Here is a breakdown of my expenses for August.
|
Household |
$584.29 |
| Entertainment |
$65.75 |
|
Transportation |
$379.75 |
|
Food |
$361.35 |
| Cable/Internet |
$93.77 |
| Phone |
$112.50 |
| Electric |
$81.36 |
| Medical/Dental |
$178.30 |
|
Total |
$1857.07 |
My goal for August was to get our expenses under $2000 and we met that goal. My stretch goal was to get our expenses under $1750 and we would have made that if not for a car repair. Our car has over 200,000 miles so spending money on repairs/maintenance is an expectation rather than a surprise at this point. My goal for September will again be $2000 since we might do some traveling. If we end up not traveling then the goal will be $1750.
Our entertainment bill will be higher in September due to a planned birthday and the possible traveling. The cable and phone bill will be about the same; I’d like to reduce both of those bills but that won’t happen this month.
All other bills should be lower. We had to buy some miscellaneous household stuff in August and shouldn’t have to this month making the household expense smaller. Transportation was still higher than I would like with over $200 spent on gas and $179 to replace the spark plugs and spark plug wires. Transportation expense should be smaller this month unless another repair pops up or we do some traveling. My goal for our food expense is $300 a month and we went quite a bit over that this month. Our pantry is well stocked now so we should be able to spend less on food this month. There shouldn’t be any doctor’s visits this month so the medical expense will go down as well.
Our expenses are fairly low but being a tight-fisted miser I think there is still quite a bit of room for improvement.
Good job! I just went through a whole bunch of car repairs too. My wife’s car had a leak and my car needed spark plugs, fuel injector seal, and some smog work. I need my cars to be reliable, but I hate that it all came at once.
Thanks, we’ve had pretty good luck with the car so far.
Looks good…. but where’s the rent/mortgage? Isn’t it fun to beat your goal?
Rent is included in the household expense. I do like beating my goal.
Good going beating your goal! Be careful that you don’t cut so deep that you cut all the fun out too, though. 🙂
This amount includes plenty of fun. I currently spend too much time on leisure activities and need to cut back. That probably won’t happen until after football season though. 🙂
I used to do this, and probably should again — maybe with the goal of getting non-mortgage expenditures under some yet-to-be-determined amount. (Since we’re working on paying off our mortgage, the goal is for our mortgage expenditures to be as high as possible.)
Keeping track of your expenses could help you meet your goal.
Great job on beating your budget goal. I hear you about the car repairs – we keep our cars ’till the wheels fall off….
Our car has over 200,000 miles and we need to drive it a lot for work. We’re hoping it will last until at least next year without needing major repairs.
$206 a month on communications???
We spend only slightly more than you do to feed a family of four.
You don’t seem to be nearly as tight fisted as you used to be.
I guess you are adding the phone and cable/internet bill together to get the $206 figure. There is lots of room for improvement there. My wife has an iPhone with a contract which makes up most of the phone cost and can’t be changed for now. I doubt she’ll want to change it even after the contract ends so the phone cost will be high for a while. We will be cutting back on the cable later but the internet is needed for us to earn a living.
You are correct that I’m not as tight-fisted as I used to be. Now that I’m married I don’t think I’ll ever be as tight-fisted as I used to be but expenses will be getting closer to their former low level in the next few months.
Well done. Few families can live on less than $2,000 today. Naturally that depends on family size but $1857 is pretty darn good.
Thanks.
Andy,
Hats off to you for living within your budget! We are a family of six and that amount is only a dream because we have all boys, three of them teenagers that eat all our food! I have reached the point that I want to scale down and live a simpler life, which means becoming more frugal, living in a smaller town, etc. I’ve definitely found so much inspiration from your blog and the other PF blogs, keep the advice coming.
I’m glad to hear that my advice has been helpful to you.
Congrats on beating your own goal. Expenses under $2000 is pretty good.
Making room for improvement is a good thing, however cutting back on food, cable, entertainment and so on can also make your life not as enjoyable. I am not saying that you have to go and spend money to be happy, but anyone can cut back and live on beans, bread and water, live in a one room house, two with kids, and walk to work, ride a bike, and read a paper.
We live in a society that there are addictions, and from bad to good everyone spends on theirs.
My husband and I are lucky to be able to be self employed, and if we want to go out for dinner we can, but we always look for the best deal we can get.
Living on $2000.00 or less a month with kids, (doesn’t matter if they are at home or not, you will have your children for life, and grandchildren) is excellent.
I am very happy, comfortable and appreciate all that my husband does to make sure our goals are met.
Thank you.
Congrats on staying in budget.
I’m curious if you average out your not-monthly bills – like once a year house insurance, or personal property taxes?
Our phone, TV and internet bill is high – but much less than yours – so I guess that makes me feel somewhat ok. However, we only have a landline so that is probably the main diff.
I don’t average out the bills. We live in an apartment and therefore don’t have house insurance. We only have one car and the personal property taxes on that are not much. They were well under $100 last year.