Personally, I wouldn't include the savings portion because in an emergency situation, I wouldn't expect to be adding to savings. I also wouldn't include any extra that is currently being paid to debts. When I was out of work, I stopped all the auto-investing plans and stopped the extra student loan payments.
As for discretionary items, the answer is it depends. You need to calculate what your actual expenses would be and what things you would be willing and able to cut out if necessary. For example, a cell phone is a luxury but if you are locked into a contract for your service, you might need to continue to pay that bill even if something happened to your income, in which case you need to include that in your EF planning. And would you truly be willing to give up all eating out or would you still want to do some of that to maintain your sanity and some measure of enjoyment of life.
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Steve
* Despite the high cost of living, it remains very popular.
* Why should I pay for my daughter's education when she already knows everything?
* There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going.
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