whats your biggest expense?

[Baby_nurse]

Alimony = $48,000/year
Rent = $36,000/year

Ouch. I guess it would have been cheaper to keep her.

[shaggy]

Alimony = $48,000/year
Rent = $36,000/year

[elessar78]

Mortgage at about 12k annually, followed by daycare at 11k annually. It stinks because those are pretty fixed costs.

[need2save]

Mine is therapy (mental illness) which runs $600/month, but my paycheck is just a little over $700/month from on of my jobs and my other job my paycheck is usually around $320/month.

[optimist]

Savings at 21%, then income taxes at 16%, then mortgage + utilities at 15%, then child-related expenses at 7%, insurance at 5%, and only then food at 4%. We're very skinny!

[LivingAlmostLarge]

income taxes then housing

[muexm]

Food right now. I have a 9 month old who is allergic to cows milk protien and the Similac hyperllergic baby formula is killing us right at $30 a can. I get coupons from the Similac website and I buy the baby formula from amazon in bulk. But daughter goes through about 2 cans a week which comes out to about $250.00 per month.

[bigdaddybus]

Currently putting away 15% in retirement savings and housing costs are 15.2%, so unfortunatly housing wins as my biggest expense.

If I can include college savings and general savings then my biggest expense is savings. So I am going o look at it that way

[swapnil]

Food by far for me too, it consumes more than half of my income here in India.

[amarowsky]

Probably savings . I think I put away about 650 a month on average (not including 401k) . housing on its own is 640 a month . utilities plus phone is like 300. Food is probably 450 ish , but if you throw in going out too entertainment/bars/boozing with friends + girlfriends bar tabs then it probably eclipses my savings probably grand total of 750 ish .

[GenWhyJ]

I'm 21 & live with my mum but I split every bill 50/50 with her & pay board.

Food is extremely expensive for me as I have coeliac disease (anything with gluten - wheat, rye, oats, barely or malt) the food is three times more expensive than your ordinary options. Food, for me.

Before I was diagnosed I was spending about $60 a week on groceries, now it's up to $130 a week. They say Australia's one of the most expensive countries and I believe this to be true.

[kaleida]

My biggest budget categories are (in this order):

1. Income taxes
2. Savings
3. Discretionary spending (travel/entertainment/shopping/etc)
4. Rent
5. Food

[LuckyRobin]

Medical is what's highest for us. And that's just our out of pocket expenses (over $10,000 last year). If you add in what is deducted from the paycheck as well, it's more than our housing, car payment, and food budget combined.

[bennkar]

For me retirement savings takes, by far, the biggest chunk of my money (~45%). Though honestly I don't consider it an expense. Ignoring that amount, my expenses in order are:

1) Income Taxes (Fed & state)
2) Housing (no mortgage since 2011 - but still have taxes, insurance & maintenance)
3) Car (owned free & clear - insurance, gas, maintenance)
4) Utilities (internet, phone, nat. gas, electricity, water, newspaper)
5) Food (Aldi's, grow own, & sales)
6) Health & Health insurance (though if I were to include the employer's part of the overall cost of the insurance it would jump up to #2 )
7) Vacation (yearly road trip to FL with girlfriend, other weekend trips)

That's it - my other expenses are so small to be negligable (hobbies & clothing come to mind)

[Baby_nurse]

Housing is our biggest expense right now. I'd love to be able to get out from under this mortgage and get rid of the house, but with this market, it just isn't an option right now.