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
... 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