Are our payments normal?

[texastumbleweed]

There is a lot of info here, so thanks to anyone who takes the time to read it!! I'm trying to increase our savings and cut our expenses and want to get some feedback on some of our biggest expenses to see if we can improve or not.  My goal is to save $618 a month (or more!) and set aside $10k for an emergency fund.  We don't eat out (except for a tiny bit on vacation) or buy clothes at the moment.  We have a fluctuating income as we are both self employed a normal month is abut $3k-6k although we should have a substantial increase next year.  I will be posting more at that time once I know the amount:

Property taxes: $325 a month (paid off house in nice location, husband works at home)

Water: 40-50 a month

Nat gas: 80 -100 average a month

Electricity: 70-100 average a month

Cable: $50.92, no tv just internet

Mobile phone: 101.13 for two phones on ATT, lowest data option.  Our contracts are up in September and November.

Pest control: $50 a month

House insurance: $21 a month

Car insurance: $83 a month (might be able to get this a little lower by taking collision off my husbands car as he drives it only once every few months, mostly we share mine)

Car registration and oil changes: averges out to $30 a mont

Gas: $30 a month ($80 in summer months with vacations) (biking isn't really an option as our town is not bike friendly and we have three kids, but we work at home so only drive kids to nearby school.)

Groceries: $600 (although i go over a bit to $750 sometimes, but with summer coming our garden should reduce that a lot.)

CSA: $45 a month, we paid this year, but if i can get garden going well we may not do it next year

Pets: 25-50 a month (two dogs)

Netflix: $8.75 (not giving up, no tv)

Gym: $60 in summer months for pool

Misc: $150 this covers everything from getting all led light bulbs to floss to toilet paper

Christmas: $80 a month (into envelope to buy gifts for our family, grandparents (6) and uncles (4))

Lawn: $35 (husband has long hours on job and doesn't  want to spend weekend days on grass.  when kids are bigger i will probably get a lawn mower and do it myself.)

Security system: $20 a month

Vacation: $600 a year (locations are free so this includes incidentals like restaurants and such.)

Health: $50 a month, this includes co-pays and vitamins or medicines. 

Birthdays: I've budgeted about $500 a year or $100 per person and that includes gift plus extra food and drinks for parties

Non-family gifts: $20 a month (baby showers, weddings, business gifts)

Health insurance: $463.25 (this is a biggie.  I have hit my deductible each year for various post-pregnancy related medical issues so I'm reluctant to get a higher deductible.  I looked online for better deals and it seemed they would be even higher, but this still seems so high to me.  We are self employed, non smokers with three kids in TN.)

Husband's business expenses: $50 a month

Preschool: Our part comes to about $83 a month (grandparents pay mostly and would not be giving the money otherwise :)

[ender]

Groceries seems high, but if you have 3 teenagers... vs a few toddlers, can be complicated. My wife and I spend less than $300 a month and eat fairly luxuriously (homemade curry last night, homemade pizza bake thing for lunch today, chicken/vegetables tonight, etc). You mention preschool so I suspect you have a TON of opportunity in this category, are you eating out a lot? Why is it so high?

My wife and I spend less than $30/month on our phones. There is a lot of opportunity to save money on phones.

Utilities feel high to me for TN, though I have no idea how big your house is.

[texastumbleweed]

Groceries seem high to me too, we have three kids under 4, but my husband cooks for people who are working with him at our house most days, so it is probably like having 3 or four adults in the house.

The phone issue, I don't know how to get around....

Our house is 1400 sq feet, plus 1400 office out back for my husband.  I wash a LOT of clothes and cloth diapers, but dry everything on a line....

[Rural]

Groceries are way high for Tennessee, especially with a separate monthly payment for a CSA! This is a great opportunity- you should be able to recover $250 a month there without going to any extremes. More if you're willing to get creative. Where do you shop?

[texastumbleweed]

trader joes, btw before i discovered mmm our grocery bill was about $1100 a month plus $600 for eating out!!! :(((

[MrDelane]

Depending on where you are and what you're trying to control against, pest control is VERY easy and inexpensive to do yourself.  I used to pay roughly what you're paying for pest control and have been doing it myself now for the past three years.

My grand total of expenditures has been roughly $100 (because I've found I don't need to spray nearly as often as I thought I did).  Which means I've saved roughly $1500 in that time.

See if you can find out what your pest control company is using, and then look into the costs of doing it yourself.  Getting a tank sprayer and pesticide on Amazon is incredibly cheap. 

I'm not one to say we should all be doing everything ourselves - mowing the lawn, for example, is something I hire someone to do (mainly because of the time it takes versus what it costs me, I found it is more profitable for me to hire someone and instead take on side jobs in my field that I do on the weekend).

But taking care of pest control takes me literally 20 minutes or so once every few months.  Well worth the time and the savings in my experience.


EDITED TO ADD:
In case anyone is curious, this is what I use around the exterior of the house, it is the same active ingredients the pest control company I used to hire was using (and charging me $45/month for):

http://www.amazon.com/Cy-Kick-Controlled-Release-Cyfluthrin-Insecticide/dp/B002ACMKV8?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

And the sprayer (if I had it to do over again I would have possibly bought a slightly nicer one, but this one has held up find for the past 3 years so far):
http://www.amazon.com/Chapin-20000-1-Gallon-Garden-Sprayer/dp/B000E28UQU?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

[Rural]

trader joes, btw before i discovered mmm our grocery bill was about $1100 a month plus $600 for eating out!!! :(((

Wow! You've made a big dent already, but I'd suggest tracking groceries closely for a month - put everything into categories (dairy, meat, junk food, etc). Then see if you're willing to spend that much on that category.


I'd also have a look at the discount groceries. Trader Joe's is really expensive and they really push the overpriced processed stuff. Do you have an Aldi's or Sav-a-Lot? Walmart supercenter?


ETA I wouldn't recommend DIY on termite control if that's what you mean by pest control, not unless you're really experienced at DIY. But $50 a month is high for termites. Other pest control is optional.

[RedmondStash]

You could check into Google Fi for mobile phones. If you use very little data, you could pay $25 to $30 per month apiece, and have access to both Sprint and T-Mobile networks. We upgraded from Virgin Mobile, which was pretty good at around $40/month, but had crappy Sprint coverage only. The one downside is you do have to purchase a new Nexus phone.

[ender]

trader joes, btw before i discovered mmm our grocery bill was about $1100 a month plus $600 for eating out!!! :(((

Wow! You've made a big dent already, but I'd suggest tracking groceries closely for a month - put everything into categories (dairy, meat, junk food, etc). Then see if you're willing to spend that much on that category.


I'd also have a look at the discount groceries. Trader Joe's is really expensive and they really push the overpriced processed stuff. Do you have an Aldi's or Sav-a-Lot? Walmart supercenter?

+1 to this suggestion.

I've done this a few times and each time itemizing our receipts and breaking it down into categories was really insightful!

[pa27pilot]

You could check into Google Fi for mobile phones. If you use very little data, you could pay $25 to $30 per month apiece, and have access to both Sprint and T-Mobile networks. We upgraded from Virgin Mobile, which was pretty good at around $40/month, but had crappy Sprint coverage only. The one downside is you do have to purchase a new Nexus phone.

Another option would be Cricket, which runs off of AT&T's network. Bringing you down to $35 a month per person or $70 total. The transition for me (a former AT&T user) was unnoticeable.

[Gin1984]

You may want to check ting out, DH and I spend $20 plus taxes total for the both of us because we use Facebook messenger for much of our texting and google voice for phone calls.

[meandmyfamily]

Cancel pest control and security.  No need!  You can do it!