How much does a mustachian spend annually?

[hammiehaack]

I'm extremely curious, how much do Mustachians spend annually? I don't necessarilly want to know income or savings rate, but I'm curious as to the annual spending budgets.

I suppose a similar question may appear somewhere in another thread, but I couldn't find one and grew tired of searching.

[FLBiker]

We're around $40K (including a mortgage) for an unmarried couple.

[apfroggy0408]

I'm sure you can find a plethora of info in the journals section.

[okashira]

I am almost finished with my budget, here are the preliminary numbers from memory. Does not include principle payments on loans I already have (that is savings) (update later)

~12,500 core expenses (semi variable and fixed) [1042/mo]
---this includes mortgage interest, property taxes and a 450/mo credit I receive from my GF as living expenses.
~10,500 spending money (eating out, toys/gadgets, gifts, entertainment) [~900/mo]

I might reduce the spending money allowance to increase savings rate. Need to get off my ass about bringing lunch to work.

[Zikoris]

From previous threads, a common amount for people who take it pretty seriously seems to be around 10K-15K per person per year. My boyfriend and I spent about 26K combined last year, though a big chunk of that was travel - our living expenses are about 18K.

There are also a lot of people here who spend a ton, and are more just looking to make modest reductions here and there rather than have a complete mustachian lifestyle overhaul. There's a huge spending range for this group.

[Heart of Tin]

Poll from last year (total household spending excluding payroll deductions, most responses were $20k - $35k): http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/annual-household-spending-poll/msg70160/#msg70160

Poll from February (spending per adult exlcuding housing, most responses were $10k - $15k): http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/poll-what-are-your-annual-expenses-(per-adult-housing-excluded)/msg224289/#msg224289

Personally? About $15k all in for a single young adult.

[Numbers Man]

I spend $10k a month which includes taxes. I also save a lot per month.

[MooseOutFront]

34 yrs old, married, 1.98 kids: annual spend is $61k.  Take out child care and we're about $48k.  I think $40k would be a nice goal.  I don't have my wife "on board" enough to get much lower at this time, but these numbers align with our FIRE goals knowing that there's still a lot of waste for me to gently chip away at.

[Jamesqf]

I'd say I spend around $20-25K on average, but that includes mortgage (on a place that's well above median cost for the area), some grad-school tuition, and support of horse & dogs.  But then I'm only interested in being financially independent*, not in early retirement.

*Which I largely am: I'm in the grey zone where I could get by on passive income by cutting back a bit.

[Mrs.FamilyFinances]

Excluding housing, but including student loan repayment, our annul expenses for a family of 4 is $19,644.  Housing included takes us up to 37,644. We are 28 and have 12 years left on our mortgage. We waffle back and forth on paying it off early or not...

[shotgunwilly]

34 yrs old, married, 1.98 kids: annual spend is $61k.

Did your kid lose a finger?

[MooseOutFront]

Fully baked, just needs to come out of the oven in the next few days.

[begood]

There are also a lot of people here who spend a ton, and are more just looking to make modest reductions here and there rather than have a complete mustachian lifestyle overhaul. There's a huge spending range for this group.

*raises hand*

That's me, over here in the "modest reductions" corner, at least so far. It's nice to know that's not automatic grounds for disapproval!

[EricL]

I'm not sure there is a collective mindset on what to spend.  Based on my lurking everyone does it their own way.  Some are making $40-50k a year, budgeting it down to the last penny so, and chucking 50% or more at debt or into investments so they can exit a crummy job as soon as possible.  Others kind of like their jobs, make six figures, have little to no debt, and generally shell 20-30% of it at investments just so they never have to be under anyone's thumb.  Some are a combo of both and there seem to be plenty that take baby steps then ramp it up to real badassity and others that relax a bit when they make their financial goals.  I'm not sure there could ever be a standard since so many are living in different circumstances - married with children, supporting sick or old family members, paying off extreme debt, saving for a dream retirement, etc.

I used to have a lot of student loan and credit card debt so as soon as I got a good paying career I started chucking about half my paycheck (after taxes) at it.  This was typically between $24 - 36k annually through my career.  I never bothered with a budget.  When the debts were paid off I realized I'd acclimated to living at that standard nicely and started chucking that money at investments.  This was before I read MMM.  In hindsight I wish I'd known about MMM (and his twin Jacob at ERE) years ago.  I would have saved even more money. There were many facepunch worthy purchases despite my thrift and I would have loved to exit my career earlier. 

[boarder42]

we spend 60k a year give or take if you just account for auto savings deductions.  Roth 401k and mortgage principal and the 5k i put into a regular non retirement account.   Really need to figure out where about 15k is going b/c when i sum up my estimated expenses we come in around 44k ...

[taekvideo]

That depends how you calculate it...
I bought a cheap 4 bedroom house (in great condition, working-class low-crime neighborhood... really good deal) and rent out the other 3 rooms for $850 total... after $506 mortgage payment (includes principal, interest, taxes, insurance) that leaves $344 for maintenance, vacancy, and other house-related expenses.... so I really consider myself as living here for free :)

We split utilities 4-ways (including internet) which makes it about $40/month for me altogether... add in food at about $200/month (I do eat a lot... active lifestyle and all... this also includes some commercial beer and costs for my homemade hard cider) and my primary living expenses (food, shelter, utilities) are just under 3k.

Transportation by bike... health care is free through my dad's work until I turn 26 in a little under 2 years, then I'll probably get a free or nearly-free plan through the exchange thanks to the ACA subsidy.
Cell phone will soon be free through freedompop (once they get around to shipping my phone...) with plenty of minutes/texts/data for me.

I could probably throw in another $1000/year for extra 'stuff' and live quite happily for $4k/year.  Hard to say what it'll really end up averaging long-term since I only finished college a year ago and bought the house a few months ago (lived with my parents while waiting for the right house to come on the market and getting started on my online job)... but I can't imagine spending more than $6k/yr or so even if I lose my Mustachian edge.

Shooting for a $10k/yr from 4% SWR, and having the house paid off before I retire... since that's what it'd take for me to feel secure about it.

Note that I'm not including student loan payments as expenses... the bulk of them I probably won't have to pay due to the pay-as-you-earn program (currently $0/month, only goes higher if my AGI goes above 18k or so, and whatever's left is forgiven after 20 years), and the other loan which isn't eligible is almost done paying off.

[catccc]

My family of 4 spends around 40K/yr, and $14,400 of that is on rent.  I want to continue to improve this, but most of the fat is cut out at this point.  Preschool will drop off in a couple more years, which will save a bit.  If I can control my urge not to spend that money on a nice vacations, that is....

[Luck12]

Single.  $26K-$32K depending on how much overseas travel is done that year.    Pretty high COL but not SF/NYC level. 

[rmendpara]

Not sure if I qualify as mustachian, but I'll give it a go. 25 yo and single.

$80k base salary gross (which I base rates from below). Bonus around 15% annually, but don't include that in my numbers.

Annual budget is ~$30k. Rent is the worst offender here as I want to live close to work so I can take public transportation ($1/day) and not have to drive so much (I abhor traffic), but rent/util runs around $1.3k/mo so $15.6k/yr or around half my total budget.

I'll probably end up buying a condo within a year or so as the total monthly cost would probably be around the same (including mortgage, ins, tax, HOA, util), but obviously $500+ would be going to principal rather than all down the drain like the rent. :(

[imbros]

Experimenting $15k per year (or $1,250 per month) which includes everything since November. Going fine so far.

[okashira]

That depends how you calculate it...
I bought a cheap 4 bedroom house (in great condition, working-class low-crime neighborhood... really good deal) and rent out the other 3 rooms for $850 total... after $506 mortgage payment (includes principal, interest, taxes, insurance) that leaves $344 for maintenance, vacancy, and other house-related expenses.... so I really consider myself as living here for free :)

We split utilities 4-ways (including internet) which makes it about $40/month for me altogether... add in food at about $200/month (I do eat a lot... active lifestyle and all... this also includes some commercial beer and costs for my homemade hard cider) and my primary living expenses (food, shelter, utilities) are just under 3k.

Transportation by bike... health care is free through my dad's work until I turn 26 in a little under 2 years, then I'll probably get a free or nearly-free plan through the exchange thanks to the ACA subsidy.
Cell phone will soon be free through freedompop (once they get around to shipping my phone...) with plenty of minutes/texts/data for me.

I could probably throw in another $1000/year for extra 'stuff' and live quite happily for $4k/year.  Hard to say what it'll really end up averaging long-term since I only finished college a year ago and bought the house a few months ago (lived with my parents while waiting for the right house to come on the market and getting started on my online job)... but I can't imagine spending more than $6k/yr or so even if I lose my Mustachian edge.

Shooting for a $10k/yr from 4% SWR, and having the house paid off before I retire... since that's what it'd take for me to feel secure about it.

Note that I'm not including student loan payments as expenses... the bulk of them I probably won't have to pay due to the pay-as-you-earn program (currently $0/month, only goes higher if my AGI goes above 18k or so, and whatever's left is forgiven after 20 years), and the other loan which isn't eligible is almost done paying off.

Epic.... kudos.