What does your budget look like???

[Great to be Debt Free]

Okay, here goes: 2 Adults now living in 2 different places Dh is now in hotel, but soon apartment., but his expenses will be less than the daily stipend, so we aren't budgeting them as of yet (he just moves in this weekend) but will come out of stipend money and the rest goes to savings.
Our budget is based on 2 paycheck months on regular take home pay, no overtime (that all goes to savings) and the 2 extra paychecks fund the gift budget and travel budget for the year

Take home -- biweekly 2200
Mtg: 1200
HOA: 37
Elec/Gas: 180
Cable and internet: 36
phone (mobile plan for 2 phones, no landline): 95
water/sewer: 20
Grocery: 225
Dining out: 50
Home repair: 150
Clothing: 40 each
Dental: 400 (last month is the end of dental work for the year, tehn this rolls to our maintenance fees on timeshare prop.s)
Chiropractic: 125
meds/vits: 20 (will have to go up once I have new Rx)
car maint/repair/tires: 200
gas: 125
gym: 118
charity: 440
hair care: 36
toiletries/household cleaners: 20
cosmetics: 10
incentive money (mad money): 200
education: 50
insurance: 250
entertainment: 50
misc: 100
Blow money: 100
car savings: 150
All overtime and extra money from bonuses, etc goes to savings, plus 401 K investments. all told, last month we socked away about $4000 for saving and investing.

[Dido]

Here's mine for one person, 1 dog, 2 cats
Income about 3000 from full-time job at the moment; I also have a temporary part-time job that goes towards paying off debt and increasing savings

Mortgage & Escrow 725
Utilities 300 (half is gas for heating)
Other Household 125 (repairs, supplies, furniture, small appliances)
Transportation 225 (gasoline, service, insurance, tags, tolls)
Food 350 (big category I need to cut)
Medical 175 (95 towards insurance at work + glasses, co-pays)
Pets 125 (I just upped this after yesterday's $$ vet visit)
Personal (clothing, gym etc) 85
Education 100 (I take 2-3 college classes/year)
Business 50
Entertainment 25
Charity 65
Gifts 30
Savings 600 (or goes towards credit card payoff when I have one; usually I keep the CCs at zero)

[Kris10Leigh]

I'll play.
2 adults, 2 kids, one 6 1/2 lb dog (expense is barely worth mentioning)
ALL of our bills are paid from "my" money, so I don't budget it. The account just takes care of itself.

Here is what we DO budget and it's simple:
Food: 400
Gas: 200
Freedom account: 600 (Christmas, birthdays, amusement park, childcare, lawncare, school expenses, car renewal, professional organization dues and renewal, Dr visits)
debt reduction: 400 (This is in addition to DH's part time job. The enitre part time check goes to debt as well.)

Pretty simple

[Diolla]

Tithe-194
Mortgage-166
Life Ins-42
Utilities-244 (inc, elec, gas, water, cable & internet)
Child-220 (includes allowance, bus pass, lunches, tutoring)
Spending Money-60 (me)
Clothes-20
Food-200
Gasoline-80 (this goes down when I am not in school)
Gifts-30 (including Christmas)
Household-20 (all those misc things like light bulbs, batteries etc)
Maintenance & Repair-20 (car and house)
Medical-30
Pets-20 (1 dog, 2 cats)
Phone-20
Vacations-20
Emergency Fund-500 (this is my focus right now, debts are paid except mort)
Insurance-30 (car and homeowners paid yearly)
Taxes-38 (property tax)

Take Home pay $1934
Supporting 1 adult and one teenager
(I also get $400 a month in Child Support but it is all going to re-fund my son's college fund which got raided for necessities before budget)

If anything comes in under budget I transfer it to a miscellaneous category to help smooth out unexpected expenses. Currently this buffer is $58.

[ummabdullah]

take home pay $5,700 or £3,200

$ 540 or £300 for groceries, formula(1 baby), milk, diapers (2 kids), neccesities for the house like bleach, mops.. ectr.. whatever pops up.

$450 or £250 for petrol/gas for hubbies work ( i don't drive)

$135 or £75 a month for electricity and gas ( I have a leak in my boiler cost $2,520/£1,400 new one)

$ 36 or £20 for water (fixed rate)

$54 or £30 for my phone/internet
$18 or £10 for tv license (the law to have a tv in uk)

$756 or £420 for my husband medical fees (to practice medicine) I didn't include this in his take home pay
$72 or £40 for insurance
$200 or £120 a month for bits and bobs that we missed..
$180 or £100 to my husbands mother (we don't owe her.. accept that she gave me a wonderful husband and for that I am grateful)
$180 or £100 for any food my husband mothers would like to buy...
$180 for clothes


Total expenditures without a mortgage or car payment is $2,881 or £1,600 a month

£1,600-420= 1,180 a month expenditure.. £200 we give my mother in law..
$2881-756=2125 spending a month in dollars.. $360 we give my mother in law

we save a total of $3575 a month or almost 2,000. However quite a significant amout of this is eaten up by yearly expenses.. such as a new car, or repairing any household items, yearly medical fees ectr ectr...
I would say we prob. save about £1,200 / $ 2,160 to put in our savings for retirement at the moment.. with a mortage that savings will be eaten up.

[sakigt]

Just me an my 2 cats

Taken out of paycheck: Healthcare and 401k

Paid Biweekly
$800 - Mortgage
$800 - All bills + debt

Anything over $800 goes to extra debt

I also get $500~ a month from my roomate. This covers:

$50 vacation fund
$160 in gas (a week)
Plus everything else, like clothes and food

[LuxLiving]

okie-dokie this is me myself and I (not my family budget) for September:

Tithe 12%
Emergency Fund 13.4% (family's is already fully funded w/years salary, but I didn't have a personal one so this is priority one for me.)
Roth IRA 8.7% (this is smaller this year because The Hubster put a big chunk in for me earlier in the year)
Long Term Savings 1.9% (investment seed money-waits for proper invst. vehichle)
Short Term Savings .6% (projects-like now I'm saving for a new bathroom window - The Hubster could care less about replacing it, but it's important to me so I save for it out of my bit o'income.)
Certificates of Deposit 5.0%
Savings Bonds 8.4% (this will not be in Oct budget unless rates go back up! will have to figure somewhere else to invest this portion.)
Truck Replacement Fund 4.0% (this is for vehicle after next which is already covered)
Vacation 1.5%
Florida Taxes .2% (this is for 2008 taxes since 2007 is already in a CD - for timeshare)
Gifts .8%
Misc. 6.3% (too much but trying to round it up to a nice 250.00 buffer - yeah I know I have an emergency fund myself and the family has one, but still SAFETY conscious-I pretty much refuse to spend out of this, but it's here IF we ever need it. A relatively new category for me.)
Inventory 12.8% (this should be more but for now is small because of all I'm selling from FIL's estate and I have enough in my basement to keep selling til mid '07!)
Household/PaperGoods 6.7% (needed to refill alot of gaps this month normally abt 2.0%)
Subscriptions/Dues 0.1%
Entertainment 0.2%
Books 0.2%
Postage 0.3%
Spending/Blow Money 1.2%
Retirement 11.5%
Kitty (Checking Acct Buffer) 0.5%
Gasoline 3.7% (low because I hitch my errands to runs in the boys cars)

Clarity - family budget also contributes to the entertainment, postage, vacation, gift and Florida taxes above what you see here. Family budget also pays it's tithe separately. Groceries and other housing, utilities, insurance etc. is in the separate family budget.

[humandraydel]

Monthly budget for 1 25 year old male (groceries for 2)


Rent (gas, elec, water included).......500
Car............................................... .....240
Car Insurance...................................160
Gas............................................... ....100
Student Loan....................................470
Groceries......................................... .300
Misc.............................................. ......30
Roth.............................................. ....300
Long Term Savings............................200
Short Term Savings...........................100
Entertainment/Extra..........................300

Total Expenses.................................2700
Total Net Income..............................2700

401k (including match).....................580

Student loan debt takes a pretty big bite, as does the car expenses. I've learned my lesson on new cars, that's for sure!

[pearlieq]

Originally Posted by humandraydel

Monthly budget for 1 25 year old male (groceries for 2)

You're setting yourself up for a nice future. Good for you!

And, of course, WELCOME!!!

[greedy4chips]

Income $7000 + or - $100 depending on wife's OT.
Savings $2500
Expenses $4500 or less and left over amount is left in checking

Unfortunately, we gave up the budget when we were basically debt free besides the house. We just don't worry anymore about money. We actually seem to have too much of it now.

I am not bragging, but we went thru the very tough times and all the arguements over simply buying soda for work. I decided coffee was cheaper and did the same for keeping me alert at work. We sacrificed for almost 3 years to get to where we are now and we actually feel free! I cannot wait until the house is paid for in 10 years!!!

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by greedy4chips

Unfortunately, we gave up the budget when we were basically debt free besides the house. We just don't worry anymore about money. We actually seem to have too much of it now.

Isn't that a great feeling? And I don't think it is unfortunate at all. You've accomplished that situation where you've ingrained your spending habits so you don't have to write down every penny. So you haven't really abandoned the budget. It's just become automatic behavior for you.

That's exactly how we are. As I said earlier, we don't budget our spending - only our savings. I can tell you exactly how much goes into savings each month and where it goes. But I don't have a clue what we spend on groceries or gas or dining out. It just isn't important because I know inherently that we aren't spending more than we have.

[lisasayzhi]

Trying to work out a budget...

Rent(water included) - $221.50 (my half)
Power - $25 (my half)
Internet - $10 (my half)
Gas - $85
Insurance - $70
Food - $75
CC Payments - $65
Total: $551.50

Hmm... Unfortunately, my income is only about $500 a month, which isn't much I know... but I can't work more than I'm working because of school. I don't know where to cut expenses here. I guess I can try to get my food cost down even more... and gas is high, but that's because I live 30 minutes from school, but rent prices are double near campus compared to here, so I don't want to move closer. I guess I can try to get power even lower? I'll do my best. Any other suggestions?

[LuxLiving]

Yes, lisasayzhi it does look tight w/no room for errors. Is the 65.00 to credit cards your minimum payment?

Can you get a paying gas rider to commute w/you to school for say 60.00 a month? That would at least put you under budget on your end. AND, I'd also try to cut the food budget only a smidgen to maybe 70.00. That's really tight though even for the most frugal amongst us you'd have to be doing some serious meal planning to be sure that you're getting the proper nutrients. Does your school have a counselor that might help you with financial counseling and/or some kind of aid?

Can you get a different job that has the same hours but with more pay??

Time and mindset to possibly sell some plasma?

[meaghanchan]

lisasayzhi- that is a very tight budget. I agree with Luxliving about the carpooling. Is a bus or other public transit an option at all in your area?

The other option would be to try to pick up just a couple more hours of work a week- especially something like tutoring or babysitting, where your hours might be a bit more flexible (you could probably take a week off if you had finals or something coming up) or something that would let you study during the time you're working (I know people who worked at desk security positions who were able to study during their whole shift- not necessarily an option for you, but you might find something else that fits the description). Even $60 a month- less than $20 a week- makes a HUGE difference for you, and that could be accomplished with just 4 hours extra of work a week, and that's at minimum wage.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by lisasayzhi

Total: $551.50

Unfortunately, my income is only about $500 a month

Are you getting any financial aid? Do you qualify for any more than you currently receive?

Obviously, you can't go on living on deficit spending. You already have credit card debt and don't want to get in any deeper with those. Without knowing anything else, I'd suggest taking additional student loans. I don't think I had any friends in college who were totally supporting themselves without financial aid (whether it was loans, grants, work-study or parental contribution or usually some combination of all of those).

[LuxLiving]

Hey lisasayzhi - try this budget grocery site:

http://www.justpeace.org/better.htm

[boefixepa]

Lisa,

Can you work on campus and make better money? I know I did custodial as the ungodly hours of 4-8 AM. But is was $8-10 an hour and it was on campus so I didn't have to drive more and it allowed great flexibility with my class schedule. Look at TA positions I know some of them make killer hourly rates! Also, I know you don't like debt, but a little more student loans to make up the difference is also a possibility. Better than driving yourself crazy or dropping out, or working more and letting grades suffer.

Another good food site is hillbillyhousewife.com Using her methods and freezing portion sizes I've consistently been able to stay under $50 a month for just me, but you'll have to pack lunches.

GOOD LUCK, keep up the battle, you'll make it!

[lisasayzhi]

Actually, I just realized I forgot to add my cellphone bill (we have no landline phone though). That's about $45 a month (and that's the minimum it can be because I dropped my insurance on the phone which was $5 more a month). That makes my total monthly expenses $596.50.

I can't pick up more hours at work, because it took a lot of work to get my hours down to where they are now (I was having little to no time to get hw done or study and I'm in high level major courses now, so they require a lot of time outside of class). My job pays $7.20 an hour, and $8.20 an hour on Sundays, and I get to work every Sunday, usually 9 hours too. We have to clock out for lunch, so I usually take the minimum lunch break (30 mins... 1 hour is the max) and I get to work 15 mins early (the max we can) and try to stay as late as they'll let me. Also, the good thing about my job is it's at Wal-Mart so I get a 10% discount, and though it's not on most food, it does apply to produce now and toilet paper and shampoo and things like that, so it's really beneficial to us. Plus, there isn't any Aldi's or anything like that close by. I live in a VERY small town, and the good thing about not working at school is that I live 0.49 miles from work, so I don't use gas like I would driving 30 minutes to work on campus.

I defintely have been packing lunches. I take my lunch to school, and take my dinner and snacks to work too. As someone mentioned about the plasma thing... I would totally do that, but I always get woozy when getting shots or blood drawn, I don't know if it's the adrenaline spewing out insulin to burn off my sugar (i'm hypoglycemic) or what, but I've passed out a few times, so that's the only reason I'm a little scared to do that.

There is no public transportation from my small town to the city where campus is. Also, there aren't any people going to the University I go to that live in my town. Most people move away when they graduate high school or just don't go to college there. If they do, it's usually to the community college (which I can't go to b/c i'm in high level courses now... i.e. calculus 3, matrix theory, etc).

I get the maximum amount in student loans that I'm allowed. My parents refuse to get loans for me so there's nothing I can do about that. The $65 a month is the minimum on my cc's (there's 3 total.. a $20 payment, a $15 payment, and a $30 payment).

Hmm, when I decided to try a budget, I definitely didn't realize my income was less than my expenses. I think I can cut down on food more, and I can try to cut down on power more. Our a/c is set at 80 degrees, which is the max dh will let me set it at. We have window fans, but the windows in our apt are cheap and break easily, as our landlord informed us, so we haven't been able to utilize those. We don't have ceiling fans in the apt either. I'll just do my best to keep everything unplugged and not use the lights. I'm gonna go clean out the refridgerator coils today when I get home as well to help it run better. I will try to stretch food as long as possible, and the next time I buy food, I'll defintely utilize the websites you've mentioned to save more money.

I actually thought about babysitting on days when I'm not working so I could do my hw and study and watch kids at the same time. However, I don't know how to get started. I don't know anyone in town with kids, except our neighbors who are VERY tight on money and the mom stays home so I doubt they'd need me. I don't have any references though (i started hostessing at 14, never babysat, except my younger brother), so I'm afraid nobody would want to hire me. Any ideas on that? There is a high school across the street from my apt, so perhaps I could put up a flier about tutoring in math or something (that's my major).

Sorry for the long post, but I'm gonna do some crunching around the apt tonight to see what I can do. I can tryyyyy to get my gas bill down too. I always get it from the cheapest place around, I use one of those cheapgas sites to help me find low prices at stations near the apt or that I pass on the way to school. I do need to check the air in my tires (I heard that can affect gas mileage), but can anyone tell me how to find out what my air gauge should read (i have one of those manual readers that pops out the stick to tell you the air pressure). I have a 2001 4 door hyundai accent with about 49,500 miles on it, and the tires are in good condition. I also have to get the oil checked and such (my father in law used to be a mechanic, so he checks and changes all that stuff for me for free, i just buy the oil and whatnot). Anyways, I sincerely appreciate all the advice!

[PrincessPerky]

regarding AC, dunno where you live, but right now I could burn power getting it 80 all day, or I can leave the windows open all night and suffer thru 82ish, only in the afternoon, then it cools off and is downright cold at night. depends on your nighttime outdoor temp. Also if your roommate can't take the heat they should pay more of the bill......IMO anyway.

tutoring is an excellent idea, on babysitting, it can't hurt to offer, everybody has to start somewhere.

On gas, if you look at your schedule are there any trips you can cut out? any days you go to school for one class with a lousy teacher? if so try skipping once a month if it wont hurt your grade, some classes my husband aced he only showed up to turn in assignments. Or for next semester see if there are any online classes you can try (assuming it is too late this year?) Also any days you go in for one in the AM then home and then back for PM? if so, see if you can work inbetween..or at least stay on campus if you arn't already.

[PrincessPerky]

Oh yeah one last consideration..less college..maybe go part time (do some financial aid research to see what you can do without losing what you get)
and free up some hours to work..I would rather take longer than use CCs to cover it.....just IMO

also should you go that route, looking into a job in your field....even if it pays more it would help you learn..while you earn...I love how that rhymes