Poll: What are your monthly expenses?

[tomkat]

There are two in my household, myself and my husband. We live in Alabama. Our approximate monthly expenses:

Mortgage: $650 (We have a 80/15/5 mortgage. $581 conventional loan, approx. $62 on interest-only HELOC). However, we pay $920, to pay off the HELOC in 5 years. We have 3 more years to go. House payment also includes property taxes and insurance.

Power: Average $95. This month it was $131, but a couple of months ago it was in the $80 range. We allot $150 for it in our budget.

Phone: $50
Cable TV/Cable internet: $68.00

Water: $37.00
House Alarm: $20

Cell Phone: $69.99 ( about $77.00 after all of the taxes are factored in). We have the family plan through T-mobile.

Hubby credit card: Average $550.00. He pays in full at end of month.
My credit card: Average $700.00. I try to pay in full at end of month.
Included in these credit card totals are groceries, clothing, eating out/entertainment, dr/dentist visits, gas for all cars, car repairs, and misc expenses.

My credit card #2: $60. Interest rate is zero right now, and I plan to pay off in Feb 2006.
My big dentist bill: $50 (had a lot of work done on my mouth last year ) Interest rate is zero on this as well, plan to pay it off July 2006.

Contributions to church: $300
My car insurance: Approx $70 per month ( I pay every 3 months).
Hubby Car insurance: I really don't know. I figure about $100, since he has 2 cars.

Life insurance: mine, $70, Hubby's I'm not sure (he pays his yearly).

My "wallet cash": $100-$125. About the same for hubby.

All cars are paid for (yay!).

What's left goes into savings!

I know that it's impolite to talk about our salaries, but since we're posting in anonymity here, it would be nice to see the income of each household, just to figure the percentage of everybody's income is going towards monthly expenses. Just a thought.

[kittycat0604]

Total monthly expenses about 2100. We have 4 people, me, My DH, my 3 year old twin boys.
Mortgage: 1200 (include property tax)
Food: 350
Utility: 220 (electricity/water/gas)
Phone/cell/internet: 50
Gas: 100(and increasing!!!)
Charity: 100
Other: 50(clothes,Misc)

I have got enough free cleaning and beauty supplies stock up for me to use for at least a year(after couponing and rebating).

Hme and car insurance paid once a year with savings from pocket changes throughout the year.

[Russell]

Apt Rent $1700.00
Day Care $900.00
Car gas $80.00
Cars cost of ownership $80.00 (estimated repairs, maintenance, DMV etc)
Car Insurance $165.00
Cat Food etc $25.00
Gas Bill $35.00
Elec Bill $40.00
Utilities $30.00
Life Insurance $50.00 (both of us)
Cell ph $35.00
Land line + DSL $35.00
Netflix.com $25.00
Food (mainly lunch) $200.00
Groceries $150.00

We're a family of three, myself, wife and our 1yo daughter.

[niki_the_tiger]

We need to lower our monthly expenses, but this is what they are for now. (Some estimates are a bit high). I live with my husband, two cats, a shepherd husky mix and a purebred husky puppy. Oh and we own a duplex, where we pay for heat for our tenants. Yucky! This year is going to be hard!

Mortgage, insurance & property taxes: 775.00 (it's 748.00 but we put a bit extra each month, not much, but every little bit counts... i checked into it and even that extra $27 will cut down the mortgage by 4 years!)

Water & Sewer: $71.00 (grr this one makes me mad... we were told it would be 1/2 that when we bought the place a year ago)

Heat: $400.00 (budget plan, 10 months a year... OUCH - we just started this - winter is like 8 months a year here, and oil is at $2.33 a gallon and rising)

House repairs: $80.00 (like to budget this in, just in case... like this month the hot water tank in the apartment is dying, sigh)

Electricity: avg $80 (last month was over $100 - my hubby is now using the garage and has a bunch of power tools for his business)

Jeep Loan: $171.00

Online courses: $70.00

Life Insurance: $20.00

Credit cards: $200.00 minimum (always send more, one is my hubby's business card)

Phone & High speed internet: $105.00 (considered getting free internet access, but we both need the high speed for the amount of time we spend on the internet and the amount of pics we upload for our businesses)

Garbage: $43.00

Car Insurance: about $80 (two cars)

Gas: at least one tank a week @ $45.00 a tank (ouch... we have a Jeep that only gets 18mpg... hubby needs it for business, as soon as we can sell his car - anybody looking for a Ford Taurus SHO for $1000 OBO? - we will get a smaller more fuel efficient car) so let's say $225.00 to be safe - we live in the boonies... costs money to get anywhere

Food: $300 (we're working on cutting this down- but this also includes cleaning supplies, dog food, toilet paper, paper towel, etc etc... everything we pick up at the grocery store)

Restaurants: $150 (we're cutting this down too)

Pets: $75 (shots, registration, etc - sometimes more, sometimes less)

Total: $2845 - $600 from the rental unit= $2245

Definitely just barely at the limit as my hubby brings in about $2000 from his regular job (well between $1700-2000) and about $500 a month from his own business. Sigh.

[pennywise]

Here's my say:

Water: check toilets for leaks (put food color in tanks and see if comes in bowl or diappear. If in bowl toilet okay, if disappear tank needs replacing). Rentor may be running up bill too. Look for all drips and fix. Collect water in empty milk jugs when waiting for hot water to shower,etc and feed this water to animals and plants.

Heat: renotrs will use this commodity graciously. Put a lock on their thermostat that you can access only and set it at a reasonable temperature. Put plastic on the windows (painter drop cloths are sometimes cheaper than plastic for windows - remember specialty items are priced high so look for cheaper alternatives - be creative).

Smart to budget the house repairs with tenants.

Electric is high - analyze room to toom what is plugged in and drawing power. All those little clocks draw power, how many accurate clocks do you need. Put all items on power strips so you can easily shut the power off. Like I keep microwave unplugged until in use and only in use is it plugged in.

Can you cancel the garbage and take small loads to the grocery when you go. If you have alot of garbage why are you producing so much. The way I see it they packaged it they can have it back.

Don't eat out, period. It is cheaper to make it at home. And cold/flu season in coming? Why would you want to eat in a place where you cannot see the health of the people touching your food or knowing what has happened to your food. What values on cleanliness do these teens with low paying jobs put on the food you put in your mouth, yuck!!!!

Look up somehting like Dr. Foster or Forster, do a search on self-dog vaccinations. Dr. Foster, or whoever, has a catalogue where you buy the vaccines and self administer. This will save you a bundle on the vet bills. It is NOT hard to give injections.

Hope this helps. Let us know what you implement and find to cut. Thank you.

[becomingafinacialgrownup]

You know I have felt pretty beat up on the thread I started but I feel much better now.

MY budget takes care of the needs of myself,my hubby and 5 children,4 of whom are teenagers. I am feeling pretty good about myself

[niki_the_tiger]

Hi thanks for the advice pennywise.

Water: Our water is not metered, though I will still check for those things.

Heat: Hmm putting a lock on the thermostat is a great idea... though I would feel really bad going in there and doing it now that they're in there. :S

The electric is probably also high cuz we have used the a/c so much... plus all the power tools in the garage. I went through each room and unplugged things though... my hubby thinks it's ridiculous, but I told him every cent counts.

Garbage: I forgot to mention we pay ours and the tenants as well. I also get a deal cuz I use the company my dad works for, so it should actually be even higher. And when we have extras (from renovations etc) he usually doesn't charge us either, which is great - has saved us a lot of money!

I'll check into the self vaccination thing too... didn't realize there was that. When I first got my cat only two years ago the vets only required half the shots they now say we have to go for... which shots for animals are necessities? (cats and dogs?) The bad thing about adopting from a shelter is they require you to get all your pets uptodate... and uptodate is according to the vet grrr.

As for eating out, so far this week I ate out once because I met my parents for breakfast, and I ate as cheap as I could too. We used to eat out almost every day... sometimes more than once.

Thanks for the advice - any is appreciated!

[pennywise]

Good job on the electricity. I know, my spouse thought I was ridiculous too when I started doing this 10 years ago. Now he sees the assets and thinks WOW. Never thought he'd be worth anything. So, tell hubby: pennies add to dollars and I'm going after my pennies. Notice how a company will go after pennies, multiple pennies! It make perfect sense. Your spouse must get with you, or you can ask him if he would like to work one more job in addition to what he is doing now? Don't let your spouse or anyone else discourage you. And with your husbands comment don't show him the bank account until he fully understands it is his responsibility to provide for today and TOMORROW. For every morning sun does not last the day long (Ben Franklin). There is retirement and potential disability which will cause severe POVERTY if not planned for. Keep up the good work.

You are the landlord. Emotions have no business in financial decisions. If you do not put a lock on that heat you will be in the HOLE (red ink) on your finances. Put the heat at a reasonable 72 this year if you feel guilty and then 70 next year. That is what they make thermal underwear for. Do not feel guilty, hospitals and all kinds of places put the plastic boxes over the heat. Another thing to watch for, will they turn on the stove. Your best bet is to tell them you will pay X amount to the heat after that they pay, or put the heat bill in their name. This was something you should have thought of before you rented. You must do something about this. You cannot support another, you rented to help support yourself. OK, don't feel guilty, protect yourself.

[marglo]

We "take home" $4770 which is in 4 checks. There are just 2 of us. We spend every bit of it - we are not currently saving anything except for the non-monthly expenses we know will come up throughout the year and that is included here. We divide it up like this :

Housing
1st mortgage $483 (less than 2 years to go)
2nd mortgage $871 (about 3 years to go with current snowball)
home repairs/mt $20 (not enough but it helps)
Total: $1374

Other Bills
$1834 (this includes an RV loan $454 (abt 2 years to pay off), several credit cards and another smaller personal loan, plus utilities, organizational dues (due to our travel...RV and Condo fees, retiree memberships, gym fees etc.), utiltiites including cable TV, DSL, phones. While we could cut some of these things out..the only thing we are probably willing to cut out is $10 to Netflix. oh, and this also includes extra money going toward our debt snowball.

Household
$1562 - this includes our tithe to our church, and all the expenses in running a household, gas/oil, gifts etc. This amount also includes non-monthly expenses like car maintenance/repairs etc.


We have a smallish EF (more than $1000 but much less than I'd like). After we get our debts paid off we will start saving more.

[34saving]

niki - I've only been a landlord for about a year and a half now, but I do know you'll get a lot more flies with honey You might want to talk to your tenants about how "oil prices are going through the roof" and any help they can give in keeping the heating costs down would be appreciated. You could even offer to put in a programable thermostat. (Quite cheap to put in, and you could program it -- unless they're pretty determined, they probably won't reprogram it. ) When the lease term is up you can re-evaluate who pays for what.

[niki_the_tiger]

We've only been landlords for just over a year now. We're learning a lot real quick. Trust me, I do not like paying for their heat... I would rather lower their rent. In this area, we could get $575 and they pay their own heat and utilities... instead we charge them $600 and pay their heat...

But the oil tank is in our basement and heats both parts... is there any way to separate who uses what and get separate bills? I would LOVE to be able to do that!

Sigh, the furnace keeps going on... I think they've already started using heat... and it's just August... we still have our windows open. I mean it's a bit chilly... but just wear pants and a long sleeve shirt... you don't have to walk around in a tank top and shorts!

[Fern]

Russell, don't know where you live, but i suspect it's either the east
or west coast. Your rent is more than my mortgage and taxes combined!

[gakline]

Mortgage $760
Assessment $124 (includes water, sewage, garbage, and all exterior maintenance.
Payment to Parents $150 (for mortgage gift of 20%)
Student Loan $90
Train pass $16.50 ($105 is taken pre-tax )
Train parking $10
Gas Bill $30
Elec Bill $30
Internet $20

My cc run about $600-$700, but this includes groceries, gas, cell, satellite and anything else I can put on it.
Groceries $250
Car gas $60
Cell ph $46
Satellite $27

Other non-monthly expenses:
Home insurance: $180/ year
Car insurance $370/ 6 months
Real estate taxes $2850/ year

This is for my cat, my visiting bf, and myself.

[joeswife]

ok my bills are a bit diffrent than all yours. i live in a mobile home behind my parents house..i just bought the mobile home for 10000 in feb, i still owe 6000 on it..and its a 1990, 14x80 3bed2bath home. but on to my bills..

house payment 150.00
truck payment 150.00 ( i owe only 1800 left on my 98 bravada)
car/house ins 100.00
satalite 85.00
cellphones 100.00 ( i dotn have a regular phone at all)
credit cards 80.00
electric bill 150.00 ( thats an average...never more but sometimes less)


and as for money..i get 357 for my son for support a month, my daughters fathers (yes 2) are supposed to pay 200 a month each for them, but they are over 3000 behind. and i work 8 hours a week now at work, i just started. so i get about $100 extra every 2 weeks for that..the money i dont have for bills..i borrow from my mom..

there are 5 in my family, 3kids, myself and dh.

we live outside a little southern illiniois town. so i dont have to pay as much as alot of people. im lucky that way.

have a good day
ericka

[Russell]

Originally Posted by Fern

Russell, don't know where you live, but i suspect it's either the east
or west coast. Your rent is more than my mortgage and taxes combined!

You guessed it! Orange County, California Actually its a pretty nice area where we rent but even the not so nice areas around here are about $1400/mo.

New buyers paying house mortgages in our area range from $3500/mo to $4k/mo. The houses start at $700k here.

[36Rock]

I found this thread really interesting, could everyone include what part of the county they live in?

I'm in Texas, and everyone elses expenses look cheap to me, maybe I need to trim my budget ?

thanks!

[CJsoccerchic]

WOW - I live in Guam and my expenses are much different from you all from the states
Gas - 3.00 gallon - that's like $120 / month
Electricity (usually at minimal) $250/month
Cell Phone - $200/month
BASIC cable $55/month
128mb cable interent $37.month
RENT $1700 + $50 back up generator fee
insurance on car $1200/year - $100/month
food$400
and that's for my gas car and my cell phone and my food - my husband still has his cell phone and his food and his gas!!!

[shengmei]

I live in College Station, Texas. I am a graduate student in genetics.

Income per month: $1100 (from teaching three classes)

Rent: $395 (It is a VERY nice two bedroom apartment. I know it is expensive, but it is the only place that would accept my FIVE cats)

Tuition and fees : $300 (I am supposed to spend $100 per month on books, but I usually just study the notes extra-hard)

My Five Cats: $150 (they are all technically kittens. Once I get through the first round of shots, de-worming, and the spay/neuter, it would be A LOT cheaper. My vet told me that for FVRCP and Rabies you only have to do it once every three years).

Food: $150 (I expect this to decrease also. Lately I had been pulling a lot of "buy one meal get one free" coupons from the trash. It is impossible for me to think people throw those coupons away.)

Phone: free, my fiance pays an extra $10 a month because I am on his family plan.

I don't own a credit card

Electricity, Water, Sewage, and Garbage: $70

Internet :$30

Clothes and Furniture: I rely on other people's good will.

Grand total: $1100

I have ZERO debt and ZERO savings. I break even.

[niki_the_tiger]

Originally Posted by shengmei

I live in College Station, Texas. I am a graduate student in genetics.

Rent: $395 (It is a VERY nice two bedroom apartment. I know it is expensive, but it is the only place that would accept my FIVE cats)

What are typical rents in your area that make $395 expensive?

[36Rock]

I'm about an hour and a half from College Station. $395 is very cheap for a two bedroom nice apartment. My area is a 35,000 population city and the rent is more like 525-650 for 2 bedrooms.