Living Expenses

I have solar which gives me a $25 rebate per quarter? I am often working or at the gym or out and about so I don't use much electricity. I make a point of turning lights off when I exit rooms and switching my electrical goods off at the wall where they aren't in constant use. Most of my electricity bill is access charges. I actually use less electricity than what my solar generates. If it wasn't so expensive to go completely off the grid I would have by now.

And my grocery budget is $140/fortnight which includes buying cat food and litter etc. I am very boring because I HATE grocery shopping. I literally buy a lettuce, carrots, broccoli, onions and 2 meat options as my standard weekly purchase and buy personal and cleaning products as needed. If anything I come under budget with groceries. But I am not a big eater and I don't snack. I am a strict 2-3 meals per day type haha.

I did a comparable actual vs budget for 6 months... All those expenses listed were pretty on par...My only downfall when sticking to my budget is my ability to not spend on unnecessary entertainment, clothes and makeup haha - I am a total girl when it comes to those things!

 

EN710 -

Travel $2,587.25 <-- What's in this
Yeah the amount is for Jan - which we did some road trip interstate so it's higher than usual for travel.
Child/Dependent Expenses $1,735.00 <-- What's in this
Child care for my two kids - yeah very expensive
Home Maintenance $1,710.10 <-- What's in this
Qtrly Strata fee
Groceries $525.37 <-- CHEAP!
We travelled so that's probably why it's cheaper than usual (normally 800 to 1000)
Restaurants/Dining $372.95 <-- CHEAP!
yeah we don't dine out that much
Home Improvement $121.63 <-- What's in this? but cheap
two purchases from Bunnings
Clothing/Shoes $92.82

 

Hi JacM, yeah happy to share.

yeah travel was high because we travelled interstate - so that's kinda one off.

Home maintenance was for our quarterly strata fee - not cheap

Utilities was for our GAS + Electricity + Water

Cash spending is separated. I categorised the money for eating-out and cash spending separately.

 

I just went through my budget spreadsheet for the past 3 years and our living expenses are averaging about $5k a month.

 

I think it would be more useful if people posted average monthly spend for items, rather than for a specific month, as big periodic expenses and one offs can skew the information significantly.

 

Yikes. How is your utilities bill so high? I'd be looking long and hard in particular at the electricity bill. If it is due to excessive use of heating and cooling I'd be considering putting more insulation into the property.

 

303 on food? I agree lol

 

yeah we were blasting the air condition during the last 1-2 months with some of those hot & cold days. but these are quarterly bills as well so average around $100/month for each of the Gas, Water & Electricity.

I thought this was normal? No....

 

All,

Interesting to see what others spend.

My breakdown, its not accurate but close I would say
5000 per month (does not include mortgage repayments)
Broken as below
Child care: 1700 (per month for 1 kid)
Landline + internet: 90
Mobiles: 110
Groceries: 500
Medicines: 30
Eating out lunch: 150
Dinner take away: 120
Petrol: 180
Transport tickets: 280
Gas / Elec: 200
Council charges: 200 (broken into per month)
Insurance: 66
Car insurance: 150
Car rego: 130
Private health insurance: 200
Ambulance cover: 10
Charity: 20 (direct debit)
Misc: like gifts, fine dine, clothes, leisure: 500

All of the above does not include mortgage repayments, i am really surprised at how less people are spending. With above spend, unsure if I can cut out anything except, lunches and takeaways and at max re-negotiate on some insurances.

 

Rough week for me

Phone: $10. (unlimited calls n text with boost)
Petrol: $40
Food: $70
Takeout: $10 to $20
Other groceries: $15

Power bills vary from $60 to $280 a quarter (my share)

Rego: $600 a year
Car insurance: $250 a year


IP expenses for my place are all covered by the rent.

I am currently insanely busy with my two/three jobs.... So I have become accustomed toa very simple life!

Last holiday I had was three weeks in Thailand and Malaysia... Total cost was under 2k including flights ect.

Although by the end of the year I will own a horse.... so my weekly expenses will increase approx $60 to $80!

 

Consider getting solar.
My Mum got a place with too much solar, can run the AC 24/7 and still putting it back into the grid.

 

Yeah I saw the new Tesla batteries + solar installation for $13k!!

That's one hell of an investment

If it drops below $8k i will seriously consider it. Not just for the economics but for the environment and also not get ripped off by our power companies

 

The technology is moving pretty quick.
There's an Australian company that's apparently doing some good work compared to the Tesla stuff.

 

I wish I could get my budget to look like this!! Oh hang on this is weekly??
Maybe we are on par with the few things I was looking at feeling quite envious about!

 

So a few things I notice about property chat peeps.....they like animals and organic food! I had often wondered if our food and eating our bills were excessive, but it seems we are on par with most (except those people who have virtually NO expenses! How do you do that?)

Our utility bills concern me. It's about $80 per f/n for gas and $90 per f/n for electricity which includes pay before due date discounts. Is this a lot? 2 adults. 3 fur babies.

 

Are you working from home of some sort? How big is the house? Our one bedroom rates is half that, 2 adults and one dog. I doubt 3 dogs would add a lot and if you're working outside home, the bill should no be that big of a difference between one bed apartment and a house?

 

Our Gas is 90 per QTR and we have gas hot water, cooking and heating, Our electricity is about 300 per QTR.

Electricity was up to around $1,000 but I found a dodgey switch which was arcing power all the time (major fire hazard), replaced that and it dropped down to 300ish

2 of us and 1 fur baby. Computer and file server are both on 24/7 but we rarely use the Air con and never use electric heating.

 

Depends on the size and energy efficiency of the house. I really noticed a decrease with my last move when it went to 1/3 of previous bills, but it is also a much smaller house and a 6 star as compared to a 5. I can only imagine how high it can get in the older, less efficient houses

 

I think it would make a big difference. A 1 bedroom apartment is much smaller and probably uses a lot less gas/electricity to heat and cool a much smaller place, plus construction would make a big difference and age.

My husband works from home and is always doing stuff on his computer. We also run workshops from our studio which is almost the same size as a 1 bedroom apartment (45sqm).

Oh, I'm so envious! $90 a quarter for gas!! We have gas hot water, heating and cooking too. Ours is nowhere near that. I wonder why!?

Yes, older! Not energy efficient in any way. Slowly swapping over windows and getting insulation in anywhere we renovate.