                           0            164              164    fire fee                           0            156              156    unknown                           0            208              208    hunt/fish lic.                   0              94                94    newspaper                           0              85                85    bank svc chg                   0              77                77    anti-virus                           0              53                53    back-up svc.                   0              55                55    turbo tax                           0              35                35    ink                                   0              63                63    sales tax                           0            279              279                               25,330        44,620          19,290

[UKMatt]

Just worked mine out based on a forecast for 2015 as I don't have 2014 figures and have only just started reigning things in. We compare reasonably favourably in most areas. I do have a mortgage so there's obviously interest payments there where MMM doesn't have them. On groceries/eating out, I'm actually hoping to do slightly better! I've switched my supermarket and given up drinking alcohol. Always used to be fairly frugal and a healthy eater anyway so no massive changes to diet, just eking meals out a bit more than before and ditching a few luxury ingredients that we could do without.

The one place where we are absolutely trounced by MMM, hands down, is auto expenses. We have two cars on finance and both commute a fair bit so our annual spend on this, including fuel, insurance, tax, repairs etc is a whopping $14752! Not even comparable and truly shaming. Can't get out of the finance deals unfortunately (and my wife who went out and got herself a brand new Honda Civic Tourer on finance, against my wishes, would never agree anyway) but I absolutely pledge that we will be keeping both cars for a minimum of fifteen years (they're paid off after five years). Mine is very economical on fuel actually, averaging 49.9 mpg at the moment. I have noticed a big reduction in fuel costs - prob saving about 40% there so that counts for something I suppose.

This is actually quite a shock and I massively regret signing up to my finance deal, after a life of running very cheap, old cars. Moment of weakness I'll be paying for for quite some time.

[RootofGood]

We spend around $25000-30000 depending on how you categorize expenses.  2014 was particularly spendy considering we spent $8,700 on major home renovations (new siding, major roof repair, new windows).  Ignoring that, we spent $26,000 in 2014.  We also managed to travel to five countries with a family of 5 on that amount of money (and I included those travel expenses as personal expenses, not blog expenses!  ;) ). 

It really isn't that hard to believe MMM only spent $25k or whatever.  He's cut out the ridiculously expensive spendy stuff and enjoys inexpensive pastimes (or pastimes that make money!). 

We can argue all day about how MMM (or anyone) classifies certain expenses.  If you don't like how he categorizes things, mark up his spending to suit your needs.  Maybe he spent $35-40k after all the travel related to the blog and buying some eBikes.  Big deal.  That's still radically different than the vast majority of consumers out there who seem hell bent on spending 100% of everything they make. 

I think big ticket items like home renovations and eventually replacing cars are expenses, but they are lumpy.  I look at it as an amortized expense, and plan on roughly $1,500/yr for housing related improvements and $1,000/yr for car replacement.  Otherwise you end up excluding things like the occasional $80k house renovation.  Sure, MMM might sell his other house and net a gain.  But houses are depreciating assets.  In 20 years, that nice new house he built will be a dated house with 20 year old everything.  Maybe the RE market continues its upward tear and conceals the occasional renovation expense.  Who knows? 

[MrSal]

What do you guys use to keep track of all that without being a nut and record everything?

Any advice? Thanks

[Frankies Girl]

What do you guys use to keep track of all that without being a nut and record everything?

Any advice? Thanks

Mint.com (free, from the makers of TurboTax, but slightly annoying at times)
You Need a Budget  - youneedabudget.com (costs $, but there are sales)

Both of those you give the programs access to your accounts, credit cards, whatever and they automatically pull in the info as it's coming in and going out and categorizes it for you (but you can customize).

[Emilyngh]

What do you guys use to keep track of all that without being a nut and record everything?

Any advice? Thanks

Mint.com (free, from the makers of TurboTax, but slightly annoying at times)
You Need a Budget  - youneedabudget.com (costs $, but there are sales)

Both of those you give the programs access to your accounts, credit cards, whatever and they automatically pull in the info as it's coming in and going out and categorizes it for you (but you can customize).

Yup.   I started using Mint a little over a year ago and overall, am very pleased with it.   Not only can I track my spending all in one place easily, but also all of our investments.   

[Ottawa]

Canadian perspective - 2 adults and a child.  There's a whack of stuff that wasn't categorized...almost 1/4 of our total expenses.  I use mint but find that it doesn't categorize all that well... and says we spent something like 156,000.  Which is ridiculous. 

As such, I track everything on open office spreadsheets.  I could launch an  inquiry into the 'misc' category but can't be bothered...

In summary, we spent $31,705 in 2014.  This does not include mortgage payments...since we don't have one.

[Monkey Uncle]

What do you guys use to keep track of all that without being a nut and record everything?

Any advice? Thanks

I'm one of those nuts who records everything...

[EastCoastEric]

I discovered MMM about a month ago, and this is my first post. I have been using Mint since before last year so I can give you a glimpse into a non-MM world.

I'm single, late 20s/early 30s and live in NYC. I am compensated appropriately for the area; in 2014 I made 410k gross, 246k net. I'm currently seeking a new job and that number will likely go up at least 25% if I make a switch.

I spent 138k in 2014 according to Mint:
32k on home. This includes rent (about 29k) plus furniture and other maintenance
26k on travel. I went all over the world last year including 8 trips which crossed either the Atlantic or Pacific.
24k on taxes. My employer underpaid in 2013. Maybe I shouldn't count this
12k on education. Primarily student loans. I'm close to done and can repay them whenever I want but the interest rate is exceedingly small it's not worth it for the lost opportunity
10k on donations. Employer matches 10k; I wanted to max that out.
9k on food/dining. There are still uncategorized expenses and this is likely closer to 10-12k

The rest (25k) includes bills/utilities, the occasional rental car for leaving the city, clothes, shopping, shows, wine, bars, and some cash withdrawals which are likely part of the above categories which I didn't categorize and at this point don't remember. I also travel for work so some amount of this category was reimbursed to me (probably 5-10k) but since that doesn't show on my paycheck and I didn't keep close tabs on it last year I don't know the exact number.

I fully funded my 401k and the rest sits in index funds.

So my family of one only spent ~110k more than MMM.

[Monkey Uncle]

I discovered MMM about a month ago, and this is my first post. I have been using Mint since before last year so I can give you a glimpse into a non-MM world.

I'm single, late 20s/early 30s and live in NYC. I am compensated appropriately for the area; in 2014 I made 410k gross, 246k net. I'm currently seeking a new job and that number will likely go up at least 25% if I make a switch.

I spent 138k in 2014 according to Mint:
32k on home. This includes rent (about 29k) plus furniture and other maintenance
26k on travel. I went all over the world last year including 8 trips which crossed either the Atlantic or Pacific.
24k on taxes. My employer underpaid in 2013. Maybe I shouldn't count this
12k on education. Primarily student loans. I'm close to done and can repay them whenever I want but the interest rate is exceedingly small it's not worth it for the lost opportunity
10k on donations. Employer matches 10k; I wanted to max that out.
9k on food/dining. There are still uncategorized expenses and this is likely closer to 10-12k

The rest (25k) includes bills/utilities, the occasional rental car for leaving the city, clothes, shopping, shows, wine, bars, and some cash withdrawals which are likely part of the above categories which I didn't categorize and at this point don't remember. I also travel for work so some amount of this category was reimbursed to me (probably 5-10k) but since that doesn't show on my paycheck and I didn't keep close tabs on it last year I don't know the exact number.

I fully funded my 401k and the rest sits in index funds.

So my family of one only spent ~110k more than MMM.

Finally found somebody who spends more on food than my family. ;)

[Cressida]

What do you guys use to keep track of all that without being a nut and record everything?

Any advice? Thanks

I'm one of those nuts who records everything...

You beat me to it.

[Financial.Velociraptor]

I don't bother to budget (FIREd 5OCT2012) and never have.  My spending runs right about $2,400 a month with more at year end due to real estate taxes and insurance.  Home is paid for and I'm single so I'm actually being what I consider rather spendy with way more meals out than is necessary and a movie most weekends.  So I'm spending less than 'stache but it isn't a fair comparison.