Author Topic: What Is Your Annual Budget?  (Read 48226 times)

Rural

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5051
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #100 on: March 02, 2013, 06:25:08 AM »
$10000 is almost full time at a minimum wage job after taxes. At $6/hr, you'd be looking at 1600 hours or 32/week.

Minimum wage is up to $7.25 now, so that improves it a bit.

grantmeaname

  • CM*MW 2023 Attendees
  • Walrus Stache
  • *
  • Posts: 5950
  • Age: 31
  • Location: Middle West
  • Cast me away from yesterday's things
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #101 on: March 02, 2013, 11:38:12 AM »
But you're going to be paying local income taxes and making your FICA contributions even if you pay no state or federal income tax, which brings it down a bit.

MMMdude

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 322
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #102 on: March 02, 2013, 11:54:29 AM »
My finances are a little different - have common law spouse but we keep finances separate.  I spend 22,685 including property taxes and utilities on home which were about $5700, so excluding home expenses around $17,000.   I also spent $2400 on vacations last year and about $1000 on some home maintenance stuff.  Wife then gives me $ every month to help pay for that stuff + cable, etc.   She is slowly converting to MMM and hopefully one day she will track expenses too, but she is likely around $15,000 per year (not including the $ to me).  I-phone plan is horrid - that is likely $1200 a year on it's own for her.

Goal is to be under $20K each year excluding car depreciation, home maintenance and vacations. 

Blindsquirrel

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 690
  • Age: 6
  • Location: Flyover country
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #103 on: March 02, 2013, 12:40:15 PM »
 Sad to say we do not really budget at all. Spend about 36-40 k in a year for the two of us and 3 cats. Pretty spendypants but we are working on it. Not super spendypants as a % of our income though as our savings rate is over %50.  Our single largest expense is taxes in all their various evil forms by a factor of about 3.

William

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 194
  • Age: 34
  • Location: Nebraska
    • First Quarter Finance
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #104 on: March 02, 2013, 04:48:47 PM »
Sad to say we do not really budget at all. Spend about 36-40 k in a year for the two of us and 3 cats. Pretty spendypants but we are working on it. Not super spendypants as a % of our income though as our savings rate is over %50.  Our single largest expense is taxes in all their various evil forms by a factor of about 3.

MMM doesn't use or recommend a budget, so you're fine.  I don't use a budget either (although I think it can really benefit many people).  I use an excel sheet and write down every single expenditure after first reviewing the purchase relentlessly.

JamesL

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 89
  • Age: 34
  • Location: San Diego
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #105 on: March 03, 2013, 09:30:03 PM »
I'm pretty new to watching my actual spending, so I don't have a long standing average. However, my monthly *budget* is as follows. After say 6 more months I'll be able to say for certain if another category needs to be added. I'd probably add $500 for safe measure for the yearly budget, which would cover other costs like clothes, unexpected costs associated with driving and biking.

Auto Insurance      58
Gas, Maintenance      100
Mobile Phone              10
Dr. (Chiropractor)      20
Books (Uni)              20

Total Monthly               208
Yearly                              2496

What do you spend on food?  Thanks!

I live at home and my parents pay for food. So I brown bag everything.

JT

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 146
  • Location: NZ
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #106 on: March 03, 2013, 11:50:16 PM »
Two people 1 pet - just under $23,000 p/a - this includes child care every school holidays

Ottawa

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1033
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #107 on: March 04, 2013, 05:43:07 AM »
We don't have a budget per se...rather we constantly compete to lower all spending categories month by month; year by year.  More like...we adopt a rolling 'Annual' indicator of savings.  At the present time we're just under $35,000 annual.  As at September we will be largely eliminating daycare.  This has been a major expense for us; although a necessary one.  Annual daycare is around $6500.  Thus; our 'Annual' budget will become $29,000 as of September. 

When we dropped cable and reduced the overhead on all other electronic 'needs' last year it shaved $1200 off our 'Annual' budget. 

We find it to be more exciting and motivating to do it this way.


Arbor33

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 117
  • Age: 36
  • Location: Upstate New York
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #108 on: March 04, 2013, 07:13:43 AM »
Single and 25.

My yearly spending should be around $10k without my mortgage/house expenses (give or take $500). However, I've been doing lots of home renovations to the tune of about $9000 and someone crashed into my truck and I was faulted so I regrettably paid ~$8k to fix it (still in court trying to recoup some of this).

Total: ~$27k
Total cost of living: ~$10k

sobezen

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 371
  • Age: 894
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #109 on: May 23, 2014, 12:39:27 PM »
Removing the housing costs results in $9,000 living expenses for me.   Since I am single, I do date which adds to the budget.  I also visit family so I rotate paying for the family meals.  If I stopped dating and paying to eat out with loved ones, my annual expenses would drop to $4,200/year and my savings rate would rise to close to 80%.  It is all about maintaining balance so I choose to spend time with loved ones and I feel it is time and money, well spent.

homeymomma

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 333
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #110 on: May 23, 2014, 01:35:33 PM »
Just under 24K per year for my family of 3.5- 2 parents, 1 toddler, 1 on the way.

BlueMR2

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2313
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #111 on: May 23, 2014, 04:07:46 PM »
Just starting my first budget this year.  So far based on our expenses it appears that $25k should be our typical, even with our expensive hobbies and occasional house/car repairs figured in.  Last couple of years were (back of the envelope calculations) about twice that due to some planned upgrades that got much more expensive than expected as well as some extra schooling/training.

Gin1984

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4928
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #112 on: May 23, 2014, 04:32:36 PM »
Married, both grad students with a child and cat and we budget around $33K without the mortgage, 30K without property taxes and insurance.

Emilyngh

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 901
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #113 on: May 23, 2014, 05:40:02 PM »
There are three of us, plus a step-daughter we have every other weekend and pay cs for.   Our budget, not including the mortgage or longer-term savings is $26,000 a year.   

But, once CS is over (1 year left!), this will drop to $20,000 a year.   This amount does not include larger renovation projects or trips, which I currently fund entirely out of side-gig income, and the amount spent on them varies year to year.   In order to more than cover these larger irregular costs, we are planning on a retirement budget of $25k/year.   
« Last Edit: May 23, 2014, 05:46:35 PM by Emilyngh »

geekette

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2550
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #114 on: May 23, 2014, 10:17:06 PM »
Just skimming here, but I didn't see anyone else list big medical costs.  We're on track to spend about $38k this year (no mortgage, but including insurance, etc. for the house).  Of that, about $14k is budgeted for medical - $12k for unsubsidized premiums, and the rest for office visits/Rx/lab work.  Early 50's, currently retired.

   

BlueMR2

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2313
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #115 on: May 24, 2014, 06:25:39 AM »
Just skimming here, but I didn't see anyone else list big medical costs.

We just don't ever have any so far.  Only in our 40's.  Expect that to pick up in the next decade or so, but other expenses should drop a little bit as well.  If our insurance situation stays the same it should all balance out.

Emilyngh

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 901
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #116 on: May 24, 2014, 06:44:52 AM »
Just skimming here, but I didn't see anyone else list big medical costs.  We're on track to spend about $38k this year (no mortgage, but including insurance, etc. for the house).  Of that, about $14k is budgeted for medical - $12k for unsubsidized premiums, and the rest for office visits/Rx/lab work.  Early 50's, currently retired.

   

We have pretty low co-pays that are all more than covered by our FSA contribution of $50/mo.   And while this may increase (I'm only 33), our family out of pocket yearly max is currently $5k, so shouldn't be much higher than that.

Caoineag

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 663
  • Age: 42
  • Location: Michigan
    • My Journal
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #117 on: May 24, 2014, 02:48:21 PM »
$47k last year for 2, shooting for $36k this year. Just don't ask to see my food budget...(hint: my housing expenses, but not the mortgage alone, just barely beat it out last year for the #1 expense slot). Let's just say its a work in progress.

Nudelkopf

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 897
  • Age: 32
  • Location: Australia
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #118 on: May 24, 2014, 10:34:30 PM »
Single + dog.  Expenses are about $9,000/yr.  Health Insurance is paid by employer though.
Wowwee! :D Do you have a blog we can follow? EDIT: Nevermind, found your case study!
(http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/reader-case-study-buy-a-house-or-save-more/)

homeymomma

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 333
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #119 on: May 25, 2014, 07:47:54 AM »
Just skimming here, but I didn't see anyone else list big medical costs.  We're on track to spend about $38k this year (no mortgage, but including insurance, etc. for the house).  Of that, about $14k is budgeted for medical - $12k for unsubsidized premiums, and the rest for office visits/Rx/lab work.  Early 50's, currently retired.

   
-
We're in our late twenties but that means we're in peak childbearing / kids-go-to-the-ER a lot age. We budget 7500/yr (our family out of packet max) into our 24K total budget (w/o housing). I'm hoping our costs will even out as we age but our kids move off our plan- but medical expenses are a huge and scary unknown for us in the far future. We are in the individual insurance market (we are obamacare! Lol) so we don't have any guarantees for future coverage, etc so it's definitely a big question mark!

DocCyane

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 389
  • Location: USA
  • Keep going. You're doing just fine.
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #120 on: May 25, 2014, 08:31:41 AM »
Removing housing. Not including my life partner. Therefore, single female with one cat and one dog.

$11,670

This includes:
One medical issue ($585)
One vacation($465)
One iPad purchase ($900)

chasesfish

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4374
  • Age: 41
  • Location: Florida
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #121 on: May 25, 2014, 09:46:59 AM »
$36,000/year, not including housing cost.  Travelling and home repair/renos run this number up.

frugally

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 135
    • Welcome to the Woods
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #122 on: May 25, 2014, 11:59:14 AM »
$14000 removing housing and health insurance
$18000 adding health insurance
$28000 adding housing

Family of four - DW + 2 year old + 6 month old

Bookworm

  • Guest
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #123 on: May 25, 2014, 12:37:36 PM »
Another spendypants here! We are at $26,341.28 so far, just for these first five months of the year, excluding housing. We are a household of two adults, three teenagers, and a small dog.  We have had a TON of car repairs (with more to come...) and my husband's daily commute is 240 miles round-trip.  If both of those things can be resolved, we'll do much better!

homeymomma

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 333
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #124 on: May 25, 2014, 01:31:05 PM »
Another spendypants here! We are at $26,341.28 so far, just for these first five months of the year, excluding housing. We are a household of two adults, three teenagers, and a small dog.  We have had a TON of car repairs (with more to come...) and my husband's daily commute is 240 miles round-trip.  If both of those things can be resolved, we'll do much better!

240 miles round trip!! Holy crap! My husband did 180 round trip a couple times a week for two years... It was awful.

Ottawa

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1033
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #125 on: May 25, 2014, 02:38:32 PM »
We don't have a budget per se...rather we constantly compete to lower all spending categories month by month; year by year.  More like...we adopt a rolling 'Annual' indicator of savings.  At the present time we're just under $35,000 annual.  As at September we will be largely eliminating daycare.  This has been a major expense for us; although a necessary one.  Annual daycare is around $6500.  Thus; our 'Annual' budget will become $29,000 as of September. 

When we dropped cable and reduced the overhead on all other electronic 'needs' last year it shaved $1200 off our 'Annual' budget. 

We find it to be more exciting and motivating to do it this way.

Well...our annual spending has only gone down to $33,000 as of the end of May.  We need to find some more savings.  Our groceries bill has really gone up...we're not sure why.  This month was $700 - facepunch!  Over the last year...we've gone from an average of $500 to almost $700 this year.  Our kid is getting bigger and eating more...but jeez.


Willbrewer

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 87
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #126 on: May 25, 2014, 03:00:22 PM »
Annual expenses (just for myself) amount to ~$19,000, which includes everything- all insurances (health, LTC, auto, RV and umbrella), housing costs (lot rent for my paid-for RV, electric bill), food and incidentals, fuel for paid-for pickup truck, vehicle/RV maintenance, business expenses, storage unit cost, phone/internet, clothing and recreation/fun money. Expenses = 32% of take-home income. 68% of my income is invested towards my FI.


griffin

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 153
  • Location: Portland, OR
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #127 on: May 25, 2014, 04:04:33 PM »
Single without pets. At the beginning of the year I budgeted for $6,000, but it looks like I will be closer to $7,500 due to a vacation and poor spending haibts in January. Health/dental/vision are covered by my employer and I don't own a car, which likely helps quite a bit.

MGeegs

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
  • *
  • Posts: 20
Re: What Is Your Annual Budget?
« Reply #128 on: May 25, 2014, 05:15:57 PM »
For one person with a dog - ~2k per month or 24k per year, including my half of rent (I live with my partner but only track my own expenses). This year has a trip to France included though!

I think I could do better. I am just beginning my Mustachian journey...