Since you know you need to track your spending, that's a good place to start. I prefer Personal Capital, but definitely try a variety of tracking system to find what suits you - even if it's a notebook, a pen, and writing down every expense.
What stands out:
Gas @ $200/moHow far are you driving? What are you driving? How often are you making "little trips" to the store? I have a somewhat long commute (25+mi round trip) due to sharing a vehicle with my DH, and I still have a hard time exceeding $80/mo for all gasoline...
Groceries @ $150/moI initially overlooked this until I saw below where you state "Husband buys most groceries." Then it caught my attention. It's impossible to analyze this number without knowing how many more hundreds DH is spending on groceries.
Clothing/Hair/HBA @ $200/moI saw something similar to this the other day.
Clothing - $200/mo in clothing could buy:That's
four new shirts from a fancy place like Dress Barn, every month.
48 new shirts per year.
That's
ten new pairs of pants from the clearance rack at Eddie Bauer, every month.
120 new pairs of pants per year.
Assuming a price range of
$2-$8 per item, that's
25-100 pieces of clothing from a thrift store,
per month.
300-1200 pieces of clothing per year...
If a package of Dickey's brand men's socks is
$12, and comes with
6 pairs, that's
1200 new pairs of socks per year.
If a package of Hanes white women's underwear is
$14, and comes with
10 pairs, that's
1714 new pairs of women's underwear per year.
Haircuts - $200/mo in haircuts could buy..Exactly 160 $15 haircuts per year - divided among four people, that's
40 haircuts a year per person, or 3.33 haircuts
a month, per person.
At
$50 per trip, this would be
4 salon cuts per month, all year. A total of
48 haircuts, almost one a week.
At
$50 per trip, this would be
4 cuts and
colors at an Empire beauty school, per month, all year.
I don't know what HBA stands for, to be quite honest, but if it has to do with haircuts, salon treatments or clothes shopping as it's lumped with, I think it deserves equal scrutiny.
Cable @ $185/moWhy do you have this? How many hours of TV do you watch, per week? What would your ISP charge you for internet access only? Usually it's around
$60/mo, so let's assume that about
$120 of this can be cut away.
That's a savings of about
$1440 per year.
If invested, this becomes
$89,226 after 25 years.
If invested, this becomes
$179,101 after 35 years
Everything else looks pretty much par for the course. Dining out can be questioned, always, but I think there are bigger fish to fry here. Cell phones also look pricey, but depending on how many people are on that
$165/mo as to how expensive it actually is... For example, that times one or two people would be grotesquely expensive, but that times You, DH and all kiddos would be more acceptable.
As far as the
$800/mo that you're unable to track down, that looks like...
A loss of
$9600 per year. That's more than DH and I spend on housing.
If invested instead, that money becomes...
$150,861 after 10 years.
$594,843 after 25 years.
$1,194,009 after 35 years.
http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/retirement/roi-calculator.aspxHowever, knowing if you can FIRE in 5 years depends on tracking your spending accurately, providing your income and assets in your case study. After all, FIRE is spending per year, x25...
Have you tried YNAB, Personal Capital, Mint, Learnvest, for tracking, or the Case Study spreadsheet provided in the sticky at this forum?
Check out these two recent case studies:
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/case-study-pregnant-(yay!)-and-husband-laid-off-(boo!)/http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/reader-case-study-nate-shannon-looking-for-suggestions/