Author Topic: Ballpark numbers...  (Read 5272 times)

GatewayTwo

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Ballpark numbers...
« on: November 02, 2015, 02:00:10 PM »
Hey all,

I'm doing a little informal survey on how much it takes to run a frugal household.  So the question to you all is:

How much, annually, to support each adult.

How much annually to support a child / all children

A sample answer:  5k per adult, plus 5k additional for all children together (so a 2 adult 1 kid household would be 15k in this case) (note: these are made up and not my actual numbers)

I have a guess (from browsing what others are spending / targeting) but I want to see if my guess is right.

After there is a decent sample size, I'll post my guess. 

Retired To Win

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Re: Ballpark numbers...
« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2015, 05:57:12 PM »
My individual basic living expenses run $14K a year.  But I don't claim to be doing a barebones lifestyle.

WildJager

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Re: Ballpark numbers...
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2015, 08:27:24 PM »
My budget for two is about 28k per year.  But this includes rent, utilities, and fairly generous play money.

Same lifestyle with a paid off house is around $16k for two.

Medical is not currently part of the budget because of work, so that would obviously increase the cost.

No experience with kids.  Dog gets lumped in with the above costs.

Paul der Krake

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Re: Ballpark numbers...
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2015, 09:04:49 PM »
Assuming roommates and a $500 rent, in my area:

$9k: absolute lowest I could go before it's litterally easier to utilize my brain and limbs to earn more than to think about expenses
$12k: decent life, grad student territory
$15k: man those business class seats are comfy
$20k: whole foods territory
$25k: man of leisure, basking in my fatcat mink coat




Exflyboy

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Re: Ballpark numbers...
« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2015, 10:30:00 PM »
Two of us spent $28k last year with a paid off house ($2k for RE tax)  including a 3 week roadtrip. We also own a horse and despite my Wife's protestations its bloody expensive.. I bet that $200 or $300 a month right there. We also gave about $3k to charity.

So cost for just us is probably about $11k each.

Exflyboy

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Re: Ballpark numbers...
« Reply #5 on: November 02, 2015, 10:31:33 PM »
Two of us spent $28k last year with a paid off house ($2k for RE tax)  including a 3 week roadtrip. We also own a horse and despite my Wife's protestations its bloody expensive.. I bet that $200 or $300 a month right there. We also gave about $3k to charity.

So cost for just us is probably about $11k each.

Medical is pretty low cost from My Wife's job


GatewayTwo

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Re: Ballpark numbers...
« Reply #6 on: November 04, 2015, 01:21:23 PM »
hah, you all are so much more badass than me.

I was thinking that one could live a life of relative luxury for 20K per adult (40k max) and then 10k additional for all the kids/pets/groupies/whatever.

Then I read 14k per adult and feel like I'm shooting all my cash out into the atmosphere.

So, I'll put my calculations more at 14k per adult, 7k per child (since mine are exactly the same age).  Which means that I should be spending 42k/year.

(actually, if you use the USDA food cost guide as a basis for adjusting based on age (on a % basis) an adult (19-50) who spends 14k is the same as a 4-5 year old child who spends 7.2k.  So not too far off for a SWAG)

...

compares to reality
...


Now if you'll excuse me, I apparently need to change my bedpan and catheter and then go punch myself in the face.

jjcamembert

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Re: Ballpark numbers...
« Reply #7 on: November 04, 2015, 02:10:47 PM »
Not including rent which is ~$17k/year (and because getting a smaller apt wouldn't be half the price, maybe 3/4), 2 adults in my family spend about $15k/yr each. This is eating organic food (our largest expense), going on vacations, and buying what we need (and sometimes want) when we need/want it. If we cut out travel and expensive hobbies we'd probably be around $10k/year.

arebelspy

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Re: Ballpark numbers...
« Reply #8 on: November 09, 2015, 02:16:22 AM »
Based on my observations, reasonable rough numbers for a fully Mustachian family (i.e. not just starting out with a bunch of baggage spending) in a reasonable COL area (i.e. not NYC, etc.), I'd think, would be 20-30k for an individual, or for a family about 10-13k/adult, and 5-7k for the first kid, and 3-5k for each subsequent kid.  That would be towards the "good job, you're probably quite optimized" scale.  Increase as necessary for higher COL, or previous spending baggage, or down if they're in a low COL area, or have have spending help, such as a paid off house, or are just extra badass.
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TomTX

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Re: Ballpark numbers...
« Reply #9 on: November 09, 2015, 05:25:46 AM »
I'm not much of a badass. 2 adults, 1 kid.

Takehome is around $45k after taxes, pension and pretax stashing.

$16k for housing: mortgage, property tax, insurance (goes down to $5k after mortgage payoff in 6 years)
$5.5k for sports (cutting to $1,500 next year)

So, that leaves us at $23.5k for everything else.

TravelJunkyQC

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Re: Ballpark numbers...
« Reply #10 on: November 09, 2015, 07:46:17 AM »
I live with my boyfriend although we don't combine income. So my number is for one adult living in a roomate/partner situation (if as roomates you also share food).
12k - I have all my bills paid and extra fun (my fun is cheap, aka camping and playing outdoors).
15k - I have all my bills paid, extra fun, and balls-out-luxury such as my Costa Rican vacation this year, several weekend camping excursions that required more money (aka camping in National Parks, driving down to the states, etc.) (this is what I currently live on, and it's pretty damn luxurious, even in Québec).
20k - Perhaps if I had to replace my 2004 Hyundai Sonata with another 4000$ car.
Anything more - Fancy pants explosion. Around the world ticket. 5-star hotels. Caviar and drinks all around. WHY?

RWD

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Re: Ballpark numbers...
« Reply #11 on: November 09, 2015, 08:09:09 AM »
MMM himself has spent ~$25k per year for the last three years on his family of three. However, he has paid off his mortgage, so there is an additional implied housing cost. In his case it's missed opportunity cost in the capital tied up in his house. I can't remember off the top of my head about how much his house is worth, but if we assume it's ~$300k that could support $1k/month (per the 4% rule) in rent if invested. Which would bring his actual expenses for comparison purposes to ~$37k.

My wife and I are currently targeting ~$30k annually for just the two of us.