whats your biggest expense?

[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)

[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.

[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

[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.

[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 .

[swapnil]

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

[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

[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.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

income taxes then housing

[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!

[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.

[elessar78]

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

[shaggy]

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

[Baby_nurse]

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

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

[bennkar]

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

In another thread shaggy refers to a husband.