How much do you spend a year (living expenses)?

Am I the only one with an excel sheet listing every single cent spent each day/month listed into categories?

I also have another sheet listing income and another sheet which lists differences between income and spending with averages over the past 5 years.

I update this once a week.

Really helps me to see patterns in my spending habits and how I can improve them.
 
Am I the only one with an excel sheet listing every single cent spent each day/month listed into categories?

I also have another sheet listing income and another sheet which lists differences between income and spending with averages over the past 5 years.

I update this once a week.

Really helps me to see patterns in my spending habits and how I can improve them.

Yes, I think you are the only one.

OCD, perhaps? ;)
 
Am I the only one with an excel sheet listing every single cent spent each day/month listed into categories?

I also have another sheet listing income and another sheet which lists differences between income and spending with averages over the past 5 years.

I update this once a week.

Really helps me to see patterns in my spending habits and how I can improve them.

Love it. I'm not far behind, I just never remember to update our actuals. Then I think "Where's our money going?" :eek:
 
We are currently spending about 30-35% of income.

Not bad but in reality fairly excessive given that we don't really have any 'living' costs.
House, transport, phones, utilities, schooling etc is all paid for by the company.

However, we do spend about $30k a year on travel which compensates for our location.

Blacky
 
As a frugal single guy I estimate I spend the following per year:

Rent: $9,000
Groceries: $4,000
Motorbike rego and fuel :$900
Going out: $1,500
Clothes: $200
Overseas holiday (not every year though): $3,000

The rest of my income goes towards paying down my investment loans.

There are a couple of good sites worth reading up on if you are interested I frugal living. These include:

earlyretirementextreme.com
mrmoneymustache.com
 
Am I the only one with an excel sheet listing every single cent spent each day/month listed into categories?

I also have another sheet listing income and another sheet which lists differences between income and spending with averages over the past 5 years.

I update this once a week.

Really helps me to see patterns in my spending habits and how I can improve them.


Na, my excel spread sheet is the height of anal retentiveness. I update mine daily and even stare at it for fun. I have one for household income and expenses on the same page (what's wrong with you?) and a different one with all the IPs listed down the page. My accountant loves me. The IP one does profit and loss at the end of each month.

I'm currently spending $200 a month on alcohol but OMG, I have Australia's best hotel at the end of my street and their bottle shop is pretty amazing for this cultural backwater known as Brisbane.
 
Care to share? Just worked out our family budget with the newborn arriving 6 months ago - worked out to be $24.5K per year, simple breakdown as follows:

Utilities $3,500
Transport Fees to Work: $1,550 ($129 x 12)
Fuel: $1,500 ($50 a week x 30 weeks avg)
Car Costs: $1,700 (Rego plus Insurance plus self servicing)
Groceries: $5,500
Clothing: $2,500
Mob Phones & Int: $1800 (2 Mobs plus cable int)
Medical & Dental costs: $1,000
Baby Costs: $3,000
Dining: $2,500 ($50 per week eating out)

Holidays (bi annual): $7K avg.

Australia is really expensive considering we live pretty thrifty.

For us...our annual costs

$2000 utilities
$0 transport to work- (car provided)
$70 year fuel- personal use
$100 car car for personal use (licence,rego,insurance)
$2600 yr grocries for 2 adults- (and occasional guests)
$300 clothes
$0 mobile phone- work provide
$360 landline, internet,cable
$700 medical and dental
$520 take away coffees/meals

$7k vacation (not taking one this year though)

You didn't mention anything about:
$1000 yr gifts/entertainment
$480 property taxes
$672 home insurance

=$15,802 yr for 2 people

($8,802 without the vacation)
 
I did the numbers not long ago and it does add up. Family of 4 with kids aged 3 and 5.

25k per year this is not including loan repayments or if we were paying rent. We don't go out, do not smoke or drink alcohol. Most meals are cooked on the odd exception when we go on a day trip we buy something out.

We are conservative and by that I mean very conservative and still spend 25k.


What the??? $25 per adult per week?
For us...our annual costs
$2600 yr grocries for 2 adults- (and occasional guests)
 
I did the numbers not long ago and it does add up. Family of 4 with kids aged 3 and 5.

25k per year this is not including loan repayments or if we were paying rent. We don't go out, do not smoke or drink alcohol. Most meals are cooked on the odd exception when we go on a day trip we buy something out.

We are conservative and by that I mean very conservative and still spend 25k.


What the??? $25 per adult per week?

On post #60 I did give a random monthly breakdown, of what we spent.


We spend the same amount, whether we are in Canada or Australia...except in Canada, our food is pretty well free (use points)
 
In AUD
Rent 12K
Child support 20K (biggie for a lot of blokes I reckon)
Health insurance 3K (inc. kids)
Basics 12K (food, transport, clothes, utilities)
Extras 8K (holidays, beer, restaurants, presents, etc)

total expenditure >> income, going backwards but will probably last this lifetime so no worries
 
As a frugal single guy I too am quite impressed by the numbers shown here.

Transport : $18 p/w
Car Fuel : $70 p/w
Coffee/Snacks etc : $25 p/w
Rego/Insurance : $75 p/w
Meals outside of home : $100 p/w

I am still living at home and spend $288 p/w ! Those who are on <$100 p/w probably do not have a car and are superbly frugal!
 
Living expenses

Hiya

Suffice to say it is covered by my passive income :D

(now i just have to get rid of those pesky things like kids...)
 
Am I the only one with an excel sheet listing every single cent spent each day/month listed into categories?

I also have another sheet listing income and another sheet which lists differences between income and spending with averages over the past 5 years.

I update this once a week.

Really helps me to see patterns in my spending habits and how I can improve them.

I did it for 12 months just to see how much we need to live on (retirement planning :D).

We needed $35K to live on but that was for 8 1/2 months as I was overseas for 3 1/2 months. My travel budget for the 3 1/2 months however was $20K.:eek::D Scary but SO worth it.

We have no personal mortgage. I don't count any investment property stuff as that pays for itself. So I figure with $55K cashflow I'm ready to retire without cutting back on my travel. But the aim is to increase it. :p
 
I think 55k would be enough to travel for the whole year. Lots of short holidays or moving around every few days are what chews through most of the money. If you're happy to stay somewhere for weeks not days, 55k should be plenty IMO. I'd allocate ~15k for accomodation and the remaining 40k for transport and spending money ($110/day after accomodation). Easy done. That's my plan :p
 
I consider ourselves reletively frugal ... in that we cook most of our meals at home - don't do takeaway lunches/coffee (okay I do coffee maybe once a week at Maccas drivethru) - don't spend on designer anything - happy with our old but comfortable furniture - happy with our 5+ yr old cars ... but I was still surprised when I added up the costs

Food - $15,600/yr ... includes 2 big dogs and one cat, pool chemicals etc
Electricity - $3,000 ... being rural everything is on pump (water/septic etc)
Mortgage repayments - $10,800
Mobile/internet - $1,500
Car rego/serv/ins - $4,000 ... 2 cars and lots of kms
Fuel - $8,320 ... lots of kms
Rates/irrigation licence - $2,500
School - $6,000
Firewood - $800
Wine/beer - $2,500 ... essential
Eating out - $1,200
Health Ins - $3,600 ... young family
Clothes/shoes - $2,500
House and Farm insurance - $2,500

Total - a smidge under $65,000 ... and I wouldn't say there was anything extravagant there.

I don't budget - or allocate - or pay myself first and bills out of the leftovers ... I pay the bills as they come in and that's it.

I suppose on retirement - if we took out mortgage and fuel - we'd save a further $15,000

Add in farm requirements - my gardens ... we'd like an income of $100,000 when retired thanks :D ... fortunately we're on track for that within the next few years ... and when we "retire" retire, we'll probably sell the farm and free up a substantial amount of cash
 
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