I don’t have a budget. I have been living within my means for my entire life, so I’ve never needed a budget. I know I was spending less than $23k a year when I was your age because I was interested in retiring. I could load down my bank accounts for the previous five years to see what I had been spending, and arrived at that figure as the most I had spent in a year during that time. Funnily, that year included fixing my roof.
Yes, I’m older than you, but my income comes from two sources. One is fixed at less than $25k a year, and I live off it for all my usual expenses. I use the other income source is drawn on when I travel or want to do something else, but I don’t count that money as part of my usual funds.
I also disagree with you about older people needing less. My expenses have remained the same for the past 20 years. Sure, you do start needing less when you can’t walk very far and have become frail and elderly, but that’s a long time away! For these reasons, in the past 5 years, my elderly mother has reduced her expenses, but she’s now in her 90s. Before that, because they were losing mobility, my parents were going on cruises, so they were enjoying luxuries - especially as we live in Australia, and my parents enjoyed cruises in Europe and elsewhere. Any travel from here is much more expensive than you’d expect. And our standard of living expenses are also higher.
You seem to be saying that someone who’s 55 has less expenses than a 41 year old, and I certainly wouldn’t agree with that! Most 50+ year olds who retire seem to want to do everything they’ve missed out on in life, and live the high life! However, as I enjoy camping in a tent, and walking in remote places, my expenses don’t reflect that lifestyle inflation either.