Author Topic: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?  (Read 21609 times)

Mark31

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What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« on: July 18, 2016, 09:05:40 PM »
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.

limeandpepper

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2016, 10:37:41 PM »
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.

marty998

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2016, 02:09:44 AM »
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 :)

JLR

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2016, 03:39:36 AM »
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. :)

Rob_S

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2016, 03:52:04 AM »
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 :)

alsoknownasDean

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #5 on: July 19, 2016, 04:31:47 AM »
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.

Anatidae V

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #6 on: July 19, 2016, 05:25:36 AM »
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.

Little Aussie Battler

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2016, 05:35:48 AM »
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.

limeandpepper

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #8 on: July 19, 2016, 06:08:28 AM »
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?

alsoknownasDean

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #9 on: July 19, 2016, 06:25:42 AM »
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
« Last Edit: July 19, 2016, 07:09:23 AM by alsoknownasDean »

kiwiozearlyretirement

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #10 on: July 19, 2016, 07:23:48 AM »
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. 









marty998

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #11 on: July 19, 2016, 03:08:54 PM »

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...

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #12 on: July 19, 2016, 04:22:33 PM »
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?

Fresh Bread

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #13 on: July 19, 2016, 09:29:28 PM »
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. 

cott0n

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #14 on: July 19, 2016, 11:03:45 PM »
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.


nnls

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #15 on: July 20, 2016, 12:21:13 AM »
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

marty998

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #16 on: July 20, 2016, 02:25:49 AM »
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.

nora

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #17 on: July 20, 2016, 05:07:08 AM »
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


happy

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #18 on: July 20, 2016, 06:24:08 AM »
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.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2016, 03:14:46 AM by happy »

kiwiozearlyretirement

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #19 on: July 20, 2016, 10:41:41 AM »
Quote
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.

kiwiozearlyretirement

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #20 on: July 20, 2016, 10:50:06 AM »
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?

Anatidae V

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #21 on: July 20, 2016, 05:24:00 PM »
Quote
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?

Bee21

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #22 on: July 20, 2016, 05:53:25 PM »
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.

HappierAtHome

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #23 on: July 20, 2016, 06:43:15 PM »
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.
« Last Edit: July 20, 2016, 06:46:02 PM by HappierAtHome »

HappierAtHome

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #24 on: July 20, 2016, 07:04:50 PM »
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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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #25 on: July 20, 2016, 09:04:39 PM »
Who do you guys have home and contents ins with? I like your numbers better than my numbers.

Anatidae V

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #26 on: July 20, 2016, 09:10:41 PM »
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.

HappierAtHome

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #27 on: July 20, 2016, 09:14:08 PM »
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.

Bee21

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #28 on: July 20, 2016, 09:17:50 PM »
I am asking everybody! :)

Thanks for the number, I will definitely have to look into lowering ours.

Fresh Bread

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #29 on: July 21, 2016, 12:24:12 AM »
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.

« Last Edit: July 21, 2016, 12:30:25 AM by Freshwater »

urbanista

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #30 on: July 21, 2016, 01:33:52 AM »
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.

faramund

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #31 on: July 21, 2016, 02:26:14 AM »
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.

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #32 on: July 21, 2016, 02:45:05 AM »
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. :)

Bee21

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #33 on: July 21, 2016, 03:10:24 AM »
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.

bigchrisb

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #34 on: July 21, 2016, 03:35:47 AM »
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. 

marty998

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #35 on: July 21, 2016, 04:31:54 PM »
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

alsoknownasDean

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #36 on: July 21, 2016, 08:33:13 PM »
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


marty998

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #37 on: July 22, 2016, 06:08:22 AM »
Too late, just recharged :(

Remind me next June...

stashgrower

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #38 on: July 22, 2016, 11:06:01 PM »
Great thread!

2016: 12k (part-year extrapolated)
Add rent and utilities: <25 k

stripey

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #39 on: July 23, 2016, 01:59:50 AM »
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.

MsRichLife

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #40 on: July 25, 2016, 05:07:06 AM »
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 

happy

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #41 on: July 25, 2016, 06:06:54 AM »
Nice going MRL - the 42k includes childcare, so impressive.

nnls

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #42 on: July 26, 2016, 01:54:20 AM »
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


Julard

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #43 on: July 26, 2016, 02:12:56 AM »
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.
« Last Edit: July 26, 2016, 02:31:26 AM by Julard »

Adram

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #44 on: July 26, 2016, 06:11:39 AM »
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.

kiwiozearlyretirement

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #45 on: July 26, 2016, 09:39:03 AM »
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.

Fresh Bread

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #46 on: July 26, 2016, 06:07:20 PM »

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!

givemesunshine

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #47 on: July 26, 2016, 07:18:04 PM »
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.



Ozstache

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #48 on: July 26, 2016, 08:20:47 PM »
Household:
3 adults, 2 dogs, house owned outright

Spending:(in pictures, no less!)

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" :)



Ozstache

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Re: What’s your (Australian) Financial Year spending?
« Reply #49 on: July 26, 2016, 08:49:31 PM »
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).