I was reading this book, "Miserly Mom's" and it gave some guidelines as to how much we should be spending in different categories. Let's see how you do:

38% Housing (rent/mortgage, utilities, phone, household needs)
12% Food
15% Cars (maintenance, payments)
5% Debts
5% Insurance (life & homeowners)
5% Medical/Dental
5% Entertainment (includes cable)
5% Clothing
5% Savings
5% Miscellaneous

I know that I spend too much on clothing. It is something I have to work on but, I put a lot more away on savings and paying off debt. What about you?

Right now here is how it goes:
Rent: 35%
Food: 8%
Car: 4% (I figured 100$/month maintenance, gas (paid off))
Debts: 12.5% (student loan)
Insurance: 6% (car/ home)
Medical/Dental: 6%
Entertainment: 2% (don't pay for cable~ 50$ approx for entertainment)
Clothing: 0 (Ihaven't bought new clothes for months)
Savings: 14.5% (wow, I am doing good here!)
Miscellaneous: 6%

That sounds about right for me too.

Interesting. For us here is our breakdown as of today:

- Rent 15% (we have no mortgage so this is heat & hydro, taxes and upkeep)
- Food 15% (for a family of 5 & 1 cat)
- Vehicle 20% (we have a brand new van)
- Debt 0%
- Inurance 5% (this is house and van)
- Medical 5% (we only have to pay for medicine)
- Entertainment 1%
- Clothing 5% (could be lower even because I purchase mostly used clothing - this is for family of 5)
- Savings 15%
- Misc 20% (10% tithe and 10% misc which includes gas in vehicle)

There are a couple of areas I'm working at though for bringing down the percentages and that is heat & electricity and the vehicle. I want to up our savings percentage to 20% over the coming year if I can.