Stayed under $1000 of expenses for the month of April!

[minimalistgamer]

I have tried for a couple of months now to spend less than $1000 for the entire month. I failed to do so in February and March, but April has been fantastic. We spent a total of $790.57 - this includes EVERYTHING!

I am very proud of this because it means that if I were to lose my job, we will be fine with my wife's income, which isn't a lot, but it will cover all the bills. Of course this will change when we have kids, but for now, it is definitely comforting.

You can more about it here to get the exact numbers (This is not an ad for my blog) -

http://minimalistgamer.blogspot.com/2017/04/month-in-review-april-2017.html

[tiger002]

Congrats! I'm sure that having the mortgage paid off and not having any big expenses helps. I think I could do this if I didn't have a mortgage, but that would only be for one person instead of two.

[respond2u]

Hi Minimalist--in your details, I didn't notice any charges for accrued-but-not-due expenses, like property tax, home owners insurance, car insurance that you have a legal obligation to pay, nor for any depreciation-like expenses, like the steady decay in your car (tires, battery, car value), clothing, teeth (you go to the dentist?), etc.

I know it rains on the under 1K parade, but EVERYTHING is really not *every* everything...

[minimalistgamer]

Congrats! I'm sure that having the mortgage paid off and not having any big expenses helps. I think I could do this if I didn't have a mortgage, but that would only be for one person instead of two.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it. The idea for me here was to figure out how much money we needed to just live by. Of course we did not take property taxes, potential home maintenance, car depreciation etc. into account, so I am not presenting the full picture, but rather I am only showing the raw numbers in terms of how much I spent throughout the course of the month. I think its a worthy exercise.

Hi Minimalist--in your details, I didn't notice any charges for accrued-but-not-due expenses, like property tax, home owners insurance, car insurance that you have a legal obligation to pay, nor for any depreciation-like expenses, like the steady decay in your car (tires, battery, car value), clothing, teeth (you go to the dentist?), etc.

I know it rains on the under 1K parade, but EVERYTHING is really not *every* everything...

You are absolutely right. Everything does not cover everything.

I tracked all the money that went out of my checking account, and that's it. I did not take into account the depreciation of assets, and the property tax bill that will due at the end of the year. These are just raw numbers, and as far showing the expenses for the month of April, they are very accurate, but they do not account for other things down the road, and implicit expenses.

I am not sure how I can capture all of those details...

[Classical_Liberal]

That is awesome!  For two people core expenses of <5K per person per year.

I would agree with other posters, it obviously doesn't give the whole picture, but I'm sure you are aware. 

I've come to the conclusion everyone should experiment with bare minimums, this ties well into the most recent MMM article related to fear.  If you can prove to yourself you can get by and be happy on $X, then you've just taken a HUGE leap towards alleviating all those "what ifs" that hide in the back of our minds. 

2018 was going to be my year of minimums because I had a few one-off lifestyle "buy in" expenses at the beginning of 2017. However, there is no real reason I need a calendar year to do this (other than pretty spreadsheets), You've motivated me to start this year and run it for 12 months July 2017- June 2018.  I've made much spending progress in the past few years, it would be easy to rest on my laurels and pat myself on the back.  However, to have a real world, experimentally proven baseline is worth it's weight in gold, even I never go there again. Plus, I'm sure I'll pick up a few tricks I keep in my basket to lower long-term spending as well. 

[minimalistgamer]

I absolutely think that it is a good exercise to go through the process of figuring out what the minimum income you are going to need to maintain your lifestyle. Not just on paper but in practice.

I am glad to know that we can make it with $1000 quite easily. This is a huge relief for us.

[Aggie1999]

I absolutely think that it is a good exercise to go through the process of figuring out what the minimum income you are going to need to maintain your lifestyle. Not just on paper but in practice.

I am glad to know that we can make it with $1000 quite easily. This is a huge relief for us.

+1. I'm looking to at least take an extended time from working starting in 2018. Decided to use 2017 to see how "cheap" I can live. Started in mid Jan. So far my numbers are:

Feb: ~$1450
Mar: ~$1050
Apr: ~$950

This covers everything except yearly property tax (~$6000) and yearly home owners association fee (~$600). Looking to sell current house an move to a much cheaper COL area this summer. So hopefully that $6600 every year will go down to around $3k