Author Topic: Categories as a % of total spending  (Read 5594 times)

Millennialworkerbee

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Categories as a % of total spending
« on: July 24, 2018, 11:17:01 AM »
I did an interesting exercise this morning and wanted to share in case anyone else was interested in doing the same. I looked at some basic categories in spending and compared %s of total spending. Here is what I found:

15% : Personal (FUN- Monthly personal spend, travel, fun home projects)
14% : Food (Groceries and restaurants)
14%: Transportation (Car loan, maintenance, insurance, gas)
12% : Education (Student loans loans and currently paying for DHs class out of pocket)
11% : Housing (Rent and utilities)
10% : Medical co-pays
8% : Kids (Childcare, diapers, toys)
7% : Digital entertainment (Cell phone, internet, cable)
3% : Other
1% : Clothing

Lots of good personal takeaways. I would imagine these %s vary wildly based on specific personal circumstances, but it was interesting to see where my money is going. Apparently we prioritize personal spending; I knew this but had no idea that would be our highest category. Similarly I knew we didn’t spend much on our kids or our housing but I didn’t realize it was a relatively low amount, by comparison.

Background: We have a 2 year old, adding another kid next month! DH 32 and I’m 27. We rent so do not have big home improvement/unexpected home expenses.

MDM

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #1 on: July 24, 2018, 11:27:03 AM »
See Average Household Budget if interested in some similar statistics.

secondcor521

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #2 on: July 24, 2018, 01:00:04 PM »
OP:  Consider looking at total income and treating taxes as one of your categories.  That was eye-opening for me and caused me to focus a lot of my effort in tax reduction strategies.  When I was working, taxes were my largest single category by far.  Now that I am FIREd, my taxes are basically zero.  (By taxes here I'm referring to federal income tax, state income tax, and FICA taxes.)

Here's mine based on the last six months in Quicken:

College - 44.42%  (Three kids going to private high schools and a public university.  Previously saved for.)
Kids - 20.83%  (Mostly child support.  Drops in February 2019 and then goes away in May 2020.)

Recreation - 7.49%  (Anything fun.  Vacations, mostly, but also includes movies, golf, bridge etc.)
Food - 6.94%  (Groceries and eating out.)
Insurance - 5.26%  (Auto, home, health.  High deductibles and ACA Silver plan for me and two younger kids.)
Utilities - 3.66%
Medical - 3.53%
Auto - 2.53%  (1993 sedan.)
Bank Charge - 2.25%  (I play credit card games and sometimes pay ridiculous annual fees because I get more back.)
Charity - 1.39% (My daughter did St. Baldrick's this year.)
House - 1.18% (2004 single family home.)
Pets - 0.42%  (4 year old DLH cat.)
Misc - 0.09%
Cash - 0.02%

Mentally I separate the two categories at the top from the rest because they are being paid for from segregated education savings and because they are not ongoing.

diapasoun

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2018, 01:19:33 PM »
I'll jump in! This is fun. :)

21888.16 YTD in June, representing roughly 58% of post-tax income. Unmarried with a long-term partner, early 30s, female in a VHCOLA; numbers do not include partner.

Non-exact spending rundown:

Car: 36.5% (!!!!!!!!!!!!) (includes paying off the loan 2.5 years early in a lump sum)
Housing: 24% (rent, utilities, household supplies)
Student loans: 12%
Food (groceries and restaurants): 11%
Personal fun (books, crafts, gifts, miscellaneous spending): 3%
Charity: 3%
Travel: 3%
Dental/medical: 2.5%
Cell phone: 2%
Cat: 1%

Completely non-surprising to me (I would have expected somewhere around here for numbers), but still a useful way to view my spending. For example, I've spent more on restaurants than I have on charity or travel; that does not please me. I know that by looking at it in raw numbers, but it sinks in differently as percentages.

What's perhaps most useful to me here is seeing that where I really get hit is on the difficult, harder-to-optimize expenses (housing + vehicle). This is something I already knew, but still, calculating the percentages for ALL the spending is really helpful in bringing it home again. Both car and housing are already decently optimized (especially housing, which is several hundred dollars a month below market rate), and further optimization is going to require a move (and likely one outside our current area). As usual, food for thought.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #4 on: July 24, 2018, 01:39:02 PM »
I knew this would be painful. I was right!

Let's start with the pain:
Medical- 46.6%

(That's what two IVF cycles and an MRI will get you!)

On to the rest:
Home+utilities: 23.8%
Food+alcohol: 9%
Auto (a lot is reimbursed by work, but I didn't split that out): 6.2%
School loan payback: 3.1%
Pet: 2.8%
Gifts: 0.6%
Clothes: 0.3%

Looking at that I missed some random things (household goods I know is one), but I need to go chase a puppy Might edit later

Hirondelle

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #5 on: July 24, 2018, 01:42:44 PM »
Fun exercise to see how categories spread out for different people.
Rent/utilities      32%
Groceries              11%
Transport          5%
Restaurants/Bars   6%
Travel              18%
Presents            1%
Medical           2%
Health Insurance   8%
Phone plan             0.3%
Sports           3%
Charity               3%
Clothes/stuff etc.  1%
Memberships        1%
Business           2% (this category is now in personal spending still, will change this later. Most were one-time costs so far
One-offs           6%
Totaal       100%
« Last Edit: July 24, 2018, 01:44:59 PM by Hirondelle »

mak1277

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #6 on: July 24, 2018, 01:59:08 PM »
For 2017...this is as close as I can get from an accuracy standpoint:

Charity - 25.3%
Housing (PITI) - 24.1%
All other - 50.6%

Raenia

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2018, 07:57:52 AM »
I'll use 2017 numbers, since I don't have access to my current budget spreadsheet at the moment.  Since then, I can estimate that housing has gone up, entertainment has gone down, misc has gone down.  Car has gone down in absolute $s due to not taking the toll road to work anymore, but percentage wise it may still be similar due to other categories falling as well.

Housing (Rent, utilities): 43.4%
Car (Gas, maint, tolls): 21.3%
Groceries: 4.6%
Health+Hygiene: 0.8%
Entertainment (Eating out, alcohol, travel, ect): 6.6%
Projects: 0.5%
Misc: 22.9% (inflated due to moving expenses, 1st+last+deposit)

ETA: I'm impressed with how much less people are spending on housing - if I included the moving expenses in housing it would be over 50% of my expenses.  I guess rent around here is really bad, or I'm just cheap in all the other categories?
« Last Edit: July 25, 2018, 08:00:13 AM by Raenia »

mathlete

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2018, 08:51:24 AM »
Fun thread. Wish I could participate but the split of expenses between GF and I makes it too hard to suss out good data.

Philociraptor

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2018, 09:53:36 AM »
Hmm, I'll play:

Category (last 12 months spending): % of takehome / % of spending
Auto (insurance, gas, maintenance): 4.0% / 8.5%
Bills (utilities and phones): 3.4% / 7.2%
Student Loans (will be done this year ^_^): 3.7% / 7.9%
Groceries (feeds 3): 5.1% / 10.9%
Charity (increasing this year): 0.4% / 0.8%
Heath/Fitness (gym and doctor copays, including a colonoscopy last year): 4.3% / 9.1%
Home (mortgage, taxes, insurance, maintenance): 10.0% / 21.4%
Travel (increasing next year once student loans are dead): 3.6% / 7.7%
Everything Else (shopping, dining, drinking, etc.): 12.5% / 26.5%
Total: 47.1% / 100.0%

diapasoun

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2018, 10:10:50 AM »
Ouch on the medical, B_J! Both $ and all the prods and pokes....

I, like Raenia, am amazed by how little folks spend on housing -- go you! For those who spending a relatively small amount on housing, out of their total spending, are you free and clear on a mortgage and only paying TI/repairs now? Or are you living in a LCOLA?

secondcor521

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2018, 10:12:09 AM »
For those who spending a relatively small amount on housing, out of their total spending, are you free and clear on a mortgage and only paying TI/repairs now? Or are you living in a LCOLA?

I own my home and live in a LCOLA. :-)

diapasoun

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #12 on: July 25, 2018, 10:14:10 AM »
For those who spending a relatively small amount on housing, out of their total spending, are you free and clear on a mortgage and only paying TI/repairs now? Or are you living in a LCOLA?

I own my home and live in a LCOLA. :-)

Haha I just re-looked at your numbers again -- if you had that percentage and you were renting/in a HCOLA, I'd be worried about your total spending. ;) Congrats on getting to a good secure point with your housing!

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #13 on: July 25, 2018, 12:20:04 PM »
Ouch on the medical, B_J! Both $ and all the prods and pokes....

I, like Raenia, am amazed by how little folks spend on housing -- go you! For those who spending a relatively small amount on housing, out of their total spending, are you free and clear on a mortgage and only paying TI/repairs now? Or are you living in a LCOLA?

I think mine looks artificially low because the medical is so high. If I take out medical, housing is like 41% of my spending.

partgypsy

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #14 on: July 25, 2018, 12:32:18 PM »
39% total recurring bills. Of that, 20%= mort+prop tax
36%  mort+prop tax plus other household (purchases, repairs and improvements)
12.6 miscellaneous
11% grocery
8.6% auto (payment, repair gas)

5% medical copays or dentist (this year is low, other years higher)
3.2% travel vacations
2.7 restaurant, bar
<1% clothing



As I've said in another post, since splitting up I am spending less on grocery,restaurant, car (ironically), travel. I am spending more in recurring and housing (prop taxes. house repairs, improvements). Miscellaneous about he same, but that is one area I can improve.  I'm also hoping once the kitchen remodel is done, to take a break from house improvements for a few months.  Especially as next year starts braces...   
« Last Edit: July 25, 2018, 01:01:49 PM by partgypsy »

DS

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #15 on: July 25, 2018, 12:33:51 PM »
For those who spending a relatively small amount on housing, out of their total spending, are you free and clear on a mortgage and only paying TI/repairs now? Or are you living in a LCOLA?

I own my home and live in a LCOLA. :-)

Liter of cola!

Sailor Sam

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #16 on: July 25, 2018, 12:55:07 PM »
Hey, fun. I love me some data.

10% : Charity
  7% : Travel (one-off in 2018. European vacation with the Oldsters)
  6% : Medical & Personal Care
  5% : Household
  3% : Fun
  3% : Groceries
  3% : Gifts and Hosting
  2% : Eating Out
  1% : Utilities
  1% : Transportation
  1% : Cash Withdrawal
  1% : Professional Costs (fucking uniforms. It's a racket, innit?)
  1% : Mess Bill (also a racket)
 .5% : Misc
 .5% : Sin

That's 45% of my take home pay. The remainder is savings. I'm quite pleased!   

Millennialworkerbee

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #17 on: July 25, 2018, 01:02:59 PM »
Ouch on the medical, B_J! Both $ and all the prods and pokes....

I, like Raenia, am amazed by how little folks spend on housing -- go you! For those who spending a relatively small amount on housing, out of their total spending, are you free and clear on a mortgage and only paying TI/repairs now? Or are you living in a LCOLA?

Our housing is low because we rent (no maintenance/repair costs). And our Medical and Education expenses in particular are super high this year compared to other years- ear tubes, pregnancy/birth, and going back to school.

wageslave23

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #18 on: July 25, 2018, 01:13:06 PM »
Housing - 56%  ($1300)
Food - 6%  (150)
Fun - 6%  (150)
Internet - 2%  (40)
Cell - 1%  (25)
Misc - 4%  (100)
Car - 9%  (200)
Student loan - 15%  (350)

House is mortgage, utilities, re taxes - house is more than I need, but I bought it to fix up and flip and it would be more expensive to rent in my MCOL area.
Single
« Last Edit: July 25, 2018, 01:17:03 PM by Ryancanderson23 »

Millennialworkerbee

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #19 on: July 25, 2018, 01:15:16 PM »
OP:  Consider looking at total income and treating taxes as one of your categories.  That was eye-opening for me and caused me to focus a lot of my effort in tax reduction strategies.

Yes, I love this idea. I am doing a few things like using HSA and Dependent care FSA but I’m confident there is more I could do. Thanks for the suggestion!

FIRE_Buckeye

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #20 on: July 26, 2018, 07:24:31 AM »
First month of combined expenses (newly married) and first month in our new house, so just one month worth of data to share unfortunately.
The expense distribution of those with a house payment and those without are definitely fascinating.

   % of Total Expenses
   
Mortgage PITI   46%
Student Loans   12%
Utilities   10%
Travel   9%
Gas (Cars)   6%
Insurance   6%
Groceries/Household   4%
Cell Phone   2%
Dinner Out   2%
Misc   1%
Gifts   1%
Vehicle Expenses   1%
Clothes   1%
Gym   1%

Some wonky percentages there for sure, but such is life using such a small sample size.

B L I S S

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #21 on: August 03, 2018, 08:26:00 PM »
This year has been all over the place so far - I'm hoping to level out my spending and level up my savings


Total Expenses: $30,000

1. [49%] Rent and bills
2. [18%] Grocery and Eating Out
3. [11%] Transportation
4. [05%] Vacation
5. [02%] Cosmetics
6. [02%] Gifts
7. [02%] Household items
8. [01%] Apparel
9. Remainder on education, subscriptions, health

Rent is killing me

Sibley

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #22 on: August 03, 2018, 09:06:22 PM »
Well, here is mine. It's weird. YTD:

Household           34% see explanation below
Mortgage             14% more than min, includes taxes, insurance
Student Loan      11% mine will be paid off in Sept. Also have assumed payments for parent's PLUS loan for me
Auto                     8% includes gas, loan (low interest rate), registration, service
Utilities               6% everything but cell phone
Cats                     5% 2 cats, one is old and I buy what she will eat. Both cats have (cheap) conditions requiring regular-ish vet visits
Groceries             4% If I buy it at the grocery store, it's in here.
Taxes              4% will be getting about half of this back eventually, I screwed up my taxes this year so it's messy
CPA                     3% professional memberships, license renewal, CPE. I get as much paid for by employers as I can
Entertainment     2% all sorts of stuff
Clothing             2% I've had to buy a lot this year, after buying almost nothing the last year or 2
Cell Phone             2% family plan, I'm deliberately subsidizing a bit
All other              5% literally everything else. Insurance, eating out, and personal care is slightly more than half of it.

Total expenses $34,600.

Not even checking if it adds to 100, just assume there's rounding issues.

Household - includes the little things for the house that isn't in Grocery, but mostly is home improvement stuff. I've had a $7k project this year, in the middle of a $1.5k, shortly going to sign contract for a $4k, and there will be another project that I'm budgeting $4-5k but haven't even looked at prices yet. On the other hand, I'm getting a lot of big stuff out of the way, so other than the roof, I'm thinking house costs are going to drop drastically next year. There's also a lot of small stuff for the DIY I'm doing, and then various smaller costs for when I've hired repairs or things done.
« Last Edit: August 03, 2018, 09:28:52 PM by Sibley »

Raenia

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #23 on: August 05, 2018, 05:59:58 AM »
Ouch on the medical, B_J! Both $ and all the prods and pokes....

I, like Raenia, am amazed by how little folks spend on housing -- go you! For those who spending a relatively small amount on housing, out of their total spending, are you free and clear on a mortgage and only paying TI/repairs now? Or are you living in a LCOLA?

Except, if we’re talking % of spending, not income, then wouldn’t you expect a low spender to have their housing as a very large percentage of their spending??

For us, we have an extremely cheap house in an MCOL city and our housing and utility costs are about 60% of our spending (not including student debt repayment) because we spend so little on anything else. In terms of gross income, our housing costs are less than 10%.

Having universal healthcare and not having kids leaves us with very little necessary expenses outside of housing.

That's exactly what I would expect, which is why I was amazed at all the people who had only 10-25% of spending on housing.  Someone even had 1%!  It doesn't surprise me at all that others have 50-60%, that seems much more 'normal' to me.

zeli2033

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #24 on: August 05, 2018, 09:35:47 AM »
Interesting way to break things down.


Category      %Spending / %Takehome
Home                 23.3% / 16.8%
Education                 22.9% /16.6%     Paying off student loan
Food & Dining         17.4% / 12.6%    This is waaaay too close to what we spend on rent. Already knew that but confirmed...again.
Shopping                   6.9% / 4.9%
Auto & Transport   6.6% / 4.8%
Business Services   6.4% / 4.6%
Travel                   3.3% / 2.3%
Personal Care           2.8% / 2.0%
Taxes                   2.7% / 2.0%
Health & Fitness           2.0% / 1.5%
Bills & Utilities           1.8% / 1.3%
Entertainment           1.7% / 1.2%
Misc Expenses           1.6% / 1.0%
Gifts & Donations   0.6% / 0.5%

mizzourah2006

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #25 on: August 06, 2018, 03:08:05 PM »
This is our general breakdown so far this year:

PITI: 22%
Childcare: 21.4%
Vacation: 7.6%
Groceries/HH Goods: 6%
Car-Related (Gas, Insurance, Oil Changes): 5.6% - will go down as we just paid insurance for the second half of the year in June
Health Insurance: 4.8%
Utilities: 4.7%
Entertainment: 4.7%
Cable/Internet: 3.4%
Eating Out: 1.7%
Child related expenses( diapers, new clothing, etc.): 1.4%
Cell Phones: 1%

Remaining ~16% spent on personal property taxes, pets and vet visits, gifts, our monthly fun money,home care, etc.




« Last Edit: August 06, 2018, 03:11:39 PM by mizzourah2006 »

VoteCthulu

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #26 on: August 06, 2018, 03:37:12 PM »
For 2017 my numbers were:
40.1% Taxes
38.2% Mortgage
7.84% Food (I eat out too much)
5.21% Utilities (includes cell phone)
4.12% Insurance (car, home, umbrella)
2.39% Shopping (mostly cloths)
0.97% Car (gas and maintenance)
0.77% Entertainment (movies, etc.)
0.39% Medical (knock on wood)

Zikoris

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #27 on: August 06, 2018, 03:48:28 PM »
Ours are pretty weird to look at. So enjoy!

37% - Housing
35% - Travel
13% - Food
3% - Bills
3% - Entertainment
2% - Personal care
7% - Everything else

We're thinking of making some huge lifestyle changes (quitting work, moving to an island, building a tiny house), so if those come to pass, it should be interesting to see the change.

Abe

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #28 on: August 06, 2018, 10:26:49 PM »
Our spending is
30% rent/household
30% taxes
25% childcare
15% everything else

California!


mveill1

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #29 on: August 07, 2018, 02:19:41 AM »
I did an interesting exercise this morning and wanted to share in case anyone else was interested in doing the same. I looked at some basic categories in spending and compared %s of total spending. Here is what I found:

15% : Personal (FUN- Monthly personal spend, travel, fun home projects)
14% : Food (Groceries and restaurants)
14%: Transportation (Car loan, maintenance, insurance, gas)
12% : Education (Student loans loans and currently paying for DHs class out of pocket)
11% : Housing (Rent and utilities)
10% : Medical co-pays
8% : Kids (Childcare, diapers, toys)
7% : Digital entertainment (Cell phone, internet, cable)
3% : Other
1% : Clothing

Lots of good personal takeaways. I would imagine these %s vary wildly based on specific personal circumstances, but it was interesting to see where my money is going. Apparently we prioritize personal spending; I knew this but had no idea that would be our highest category. Similarly I knew we didn’t spend much on our kids or our housing but I didn’t realize it was a relatively low amount, by comparison.

Background: We have a 2 year old, adding another kid next month! DH 32 and I’m 27. We rent so do not have big home improvement/unexpected home expenses.

Can't believe how low your rent is compared to total expenses. Well done! How do you manage?

YoungGranny

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #30 on: August 07, 2018, 06:31:35 AM »

This is my 2017 spending:

Home (principal, interest, taxes and home repairs/improvements): 25.39%
Travel (two international trips plus lots of extra road trips last summer to visit my Grandpa who passed away): 22.42%
Food (we really like to eat and host dinner parties but have been working on reducing it in 2018 a bit): 20.26%
Insurance (Auto, Home, and Life): 6.74% - we actively worked to lower this so i bet 2018 is less
Charity: 6.25%
Bills (internet, netflix, utilities): 5.20%
Medical: 5.`7%
Misc (personal budgets, random things like paper towel etc): 3.61%
Transportation (proud of this one!): 2.93%
Education: 0.90%
Dog: 0.83%
Entertainment: 0.30%

Lanthiriel

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #31 on: August 07, 2018, 10:09:07 AM »
Scary... here we go.

Pre-tax
401ks - 24%

Taxes
Federal, State (OR), Medicare, Social Security - 24%

Percentages of Take Home Pay
Home (including utilities, exterminator, etc.) - 44%
Allowance/Travel/Entertainment - 15%
Transportation - 8% (husband gets reimbursed for mileage, though, so real costs are much lower)
Groceries/Household Goods - 8%
Dogs - 7% (specialty food, medications, lunchtime dog sitter, vet visits)
Phones & Internet (plus streaming) - 3%

The remaining take home pay plus overtime and bonuses currently goes into an emergency fund. Starting next year, it will fund Roth IRAs.

needing_a_change

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #32 on: August 07, 2018, 11:22:01 AM »
This was enlightening...
Category% of spending% of take home
Housing (taxes, insurance, small repairs)6.2%2.8%
Utilities (home utilities, internet, phone)10.2%4.6%
Car (insurance, gas, minor repairs)5.7%2.5%
Other insurances2%.9%
Personal Allowances16.5%7.4%
Food (Groceries, Dining Out)20.6%9.2%
Entertainment (movies,streaming, etc.)1%.5%
Travel18.6%8.3%
Misc shopping (household items, clothes, etc.)11.3%5.1%
Medical (non-HSA funds)1%.5%
Charity6.2%2.8%
After-tax savings---55.3%

OurTown

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #33 on: August 09, 2018, 02:15:47 PM »
I did this for take-home pay.

Housing & Utilities 28%
Necessary Expenses 18% (includes insurance, child support, medical copay)
Discretionary Expenses 18% (includes pet care, clothing & gifts, travel & entertainment, household & personal)
Personal Cash Allowance 11%
Food 10%
Transportation 6%
Additional Savings 6%
Charity 2% (I am ashamed of this number!)

Savings rate as a percentage of gross is 40%.

johndoe

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #34 on: August 10, 2018, 01:33:19 PM »

clarkfan1979

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #35 on: August 11, 2018, 12:40:32 PM »
This will be my wife and I combined. My wife is a little bit of a spender. This will also be a good mental exercise for me.

Total Income: 75K of W-2 income and 18K of rental income. Married with 1 kid (15 months old)

This is my best guess below.

Housing: 20% (mortgage + utilities) which is $3000, minus basement rental unit income ($1500)
Taxes: 15% (5% federal, 5% payroll and 5% state)
Pension/Savings: 15%
Food: 13%
Travel: 11%
Shopping: 11% (Clothes, make-up, toys, etc..)
Transportation: 6%
Student Loans: 4%
Health Insurance: 3%
Gifts/Donations: 2%



clarkfan1979

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #36 on: August 11, 2018, 01:14:48 PM »
I bought a 3 bed/2 bath/2 car garage in Florida in 2012 for 95K. The total mortgage, taxes and insurance is $615/month. Today it's worth about 250K.

If someone from my hometown in Lake County, IL bought a 250K house and paid cash they would still be paying $635/month in taxes and insurance.

Property taxes are 2.5% to 3% of the home value. I estimate 2.75% for my calculations.

Turkey Leg

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #37 on: August 11, 2018, 03:49:53 PM »
2017 spending as a percentage of gross income:

Gifts and Donations: 45%
Home: 8%
Auto & Transport: 5%
Shopping: 5% (ouch)
Food & Dining: 4%
Bills & Utilities: 2%
Health & Fitness: 1%
Travel: 1%

The rest was 401k contributions, fed/state/FICA taxes, and health/life/disability insurance.

GreenGrapes

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #38 on: August 13, 2018, 10:41:39 AM »
Fun exercise.

Housing (everything) - 52.8%
Transportation - 10.3%
Groceries + Eating Out - 17.0%
Healthcare - 7.1%
Entertainment - 5.0%
Projects - 1.4%
Misc. - 2.1%
Life Insurance - 4.2%

We really need to cut back on the food costs.

Tass

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #39 on: August 13, 2018, 12:09:29 PM »
I have a percentages column in my spreadsheet, but it doesn't include taxes, so I redid some numbers with that suggestion. Here's percentages of spending for the last 12 months, roughly:

Housing/Rent39%   
Tax20%
Charity14%working on increasing
Food9%working on decreasing, especially fast food
Travel6%decreasing naturally
Car5%working on decreasing, especially gas
Bills3%
Shopping2%includes personal and home supplies
Entertainment   1%
Gifts1%
Hair0%0.4%, but it rounds down haha

Definitely taxes was a far bigger proportion than I expected, though to be fair I am also taxed on my waived tuition, so it's a little inflated. But rent is clearly the big thing here, and there's not much to be done about it until I finish my degree.

diapasoun

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #40 on: August 13, 2018, 12:12:32 PM »
though to be fair I am also taxed on my waived tuition

Your tuition wavers should not be taxed; you might want to look into this.

Tass

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #41 on: August 13, 2018, 12:30:10 PM »
though to be fair I am also taxed on my waived tuition

Your tuition wavers should not be taxed; you might want to look into this.

Yeah, they aren't for most university grad students, but I attend a non-university institution and here it seems to depend on what kind of grant is funding you. They pay me a little extra to make up for it, so my take-home is unaffected, but when I calculate % taxes it shows up.

I say "waived" for simplicity, but technically I am paid extra and then the tuition is withheld from my paycheck.

diapasoun

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Re: Categories as a % of total spending
« Reply #42 on: August 13, 2018, 12:33:01 PM »
though to be fair I am also taxed on my waived tuition

Your tuition wavers should not be taxed; you might want to look into this.

Yeah, they aren't for most university grad students, but I attend a non-university institution and here it seems to depend on what kind of grant is funding you. They pay me a little extra to make up for it, so my take-home is unaffected, but when I calculate % taxes it shows up.

I say "waived" for simplicity, but technically I am paid extra and then the tuition is withheld from my paycheck.

The non-university institution part... that makes sense. :( How annoying, although at least they pay you a little extra for it.