Reply to Is this a reasonable amount of spending money per month based on our income?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here this is our current monthly budget

$2200 PITI
$575 groceries & consumables
$500 car & house maintenance 
$300 subscriptions (incl gym membership) 
$350 utilities 
$450 transportation cost (mostly insurance & VA car tax)
$1000 vacation saving
$2400 personal spending

Total is $7775. Our take home is over $17k so it leaves us with almost 10k going into savings every month (more like 11-12k if you count pre tax 401k contributions and match + paying down mortgage principal).

Are we really going wrong here? Seems crazy how you could make double or more our income and barely enjoy any of it for yourself. 
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Yes you are really going wrong here. Start saving more to get to a good school district and realize that when you have a kid, it’s going to cost you $3k a month for daycare. Cut back now. [/quote]

The thing is if we cut back to 600/person vs 1200/person it’s only going to be a difference of ~11k vs 10k/month in savings, I don’t feel like this is going to make a major impact a long time from now. We aren’t going to think when we’re 60 “thank god we saved that extra $1200”. My philosophy with money is take a balanced approach and spend to enjoy life now but also be responsible and save plenty for the future, I feel we’re doing that. I think people here are biased towards one extreme based on the responses. IMO it’s crazy to make 30-50k a month after taxes and think you can’t spent a little over 1k on yourself. What’s the point of working and making so much if you can’t have some nice things?

Of course, we are planning to reevaluate once we have kids and budget needs change. We won’t have as much time for ourselves anyway so hobbies are going to be reduced. We already have a good chunk saved for the new house as well as retirement savings. Current NW is 1M in late 20’s/early 30’s so we’ve been saving (mostly coming from me). [/quote]

We are DINKs so what do I know - but it sounds pretty reasonable to me. Being less spendy works for a lot of people - I wish I were one of them; I'd certainly be better off financially! - but some people are willing to make the tradeoff that you and your spouse seem comfortable making. Less in savings - though still saving a lot - because you want to enjoy yourselves now.

I think the most important thing is that you and your spouse are on the same page. If not, then look for the lowest hanging fruit that you can cut and try to get to $1k/month, see how that feels. If you want to save more, then see if you can get down to $800/month. Or whatever. 
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