Could you live comfortably on $7500 a month?

[Anonymous]

Yes. Based on my experience growing up, our family of 5 is living very comfortably on $7200 a month.

Our Mortgage is $2k
One car paid off, one car loan at $300/month
Utilities around $200
Grocery budget is $1000 (which I find rather generous)
Saving $2000/month
No cable, prepaid phones, eat out 1x month, cook 90% of our meals from scratch and take lunches to work/school
I stay at home with kids

We don't go shopping 'for fun' and only buy what we need. Then we tend to buy better quality.

No 529s or other savings/investments (yet).

Our 'splurge' is yearly travel to Europe to visit family.

[Anonymous]

Could, yes. Would I want to or do it easily? No.

[Anonymous]

Heck yeah! I mean, give me the money for a few months and then I'll let you know. Seriously though, if you can't do this, you have problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, we spend 11k a month, mortgage is 1800 a month. No child care expenses.

Pathetic. You can't even recognize the difference between."can you?" And "do you?" and you waste that much money each month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:



We live on $6K a month after tax and our mortgage is nearly $3K.

Montessori preschool - more than $10K a year
Older child goes to public
After-school activities total about $10K a year
We save to visit close family in Europe and Asia, but can't afford to go every year.

I'm confused. You have 3k in income after taxes, and mortgage, so 36K. Of that you pay 20K for school, and activities, leaving 1333 a month for insurance, utilities, food, transportation, retirement savings, etc . . . And you still save enough to travel to Asia and Europe every few years?

I know it's probably possible to live on 1333 a month, but it's got to be tight. Health insurance, food, and utilities would eat almost all of it. I don't think I'd choose to spend that much on after school activities if it meant making major sacrifices elsewhere.

I apologize: the house maintenance (mortgage + insurance + utilities) are nearly 3K and I left retirement and college savings out of the stated "take home" income. So 6K is after tax and after savings!

We DO invest a lot in education considering our income.
However, for the older one, I calculated he was getting a cheaper and better education with his special needs at a public school and with the appropriate extras, instead of paying for private school. The Montessori preschool is run by a teacher we adore and as Montessoris go, is actually cheap.
We trade visits with our parents and siblings in Europe and Asia.

I have learned to economize and live on a budget, and I have learned to like it. Scoring a designer outfit on eBay for a fifth of the price gives me a thrill. Our furniture is vintage Victorian from Craigslist, to go with our tiny Victorian house. I shop unprocessed and mostly organic at Whole Foods because that's actually less expensive than prepackaged stuff. However, there are 0 impulse buys and near 0 consumable experiences purchased, like Starbucks or eating out or going to a movie. We have Netflix, not cable; pay-as-you-go flip phone, not a smartphone with an expensive plan. You get the idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I find this hard to believe. We have no debt except for our mortgage. I'll breakdown our expenses:

Income: 7800/month
Expense:
1850 = mortgage + tax
600 = all insurance (life, house, car)
350 = cell phone + cable
400 = house utilities ( average) for water, electricity, trash, heat
1000= food
---------
4200 subtotal

I haven't yet added gas, stuff for the house (like cleaning supplies), clothing, etc.. and activities for the kids - which can be a fair amount. Maybe your kid has no activities?

If we don't have any extra expense, like doing stuff on the house, going out, or travel, then we can save about 1500.

OK
2000= mortgage, tax and insurance
$600 YEAR car insurance (home insurance is in mortgage, work provides life, and health was already deducted)
$66 cell phone, no cable
$200 utility
$500 food
Equals 2750 a month

But what about your expensive furniture, vacations and clothes? If that is coming out of savings, then you are not really saving. You are just postponing your expenses, and ideally you should divide them up and add to monthly expense calculations.

Yes. PP is budgeting, not saving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:



We live on $6K a month after tax and our mortgage is nearly $3K.

Montessori preschool - more than $10K a year
Older child goes to public
After-school activities total about $10K a year
We save to visit close family in Europe and Asia, but can't afford to go every year.

I'm confused. You have 3k in income after taxes, and mortgage, so 36K. Of that you pay 20K for school, and activities, leaving 1333 a month for insurance, utilities, food, transportation, retirement savings, etc . . . And you still save enough to travel to Asia and Europe every few years?

I know it's probably possible to live on 1333 a month, but it's got to be tight. Health insurance, food, and utilities would eat almost all of it. I don't think I'd choose to spend that much on after school activities if it meant making major sacrifices elsewhere.

I apologize: the house maintenance (mortgage + insurance + utilities) are nearly 3K and I left retirement and college savings out of the stated "take home" income. So 6K is after tax and after savings!

We DO invest a lot in education considering our income.
However, for the older one, I calculated he was getting a cheaper and better education with his special needs at a public school and with the appropriate extras, instead of paying for private school. The Montessori preschool is run by a teacher we adore and as Montessoris go, is actually cheap.
We trade visits with our parents and siblings in Europe and Asia.

I have learned to economize and live on a budget, and I have learned to like it. Scoring a designer outfit on eBay for a fifth of the price gives me a thrill. Our furniture is vintage Victorian from Craigslist, to go with our tiny Victorian house. I shop unprocessed and mostly organic at Whole Foods because that's actually less expensive than prepackaged stuff. However, there are 0 impulse buys and near 0 consumable experiences purchased, like Starbucks or eating out or going to a movie. We have Netflix, not cable; pay-as-you-go flip phone, not a smartphone with an expensive plan. You get the idea.

NP here, let me understand this again, you live on $1333 per month for food, utilities, insurance and transportation? And not to mention countless other things that might pop up including home repairs, hair cuts, running out of soap/shampoo, doctor visits, car taxes, clothes, bedsheets...? For a family of 4 in DC? You never ever eat out/take out or got for ice cream or go on field trips, like even once a month? I am not even talking designer outfits or vintage furniture or Whole Foods.

Can you please breakdown how you spend the 1333 per month? I am really curious. We are a family of 3 + 2 pets, and spend 4K for food, utilities, insurance and transportation and other misc expenses that are mostly essential. Childcare and mortgage is another 4K. And I consider ourselves fairly frugal with maybe only around a 20% of the expenses a splurge.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but my definition of comfort is probably what DCUM considers genteel poverty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is net after-tax, meaning every month on the first $7500 is deposited into your checking account. With two caveats one your kids went to public school and to your more gauge was $1900 a month.

Family of 3.

Is this a serious question? Because if so, you have problems!! OF COURSE!! $7500 is a lot compared to most people. And that's NET, not gross. Such a stupid question.

(and yes, I live in the DC Area - Arlington - and make $5000/month net with a $2200 mortgage and a kid in daycare)

[Anonymous]

We live on 6000 a month. Family of five. My spouse is in school so I am the main breadwinner. We budget but don't really restrict what we buy. We have 2 cars, live in the city. One kid in school, the other two at home with a nanny. We have cable and smart phones. We also have absolutely no debt aside from the mortgage, so that helps. We save for big purchases and vacations, and have some money saved from before we were one income and will be able to save up once my spouse starts working again. 6000 a month is a lot of money to live off and way more than I ever had in the past.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Absolutely. We have done that in the past and done it very well and comfortably. We also have hired help (maid service) in that kind of money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Based on my experience growing up, our family of 5 is living very comfortably on $7200 a month.

Our Mortgage is $2k
One car paid off, one car loan at $300/month
Utilities around $200
Grocery budget is $1000 (which I find rather generous)
Saving $2000/month
No cable, prepaid phones, eat out 1x month, cook 90% of our meals from scratch and take lunches to work/school
I stay at home with kids

We don't go shopping 'for fun' and only buy what we need. Then we tend to buy better quality.

No 529s or other savings/investments (yet).

Our 'splurge' is yearly travel to Europe to visit family.

You're not saving for college and you live very frugally. That's the opposite of being "comfortable." Being comfortable is having 529 accounts and cable and still banking thousands per month in unearmarked investments.

[Anonymous]

She IS saving thousands per month. $2,000, specifically.

[Anonymous]

are you crazy? of course!

we live on about $4500 take home, with a mortgage payment of $1500 and two kids. Yes, it's very easy. If I had $7500 to spend I'd consider us loaded.

[Anonymous]

Yes, we absolutely could do it.