The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: Mark31 on July 18, 2016, 09:05:40 PM
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What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
I think it would be interesting and useful to know how much other mustachian Australian households spend.
Everybody’s circumstances are different, and people are making their own informed decisions about spending money so this is NOT a competition. (Easy for me to say as I would certainly lose). However I feel being able to compare my spending to a similar peer group would help inform my choices .
If you think so too, please post your top-line stats below. To aid comparison I think it would be best to exclude rent or mortgage payments, but knowing if someone is an home owner is probably good.
So, here goes…
Household:
Two adults, three children, aged 9, 7 and 1. We are Home owners.
Spending:
2013-14 $42,434
2014-15 $52,131
2015-16 $51,715
Comments:
The last two FYs have seen a lot of once in a decade and once in a lifetime expenses, buy maybe most years have them and I just haven’t been keeping track for long enough to know.
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I am one adult, in a long term relationship, but my partner and I have spent most of our relationship living in separate share houses. (But hopefully we will have a little place just to ourselves, someday soon, whether it's renting or owning!)
Unfortunately the last time I tracked my spending for a year or more was I think back in 2008-ish? And I was tracking it using a website that I can no longer remember/find.
Anyway, back in Melbourne, from 2007 - 2014, my rent has ranged from as little as $400 per month to as much as $850 per month (so about $5k - $10k / year).
Excluding that, I would generally spend in the realm of $10k - $13k.
Just going off my memory and whatever paltry information I could dig up from old e-mails, so can't really be more specific than that, sorry!
Currently living in Perth, and paying about $565/month or $6760/year in rent (and in this particular place, the rent also includes bills). I am much less spendy here, compared to my time in Melbourne. Only just started tracking last month, and excluding rent, last month I spent $236. Looks like this month will be similar. However, my partner has been away, and when he comes back, I'll probably be spending more on things like movies and restaurants. Also there could be a holiday coming up, plus whatever things that could cost money over the course of a year that just hasn't happened yet. So ostensibly, outside of rent, I could spend about $3k/year in my current situation, but more likely it will be double that, or even more? Who knows.
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I'll be rooted if I knew the answer...
My spending is somewhere around $18-$20k. I incur no interest on my fully offset home mortgage.
Largest single expense is strata fees at about $2250.
Car costs me about $2000 a year to run (CTP, Rego, Insurance and petrol).
Food is about $1800(?) a year... haven't a clue.
Spent about $1400 on new clothes and shoes this year... mostly new work suits which will last 3-4 years.
Health Insurance $1140
Council rates $1040
Gym fees $1000
Gas & Electricity $790
Trying not to count the recent holiday which blew up $3k :D
Include net investment property expenses in my totals and it jumps to... a lot more. I probably could work it out if I tried hard enough but I may not like the answer :)
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A great topic for us Aussies. It's hard comparing with all the US figures.
My spreadsheets don't list the total spend in a year, but I've done a few quick sums, taking out tax, housing costs, long term savings, extra Super payments and came up with a spend figure of $54 857 for two adults and three children (aged 8-13).
I hope this gives everyone a bit of an idea for comparing with their own figures, even if this isn't a perfectly tallied number for 2015/16.
I look forward to more replies. :)
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Household:
Two adults, one children, aged 2. We are Home owners.
Spending: 32,500 (not inc mortgage)
5500 Housing: Council Rates and renos
8500 Food: includes dining out with a 50/50 split between Aldi and Coles
3200 Health: insurance (extras only), doctors, dentist, pharmacy etc
4300 Car: rego, insurance, service, petrol, tyres etc
5300 Utilities: Gas, water, phone, electricity, internet etc
5000 Misc: childcare, clothes - we shop at savers for shirts and jeans, hobbies etc
700 Local holiday: we spent a week at Appollo Bay :)
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Hmm, I expected I'd have spent about $35-40K. If I do some very rough maths, I actually get an answer of about $46K.
Oops.
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Hallo. I think we're pretty spendypants.
Household
2 adults, 2 cats, side order of minor persistent physical issues.
Spending
Rent is $24,000
Everything else is $39,000.
From my journal:
Food: $11,500 (groceries and dining out)
Health: $6,250
Utilities: $3,750
Transport: $5,350 (2/3 of this is public transport to work)
Business: $3,100
Cats: $1,600
Fun: $2,000
Discretionary: $5,350
Comments
There isn't even any overseas trips in there, just daily living.
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Approx. A$130k for FY16.
I believe that about A$70k of that is a function of living overseas, so I would hope that we would be around A$55-60k when (if) we return to Australia.
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Hmm, I expected I'd have spent about $35-40K. If I do some very rough maths, I actually get an answer of about $46K.
Oops.
The figures from your journal seem to indicate that it should be a much lower figure? Unless things have changed very recently?
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Hmm, I expected I'd have spent about $35-40K. If I do some very rough maths, I actually get an answer of about $46K.
Oops.
The figures from your journal seem to indicate that it should be a much lower figure? Unless things have changed very recently?
Yeah, I'll need to double check my figures :)
That is all inclusive, holidays included though.
Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk
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What a timely post - I just asked this same question on the following blog
http://www.getfiredasap.com/2016/07/15/reader-case-study-seeking-advice-for-a-financial-dilemma/
we are family of 4 kids 7 and 3, home owners
yearly spends:
2013/2014 90000 - multiple small trips that cost more than you think
2014/2015 135000 - kitchen reno and big 6 week trip - what a shocker but we accept this was a complete blow out
2015/2016 65000 ( struggling to rein it in)
2015/2016 This year was to be our big no spend year - I thought we could do 50000 including travel. So 65000 was a bit of a disappointment. 50000 is what I thought we could do in retirement so disappointing we failed.
Cash 2500 - where does this go? gifts, groceries, school excursions, charity
Groceries 6000
Healthcare 1400
transport 2390 (petrol 1500, reg 570, ins 145, tyres 175)
house/garden maint 1200
rates 1700
utilities: 5000 water 2500, electricity 690, gas 140, internet 866
entertainment 1670 (alcohol 800, eating out 570, misc)
mobile phones 490
pets food 1200 (food 200 + pet minding 1000)
presents 800
insurance 7750 (health 4300, home/contents 1400, income protection 1700, life 350)
clothes/shoes 320
kids sports/kindy 2000
potentially deductible:
education 2100
professional reg fees/organisational fees 3000
accounting 1150
office/misc 1000
hopefully one offs:
medical procedure 7000
trip 4000
camping gear 2000
bikes 1200
home improvement 7000
As getfiredasap points out take away deductibles and potential one offs, we spend about 32000. This would be great but we always have one offs, they are just different things. Root canals, more home improvement (never ending), appliance replacement, travel that should be cheap but isn't. FIRE looks further away than ever.
Before I went through every line of the credit card and bank statement I was confident it was 50000 so I would doubt anyone who guesses what they spend. Very keen to hear from other Australians though as we seem to struggle to live as cheaply as those in the US.
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Cash 2500 - where does this go? gifts, groceries, school excursions, charity
Groceries 6000
Healthcare 1400
transport 2390 (petrol 1500, reg 570, ins 145, tyres 175)
house/garden maint 1200
rates 1700
utilities: 5000 water 2500, electricity 690, gas 140, internet 866
entertainment 1670 (alcohol 800, eating out 570, misc)
mobile phones 490
pets food 1200 (food 200 + pet minding 1000)
presents 800
insurance 7750 (health 4300, home/contents 1400, income protection 1700, life 350)
clothes/shoes 320
kids sports/kindy 2000
potentially deductible:
education 2100
professional reg fees/organisational fees 3000
accounting 1150
office/misc 1000
hopefully one offs:
medical procedure 7000
trip 4000
camping gear 2000
bikes 1200
home improvement 7000
As getfiredasap points out take away deductibles and potential one offs, we spend about 32000. This would be great but we always have one offs, they are just different things. Root canals, more home improvement (never ending), appliance replacement, travel that should be cheap but isn't. FIRE looks further away than ever.
Before I went through every line of the credit card and bank statement I was confident it was 50000 so I would doubt anyone who guesses what they spend. Very keen to hear from other Australians though as we seem to struggle to live as cheaply as those in the US.
Your water bill is ridiculous - do you leave the taps on all day and all night?
Even if some of those other costs are deductible, you are still spending money and only getting refunded your marginal rate of tax...
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I'll be rooted if I knew the answer...
My spending is somewhere around $18-$20k. I incur no interest on my fully offset home mortgage.
Largest single expense is strata fees at about $2250.
Car costs me about $2000 a year to run (CTP, Rego, Insurance and petrol).
Food is about $1800(?) a year... haven't a clue.
Spent about $1400 on new clothes and shoes this year... mostly new work suits which will last 3-4 years.
Health Insurance $1140
Council rates $1040
Gym fees $1000
Gas & Electricity $790
Trying not to count the recent holiday which blew up $3k :D
Include net investment property expenses in my totals and it jumps to... a lot more. I probably could work it out if I tried hard enough but I may not like the answer :)
Phone? Internet?
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Ok, I actually don't know exactly what our spending is *embarrassed face* but this has spurred me to figure it out. I do not that our sort of fixed/essentials (incl. rates, utilities, food, car, health but also auto payments like netflix $10 pcm) comes to $25k.
I'm hoping the total is in the 40s as we've barely travelled this year but I expect it's actually in the 50's as there's been other major purchases like an oven & cooktop. The consistent big spending is around regular but not fancypants meals out and expensive hobbies. In retirement I've worked out we'd need close to $60k as we'd have all that time to ski.
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Household:
2 Adults, 1 Dog. Renting.
2015-16 Spending: (ex. Giving, Rent, International Holidays)
$37,963
Comments:
Our actual outgoings for the year were $88,148 when you add in our giving, rent, and a very spendy holiday in Japan earlier this year.
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I am not too sure, I only really started tracking at the beginning of this year. I am still very spendypants but hopefully by the time next year I will be able to add to this convo
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I'll be rooted if I knew the answer...
My spending is somewhere around $18-$20k. I incur no interest on my fully offset home mortgage.
Largest single expense is strata fees at about $2250.
Car costs me about $2000 a year to run (CTP, Rego, Insurance and petrol).
Food is about $1800(?) a year... haven't a clue.
Spent about $1400 on new clothes and shoes this year... mostly new work suits which will last 3-4 years.
Health Insurance $1140
Council rates $1040
Gym fees $1000
Gas & Electricity $790
Trying not to count the recent holiday which blew up $3k :D
Include net investment property expenses in my totals and it jumps to... a lot more. I probably could work it out if I tried hard enough but I may not like the answer :)
Phone? Internet?
Less than the items listed above... internet $149, phone about $480 (handset $180, monthly cost $25). No longer do I get the $30 a year phone cost :( downside of smartphones lol.
I don't want to go down to the level of accounting for every dollar... it would be different if every dollar mattered and the budget was stressed. But whether it's good luck, good management, good fortune or a combination of all 3 I'm not in that territory.
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Well ours is for a couple, a 3 yo and two cats. Very spendy. We rented and owned. Total 53000 doesn't include work expenses, rent, tax, mortgage, rates.
Daycare 5497
Clothing 1281
Electronics 92
Entertainment 776
Gifts 1095
Groceries 9846
Restaurants 4485
Healthcare 4136
Hobbies 550
Home improvement 372
Home maintenance 84
Insurance 9235
Internet 842
Car 5566
Petrol 1480
Personal care 1480
Pets 1322
Utilities 3848
Cell phones 1092
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I'm not tracking this year, but by deducting savings from income I've spent 50k for the 3 of us. This includes 6-7k in home maintenance and otherwise reflects some looseness in spending with 750k on 21 st party, 1500k on a holiday where we ate out a lot (yum!), and various items such as wicking bed materials, a chest freezer and tools such as a gurney, brushcutter and so on, which should hopefully pay for themselves as we can DIY.
Edited to add: I did the math wrong : I neglected to take into account various salary sacrifices/packaging . That's why non-accounting duffus' like me should track! Closer to 41k, which makes more sense since DS pays some board ( although I'm still subsidising him somewhat overall) and DD now pays for a lot of her own stuff since she finished school halfway through the fin yr.
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Your water bill is ridiculous - do you leave the taps on all day and all night?
Even if some of those other costs are deductible, you are still spending money and only getting refunded your marginal rate of tax…
You would think that about the water. The water bill hides 50% fixed service charge and sewerage. Now here comes all the other defensive justifications. I'm pretty sure Perth has pricey water (all that desalination) and it gets pretty hot and dry in the summer. Rain essentially only falls for 3 months. So unless you want all your establishing fruit trees to cark it you run the reticulation the maximum allowed 15 minutes twice a week. Plus a bit of hand watering when it is 40 degrees for 4 days in a row. Our lawn goes brown every summer so we don't waste on that. We collect our shower water, kitchen water. We have a jug in the sink and all plate washing, hand washing, vege water goes straight on the plants. I bet there would not be many people who walk outside 30 times a day emptying a jug from the kitchen. I shower at work and the kids wash twice a week. But we do have a pool (with a pool cover). Our bill is not unusual for people with a pool and a large block. (not mustachian I know). I figure we have to water generously for the first few years to help the fruit trees establish then we can back off. And maybe all those fruit trees will save us a bit of money from the grocery bill (or it might just be a psychologically rewarding nurturing hobby that costs a bit of water).
Marty 998 you are completely right about the spending a dollar to save 50c. I take all those deductible expenses seriously and try to get them down to the bare minimum. I insure just enough income to live on (till we accumulate our FIRE money) and have a 90 day waiting period and only till I am 55. And certainly I could do my tax cheaper but I have stuffed it up before and ended up with tax to pay rather than a hefty refund I get now. False economy in my case. Australian tax seems so complicated. Thanks for your comments.
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Question for Marty 998
How do you get internet for 149 a year. I'm impressed.
Question for Mark (who started this thread). I would be interested to see more of a breakdown on your expenses. How you do it for 50000 with a family of 3? What part of the country are you in? Capital city? regional?
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Your water bill is ridiculous - do you leave the taps on all day and all night?
Even if some of those other costs are deductible, you are still spending money and only getting refunded your marginal rate of tax…
You would think that about the water. The water bill hides 50% fixed service charge and sewerage. Now here comes all the other defensive justifications. I'm pretty sure Perth has pricey water (all that desalination) and it gets pretty hot and dry in the summer. Rain essentially only falls for 3 months. So unless you want all your establishing fruit trees to cark it you run the reticulation the maximum allowed 15 minutes twice a week. Plus a bit of hand watering when it is 40 degrees for 4 days in a row. Our lawn goes brown every summer so we don't waste on that. We collect our shower water, kitchen water. We have a jug in the sink and all plate washing, hand washing, vege water goes straight on the plants. I bet there would not be many people who walk outside 30 times a day emptying a jug from the kitchen. I shower at work and the kids wash twice a week. But we do have a pool (with a pool cover). Our bill is not unusual for people with a pool and a large block. (not mustachian I know). I figure we have to water generously for the first few years to help the fruit trees establish then we can back off. And maybe all those fruit trees will save us a bit of money from the grocery bill (or it might just be a psychologically rewarding nurturing hobby that costs a bit of water).
Marty 998 you are completely right about the spending a dollar to save 50c. I take all those deductible expenses seriously and try to get them down to the bare minimum. I insure just enough income to live on (till we accumulate our FIRE money) and have a 90 day waiting period and only till I am 55. And certainly I could do my tax cheaper but I have stuffed it up before and ended up with tax to pay rather than a hefty refund I get now. False economy in my case. Australian tax seems so complicated. Thanks for your comments.
We don't have kids, but our (usage only) bill is about $30/month averaged over the year. We have retic, but only a small block (~400 m2), so I'd say it's probably your pool, not the plants that are causing the high bill?
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Finally an Aussie spending thread!
Looking at the numbers here, I feel less bad about our spending, though it's bad enough.some of you guys are also Doing so well, am a bit jealous.
Our water was 1373 ( pool and garden+ water tank), just to give a comparison. Electricity was 2325( AC is non negotiable), rates 1400. Food was about 9000 ( in and out)for the 4 of us). Phone and Internet 910. Foxtel 300. Health insurance 3468. 9000 Childcare (after the rebate). About 3700 for my transport ( car+ public). I can't disclose my husbands NNVN (non negotiable vehicle needs) and the associated expenses bc that belongs to the wall of shame and comedy.
Mortgage is extra, we piled all the extra $ to pay that off by December, so we no longer pay rent to the bank. That was the best thing that happened to us financially last year.
The numbers are a bit better for this year ( food is considerably down), but I haven't added them up yet.
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The water bill hides 50% fixed service charge and sewerage. Now here comes all the other defensive justifications. I'm pretty sure Perth has pricey water (all that desalination) and it gets pretty hot and dry in the summer. Rain essentially only falls for 3 months. So unless you want all your establishing fruit trees to cark it you run the reticulation the maximum allowed 15 minutes twice a week. Plus a bit of hand watering when it is 40 degrees for 4 days in a row. Our lawn goes brown every summer so we don't waste on that. We collect our shower water, kitchen water. We have a jug in the sink and all plate washing, hand washing, vege water goes straight on the plants. I bet there would not be many people who walk outside 30 times a day emptying a jug from the kitchen. I shower at work and the kids wash twice a week. But we do have a pool (with a pool cover). Our bill is not unusual for people with a pool and a large block. (not mustachian I know). I figure we have to water generously for the first few years to help the fruit trees establish then we can back off. And maybe all those fruit trees will save us a bit of money from the grocery bill (or it might just be a psychologically rewarding nurturing hobby that costs a bit of water).
We don't have kids, but our (usage only) bill is about $30/month averaged over the year. We have retic, but only a small block (~400 m2), so I'd say it's probably your pool, not the plants that are causing the high bill?
anatidaev - do you know how much your bill would be including non-usage charges? Are you charged usage-only because you're renting? I can't remember whether your place has lawn or not... lawn is pretty much The Worst for water usage (and all other environmental concerns!).
kiwiozearlyretirement - not sure how big your 'big block' is, but my spending on water (455sqm block, big house, but only two people in it) is closer to yours than anatidaev's, and my figures include non-usage charges. I've just averaged out our costs for the last ten months and it works out to $141 / month, including all charges.
My actual water use charges, based on my last bill, are less than a quarter of the bill price. I pay roughly $106 a month in non-usage charges, and then $20 - $50 a month (depending on the weather and what we're doing at the time) in usage charges.
No pool, and I make a reasonable effort to collect and save water, though I don't go far enough (keep some vegetable washing water, for example, but not all). We do like baths though, and we dirty more clothes and towels / linen than the average person here seems to. Haven't yet bought a more water efficient washing machine and I'm sure that'll make a difference. We do have two small areas of lawn which we attempt to keep semi-alive through summer, plus lots of small / yet to be established trees, and potted plants which need regular watering in summer.
Also - given you say you're in Perth - did you know there are heaps of Perth Aussies on the board? :D Lots of us have journals, and we have regular meetups too.
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I can't post my FY spending, because my tracking changed during the year as my circumstances changed - I went from tracking only my spending, in a situation where I did not pay rent / mortgage, to tracking joint spending with a husband and a co-owned home which we bought during the financial year. So numbers do not add up, at all.
What I CAN provide is my current spending, annualised! Which works out to $75k for a two-person family.
Note that:
- we pay quite a bit of mortgage interest (close to $20k/year), we're bringing this down via funnelling all our non-super savings into the offset
- we are spending more than we *think* we will long-term on house projects because we bought it last year and want to make some small changes to the house and garden
- I have high medical and health costs due to chronic illness which I am actively treating via regular appointments with multiple medical providers - that adds up! Chronic illness also limits how much I am able or willing to scrimp in some other areas - e.g. I have poor temperature regulation and run the air con more in summer than many mustachians would
- groceries includes the costs of hosting family and friends, which we do at least once most weekends. We cook from scratch but eat like kings.
- transport is one small, fuel-efficient car and the cost of two people commuting to/from work via public transport
Feel free to facepunch me, I don't care :-) our savings rate is 68% and we are damn happy with our lives.
Quoted from my journal:
Of that $75k a year:
$8,400 is for groceries ($700 / month)
$35,575 is for housing ($2965 / month)
$10,675 is for medical and health ($890 / month)
$3,425 is for transport ($285 / month)
$630 is for work-related, but not reimbursable, expenses ($53 / month)
$14,545 is for discretionary and fun ($1215 / month).
Note that I have been rounding these figures with reckless abandon while typing them out, so the numbers won't all add up neatly like they would in a perfect world.
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Who do you guys have home and contents ins with? I like your numbers better than my numbers.
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Happier, yes, we pay usage only because we are renting. We never see the bill, just get an invoice from the real estate agent saying what our usage part is. We have two bits of lawn, a tree, and irrigation for every flower bed & up the driveway.
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Who do you guys have home and contents ins with? I like your numbers better than my numbers.
You probably weren't asking me as I didn't post my $ for that, but I pay $985 / year for home and contents for a large, expensive house in Perth. I'm guessing there are state variations with this as there are with car insurance. I'm with RAC.
Happier, yes, we pay usage only because we are renting. We never see the bill, just get an invoice from the real estate agent saying what our usage part is. We have two bits of lawn, a tree, and irrigation for every flower bed & up the driveway.
Makes sense! One of the many benefits of renting.
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I am asking everybody! :)
Thanks for the number, I will definitely have to look into lowering ours.
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I pay $980 for a brick 3-bed home and contents and I'm with AAMI. We increased our excess for the buildings part to many $k to reduce the premium by a few hundred $. Definitely worth looking into doing that.
So we had a proper look at our expenses. It's about $60k for the year which is what we planned for retirement. Unfortunately I had secretly hoped we could get by on less and very little of that $60k has been spent on travel and we had planned to do heaps more. But on the plus side there is a pot of money spent on commuting and home improvements that could be reassigned in retirement and it should all work out. The best news from the analysis is that our eating out, clothes, grooming and other such fripperies seems to be lower than expected. We spent $320 on tolls - I'm going to plan our harbour crossings more carefully!
EDIT to add: That's for two adults and one smelly old dog.
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Bee21, how do you manage to get Foxtel for $300? Does it include sport channels?
We spend $61 per month on Foxtel, totally non negotiable with DH due to sport channels. Sigh.
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ummm... 3 teenagers plus 2 adult household. Aiming to retire in 5 years time at age 51 - currently have a 30% savings rate.
ummm... annual core spending of 100K, and ... about the same amount in my wife's (who seems to want to work forever) annual spend-on-whatever fund.
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Bee21, how do you manage to get Foxtel for $300? Does it include sport channels?
We spend $61 per month on Foxtel, totally non negotiable with DH due to sport channels. Sigh.
Do you know anyone you could share a Foxtel Go subscription with?
I - I mean, um, a friend of mine - does this. :)
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Nobody is watching sports, apart from the state of origin. Husbands is into fishing shows, but mostly watches yachting videos on YouTube these days.He downgraded the full package last year after he annualised the expense and realised it wasn't worth it. We got the basic 25$ package, that is more than enough, it is worth keeping just for the recording feature, now we just record the few shows we watch and skip the ads.
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Interesting thread - huge range in spend.
I've tracked mine by category for years. Sadly, I've come to the conclusion that "big, one off" expenses happen every year, so I just include them in my accounts.
Mine is for one person, a mix of share housing (rent), living by myself (own), and having my partner live with me (own). I've listed my spend including and excluding cost of housing (rent/interest), as its a cost I have now, but intend to have paid off in a budget relevant to FIRE.
2012-13 $47.5k including $3k of rent. Big costs were travel (22k)and paying for PT to try to get fitter / lose weight.
2013-14 $54k including $6k of rent. Big costs were travel ($20k) and car ($6.5k with accidents and repairs)
2014-15 $42k including $3.6k of rent. Big costs were travel ($13k) and car (5.5k, big repairs)
2015-16 $72k including $8k of house interest and rent. Big costs were travel ($20k), Energy improvements (PV and heat pump hot water, $13k) and health ($6k)
Given that I spend a lot on travel, and value it highly, I'm working on a FIRE budget of about $50k/year excluding rent/mortgage.
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Question for Marty 998
How do you get internet for 149 a year. I'm impressed.
Question for Mark (who started this thread). I would be interested to see more of a breakdown on your expenses. How you do it for 50000 with a family of 3? What part of the country are you in? Capital city? regional?
I have mobile broadband / USB modem for my internet. Pre-paid, 12GB for $149, recharge once a year.
When you only really use the internet on your laptop for banking, and a few forums and news sites you don't use a lot of data.
My data usage for this forum is generally measured in KBs, not even MBs :D
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Question for Marty 998
How do you get internet for 149 a year. I'm impressed.
Question for Mark (who started this thread). I would be interested to see more of a breakdown on your expenses. How you do it for 50000 with a family of 3? What part of the country are you in? Capital city? regional?
I have mobile broadband / USB modem for my internet. Pre-paid, 12GB for $149, recharge once a year.
When you only really use the internet on your laptop for banking, and a few forums and news sites you don't use a lot of data.
My data usage for this forum is generally measured in KBs, not even MBs :D
Ah, you may want to check out the newer deals for more data for less :)
Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk
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Too late, just recharged :(
Remind me next June...
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Great thread!
2016: 12k (part-year extrapolated)
Add rent and utilities: <25 k
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Haven't done it for this FY, but usually works out to be $2k - $2.5k per month incl. $1.2k rent monthly. One adult.
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Two Adults, one preschooler. One paid off home and we are also renting elsewhere until we FIRE in October; we actually have two lots of home expenses at the moment.
I haven't finished the figures for the latest FY, but in FY14/15 we notionally spent $66K not including rent. However $24K of that was for investment expenses and extra income tax, so I don't count that towards our spending because it's the cost of making money. Also, it should drop a lot in FIRE when we are earning less.
Total Expenditure (ex rent and investment expenses) ~$42,000
Essentials ~$22,000
- Groceries ~$9,800
- Household (Bills, Internet, Phones) ~$5,600
- Car expenses ~$5,000
- Medical/Dental ~$1,600
Niceties ~$9,500
- Dining Out, coffee, alcohol ~$3,900
- Household costs for post-FIRE/holiday house ~$3,700
- Other Holidays ~$900
- Other (clothes, electronics, hobbies, entertainment) ~$1,000
Childcare and Son's Therapies $10,500
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Nice going MRL - the 42k includes childcare, so impressive.
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wow spendy year for me, it doesnt include mortgage but does include the fees with buying my house.
I got this from money brilliant which I signed up to at the begining of the year, so I didnt go through and fix up all the past transactions so not sure if everything was being catagorised correctly(i did notice some transfers to savings acocunts coming up as ATM withdrawals)
But anyway total is $55164 which I think makes me the spendyist single australian on this thread! hopefully I do better this year
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Household
1 adult
2 kids (early high school)
Spending excluding rent
$36,345
Rent (8km from CBD, midway between kids' schools, various parts of house last redecorated 60s-80s)
$21,730
Some specific items
Groceries $6,388
Car related expenses $2,232
Public transport $1,571
Utilities $1,901
Phones & internet $1,977 (would really like this to be less!)
School stuff $1,589
Gifts $1,957
Comments
Spending was somewhat blown out by $4k of medical expenses for child 2, and needing a new (secondhand) car when my old one was written off by a p-plater.
Would love less spending on those sorts of things and more on R&R.
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2 Adults in our household.
I have only been tracking for 9 months, so These figures are grossed up to the full year equivalent.
We are at $31,795 excluding mortgage.
Groceries. 5,520
Mobile & Internet. 1,264
Gas & Elect. 995
Car Insurance. 380
Home Insurance. 696
Rates. 1,882
Water. 1,128
Fuel. 780
Car Stuff. 988
House maint 2,381
Misc. 811
Discretionary stuff like restaurants, alcohol, entertainment, shopping and travel takes up the remaining 13,000 or so. Room to improve.
Bit surprised that a lot of people on here don't seem to track their spending.
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Wow Mark31
that makes most of us mustachians look pretty good. But then we are the enlightened ones not the average.
We saved maybe $110 today by updating our mobile prepaid plans. Partner was paying $120 a year by recharging every 2 months with $20 as that was the plan at the time when he joined. But we worked out he made about one txt a week and his phone usage was minimal so he is now on the $10 with 365 day expiry plan. No data, but when his smartphone broke he just picked up the old nokia still working fine from 2003. Dunno what will happen when 2g gets phased out but vodafone has not announced its timeline for this yet.
We are examining our expenditure on our taxation accountant. 1150 a year. What do people reckon? Others have commented this is high end. Normally it is 800. I got stung this year as I failed to pay some extra tax they had to chase me about ($250 later arrgh) and I emailed asking whether I should contribute to my partners super - answer no - $100. My partner said today the way to save money where we live (high wages) is don't get/ask anyone to do anything for you. No bathroom renos, no landscaping, no financial advisors unless you want to pay 2-3 times what you think it is worth. I think that is good advice. But it is hard to find out specialised super/tax information? I spend hours every evening on this and am struggling. But have had good advice from some forum members.
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Couple under 35 : $65,500
Couple with kid/s under 5 : $69,300
Couple with kid/s eldest under 15 : $75,100
Couple, over 55 : $71,600
Couple, over 65 : $44,700
Wow look at that drop at age 65. I guess that 65+ figure also includes 80yr old couples who might not be out and about as much but still. I wonder how much of that drop is getting rid of work related and kid expenses and how much is because they don't have a lot in Super etc. We are expecting to spend pretty much the same into retirement!
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I haven't tracked it exactly but if I minus savings/investments from post-tax (and post-super) income I get $49K
Single, renting - all approx numbers
Rent was $18200
Medical was $7450 (!!)
Health Insurance $2100
Car (everything including servicing) $3445
Charity $1400
Utilities $2000
Mobile/Internet $1020
Dentist $400
PO Box $120
So I spent $12865 on groceries, eating out/drinks and a month long European holiday. I'm ok with that.
No medical next year (fingers crossed) and no holiday either. Hopefully save a bit more.
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Household:
3 adults, 2 dogs, house owned outright
Spending:(in pictures, no less!)
(http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx82/kawabungaoz/Untitled1_zpsmwn0y0wp.png) (http://s744.photobucket.com/user/kawabungaoz/media/Untitled1_zpsmwn0y0wp.png.html)(http://i744.photobucket.com/albums/xx82/kawabungaoz/Untitled2_zpshfre72bz.png) (http://s744.photobucket.com/user/kawabungaoz/media/Untitled2_zpshfre72bz.png.html)
Categories breakdown:
Our Living - Amenities, Dogs, House, Medical, Misc Expenses, Transport
Shared Living - Amenities, Groceries, House, (minus) Housekeeping Contribution
Investment - House Projects
Discretionary - Computer, Holidays, Major Purchases, Presents, Special Event, Spending
Helping Others - Donations, Helping Family
Savings - What we don't spend of our salary/pension income
Comments:
3rd adult is our youngest son who contributes to shared living costs
Though I'm FIREd, my wife still (willingly) works casual hours hence our savings "problem" :)
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Who do you guys have home and contents ins with? I like your numbers better than my numbers.
I'm with Real Insurance and last year I paid $503 for $370K building ($1K excess) and $80K contents ($500 excess).
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Single, mortgage, 1 adopted stray cat
Very rounded and rough estimates:
Food/entertainment/misc $6500
Giving $7200
Public transport. $3120
Utilities (water, electric, gas, mobile, Internet) $2500
Car (rego, insurance, maintenance, fuel) $2100
Total non-housing = $21,420
Housing (mortgage, extra mortgage, rates, insurance) $31650
The nebulous difference between these costs and my net take home is currently being spent on home improvements and travel.
As to Perth water bills, my actual usage costs average less than 10% of the bill...
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Who do you guys have home and contents ins with? I like your numbers better than my numbers.
I'm with Real Insurance and last year I paid $503 for $370K building ($1K excess) and $80K contents ($500 excess).
That's a very good deal... but it can't possibly include flood cover? (Not that you get floods in the ACT?)
I'll have to talk to my parents... they pay quite a substantially higher sum than $500...
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Who do you guys have home and contents ins with? I like your numbers better than my numbers.
I'm with Real Insurance and last year I paid $503 for $370K building ($1K excess) and $80K contents ($500 excess).
That's a very good deal... but it can't possibly include flood cover? (Not that you get floods in the ACT?)
I'll have to talk to my parents... they pay quite a substantially higher sum than $500...
Yes it includes flood cover, although I'd say that the assessed risk must be near zero as 90% of Canberra would have to be under water for flood waters to be lapping at our door (we are 125m higher elevation than Canberra Airport).
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ok then... amazing deal you've got there Ozstache. I wonder if they insure Strata complexes haha
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Great thread. After lurking on this board for nearly 18 months...learning... we have a record of last FY spend.
2 adults a 6 year old and a staffy, house paid off
$39k
Cheers,
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We are examining our expenditure on our taxation accountant. 1150 a year. What do people reckon? Others have commented this is high end. Normally it is 800. I got stung this year as I failed to pay some extra tax they had to chase me about ($250 later arrgh) and I emailed asking whether I should contribute to my partners super - answer no - $100. My partner said today the way to save money where we live (high wages) is don't get/ask anyone to do anything for you. No bathroom renos, no landscaping, no financial advisors unless you want to pay 2-3 times what you think it is worth. I think that is good advice. But it is hard to find out specialised super/tax information? I spend hours every evening on this and am struggling. But have had good advice from some forum members.
It's hard to say whether $1,150 is high it depends what is involved in your tax, but unless I'm reading this wrong you got charged $250 for them helping you with an ATO issue and $100 for answering an email on a tax query. I'm a tax accountant and we don't charge for small queries or issues like that. It's all part of the service.
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Thanks Adram for your comments.
I am a salary earner and have standard deductions - insurance, work related travel, education, work related office/technology expenses. Oh actually they do my partner's tax also and he also has his tax done in another country but earns small amounts interest and dividends in OZ. So maybe it's the fact that it's 2 people. No your'e not reading it wrong. We were charged 250 as they had to email me to remind me to pay the excess super contribution I had missed. The other things were listed generically in our bill.
Thinking about ditching him as he has just recently taken a big interest in helping us with our money and introduced us to a high priced financial advisor. Doesn't seem to be in our best interests.
Anyone got a good one they use in Perth?
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Nope. We organised a meeting with one who seemed to be freelance, came around to our home, chatted through tax as a pre-hiring meeting, and we haven't heard from them in a couple of months. I need to remind DH to call them, since it was his tax they were supposed to do...
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We paid around 250 pp. we have to chase him up all the time, but it's cheap. Not that we have a very complex tax situation.to be honest, I should just do it online as before we got married, but I am laaaazy.
How much wanted the financial planner you mentioned? Just curious. We had a very interesting meeting with a dude my husband's superannuation fund set us up with and he wanted 4500+ GST plus a 300/monthly fee. Well, hell no. And I know people who paid more than that (and of course lost money on the investments). We got so pissed off that I piled all the spare funds in vanguard the week after the meeting and husband was ok with it (which is big, as his investment philosophy is 'stick it in the bank and sit on it.'Or spend it on big shiny vehicles).
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How much wanted the financial planner you mentioned? Just curious. We had a very interesting meeting with a dude my husband's superannuation fund set us up with and he wanted 4500+ GST plus a 300/monthly fee. Well, hell no. And I know people who paid more than that (and of course lost money on the investments). We got so pissed off that I piled all the spare funds in vanguard the week after the meeting and husband was ok with it (which is big, as his investment philosophy is 'stick it in the bank and sit on it.'Or spend it on big shiny vehicles).
Hi Bee 21. Yeah when the financial planner finally gave us some estimates after a long whizz bang introductory session. $4-6000 to set everything up and 3-4000 a year thereafter you should have seen my face. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. This was based on managing what he knew we had I suppose, maybe it would have been less if we had a small amount but I doubt it. He reckoned he could deliver annually 4.5%. Well my existing super (hesta) has delivered 6.7 for the last 4 years. Although it is a bit confusing as if you look at canstar they rate all the super funds and include the annual fees. The APRA funds charge from 3-5000 to manage 500,000. A colleague recommends a guy who charges 2000 to set every thing up and then 1.3% annually. Which seems cheap compared the other guy but is still 1300 (per million) a year and if you just put it in vanguard you would pay 200-250 plus brokerage.
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So you met the same sort of shark :) ours wasn't even be able to demonstrate what he would be able to do for us, it was like, just hand over the money and we might meet once a year to discuss the progress. Very funny. Those investments should be making above average returns, just to pay for his fees he receives for doing nothing. 4.5% return for you and he'll be making thousands from the trailing commissions.
I have an other super fund which also offers financial planning, I want to meet them too, but this time I will have a very specific list of questions I want them to answer during that free initial consultation. And I have 0 interest in employing these sharks.
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How much wanted the financial planner you mentioned? Just curious. We had a very interesting meeting with a dude my husband's superannuation fund set us up with and he wanted 4500+ GST plus a 300/monthly fee. Well, hell no. And I know people who paid more than that (and of course lost money on the investments). We got so pissed off that I piled all the spare funds in vanguard the week after the meeting and husband was ok with it (which is big, as his investment philosophy is 'stick it in the bank and sit on it.'Or spend it on big shiny vehicles).
Hi Bee 21. Yeah when the financial planner finally gave us some estimates after a long whizz bang introductory session. $4-6000 to set everything up and 3-4000 a year thereafter you should have seen my face. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. This was based on managing what he knew we had I suppose, maybe it would have been less if we had a small amount but I doubt it. He reckoned he could deliver annually 4.5%. Well my existing super (hesta) has delivered 6.7 for the last 4 years. Although it is a bit confusing as if you look at canstar they rate all the super funds and include the annual fees. The APRA funds charge from 3-5000 to manage 500,000. A colleague recommends a guy who charges 2000 to set every thing up and then 1.3% annually. Which seems cheap compared the other guy but is still 1300 (per million) a year and if you just put it in vanguard you would pay 200-250 plus brokerage.
Err...1.3% is $13,000 per million
This is why all financial planners need to disclose their fees in $$$ now, not percentages. Much easier to understand exactly how much they are stripping from your pocket.
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We are examining our expenditure on our taxation accountant. 1150 a year. What do people reckon?
I paid about half that for one person for a horribly complicated tax year with a relationship separation, investment property, share sales and a few queries. Usually more like 1/3 that. Seems on the high side but not totally unreasonable for 2 people and some questions, if you're doing something nonstandard with your super. $250 for the one reminder is a bit rich though.
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Err…1.3% is $13,000 per million
Duhh! I even remember having that conversation with my friend. I said that's 13000 per million. And he said well do you have a million. I said no (and in my head 'but I bloody well plan to soon'). But my head is spinning with all this stuff. It's so confusing and I think as you say that's where they get you by obfuscating things with different descriptions of their charges. Those APRA funds are looking more attractive by the minute. But then you still seem to be paying (according to canstar) several thousand. And since I am an index fund convert I don't need them to fiddle about and smooth out the volatility with cash and bonds etc. I don't need that till retirement. Anyone got a super fund they rate?
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Err…1.3% is $13,000 per million
Anyone got a super fund they rate?
I'm with Sunsuper and although they don't have an option to invest in individual shares, they have domestic and international index funds that you can invest in. Fees are quite reasonable too eg. 0.13% on their domestic index fund.
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My wife and I are with unisuper - it was originally set up for university staff - but I think anyone can join. It seems to charge around $200 a year, for funds in the $100 000 range, frequently wins awards, and has a range of funds, i.e. balanced, high growth, etc, and you can fix your percentage allocation to each fund.
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But then you still seem to be paying (according to canstar) several thousand. And since I am an index fund convert I don't need them to fiddle about and smooth out the volatility with cash and bonds etc. I don't need that till retirement. Anyone got a super fund they rate?
I went through this recently. Even the industry funds charge fees, some of which are taken out before you get your returns, so aren't that obvious. They seem excessive considering they are 'all care and no responsibility' and they are managing everyone's account in bulk. In the end the buck stops with me.
I read JL Collin's stock series and agree about index fund investing. I ended up with ING Living Super. There is a $300 per year fee, and a cost of at least $20 per trade or .13% of the amount you are buying (the break point is about $15,000). You can also invest in cash or interest bearing deposits with no extra fees.
Here is a quote from their website:
How does real-time share trading work?
After you first register your Living Super account for share trading, to trade shares online in your account, you must first have sufficient money in your Cash Hub and a minimum total account balance of $10,000.
You can invest a maximum of 80% of your total account balance in the Shares investment category (S&P/ ASX300 shares, Exchange Traded Funds and Listed Investment Companies)
You can invest a maximum of 20% of your total account balance in any one listed security
To get started, log in and follow the prompts to "My Super Finances", "My Investments" and then "Trade Shares and Exchange Traded Funds" to set up your share trading account, or read more in our Shares, ETFs and LICs Guide.
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Awesome thread!
For FY 15/16, we spent $76 477.93 excluding rent. This is for two adults, child support of three children with one of those children living with us every second week.
There were a couple of "one off" purchases we made, which did inflate the number.
$3000 on lawyers fees.
$1650 for interstate removal. We also purchased a washing machine and dishwasher as part of the move.
$6000 roughly for overseas travel.
We also lived five and a half hours apart for six months of the FY, so were maintaining two households. Hopefully now that we're back in the same household, we can bring this down to a more Mustachian level!
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My expenses for the last few years after I paid off the mortgage are:
2013 - $25k
2014 - $22k
2015 - $29k
The main difference between the 3 years are how much travel I do. My budget without travel is ~$20k per year.
I am single, no dependants and own my own home. I am frugal but give myself a monthly budget that allows eating out, going out with friends and buying myself things I want.
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Nice numbers ynotme.
Awesome thread!
For FY 15/16, we spent $76 477.93 excluding rent. This is for two adults, child support of three children with one of those children living with us every second week.
There were a couple of "one off" purchases we made, which did inflate the number.
$3000 on lawyers fees.
$1650 for interstate removal. We also purchased a washing machine and dishwasher as part of the move.
$6000 roughly for overseas travel.
We also lived five and a half hours apart for six months of the FY, so were maintaining two households. Hopefully now that we're back in the same household, we can bring this down to a more Mustachian level!
Ouch... complicated living situation! Should definitely drop now that the second household is gone.
But you may find the one-off travel becomes more and more recurring depending on how much you enjoy it :D
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wow spendy year for me, it doesnt include mortgage but does include the fees with buying my house.
I got this from money brilliant which I signed up to at the begining of the year, so I didnt go through and fix up all the past transactions so not sure if everything was being catagorised correctly(i did notice some transfers to savings acocunts coming up as ATM withdrawals)
But anyway total is $55164 which I think makes me the spendyist single australian on this thread! hopefully I do better this year
I feel I should probably mention, this cost includes an 8 week holiday to the USA/Cuba/ Bahamas, a 2 week holiday to Thailand, the end of a European holiday and some trips to visit family within Australia (funerals, birthdays, wedding) that all required flights.
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I don't keep track of expenses but just prepared a rough estimate and it comes to about 28k which includes 14k of travel.
My estimated dividends currently just cover this after tax so I'm quite happy with that but I hope to grow them!
Not sure where I'll allocate the extra dividends, to additional savings or increase in expenditure.
Not much to add but I just wanted to subscribe to this interesting thread.
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Household
2 adult
1 kid (pre school age)
Spending excluding mortgage and investments:
~ $42,300
Rough breakdown:
Groceries/entertainment/transport/gifts: 18,200 ($350/week)
Bills 9600 ($800/month)
Childcare 6000 (120/day - yikes!; expenditure after rebate)
Holidays/travel 6000
Misc - new washer $1500; medical $1000
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Hi All,
I'm single but currently live in a relatively expensive share house in inner city melbourne, having lived solo for the previous 3 years.
I only discovered MMM in Sep '14 and began tracking my spending since then. But since tracking it's helped me cut it down big time.
My annual spend for 15-16 was $24,202.45 with $12,678 being rent. The rest was groceries, private health insurance (but only due to medicare surcharge), utilities, mobile phone, eating out, numerous syd-melb flights to visit family.
No transport costs as I live down the road from my work and I have 3 bicycles bought in a previous spendy year. No big purchases I can think of last year.
I have definitely cut down on discretionary purchases, clothes and eating and drinking out. But I make a point of never feel deprived. I just appreciate it a lot more when I do buy things!
I'm tracking to get my spending down to around $19k this year. I'm spending a lot more time reading books from the library, cooking, playing guitar and soccer. And I probably haven't been happier for a long time.
Technically I'm probably FI, but I'm not sure that living in a share house is an ideal long term situation. Or living on such a low spend to be honest. Still, I'm contemplating a mini retirement/sabbatical/career change/going back to study at the end of this year so cutting the expenses was a bit of a trial to see just how much freedom juice you can squeeze out of that dollar.
For reference, I'm 40 and have previously been in a defacto and owned a house. I'm living life in reverse it seems!
Thanks everyone for sharing as well.
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misterhorsey that is impressive! And a mini-retirement could be fun! I also wonder about the sharehouse thing - I have been doing it for many years and I don't mind it, but I am guessing at some point I might feel less inclined.
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Thanks lime and pepper. I'm only in share housing again after a disastrous run of noisy cheaper one bedder/2 bedder apartments with noisy neighbours. I find sharing with people infinitely less stressful than dealing with neighbours who aren't terribly considerate. Plus the social aspect is nice. We are mostly social animals so I think living alone is luxurious, but has its own unique challenges.
I'm not sure what the options are long term. I'd love a house with a garden, and I've come close to buying recently but as a solo person it seems like a waste of resources. It's taken me a long time to realise how inefficient so much housing stock is. It's obvious to me that a Porsche Cayenne SUV is about $200k+ more expenditure than necessary than a Toyota Camry, but I think the conditioning that we have about what is normal in respect of housing runs pretty deep. I was originally aiming at buying a 2/3 bedroom house, but after thinking about it for a while, couldn't see the point of borrowing money from a bank to purchase 1 or 2 bedrooms that I would have no use for. I did think about renting them out to pay the mortgage, but why service debt to pay for extra house that, once you paid off and can evict your tenants, I would still have no use for!
Eventually I might buy a house if I settle down again, and it won't be a financial decision - but until then I'm happy to remain pretty flexible.
Also, just read this article about housing which is a bit crazy but amusing and insightful:
http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2015/10/own-house/
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Thanks lime and pepper. I'm only in share housing again after a disastrous run of noisy cheaper one bedder/2 bedder apartments with noisy neighbours.
This here showcases how nice it is to have the flexibility of renting! Even when a place suits you at the beginning, you may still want to move later. I haven't had problems with neighbours myself, but I have moved a few times to be close to work. Since I'm still a while away from retirement and may encounter a few more job changes yet, it's helpful to be renting in such a scenario. My partner is more interested in buying - and it just dawned on me that our different thoughts on this may have a lot to do with our work situations; the kind of work he does can be done from home. Hmm, something to talk about.
I'm not sure what the options are long term. I'd love a house with a garden, and I've come close to buying recently but as a solo person it seems like a waste of resources. It's taken me a long time to realise how inefficient so much housing stock is. It's obvious to me that a Porsche Cayenne SUV is about $200k+ more expenditure than necessary than a Toyota Camry, but I think the conditioning that we have about what is normal in respect of housing runs pretty deep. I was originally aiming at buying a 2/3 bedroom house, but after thinking about it for a while, couldn't see the point of borrowing money from a bank to purchase 1 or 2 bedrooms that I would have no use for. I did think about renting them out to pay the mortgage, but why service debt to pay for extra house that, once you paid off and can evict your tenants, I would still have no use for!
Yeah, I feel like even a studio apartment would be enough if it's just me - though I would prefer a 1-bedroom. And would definitely like space for gardening. Since I'm coupled up, we're looking at at least a 1-bedroom, especially given the partner needs space for a home office. If kids are not in the picture it seems that anything more than a 2-bedroom is too much extra.
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This here showcases how nice it is to have the flexibility of renting! Even when a place suits you at the beginning, you may still want to move later. I haven't had problems with neighbours myself, but I have moved a few times to be close to work. Since I'm still a while away from retirement and may encounter a few more job changes yet, it's helpful to be renting in such a scenario. My partner is more interested in buying - and it just dawned on me that our different thoughts on this may have a lot to do with our work situations; the kind of work he does can be done from home. Hmm, something to talk about.
Yes, I agree. Although I'm mindful that renting is optimal if you have the financial resources/security, physical mobility and mindset to be flexible about your living arrangements, but not everyone does. I don't think the laws relating to Australian rental market are particularly conducive to long term tenants who want security of tenure.
I also sympathise with lower income earners who may not feel that they are able to jump around - feeling economically insecure doesn't give you much confidence about your situation and the rental market in inner city melbourne is frighteningly competitive. And families with kids may dread the idea of moving every couple of years. I've moved every year in the past 5 years! It's definitely draining and its made me prioritise minimising possessions to make the next move less work.
But in the end I've adapted my lifestyle to maximise flexibility - but it did take quite some work a bit of work and cultural adjustment to get there and for some people it may not be an goal that is readily achievable. It's tempting to go on an evangelical MMM frugality rant to try and get people to open their eyes to the freedom available to them if they do away with excessive consumption - but nobody likes a bore.
But I'd still like to have a garden. And good gardens are multi-decade projects.
I ,like you, would be content with a Studio. My dream would be a largish studio within a garden setting. Less building. More nature and sky. I probably need to buy a Yurt!
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Single Dad, one toddler in childcare full time (~50/50 custody). Renting a cheap old unit inner city.
This is my budget that I've been running on for a couple of months now. Some things I should beat by a fair bit over the next 12 months, eg Fuel, car maintenance, health bills, Food, so I might be up to $2k below. Some of these things I've broken down in my own budget to lines for myself and my child. Its interesting to see the actual cost of children (not as bad as most people make out), though, once my daughter is grown up and I own my PPOR, I will be able to smash this budget right down. I suspect that even with a small garden space in a courtyard I could also save at least $1000 a year off fresh grocery costs (I'm vegetarian at home) by being smart, as part of a PPOR I will invest in Solar and get rid of Gas, and use some rain collected water, car is a reliable diesel 4WD, that I only do about 5000km a year (country miles not city), so fuel and maintenance is way overblown in this budget. Punching in such numbers post child reaching adulthood, base budget should be about $16600 in today's dollars. That's with me still providing a room, roof, food, clothes for said adult child, inner city location.
Total: $34635.18
Annual breakdown:
Health Insurance (myself and child) $1742.70
Health Bills $800
Rent $13035.70
Electricity $600
Gas (mains) $400
Water $360
Contents Insurance $390.89
Eating out $1564
Food $ 3650
Cleaning (products) $80
Bathing (products) $80
Clothes $1240
Fuel $1303
3rd Party insurance $120
Rego $560
Maintenance $2000
Telstra 4G Mobile $360
TPG NBN $719.88
Netflix $107.88
Gifts $600
Childcare fees $4200.14
Child Support $1600.74
Miscellaneous $782
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I also sympathise with lower income earners who may not feel that they are able to jump around - feeling economically insecure doesn't give you much confidence about your situation and the rental market in inner city melbourne is frighteningly competitive. And families with kids may dread the idea of moving every couple of years. I've moved every year in the past 5 years! It's definitely draining and its made me prioritise minimising possessions to make the next move less work.
We would still be renting if the rental situation was not so hostile in Perth. The flexibility was all the landlord's way. We got moved every year for 3 years and once after 9 months. With small children this was not fun. At one point we nearly ended up in a caravan park with our stuff in storage. And not to forget those nazis with their clipboards every 3 months hassling you to clean the windows and pick up every leaf. As long as the house is not damaged and it is relatively clean I don't see why you should have to clean the windows. They hassled us about the lawn not having been mowed in the last few days when we were mowing it every 2 weeks. I do not have fond memories of our time renting. I totally agree buying a house makes no financial sense but moving all the time is disruptive as hell. I think other countries allow longer leases/rental agreements. The maximum you can do here is 12 months. And twice we had the owners moving back into their houses so we had 6 weeks to get out. In a mining boom city this was extremely difficult at times.
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Renting is hell. I still have nightmares about the application process when there were 20 people queuing to get an overpriced shoebox for 12 months.
I am popping in to say thanks to those who shared their home and contents insurance numbers. Looks like we will be saving 800 annually by switching. I am kicking myself for not looking into it earlier.
Would you guys care to share your health insurance numbers for a family cover? That is next on the chopping block.
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I also sympathise with lower income earners who may not feel that they are able to jump around - feeling economically insecure doesn't give you much confidence about your situation and the rental market in inner city melbourne is frighteningly competitive. And families with kids may dread the idea of moving every couple of years. I've moved every year in the past 5 years! It's definitely draining and its made me prioritise minimising possessions to make the next move less work.
We would still be renting if the rental situation was not so hostile in Perth. The flexibility was all the landlord's way. We got moved every year for 3 years and once after 9 months. With small children this was not fun. At one point we nearly ended up in a caravan park with our stuff in storage. And not to forget those nazis with their clipboards every 3 months hassling you to clean the windows and pick up every leaf. As long as the house is not damaged and it is relatively clean I don't see why you should have to clean the windows. They hassled us about the lawn not having been mowed in the last few days when we were mowing it every 2 weeks. I do not have fond memories of our time renting. I totally agree buying a house makes no financial sense but moving all the time is disruptive as hell. I think other countries allow longer leases/rental agreements. The maximum you can do here is 12 months. And twice we had the owners moving back into their houses so we had 6 weeks to get out. In a mining boom city this was extremely difficult at times.
Wow, that's not been my experience renting in Perth at all! The real estate agents have been reasonable enough, though we disagree on some items. They always put down "please do .... Better" on the rent inspection. I thought they just had to pick something every time. We've been here nearly 3 years, they even agreed to lower the rent because of the poor rental market! It's why I'm not keen on buying - so nice renting right now! We have no kids, but do have 2 cats. I assumed that if I wanted to, I could ask for a longer lease? That's good to know, I suppose.
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It's why I'm not keen on buying - so nice renting right now!
Same here, back in Melbourne, I stayed in the same place for 6 years! And get this - it was a month-to-month lease. And not only that, some years into this, I was asked if I wanted to sign a yearly lease - and I said I liked the status quo, so we continued with the monthly arrangement until I eventually left on my own accord. :p
Way before that, I rented with my sister, also in Melbourne, we were there for about 4.5 years I think - until we, too, left on our own accord.
In between those rentals, there were some places where I didn't stay as long, but again I was the one who left when I wanted to. So the flexibility of renting has pretty much always worked out in my favour. I guess that's why I like it so much? The idea of committing to one property is far more scary than the possibility of being asked to move out.
Never had problems with inspections either, and I don't consider myself to be the super clean and tidy sort.
Currently renting a room in Perth from a homeowner, I think she is happy to have me here for as long as I want, plus she only bought the place recently so I doubt she'd be selling soon.
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We've returned to renting after 9 years of owning. It took us three houses to find the right landlord.
The first place they wanted us to sign a long lease and tried to corner us into it by threatening (and following through on) putting the house on the market unless we signed a 12 month lease. When we moved out the new tenants signed for 12 months and they took the house off the market. Then a year later I noticed it was back on the market. Perhaps they were trying the same tactic again?? Anyway, it has recently sold.
The second place was a private rental, arranged by a friend of a friend. It was great until the owner had some health issues and needed to move in. Luckily they gave us an excellent reference for our current place.
Our current landlord seems great. He lives interstate, but the real estate is pretty decent, and he has been proactive about fixing the things that have gone wrong in our 18 months here. The landlord had the house built nearly 30 years ago and they raised their children here. They've been renting it out for more than 5 years now. He is bank manager and wants to take care of his investment. There is probably a bit of sentimentality in there, too, with it having been their family home. They are pleased to have tenants who care for the place. They pay our water bills because they are happy with how we maintain the gardens and lawns. The real estate comes by every 12 weeks, but seem pretty casual. Still, that doesn't stop me from cleaning like a fiend in the lead up - don't want to lose a good thing!
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It's why I'm not keen on buying - so nice renting right now!
Same here, back in Melbourne, I stayed in the same place for 6 years! And get this - it was a month-to-month lease. And not only that, some years into this, I was asked if I wanted to sign a yearly lease - and I said I liked the status quo, so we continued with the monthly arrangement until I eventually left on my own accord. :p
Staying that long in a rental is optimal/living the dream. Many sensible landlords will favour a reliable and trustworthy tenant over maximising their rental return. They'd rather have someone in for lower than market and have no hassles or vacancy.
Because of my bad choices in apartments I changed apartments every 14 months for a bit, meaning I had to pay market rates each time. Admittedly my bad apartment choices caused this. Cheap as they were unpleasant, or unpleasant as they were cheap!
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Great thread! Really enjoying seeing some Australian figures because US ones always seem crazy low.
Household:
Two adults, both working full time. Home owners.
Spending:
2014-15 $39,223
2015-16 $59,765
Comments:
This year's number includes ~$13,000 worth of medical expenses (we needed to buy medical equipment) as well as flights/hotels for vacations in Singapore, Sydney a few times, Canberra, the Twelve Apostles, and Phillip Island. We also hosted some family and friends quite a few times. Not thrilled about how much we're spending, but our savings rate is still ~70%.
Details:
Electricity: $280.44 (partially prepaid from the last year, but this is about $60/month for us)
Water: $1,030.37
Gas: $586.98
Transportation: $1,691.60 (two Myki passes, except when we're working from home)
Health insurance: $1,196.95
Home insurance: $654.67
Car insurance: $379.93
Car - rego: $619.90
Car - Petrol: $543.32
Passports: $792.55 (we have five passports between the two of us, and some were due for renewal this year)
Home internet: $961.99
Mobile phones: $1,584.78
Groceries: $7,819.26
Rainy day funds: $13,455.92 (health)
Entertainment and eating out: $1,118.93
Pocket money and language lessons: $7,800
Clothing: $2,500
Electronics: $1,694.11
Vacations: $5,724.11
Biking: $3,006.28 (bought one new bike each)
Home improvement: $4,673.91
Gifts and charity: $1,650
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Household
Two adults, no children, living in a 1 bedroom apartment.
Spending
Rent $19,200
Health insurance $1,920
Utilities $1,200
Internet $720
Phone $720
Groceries $7,800
Eating out $3,000
Work lunches $1,200
Drinks $600
Fuel $1,200
Grooming $1,320
Clothing and shoes* $1,920
Cosmetics* $360
Hobbies/entertainment* $600
Gifts* $1,200
Automotive expenses* $1,920
Travel* $7,200
Home maintenance* $240
Home furnishings* $600
Electronics* $480
Healthcare/medical* $3,600
Car replacement* $600
TOTAL $57,600
TOTAL EXCLUDING RENT $38,400
Comments
The items marked with an asterisk are our regular contributions to "sinking funds", which we use to smooth out the irregular expenses. This helps us prepare for those so-called one-off items.
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Mines gone up... quite a bit on previous years.
- $1,000 extra on new work clothes at the start of the year
- Opal card charges are already higher than last year (mumble mumble mumble dumb government changing the rules mumble mumble mumble groan)
- Trip to SE Asia and spending money
- Extra rental property with associated outflows for strata, water, council rates, land tax etc.
All that seems to happen is that money goes out of the bank account these days. Obviously more comes in, but it still hurts to see so many red outflows :D
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Household
Two Adults, two Fur babies and a Bird.
Spending
Debt payments -$20,078.05 * That is our priority
Rent -$8,609.95 * Rent will go up as its currently subsidized
Electricity -$190.24 * Major stuff on the elect company behalf that's why it is so low.
Gas -$219.27
Internet -$743.43
Water -$226.54
Wood -$151.48
House items -$1,013.56 * Other random stuff we bought
Groceries -$4,236.52
Medical -$1,143.75**
Take Away / Going out -$2,046.93
Max & Millie & Tweety -$666.21
Fuel -$1,386.00
Two Mobile Phones -$1,491.82
Public transport -$1,357.16
Shit we forgot about -$331.47
MRS -$787.38
MR -$219.43
YNAB Yearly Fee -$60.62
Fertility Injections -$782.21**
Engagement Party -$2,069.54 ***
Farther's Day -$99.99
Mother's Day -$21.88
Emergency Fund -$3,225.17 * will work on breaking these out to other categories this year *Had washing machine, Kettle, Toaster and Coffee machine die
Birthdays -$787.95
Christmas -$40.60 * no tracking for last xmas
Easter -$37.01
Rego / Honda -$771.60
insurance - Honda -$300.00
Ambulance Cover -$89.80
Anniversaries -$85.90
Car maintenance -$29.00
House appliance replacement -$536.00
Optometrist -$638.00
Bedding -$258.32
Phone Replacement -$25.99
Work Clothing MRS -$65.45
Work Clothing MR -$50.00
Holiday -$220.77
Other random stuff -$1,644.79
Total Expenses -$55,256.20
Total Excluding Rent -$46,646.25
Total Excluding Rent/Debt -$26,568.20
Comments
Don't have Financial year spending above is from Dec15 - OCT16
** Hopefully will end soon
*** One off but will be replaced with other peoples weddings over the next few years.
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I thought I’d make a comparison against the general population, using the ABS 2009-10 Household Expenditure Survey (results from 2015-16 survey won’t be out until 2017) for Queensland……
(I’ve multiplied the weekly figure by 52 and then added 15% to account for inflation)
Excluding rent and home ownership costs :
Lone person under 35 : $37,000
Couple under 35 : $65,500
Couple with kid/s under 5 : $69,300
Couple with kid/s eldest under 15 : $75,100
Couple, over 55 : $71,600
Couple, over 65 : $44,700
Lone person over 65 : $24,100
Smashing it... Awesome!!!