Living Expenses

Wow I thought I spent quite but compared to some not much

pay bills adds to about 120 bucks a week

gym and kickboxing membership about 40 bucks a week

food is about 50 bucks a week

misc is about another 100 bucks a week?

 

I like to break my expenses out into Mandatory and Non-Mandatory (Lifestyle expenses). I also calculate weekly which is for myself, wife, 2 dogs and a cat.

Mandatory:
Utility Bills/Rates - $30
Insurances - $65
All Car Costs - $320
Food - $250 (Wife also on a health kick and she always sneaks the dogs treats from Woolies!)
Mobile Phones - $45
Internet - $10
Public Transport - $20 (Mostly drive to work but still use it a couple of times per week)

Non-Mandatory (Lifestyle Expenses)
Foxtel/NetFlix - $20
Gym - $35
AFL Membership - $10
Spending - $350

There is definitely some fat that can be trimmed from our expenses but I think the offset of not enjoying our lives as we do is not worth it. I actually concentrate on reducing mandatory costs before i reduce lifestyle expenses as these are what make us happy.

 

Wow what a response!!!.
My wife and I have decided not to have kids but we usually go on two holidays a year.

 

Have you reviewed past expenses, say over a years period, and looked at your average monthly expense before? 2350 for 2 people seems extremely low to me.

 

we spent approx. $4500/m which include PPOR mortgage. 2 adults + 2 kids. not willing to intentionally reduce spending while kids are young, don't want them to miss out too much. the real saving (wealth) is in the equity of IPs. we let it compound. we don't often spend $4.50 for a coffee either.

 

ooh... i love my latte...

 

Can't start my morning without my mocha either

 

Moccona for me dark roast

 

Trying to be exotic are ya

 

I have never been a big spender only started once we paid our PPOR off

 

Have you included house/life/income or Health Insurance, gifts,donations, wife's transport costs, internet,rates,water,electricity,vet bills, dog rego,phone other than busines and travel?
If you have your running a tight ship.

 

I keep a spreadsheet so I know exactly "what it costs to be me". Cost of living is going to vary dramatically if there are children in the household, or if there are expensive hobbies. Often when clients are talking about their investing strategy the conversation starts out with the statement that they need $150k per annum in passive income to be able to retire . When I ask why that is so the explanation is always "because that's my salary". When you point out that presuming come retirement the mortgage is paid off, you don't need to pay commuting costs to your job, or buy suits and such to wear to the job, or expensive city lunches, when people sit down and really work out the cost of living they are pleasantly surprised it is wayyyyyyyy lower than $150k. It is on the back of this realisation that suddenly plotting towards having sufficient income in retirement becomes a viability.

 

Here is my breakdown. Try beating it:

1. Rent: 2300
2. Medical Insurance: Private (170) + corporate (90) + single parent (90) = 350
3. Phones: 160
4. Travel: approx. 400 (2 adults plus 1 kid)
5. Day care expenses: 950 will reduce as my son starts kindy today. Still after school plus school might come to be the same though not sure.
6. Gym for me 50 dollars a month
7. Swimming classes for my son: 70 a month
8. Electricity and gas: 100 per month
9. Grocery and outing 700 per month

Total 5200. Marginally more than my salary. Beat that.

Cheers

 

On average

Rent: $70/wk
Phone: $10/wk
Internet:$7.5/wk
Food:$100/wk
Insurances:$20/wk
Electricity and Gas: $12/wk
Physio: $30/wk

Total: ~$240/wk plus whatever else I **** away

 

I don't quite get this? Why three version?

 

Dunno.

But my credit card bill is between 15k and 35k per month. So something around that.

(We are about to embark on a formal cashflow analysis and subsequent budget this week).

 

Hmmm.
Household: Wife and I, 10 cats, 2 dogs
Works out when calculating ALL necessary (ish) costs (including two mortgages - one for a vacant block of land, one for our PPOR) to around $3600 a month. Most of that is mortgage repayments.

We don't go out very much and spend as little as possible... We try to keep everything else in the offset and savings for emergencies with our rescue animals. We often splurge on little things every now and again and we allow ourselves high-quality healthy food, but we do not take holidays overseas - most is going away for a couple of nights usually to Blue Mountains or something. We also only operate one car between us, we don't have a dishwasher or even a microwave, and we turn everything off by the power point to keep the bills down .

Costs also change drastically when one of the furchildren gets sick - we had a $3000 bill after emergency surgery a couple of years ago and just paid out about $1500 for one of the dogs after a bout of sickness. But that's why we scrimp on everything else - to ensure we can afford these expenses as they arise (and pet insurance is not possible on these animals. Rescues are often already in a bad state when you get them unfortunately).

 

my household per month is :2 ppl 1 dog 1 fish
insurances, electricty, rates, mobile, gas, owners corp : $600
Daily food & Fuel : $550-650
No rent or mortgage repayments per month

give or take $1100-$1300 for 2 per month.

 

Looking forward to the day when we have paid off our mortgages and our situation looks like this!

 

How??
My $2500 spending has not include mortgage