Groceries $1100 “We eat lots of fruits, veggies, quality meat, etc”
Dining out $800 “No matter how i try, I cannot get this number down”
Exercise/Fitness $300 “Important to us to keep fit”
Car payment $689 “Wish this was lower, but it’s 0.9% financing”
Gas(two cars) $400 “No joke”
Total Monthly expenses $9,458
“It’s frustrating seeing people putting up these so called “budget” numbers. Half the time I feel like it’s wishful thinking. This is reality. I have been using YNAB for more than 3 years, I know exactly what my expenses are. I take issue with people like Mr. Money Mustache because I really feel they are not real.
Yeah the dining out one is scary. Not so much the number, because in my not so wise days I probably spent a lot eating out too... But what disturbs me is the "no way of getting it down"... um YOU DON'T EAT OUT.
Our total monthly slush fund cash budget now for everything Clothing, Groceries, Fun, Restaurants is $300/week and I think that is high and we can definitely get that down even more and we probably will.
But it's the defeatism in the excuses that get to me.
My intent was not to mock (which I don't think I'm doing)
I'm just expressing shock.
My wife and I did once manage to rack up a restaurant tab of $400 in one sitting with another couple. However, we were trying to spend our way through a $500 gift certificate. Notably, we failed.
I cannot find it in me to mock this man. I never spent that much but I did not have that kind of income either. I used to be just like him.
The thing is he clearly is aware he is doing something wrong and is looking for help. His jape about MMM is a defense mechanism. He needs help and support to change.
That said he does need to confront reality. I think the blogger did well to give him some food for thought.
My wife and I did once manage to rack up a restaurant tab of $400 in one sitting with another couple. However, we were trying to spend our way through a $500 gift certificate. Notably, we failed.
Holy mother of god!Dining out $800 “No matter how i try, I cannot get this number down”
What? WHAAAAAAAAAT?
This is so beyond unreasonable that I can't...I can't...I just cant.
Even at my most unmustacian this would be ridiculous. And we make a lot of money! And we live in DC! And we like expensive wine!
What is his income? I can't find it on the site.
What is his income? I can't find it on the site.
It's not there, but it must be over $250,000 per year in order to spend $9500 per month. Unless he's in debt up to his eyeballs.
What is his income? I can't find it on the site.
It's not there, but it must be over $250,000 per year in order to spend $9500 per month. Unless he's in debt up to his eyeballs.
Or he's bringing in $9,500 a month after taxes ($150k or so) and not saving a dime.
Or he's bringing in $9,500 a month after taxes ($150k or so) and not saving a dime.
Probably a very likely scenario.
What is his income? I can't find it on the site.
It's not there, but it must be over $250,000 per year in order to spend $9500 per month. Unless he's in debt up to his eyeballs.
What is his income? I can't find it on the site.
It's not there, but it must be over $250,000 per year in order to spend $9500 per month. Unless he's in debt up to his eyeballs.
9458/mo is only $113,500/year. With our two incomes, we could totally afford that while still maxing out our deductions, and yet somehow we manage to live richly on $22k/year outside of our housing costs. Even though we could afford to live like that, we spend less dining out annually with a family of five than he spends monthly. It's really not that hard. Don't eat out so often.
Maybe he has like sixteen kids? I guess I can sort of envision a scenario where most of those expenses are reasonable, but it's a hell of a stretch.
What is his income? I can't find it on the site.
It's not there, but it must be over $250,000 per year in order to spend $9500 per month. Unless he's in debt up to his eyeballs.
9458/mo is only $113,500/year. With our two incomes, we could totally afford that while still maxing out our deductions, and yet somehow we manage to live richly on $22k/year outside of our housing costs. Even though we could afford to live like that, we spend less dining out annually with a family of five than he spends monthly. It's really not that hard. Don't eat out so often.
Maybe he has like sixteen kids? I guess I can sort of envision a scenario where most of those expenses are reasonable, but it's a hell of a stretch.
9458/mo is only $113,500/year. With our two incomes, we could totally afford that while still maxing out our deductions, and yet somehow we manage to live richly on $22k/year outside of our housing costs. Even though we could afford to live like that, we spend less dining out annually with a family of five than he spends monthly. It's really not that hard. Don't eat out so often.
Maybe he has like sixteen kids? I guess I can sort of envision a scenario where most of those expenses are reasonable, but it's a hell of a stretch.
I went and read the original post and some of the comments and it really reinforced for me how challenging living in a high cost of living area can be.
I went and read the original post and some of the comments and it really reinforced for me how challenging living in a high cost of living area can be.
Seriously? Please tell me you're trolling.
I went and read the post and comments again just to be sure I wasn't missing anything. This guy lives in a giant house, from which he and his wife both drive long distances in financed luxury cars so that they can pay for parking on the other end. He has a private maid come clean his enormous house that only has four people in it. He must be shopping exclusively at Whole Foods to have such a stupid grocery bill. His wife gets manicures and waxing and "likes to shop", and he's paying for private schools and gym memberships that I can't imagine they have time to use, since they're paying so much in daycare expenses just to have time to cover their jobs.
Everything about this guy screams "consumerist asshole" and I can't believe the blogger in question tried to offer him sympathy and understanding instead of a smack upside the head. His solution is so blindingly obvious, he doesn't need a blogger or YNAB to set him straight. He just needs to pull his head out of his ass.
Still, I was sort of prepared to let it go. He didn't write to MMM for advice, and he didn't ask to be subjected to this community. But when someone here pipes up to say they understanding "how challenging" it is to live a ridiculously extravagant lifestyle that exceeds the luxuries enjoyed by royalty for most of human history, my jaw drops. Nobody with a lick of sense should have anything but contempt or pity for this man.
Is that Joet's budget??That was my first thought . . . :)
it's things like 'this is reality' that are so annoying.
no, that is not Reality and it's not Life. it's a reality, a lifestyle. an a very luxurious and expensive one at that.
We spend around $300 of the $800 on Starbucks.
QuoteWe spend around $300 of the $800 on Starbucks.
:O
I went and read the original post and some of the comments and it really reinforced for me how challenging living in a high cost of living area can be. The base line is set so very very high, that one really has to consciously dial it down. For example, I think lululemon is a perfect case study - they make exercise clothes. If you wear an entire outfit, it is about $300 or so, throw in some shoes and you are easily up to $400 or $450. That is for ONE casual outfit. People around here have multiples of their workout clothes, so multiply accordingly. And that is just one tiny way one can overspend hugely.
Of course the guy can make changes, but it is so easy to get suckered into spending a bomb. All. The. Time.
His comment about private school pissed me off. Probably reading too much into it. I just don't like his holier-than-thou suggestion that private school is needed to find "standards" and "morals".
(http://media.tumblr.com/702ed7dfe7263c086cca1f56526885a8/tumblr_inline_mlu9jzeNxP1rd3vpc.gif)
His comment about private school pissed me off. Probably reading too much into it. I just don't like his holier-than-thou suggestion that private school is needed to find "standards" and "morals".
(http://media.tumblr.com/702ed7dfe7263c086cca1f56526885a8/tumblr_inline_mlu9jzeNxP1rd3vpc.gif)
What's exactly your problem? If his understanding of morality differs from the common person's it would naturally follow that he wouldn't want his children associated with that.
If you wanted to argue the cost vs. benefit of private school, or other alternatives to public schools, go ahead.
(http://media.tumblr.com/702ed7dfe7263c086cca1f56526885a8/tumblr_inline_mlu9jzeNxP1rd3vpc.gif)
(http://media.tumblr.com/702ed7dfe7263c086cca1f56526885a8/tumblr_inline_mlu9jzeNxP1rd3vpc.gif)
I see. So does that confirm that there isn't a real reason here, just a bigoted hatred for those who have certain morals?
What's exactly your problem? If his understanding of morality differs from the common person's it would naturally follow that he wouldn't want his children associated with that.
If you wanted to argue the cost vs. benefit of private school, or other alternatives to public schools, go ahead.
+1 and I would like to add an eye roll to people who think that private schools are infinitely better education than public thus guaranteeing better odds for their kids. I went to literally one of the smallest and lowest funded public schools in my state (which I'll admit the curriculum was a bit of a joke) but I got directly admitted into my program at college that most people have to apply after a year or two of general ed classes because of my high grades and SAT scores. I graduated in 3.5 years (most people take 5 when they don't get directly admitted) while working full time to support myself and now have a M.S. in accounting and have not relied on my parents for anything since i was 18.What's exactly your problem? If his understanding of morality differs from the common person's it would naturally follow that he wouldn't want his children associated with that.I have no problem with private school, just his attitude that private school is just so amazing and wholesome. Dude probably drives by a public school every morning and says a prayer for all those poor souls getting a crappy faith-less education. The horror!
If you wanted to argue the cost vs. benefit of private school, or other alternatives to public schools, go ahead.
I know so many people that went to my high school that swear their kids will never go there because it's such a crappy school (including a few that plan on homeschooling even though they barely graduated....) but never made anything of themselves. From my experience it is so much more on the parents to raise successful and well rounded kids than on the high school they are sent to
I personally cringe at home schooling because the people I've known who have done it were not suited for it and their kids suffered because of it both in learning basic concepts and in developing social skills. And the ones talking about it now talk about it in the context of sheltering their kids (i.e. bullying, bad influences, etc) instead of teaching them how to cope with the real world (bullies still exist in adult-hood unfortunately)
I'm not saying all private schools and home-schoolers are like that but that's been my experience. Of course I'm admittedly biased in that I'm WAY to cheap to spend that kind of money on something I could get for free and since I don't have or plan on having children I'm not making these types of decisions myself