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General Discussion => Welcome and General Discussion => Topic started by: CCCA on December 30, 2017, 03:35:40 PM

Title: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: CCCA on December 30, 2017, 03:35:40 PM

It's close to the end of 2017 and we are revisiting our 2017 household spending.  We categorize all of our purchases and put into an Excel document.  We've done our 2017 spending, since we don't anticipate any purchases that will change the numbers appreciably.

This poll asks for you to total up all your spending and fill out the amount.  If you want, it'd also be good to add some context to your "spending number", by indicating how many people are in your household, the cost of living in your part of the country, how you feel about this level of spending and any other relevant info. 

I'll go first (though our numbers are not terribly mustachian):
Not including our charitable contributions, we spent ~$80,000 in 2017 for a household of 4 (2 adults and 2 children under 10).  Nearly half of that is housing costs ($37,000), as we live in the HCOL SF Bay Area, and another $10,000 is for childcare.  Aside from those two large expenses, we spend about $33,000 on everything else.  We feel okay about our spending.  It's not as low as many people on the forum or MMM himself, but relative to our peer group and neighbors, I feel it's pretty decent. 

Our spending was over $100k a few years ago, so we've cut back quite a bit.  Obviously we could cut back some more and will be trying to find additional areas to cut back while still maintaining household harmony. 

I suspect there may be a little bit more to be shaved without anyone else in the household noticing (~$2000), and then the question is how much to push beyond that point (i.e. requiring minor inconveniences to major disruptions).

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: radram on December 30, 2017, 03:56:15 PM

First. YES!

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: hadabeardonce on December 30, 2017, 04:36:33 PM

65,327.01 spent in 2017 by 2 adults in the SF Bay Area, who are content.

31% mortgage & hoa
24% food
16% shopping
13% auto & transport
5% pets
11% other (bills, utilities, travel, entertainment, personal care, health, fitness, etc.)

Our spending optimization is ongoing. Each year we improve, so we feel good about our financial trajectory.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Travis on December 30, 2017, 05:18:13 PM

$45,790 in spending this year.  This was a good year for us. Our spending is usually right about an even $50k. Two adults, one child. Six months in CO, six months in AZ.  It's been consistent enough for us to make our FIRE plans around this number.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: aneel on December 30, 2017, 05:31:23 PM

TLDR:  We spent a lot; we saved a lot; this year was weird.

Can't believe I just checked the max spending box, except I knew it was coming.  Our expenses were $147k this year, but we have a lot of context to add to that.  We made the anti-mustachian decision to move from a 1 car to 2 car family this year.  We also needed to replace our old beater with a newer car, so that is 2 car purchases.  We also sold our home, moved, and bought a new home with a $50k down payment.  Since we're purely talking about expenses I didn't include the sizeable profit we got on our first home.  Those are the major expenses I can call out.

Other expenses were higher than average because we moved (TWICE), paid some double rent, split our household into 2 for 2 months (I lived in new location while DH and DS stayed behind for archaic adoption law reasons, which meant extra travel expenses.  So below I'll call out our "typical" and "atypical" expenses:

Household size = 3 including DS

Typical Total:$55k (partial breakdown below)
Home: $19.2k (including improvement projects to new home, excluding down payment)
Food and alcohol: $11.6k (this is our "hobby" and even if you chalk some percent up to hobby expense, its still TOO DAMN HIGH)
Auto: $6.7k (including registration fees for two vehicles - one in 2 states, but excluding vehicle purchase price)
Travel: $4.8k
Utilities: $4.5k
Consumer Spending: $3.8k

Atypical Total: $92k
Vehichle purchases: $40k ($12k on 2013 pruis, $28k on 2014 Tacoma.  Both low miles ~30k, both expected to last 10-15 years)
Home down payment and double rent $54k

While this does send me into hair on fire mode, I am putting this in the context of
Savings contributions: $112k (gains excluded)
Earned income: $80k taxable / $18k pretax
Net proceeds of home sale: $115k

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: BlueMR2 on December 31, 2017, 07:46:11 AM

Barring any disasters yet today, we'll be coming in at ~$27k for 2 adults with way too many toys, which is about $3k better than our last few years.  Partially thanks to our second half property tax bill not falling into this year, but partly due to continuing to optimize the recurring expenses (despite some special buys coming up in paragraph 2).  The property tax shows up any time between 12/29 and 1/12, so sometimes we have 2 per year like we're supposed to, but sometimes it's 1 or 3.  This happens to be a "1" year...  On average our property tax ends up consuming 10-12% of our expenses.

Not bad at all considering I blew a ridiculous amount on a new rifle (8% of expenses), plus we dumped another large sum into SCUBA lessons (6% of our expenses), PLUS we had multiple pricy vehicle repairs (nearly 15%).

Next year is likely going to be much worse.  We've got another pricy car repair coming up for sure (estimating $3500 currently), a *potential* $10k car repair, might have 3 property tax bills (guaranteed at least 2 based on timing), AND our driveway is really starting to crumble now, it'll likely need to get replaced Summer 2018 (but I'll push it out another year if at all possible) to the tune of $10k.  Also, I'm on the schedule to get flying again.  Fortunately I'm going a low cost route, but I'll probably drop $2k on it in 2018.

So, staying working will be important in 2018 to avoid impacting our savings.  The good news though is that should I *not* be working, pretty much everything is optional.  No job = no flying (household rule, you don't get to fly if you don't have a job), no need for cars at all if no job to drive to, and without cars the driveway can turn into gravel without causing any issues.  :-)

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: kenner on December 31, 2017, 08:26:04 AM

One person, $43,500 for the year:

33% housing (~1/3 offset by renters, tracked separately since there's no guarantee that I will get that every year)
19% charity/gifts, not counting transfers to DAF from investments
15% sports/health/hobbies (2/3 this from dental work after a foul ball to the face--and that's WITH dental insurance)
14% travel (mostly travel hacked/reimbursed, but I track that separately on the grounds that CCs may smarten up eventually)
9% bills (HOA/phone/internet/electric)
7% food (including restaurants, also +toiletries/pet stuff I buy at the grocery store and don't bother to break out/etc.)
3% other (remaining pet stuff/auto/cash)

Not horrible, could be better.  Still trying to figure out if I'm doing the right thing by accounting for things like rental income and CC reward dollars completely separately from my spending, but I figure this way I get the most realistic picture of where my money is actually going even if I get some of it back later.  If people have come up with better ways to deal with this, I'm all ears (eyes).

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Fomerly known as something on December 31, 2017, 09:11:41 AM

Chalk me up as another person with an atypical year.  I "spent" almost $40,000 on a moderate renovation to my new to me house that I'm not including in my total spend.  I was moved for work and downsized in price of house even with budgeting in the planned renovation.  I'm not counting it in the way that MMM did not count his shed.  If I had not intended to make these renovation upon purchase I would have countered this as spending. 

Counting a decent amount to charity I'm at $53,000 for a single person.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: SpareChange on December 31, 2017, 09:33:45 AM

$18,500 for one person.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Raenia on December 31, 2017, 09:41:10 AM

Just squeaked into the <20k category, not including taxes as spending (I generally don't, since I expect my taxes to be so much lower after FIRE.)  That's for a single person sharing a rented apartment.  It was a pretty lean year for me, I expect my spending to go up a bit once I stop neglecting preventative healthcare and other such things.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: FIRE_Buckeye on December 31, 2017, 09:59:27 AM

18k, single with no dependents and free medical, sharing an apartment with my fiance, free medical coverage.
Was a pretty typical year spending-wise, that included a travel-hacked trip to Belize and a few miscellaneous long-weekend local trips.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: matchewed on December 31, 2017, 10:00:36 AM

Little over 30k not including a downpayment on a multifamily. Little over 50k if you do. I put down the 30k given that is our "normal" spending. This includes all sorts of ridiculous things for the house like an oven, snowblower, and such.

Oh yeah two working adults no children in one of the "higher" COL states of the country.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: bryan995 on December 31, 2017, 11:08:53 AM

78K for two working adults + 1 baby, HCOL ... gulp

Mortage & Rent - 43% (rent)
Shopping - 18% (amazon, home furnishings, etc)
Food & Dining - 17% (costco, groceries, restaurants)
Other - 7% (travel, personal care, medical, etc)
Auto & Transport - 6% (insurance, gas, ebike)
Bills & Utilities - 6% (electric, internet, gas, etc)
Kids - 3% (diapers, formula, baby clothes, baby furniture)

There was quite a bit of over-spending this year, on top of some large one-time-purchases (ebike for commuting, furniture coinciding with move, smart home upgrades, desktop pc (PUBG yo!).  We've been opting for convenience over being more frugal due to adjusting to new jobs, new location, new baby etc (i know i know, excuses excuses).  All purchases (large and small) go through the slickdeals/camelcamelcamel smell test, which at least makes me feel slightly better about all this ... ?  Next year child care will also start ($1700/mo), so I am aiming to keep the yearly spend roughly the same or even a bit lower. 

On top of the above, we still managed to save close to what we budgeted - on track to retire in 2025 with a ~40k annual spend. 

We are very lucky to have jobs/careers that can support such a high spend.  At ~80K, we can basically buy anything we'd like, travel anywhere (offset due to CC bonuses), eat anything we want, live in a fantastic location etc.   I don't think we could spend more if wanted to, so I suppose that is a plus - we've reached our organic spending maximum!
Now to get more serious and neutralize the inefficiencies!

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Sailor Sam on December 31, 2017, 11:35:36 AM

$40k for 1 adult living in Seattle. $28k after rent. Happy, happy.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Altons Bobs on December 31, 2017, 02:32:56 PM

Do we include income tax?

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: CCCA on December 31, 2017, 03:17:38 PM

Quote from: Altons Bobs on December 31, 2017, 02:32:56 PM

Do we include income tax?

I don't include it and I'm assuming most others don't include income tax. 
That would make spending more of a function of income instead just being the total cost of things you purchased.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: soccerluvof4 on January 01, 2018, 04:59:04 AM

We upped or withdrawal in 2017 because we had 2 kids go off to College were a family of 6 ( so alot of extra traveling) and I wanted to knockout or put a big dent in remodeling that needed to be done so we were just under 100k.  We have for 2018 reset our budget and with a bathroom yet to remodel we will be actually spending (barring anything unforeseen) under our 4% SWR for the next 3 years.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: wordnerd on January 01, 2018, 03:39:46 PM

$28K for two adults and a toddler. This includes a $5K European vacation and $3K in mortgage interest (which will disappear this year when we pay off the mortgage). Not included in this total (since it will not be an ER expense) is $12K for daycare. Obviously, total spending with it is $40K .

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: CCCA on January 01, 2018, 04:31:36 PM

Quote from: wordnerd on January 01, 2018, 03:39:46 PM

$28K for two adults and a toddler. This includes a $5K European vacation and $3K in mortgage interest (which will disappear this year when we pay off the mortgage). Not included in this total (since it will not be an ER expense) is $12K for daycare. Obviously, total spending with it is $40K .

Impressive.  When you say mortgage interest, that sounds like you don't include mortgage principal in your calculation.  Interesting, I guess I can see the rationale to exclude this, but I think it makes sense to account for all of your cash flowing out (especially when required by the lender) even if it becomes your equity.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: VoteCthulu on January 02, 2018, 12:18:31 AM

If you count mortgage principle as an expense, do you also count the stock and bond funds you buy as expenses?

To me, anything you buy with the reasonable expectation that you will someday sell it for more money counts as an investment.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Monkey Uncle on January 02, 2018, 04:37:55 AM

Came in a shade under $40k.  Two adults, plus occasional subsidies for DS.  Includes all expenses that we expect to keep when I FIRE in a few days.  Does not include income/payroll taxes or a few minor things that we will quit doing in FIRE (like life insurance and pension contributions).

About $9,300 of the total was P&I on the mortgage, and about $8,800 was food (I know, face punch on that one).

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: westtoeast on January 02, 2018, 05:13:43 AM

Single in HCOL area w/ housemates and no vehicle, came in around $22K (not including SL repayments, which brings the number closer to $30K).

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Zola. on January 02, 2018, 05:28:28 AM

$78,000

Mostly on wedding, mortgage etc.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: without_a_map on January 02, 2018, 06:07:43 AM

Almost bang on £10k for me individually, but I have very minimal housing costs as we are living rent free with OH's Mum, although we do pay most of the utility bills. No car either so expenses are pretty low. I can definitely cut back a bit on the coffees/lunches/random purchases. Doing the Frugalwoods UFM and reckon my actual mandatory expenses are more like £600/month (£7.2k/year), including train travel to work, food, toiletries, utility bills, contact lenses and charity donations, so that is my target for January!

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: BTDretire on January 02, 2018, 06:11:08 AM

Pretty much clueless.
 I have two kids in college, they get about $10k each for living expenses.
Tuition, that's another $15 to $18k total.
 Our fixed bills are about $30k.
We never kept track, never had a budget.
 We are FI but still working, me semi retired.
2017 was a fanastic year.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Davids on January 02, 2018, 06:29:31 AM

My spending was $32K for 2017. One thing of note is in my calculation only the mortgage interest is an expense. The principal I include in savings so mortgage principal not included in $32K

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Tass on January 02, 2018, 06:39:11 AM

$20k for one adult in SoCal. (Only $77 shy of the lowest category. Grr.)

$8.2k was rent, and another $2k was charity. $1.4k on plane tickets should decrease in the coming year. Quite pleased overall.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: boarder42 on January 02, 2018, 07:23:59 AM

while these posts are fun - some people have mortgage and rent and others do not.  so the data collected isnt as useful as it could be.  - would be better to exclude mortgage or rent or have optional with mortage or no mortgage categories.  also single vs couple/family

either way were 75k with mortgage 55k without

Top Expenses
26% Mortgage
8% Home Improvement
7.6% Property Taxes
6.7% Grocery
5.3% Medical
4.7% Boat
4.5% Utility
4.1% gasoline

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Cranky on January 02, 2018, 07:50:19 AM

$47K for 3 adults, no mortgage; we are still paying some college costs for one kid, and spent $10K on driveway replacement (our last big project for a while, I hope.)

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: hoodedfalcon on January 02, 2018, 07:55:24 AM

Single, no dependents, LCOL area. Paid off a private student loan last year!!

59K
37K - student loans - 63%
22K - Everything else!
8K- House mortgage, tax, etc - 14%
4.5K - Auto expenses - 8%
3.3K - Utilities - 6%
3K - Food - 5%
3K - Other (pet, shopping, etc) - 5%

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: NorCal on January 02, 2018, 08:15:24 AM

$116K, which is kind of embarrassing for around here.  We are in the situation of paying more for living (SF Bay Area + two kids in daycare) in order to maintain two incomes.

Rent: $38K
Daycare: (1 kid full year, 1 kid partial year): $29K
Gift to FIL w/ newly diagnosed medical + financial issues: $5K
Everything else: $44K

I feel okay, but not great about the "Everything Else" category.  This what we're looking to cover in an FI scenario (+ paid off house in LCOL area).  I feel like we've optimized pretty well for our current situation, but it's still a lot more than others are spending.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Teachstache on January 02, 2018, 08:24:04 AM

$64,886 for 2 adults (35 &36) & 1 almost 3 year old son.

We live in a relatively LCOL metro area in the Midwest. House prices currently average $185k here for 3 bed/3 bath 65-70 year old home in a lower middle class neighborhood. Average household income here is around $65k.

Spouse and I earned $122k for 2017.

Spending total includes:

$19k of student loans eliminated

$3,600 in daycare costs (yes, we have really cheap & good daycare)

$6,000 of mortgage and interest, which we eliminated at the beginning of December 2017

$3,600 in child 529 plan savings

$5,500 in healthcare costs (all should be reimbursed as the result of an insurance settlement still pending)

$3,744 in family health and dental insurance premiums

$7,000 in home improvement costs (paid a professional contractor to install a 350 SQ foot paver patio in our backyard for $6k & installed a fence ourselves in backyard for $1k, increased our home valuation by $10k)

$2,000 in crypto currency mining hardware & an upgraded electrical wiring in basement, all done to code by spouse (& has earned us $7k in profits thus far, counting current crypto currency markets and increased electricity costs)

We are projecting significant decreases in spending for 2018, to the tune of $35k (including healthcare costs & daycare costs, both of which we cash flow but are reimbursed for with FSAs)

Edit: I posted an incorrect $$ amount on the poll, just for bills, not including all spending. My bad. Mods, my amount should be changed to reflect the $60-$70k amount.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: exige on January 02, 2018, 10:14:20 AM

Ours was about 40k without the Mortgage or Car loan 70k With those we were making triple payments on the car and it was paid off in november! Goal is to be under 40 without the mortgage.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: FireHiker on January 02, 2018, 12:25:13 PM

Ours is outrageous, but we have two high incomes, live in a HCOL area, and still had a savings rate of 40.5% (I do not include mortgage principal as savings). So excited to see child expenses go down next year since this was a last year with one in private preschool.

Total: 132k
I broke it out as follows:
Mortgage & HOA: 37%
Utilities (including cell, not including netflix): 3%
gas for 3 cars (teenager included, going back and forth to dad's): 1.5%
food: 11.4% (MUST cut this)
child total (childcare, activities, etc): 15.8%
clothes (for all 5, outrageous this year): 2.5%
maintenance (pool, car, house, household supplies): 6.9%
discretionary (travel, netflix, yoga, pet, holidays, birthdays, haircuts, anything not above): 21%

I know our numbers are much more "boglehead" than "MMM", but I prefer the community here and we're working towards moving that needle in our spending. Overall it's a reduction of $11,233 compared to our 2016 spending, and that includes adding a teenage male driver to the mix. We cut our food spending $6000 in 2017 compared to 2016 thanks to the "rein in your grocery spending" gauntlet here. Looking forward to seeing more improvement in 2018!

(edited to correct typo)

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: jim555 on January 02, 2018, 12:40:32 PM

$14,000

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: EmFrugal on January 02, 2018, 02:07:11 PM

We spent around $88K for a family of 5 who lives in the HCOL DC metro.

Half of our spend went to the mortgage. The schools are so good in our area that I can't justify moving to a LCOL neighborhood, especially with three kiddos who will go through the system. We already chose a town home over a SFH just to get into the neighborhood.

Our savings rate is around 37% and I am OK with this, especially since it allows me to stay home with my kids and dabble in building my own businesses for fun/small supplemental income. I already consider myself semi-retired since I get to choose my work. And my DH works for the federal gov doing a job he really enjoys. After many years in a life-sucking corporate job, this position also feels like semi-retirement for him. However, we still meticulously track our spending/savings so that we continue to have these types of choices while also saving for full retirement and college funds.

Once my younger two are done with preschool, our spend should go down a bit.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Optimiser on January 02, 2018, 03:08:35 PM

Two adults, two children - moderate cost of living area

39.5K

Highlights:

8.7K- Housing - 22%
5.5K - Food - 14%
4.6K - Auto Expenses - 12%
4.1K - Travel - 10%
3.5K - Charitable - 9%
3.2K - Medical - 8%
3.2K - Student Loan Interest - 8%

I don't count student loan principal as a current period expense.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Cassie on January 02, 2018, 03:22:21 PM

2 adults in a medium COL area.  WE spent 72k. Our major expenses are health care insurance and medical bills- 11k, vet expenses, food, meds, grooming  for 4 old dogs= $10k,  2 have just passed away now,  traveling 10k and since we are older (63) we have really increased our eating out and fun $ because frankly who knows how long this stage will last ($9600).

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: neophyte on January 02, 2018, 03:40:25 PM

Single, 1 cat. I didn't keep good records this year, but over $300k. Up from around $13k last year.  I did buy a house though.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: SwordGuy on January 02, 2018, 04:27:07 PM

Lots of spending to get our old house fixed up for sale.  Thankfully, that's over with.  (Crosses fingers for luck.)

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: JSMustachian on January 02, 2018, 04:57:00 PM

2 adults- 2017 spending came in at $47,756. If we took out our 15 year mortgage payments, we are at $34,880. I'm very happy with these numbers since before I found MMM, our spending in 2016 was $91,449.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: FireLane on January 02, 2018, 06:44:44 PM

The FireLane household's 2017 spending was around $80K. Very un-Mustachian of us! That number doesn't include my mortgage, but I count that as saving since it's nearly paid off and almost all the money is going to principal, which boosts our equity. That will be done with very soon and all that cashflow will go to investments.

Of our non-discretionary expenses, around $6000 was for daycare and another $5500 was for commuting. (Damn, commuting is expensive, even when you take mass transit!) Those are two big categories that we only have because we're working. We won't need them in retirement.

Another $8000 was for various charitable donations, which we could reduce at will. Last but not least, about $3000 went to a catered first birthday party for Little FL. That was an indulgence, but it was good to have so many friends and family together, and we won't do it every year.

Cut out those categories, and our spending for 2017 would be closer to $55,000. Still more than I'd like to be spending, but for two adults and a kid in an HCOL area, it's not too bad. And we have more reductions on the way. We switched to cheaper car insurance last year, and we've started seeing the benefit of that. We're also making plans to set up a home gym.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: NotJen on January 02, 2018, 08:17:58 PM

$27,500.  Single, LCOL, paid-off mortgage.

Just put the details in my journal this morning.  Largest single expense was food, as it usually is.  I was pretty happy with this number, as I was not actively trying to cut back.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Holocene on January 02, 2018, 09:04:11 PM

I spent $32,250 in 2017 for a single person in a fairly low COL area.  This was my most expensive year since I started tracking around 6 years ago.  I'm usually in the $20-25k range.  This year I had about $12.5k of house maintenance items.  New windows upstairs and a new furnace and A/C since my furnace died on Christmas Eve.  It did last about 40 years so I can't complain too much.

Rough breakdown:
House PITI: 32%
House Maintenance (windows and HVAC): 39%
Charity: 7.8%
Food: 4.5%
Electricity/Gas: 3.9%
Everything Else: 12.8%

My employer provides a no cost to me high deductible health insurance plan and I didn't have any doctor visits this year, so that definitely helped.  Healthcare is my main concern for retiring early since that can be a large expense that I'm not paying now.  This year also made me realize my planned house maintenance budget when FIREd should probably be increased.  I still saved a lot this year and I'm on track to hit my number in 4-6 years, so I'm happy enough.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: CCCA on January 10, 2018, 05:41:06 PM

Looks like the poll is done.  The distribution of poll results is kinda what I expected (for the first 250 respondents).


We seem to have a relatively normal distribution around $40-50k, though you could argue some sort of bimodal thing going on at $20-30k and $40-50k.  I think part of that could be chalked up to the fact that some people answering the polls were single people, couples or even large families so there will be maybe multiple distributions that are layered on top of one another. 


There seems to be a long tail as well, with a fair number over $140k.  When I made the poll I wondered how far up I should go, but I'm a little surprised that the high numbers have so many respondents. 

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: wenchsenior on January 10, 2018, 06:19:52 PM

~71K for 2 adults in one household, plus partial support for a third adult in another house.  This is a bit higher than typical ; we aim for the mid 60s, usually.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Freedomsaver on January 10, 2018, 10:46:59 PM

Single LCOL with small mortgage payment. I spent $23,260.57 +or- some folding money and pocket change. My goal was 24K. I traded my new car in on an older truck without a payment so I’m shooting for 18-20K total this year.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: FrugalByChance on January 11, 2018, 06:19:51 AM

Single 45 year old guy with a payed off home in the Netherlands.
Total spending in 2017 was 12 454.61 EUR (= 14 879.48 USD).

Free Time	4 485.76 EUR
Groceries etc	2 248.92 EUR
Home(taxes+repairs+utilities)	3 378.84 EUR
Medical	1 179.21 EUR
Transportation	464.86 EUR
Insurance	314.06 EUR
Internet	351.58 EUR
Clothing	22.98 EUR

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Chippewa on January 11, 2018, 06:28:29 AM

Total Expenses + Debt Paid: $75,335.38
Expenses only: $61,067.40 ($23K of that is housing)

2 people, HCOL

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Vegasgirl on January 11, 2018, 07:08:17 AM

We spent a shitload of money in 2017 - almost enough to give me a heart attack even though it was all planned for.  We've begun sinking $$$ into the house both in additional mortgage payments and repairs/maintenance items and we sort of bit the bullet in 2017 and got the bulk of it done.  We replaced all the windows and doors and the deck (with composite).  We're trying to get all of the big ticket items taken care of prior to FIRE.  We didn't take on any debt since we had been saving for these items.  We replaced the roof in 2016.  But watching all of that money flow out so fast was nerve racking for me.  But it's all done and behind us.   

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: TheWifeHalf on January 11, 2018, 07:49:15 AM

2 adults 59 & 61
3 kids all moved out 2013-2016
Had a 35,000 mortgage (1980) at 12% and had to decide whether to refinance when rates went down, or just pay it off. TheHusbandHald got a severance pay from his job, found another, better, within 5 months, so we just paid the whole thing in 1990.

Paid 45,000 for the house in 1980, hired the construction of addition shell about 60,000 in 1992, did the rest ourselves. Last year decided to hire the kitchen completion. I was in a car accident in 2008, decided any serious complications would have shown up by now, so used 45,000 of that money for the kitchen.

Before the accident we spent 6,000-8,000 on dogs (traveling around the country, breeding, showing expenses) but now, maybe 2500. Currently down to 4 old adults, had 23 - 8 adults, one year.
We are also down to one vehicle, replaced after the accident. We probably spend 2500 on golf - him, not me.

LCOL area
Have had no debt since 1994 (car loan, 0% interest)

So, in 2017 we spent 42,000 yearly expenses and 45,000 on the new kitchen.  Spending amount does not include the things that are automatically taken out of TheHusbandHalf's paycheck. (Health insurance, union dues, charity, life insurance)

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: aceyou on January 11, 2018, 02:27:39 PM

Married with a 5 and 2 year old.
Lcol area.
50k total spending for the year.
About 75k towards savings.
Definitely our best year yet.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: NoraLenderbee on January 11, 2018, 03:13:07 PM

~75K. 2 adults in HCOL area in California. This excludes income and payroll taxes and retirement savings. It includes medical and dental costs (mostly copays and small premiums for employer-provided insurance), and mortgage PITI. Our grocery bill was quite high, so that is going to be the focus of the next optimization.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: 2Birds1Stone on January 11, 2018, 03:34:10 PM

Since everyone is all over the place in regards to household size, location, etc.....the whole poll thing doesn't really tell us anything.

I voted anyway ;)

~$48k for a household of 2, in HCOL area (Long Island, NY)

This includes all spending, including car depreciation.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Arbitrage on January 11, 2018, 05:23:02 PM

A little more than I had thought:

$103,500 for 2 adults + 2 young children in HCOLA.

Of that, $10,000 was debt (finishing off payments on second car, and student loans)
$32,000 was PITI ($24,000 was principal + interest)
$19,000 was Day Care

Savings, not counting the normal paydown of mortgage principal, was just shy of $95k.  Could be better, could be worse.  Certainly should improve once Day Care costs decrease (will start to this summer), unless I replace the other car and/or buy the DW a new kitchen.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: DaveSch on January 12, 2018, 11:38:16 AM

This old guy spent approximately $14725 in 2017, about the same as 2016.
In 2015 I had to buy a new used car, and a new boiler to heat the house. That was about $36987.
Last year my SWR from investments was less than 1%.
I'll let my nephews spend my stash after I'm gone.
Dave

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: djadziadax on January 12, 2018, 01:51:07 PM

45K, 3 adults (MIL with us) + toddler in very HCOLA. Given that we started the Mustachian way in April of last year, this looks pretty good.

44%  Mortgage+HOA fees
7%    Utilities      
          Cable/Satellite   
          Condo Insurance   
          Electric   
12%    Groceries   
9%      Child/Dependent (and that is with MIL serving as "nanny")
4%      Student Loan
9%      Life Improvement (new bed, other household items)

15%    Other items - minimal travel, transportation, restaurants, health/medical, gifts

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: BlueMR2 on January 12, 2018, 05:46:46 PM

I'm astounded by how high some of these numbers are.  I *know* I'm not a very good mustachian, having some expensive hobbies and paying people to do work I should learn to do myself, but man, I'm seeing some serious multiples of my yearly spend here.  Are you people on the right site?  HCOL or not, maybe Bogleheads would be a better fit...

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: NoraLenderbee on January 12, 2018, 06:58:11 PM

Quote from: BlueMR2 on January 12, 2018, 05:46:46 PM

I'm astounded by how high some of these numbers are.  I *know* I'm not a very good mustachian, having some expensive hobbies and paying people to do work I should learn to do myself, but man, I'm seeing some serious multiples of my yearly spend here.  Are you people on the right site?  HCOL or not, maybe Bogleheads would be a better fit...

Our property taxes alone are about 9,000 annually, and our house is around the median value for our county.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Firehazard on January 12, 2018, 07:09:04 PM

$43,689

$14,150 Basic living expenses
$  2,500 Discretionary spending
$27,039 Principal and interest on mortgage (LOTS of extra principal payments)

Mortgage will be done by the end of 2018.  I know not everyone condones paying off a mortgage early, but I get a kick out of knowing I'll take less time to pay off my house than most people do to pay off their SUV!

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Gyosho on January 13, 2018, 10:04:07 AM

Singler Person, HCOL SF Bay Area:

$3000 a month for mortgage, HOA fees, property tax = $36,000
$5400 charitable contributions for the year
$24,000 everything else (including home maintenance and some good vacations)

Total: $65,000

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: BlueMR2 on January 13, 2018, 11:42:50 AM

Quote from: NoraLenderbee on January 12, 2018, 06:58:11 PM

Our property taxes alone are about 9,000 annually, and our house is around the median value for our county.

Do median things, get median results.  Sounds like you have some wonderful opportunities to really kill some spending!

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: wildbeast on January 13, 2018, 11:46:09 AM

Quote from: spartana on December 31, 2017, 09:01:00 AM

$18k. One person, no debt or dependents, paid off house and free medical. HCOL coastal SoCal.  FIREd and fine with spending - about half covers basic expenses and half to fun stuff like travel.

I would love to see a breakdown of your expenses.  I'd love to get down to $9k in basics like property taxes, insurance (car and house), utilities, groceries, pet food, car care and gas.  I live in the Bay Area so we probably share cost of living.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Off the Wheel on January 13, 2018, 08:37:46 PM

Just over $60,000 CAD, so $48,000 USD. That's for 1.5 adults in a HCOLA. (I count my husband as .5 this year since he was in school for most of it, and I covered the mortgage and most of the household expenses.)

Without mortgage (principal + interest, $20K CAD off that.)

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Hoit on January 14, 2018, 06:17:29 AM

$59,000 for four people living in a LCOLA. Of which err, $22,000 was on travel. Wonder what I can cut back on this year.... better have another look at my grocery expenses in case I can remove any fat from there.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: MasterStache on January 14, 2018, 08:00:50 AM

Roughly speaking we were at 50-60K. That's a lot considering I semi-retired this year. However, nearly 10K was in home improvements/renovations and another 5K for our two kids activities (Soccer, Boy Scouts and Competitive Gymnastics). Home renovations will drastically decrease along with a couple other categories now that I am home more often.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: simonkkkkk on January 14, 2018, 08:07:46 AM

(http://goo.gl/gqqjFD)
(https://www.coinexchange.io/?r=6b25e44b)
(https://www.litebit.eu?referrer=253890)

I will spend to much i guess haha

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: wildbeast on January 15, 2018, 05:37:03 PM

Quote from: spartana on January 13, 2018, 08:02:10 PM

Quote from: jane x on January 13, 2018, 11:46:09 AM

Quote from: spartana on December 31, 2017, 09:01:00 AM

$18k. One person, no debt or dependents, paid off house and free medical. HCOL coastal SoCal.  FIREd and fine with spending - about half covers basic expenses and half to fun stuff like travel.

I would love to see a breakdown of your expenses.  I'd love to get down to $9k in basics like property taxes, insurance (car and house), utilities, groceries, pet food, car care and gas.  I live in the Bay Area so we probably share cost of living.

My basic expenses are generally a bit less than $9k and I generally don't spend $9k on 'everything else' each year but I'm lazy and no longer track so just say $18k/year since that's my current passive income (can increase that if needed or wanted).. A basic annual breakdown.would be $2000 prop taxes, $1000 house insurances, $600 old beater car liability insurance and registration, $1500 all utilities and around $3000 for food and gas for car. So approx $8000/ year. No cable, landline or home internet and a cheap $100/year Tracfone smart phone.  The remaining $10k gets used as needed for everything else but often part of that gets saved and added to a slush fund for future large purchases or spending.

I'm changing my life up right now by moving and getting new vehicle and travelling a bit more so my 2018 expenses will be different (maybe higher maybe lower) so am going to resume tracking for a bit. You might also want to look for @Herbert Derp journal as he has very low expenses.

@spartana - Thanks for posting your numbers.  It's weird, I see your numbers and they look very doable for us, but somehow we end up much higher.  I think it's mindless spending (on my part) that's driving our numbers way up.  Tracking my spending would be a very good idea.  Thanks for the tip on Herbert Derp, I'll check him out.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: Optimiser on January 16, 2018, 09:30:17 AM

Quote from: BlueMR2 on January 13, 2018, 11:42:50 AM

Quote from: NoraLenderbee on January 12, 2018, 06:58:11 PM

Our property taxes alone are about 9,000 annually, and our house is around the median value for our county.

Do median things, get median results.  Sounds like you have some wonderful opportunities to really kill some spending!

Love this!

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: flyingaway on January 17, 2018, 03:12:42 PM

Interesting, there is almost no health insurance cost.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: wenchsenior on January 17, 2018, 03:45:55 PM

Quote from: flyingaway on January 17, 2018, 03:12:42 PM

Interesting, there is almost no health insurance cost.

I have to be honest, I didn't even think to include our premiums in our total spending.   Those were an additional $6200+, which would put or spending at around 77K.  Ugh.  I always forget those because we have never 'seen' that money.  I did count our co-pays, etc. this year, which were ~3800$.   

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: haypug16 on January 18, 2018, 02:31:56 PM

Total spending for the year is $40K. This is for 1 person in the Boston area, so HCOL

I found MMM at the end of March. Spending for Q1 was $11K spending for Q4 was only $4.6K big difference, so glad I found this place.

Title: Re: Poll: What is your 2017 spending?
Post by: FR2000EE on January 23, 2018, 04:35:43 PM

Age 52, Single, No Debt, No Mortgage, 2.1M investments

2017 Spending

Misc Cash   $460.00   1.4%
Water Utilties   $611.13   1.9%
Internet   $455.09   1.4%
Home and Car Insurance   $1,238.90   3.8%
Massages   $3,180.00   9.8%
Food/Gas/Entertainment/Clothes/Auto repair   $14,847.98   45.7%
Property Tax   $1,124.72   3.5%
Gas Bill   $463.20   1.4%
Electric Bill   $676.57   2.1%
IRS Payment   $9,414.00   29.0%
Total Spending $32,471.59   

Does not include medical costs paid by employer or with payroll taxes