Summary: I'm living in an expensive city (San Francisco), but this enables me to earn more and commute to work via public transport. I have tried to focus my spending on what really matters to me, and really cut back on other things to allow for that. I'm saving nearly 50% but I'd like to do more to feel secure in achieving my plan of both retiring early and taking time off for kids.
I'm British and moved to the US in 2006 to do an MBA. Loved the US, hated the East Coast and so moved West when I graduated and settled down here. I got my Green Card last year and was finally able to ditch a high-stress job in Strategy Consulting that I enjoyed but burned me out, and now work at a fantastic tech startup with a much better lifestyle. Around that time I also spent a few months working part-time doing writing and research for one of my old professors, and really embraced the whole FIRE approach.
Fiancé and I have lived together for three years but don't share finances exactly. We alternate buying groceries, dinner out, takeout etc and contribute to our fixed costs (rent + utilities + cleaning service) in proportion to our salaries. He has gone from earning 1/4 what I do to 1/2, after he took on an additional web development freelance gig and I downshifted. Longer-term he would like to give up work and go freelance permanently, or even start his own company - could result in more or less money coming in (hopefully more) but clearly more volatile, no health insurance etc. We're getting married next April, and he saved up $10K for wedding costs before he proposed to me. We're planning on budgeting to that, plus I think my mum may offer to pay for my dress and his parents may spring for a rehearsal dinner. I'll then pay for the honeymoon out of my vacation savings (currently at $1600, hopefully $3K by then).
I'd like to save more to be able to either retire in less than my currently-projected 12 years or take 3-4 years off when we have kids (if he takes the same amount off, that gives us a good chunk of the kids younger years with a parent at home). We definitely want babies, and I'm 35, this probably has to happen soonish. We've discussed him taking time of for the first one and then me taking time of for the second (given daycare for two is closer to the salary I'd be giving yup) but I also really want to be retired in time to help them with homework when they are older etc.
My summary budget:
$1000 - all my day-to day spending (groceries, eating out, salon, gifts, book, toiletries, laundry, cigarettes etc) which I constantly shuffle and track to stay under the $1000 per month ceiling
$1675 - fixed home-related costs: my 2/3 share of rent, utilities etc (see below)
$535 - savings for annual expenses (see below)
$160 - monthly regular costs: cleaning service and yoga membership, monthly prescription fee
Total monthly costs - $3370 or just over $40K per year
Salary $120K which which given the high taxes here comes out to around $6500 per month, so I am saving almost half that (the calculations are a little complicated as I pay around $650 per month pre-tax to a 401k and then the same amount after tax to a Roth 401k, so not sure how to factor that into my % saved number)
Net worth:
$100k Traditional IRA
$35 Roth IRA
$4K new employers Roth 401k
$4K new employers Traditional 401k (I contribute 6% to each to hedge my bets, which should hit the max contribution easily)
$5K 403(b) from last year working for my old B-School. It's all in a Vanguard Target Retirement fund.
$105K brokerage account with Capital One (was ING) in a variety of blue-chip value stocks (BP, Tyson bought in a dip, J&J similarly etc), a few bonds and an index tracker
$3000 in various savings pots for vacations, holidays, appliance and gadget replacement and insurance
I have no debt. My employer paid for my MBA so I came out with very little in the way of student loans (living expenses while at B-School in my pre-mustachain days were a bit ridiculous though) and college in the UK was free when I went (I worked in the vacations to cover living expenses).
Fixed home-related costs:
Rent $2325 (for a 2-bed 2-bath in a pretty good area in SF this is damn good, which is why we can't move - a shitty 1-bed in Berkley costs the same these days, and we're rent controlled from 3 years ago when the market was not as nuts)
Internet $75 - Comcast, only option around here
PG&E $50-120 depending on time of year (we are OK with the cold but this place is old and badly insulated. No AC needed - one of the perks of living in SF)
Mustachianisms I'm proud of:
No car!
No credit cards!
No TV (cable or otherwise)!
No Hulu Plus or Netflix (free streaming DVDs from the library works just fine)!
No home phone!
My new job offers free lunch every day (and very good, tasty and healthy lunch it is too)
Phone - mine is paid by work, his is a cheap Metro PCS contract around $20 per month
Groceries - we switched about 6 months ago from shopping weekly at Whole Paycheck, catching up mid-week with extras from the expnsive farmers market on the corner, and grabbing takeout whenever we were too lazy to cook. Now instead we meal plan every weekend, and buy most of what we need from the local mexican grocery or the local Asian butcher/fishmarket for around 50% of the cost at Whole Foods. I order online every few months from Safeway for bulk things (paper towels, canned goods, detergent, very good-quality and cheap boxed wine) and we get takeouts only 2-3 times per month, usually when we are really craving sushi as I can't make that.
Terrible non-mustachian confessions:
Maid service $95 every 2 weeks (I know this is face-punch-worthy but otherwise the boyf would be happy in squalor and I'd clean and resent him or be miserable in mess, and we'd break up. We split this cost.)
Eating out - $300 per month (just my half). So many nice restaurants, so many interesting groups of friends who invite us to try them out with them or plan brunches in lovely cafes...
Snacks at work - despite free lunch being provided, I nibble a lot, although usually things like bags of almonds from walgreen for snacks. I try to eat paleo/low-carb so the free snacks at work (goldfish crackers, chips, granola bars) don't work for me
Salon - [edit - previous typo said 430] $30 per month. Sometime I pay other people to paint my toenails or cut my hair. But very rarely these days (every 6 months for hair, every 2-3 months for toes)
Cigarettes - expensive way to kill myself (but I'm down to ~1 pack every two weeks so $12 per month)
Yoga classes - $150 for 10 classes, which I make last me 4-5 months by only going every other weekend, just enough to motivate myself and get ideas and tips from a live instructor
Online yoga - $18 per month - for in between the really expensive classes
Not biking to work - as I get commuter benefits this wouldn't save much: $40 per month. Actually, now I look at that I realize it is a good amount. Still, I'd need to buy a bike, learn to ride it and learn American road laws. I walk a lot (groceries, restaurants etc) but work is just over an hour walk. I guess I could do that a little more often though.
Living in SF: I can see that retirement could be closer if we are happy to retire somewhere cheaper, as presumably by then cost of commute would be irrelevant. But we love it here! Waah! His family lives in New Mexico and we'd both rather work til we drop than live there (especially as we'd have to drive everywhere and have AC), mine lives in the UK and India and we'd have visa and political issues moving to either. Boise, Idaho or Boulder, Colorado sound fun apart from winters (I hate winters). Somewhere West Coast but not rainy (ie not Portland which is awesome in all other ways) or conservative (not San Diego) or a soul-sucking hellhole (ie not LA) could be an option.
So - all face punches and suggestions welcome.