Ideal post-tax budget percentages

[Fizgig]

I'm curious about how people's budgets break down by percentage.

I found a calculator online that recommends the following:

Housing 25-35%
Utilities 5-10%
Food 5-10%
Transportation 10-15%
Clothing 2-7%
Healthcare 5-10%
Personal/Leisure 10-20%
Debt 5-10%
Long term savings 5-10%

My actual spending works out like this

Housing 28% (includes home improvement/maintenance expenses)
Utilities 8%
Food 10%
Transportation 11%
Clothing 4%
Healthcare 1%
Personal/Leisure 15%
Debt 1% (car loan is under transportation - this is my student loan)
Long term savings 20%

The amount I spend on food is pretty absurd, since it's just me and I'm not feeding a family or anything. Still, I like to eat well and since I save plenty of money, I've given myself permission to splurge on great food and drink.

[disneysteve]

I don't know my numbers offhand. As for those recommendations, I think housing should be under 28% and long term savings of 5% would be way too low. That should be a minimum of 10% and preferably higher.

[disneysteve]

In her book "All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan", Elizabeth Warren suggests the following broad breakdown:

50% for "Must Haves" which are:

A place to live, utilities, medical care, insurance, transportation, and minimum payments on your "can't escape legal obligations". Interesting that they don't include clothing in "must haves"...they say that you likely already have a closet full of clothes.

20% for savings:

30% for wants:

They use savings or at least a portion of it to pay down your consumer debt (over minimum payments).

The problem many people run into is either they are over 50% for needs (buying too much house or too costly a car, for example) or they are over 30% for wants. What typically suffers then is savings.