What's your MONTHLY Expense?

**Start-Living** · 08-03-2006, 10:36 AM

Hi everyone...
After going through our bills....months after months....
I'm wondering....(Where are we, compare to everyone else?)

(What I meant is, how much does our monthly expense COMPARES to everyone elses)

This includes: Mortgage, rent, utilities, food, gas,loans, credit card payments, etc.... (The amount that you spend every month to be able to live the way you do now)

We spend around: $3,000 to $3,500 a month (depending on the weather & the Economy & how much "WANTS" we spend$$$ on)

Our Monthly Expense not including GASOLINE, EATING-OUT, GROCERY, BUYING JUNK, is around $2,700

(Hopefully, someday we will be able to pay off a lot of the debt, so this amount will be much lower)

**danni** · 08-03-2006, 10:50 AM

We spend about $2500/ mth. That is mortgage, utilities, loans, insurance, RRSP's, RESP's, clothing allowance, and food.

**rachelj** · 08-03-2006, 11:00 AM

In Financial Peace, Dave Ramsey gives %%s that you should live within. Of course when you add yours up it should equal 100%. So like Housing should be 25-35% of your monthly takehome.

Charitable Gifts 10-15%
Saving 5-10%
Housing 25-35% includes mortgage, insurance, taxes maintenance
Utilities 5-10%
Food 5-15%
Transportation 10-15% (includes car payment and gas and maintenance)
Clothing 2-7%
Medical/Health 5-10%
Personal 5-10%
Recreation 5-10%
Debts 5-10%

Do you stay within the percentages?

Does this help?

**bee9984** · 08-03-2006, 11:34 AM

Our mortgage/taxes,hydro,phone,cable/internet,life insurance,medical/dental insurance, house/car insurance,van gas,food,house alarm,monthly bank fees ($15 a month for our plan) plus we smoke........the total for this is $2148 a month.

Any money left over each month we pay whatever is required eg: soccer/sports,school fees,wood,clothes etc in full when due and we try to save the rest and put money into our RRSP.

**JustJoy** · 08-03-2006, 11:40 AM

Right around $3200. That includes everything.... well everything I can think of anyway.

**Jerseygirl** · 08-03-2006, 01:01 PM

$2,500 covers mortgage, taxes, home ins, ins on 3 cars, all house utilities,2 cel phones, dial up internet, cable tv
gas for us varies because of our commutes and which cars we choose to use, average is currently $175 per month, tolls for dh commute is around $100 per month. Grocery averaging $250 per month lately including diapers/ formula and all household. If we had to we could maintain everything bare bones at $2,900 per month, to continue to live nicely we need closer to $4,000.

**Daisygirl** · 08-03-2006, 02:04 PM

Bare minimum without childcare I spend about $2400 a month. With childcare that will increase by around $400-500.

**kabin63** · 08-03-2006, 02:46 PM

about $1,500.00 here. That's just the expenses part.

**slowtypinwoman** · 08-03-2006, 03:01 PM

about $2400 for a family of 3 including all the pets

**pammy** · 08-03-2006, 03:27 PM

We spend about $1950 a month for mortgage, insurances, food, gas, utilities, student loan and blow money.

**Nantahala** · 08-03-2006, 04:07 PM

This is our August budget; we follow Dave Ramsey's plan and we just finished BS1 on 7/31, a month ahead of schedule.

Total Income $2,019.00

Expenses
Baby Emergency Fund $800.00
Housing - Mortgage/Rent $450.00
Electric $44.00
Gas $22.00
Phone $60.00
Internet $46.00
Groceries & Household $40.00
Capital One $15.00 + snowball
HSBC $15.00
VW Credit (Jetta) $0.00 (paid til October)
Auto Gas $100.00
Cats $25.00
Clothes $5.00
Haircuts $0.00
Gifts - Birthdays and Holidays $0.00
Social and Entertainment $0.00
Perscriptions $45.00
Miscellaneous (post office, etc.) $10.00
Blow money $40.00

Total Expenses $1,717.00

Expected surplus: $302.00

**ktboop1** · 08-03-2006, 04:50 PM

Mine is about $2800. This includes
mortgage
tax and insurance (annual amt /12)
grocery and household supplies
pet supplies
phone and cell phone
cable and internet
water/electric
heating oil (annual amt. divided by 12)
gas for the cars

This does not include entertainment money, eating out, clothes, and expenses that occur periodically such as oil changes, tag renewals, pet immunizations, copays etc.

If I factored an average for all of that in, I would say 3000 dollars or so a month.

**Droppedonmyhead** · 08-03-2006, 06:28 PM

It costs me approximately $920 to run my household. This is rent and all utilities. I am doing a grocery challenge for $150 this month. My monthly car payment plus insurance is $490. My credit payments are $180 a month. I make between $2000 - $2500 a month (higher amount is if I work overtime). Anything left over is for savings.

**baxjul** · 08-03-2006, 06:45 PM

Ours is roughly around $1500.00, this includes rent, cable, electric, cell phones (3of them), and new truck payment. We don't have a house phone, or credit cards!

**Michelle68** · 08-03-2006, 08:30 PM

I'll do this as Simpleselu did because it's so well organized. Our August budget looks like this:

Total Income (Take home with taxes, insurance taken out, but includes my mileage check & DH's tips):$3500

Expenses:

Mortgage (with $100 extra paid on principle): $810
Emergency fund: $750
Extra savings (For school clothes, recreation, gifts,etc.): $180
Savings for repairs: $40
Cell Phones: $95
Medical account (Prescriptions/co-pays)- $95
Cable: $59
Newspaper: $17
Water: $75
Electric: $225
Phone/internet (bundled): $68
Life insurance: $14
Car insurance (covers DH, DD and I): $170
Groceries: $400
Gas: $400 (Remember, I'm a home health nurse and DH delivers pizzas part-time)

Total expenses: $3398

--Michelle