Reply to What's your family size and how much do you spend each month total?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We are a family of 4 with 2 kids under 5, and we spend on average about $11k a month.[/quote]

WOW!!!  Seriously?  We spend about $4k and I think we're well off.[/quote]

Break this down please?  You must SAH at home and not have kids in daycare.  $11k is high, and it's what we spend to for a family of 4, but now sure how you could do $4k in DC with daycare costs.  Do you live South or Midwest?

I'm not the OP but here is my budget:

Mortgage - $3,500
Daycare - $3,000
Kids Therapies (Speech & OT) - $1,000
Other Healthcare expenses - $500
Food - $1,000
Utilities - $500
Home Services (Maid, Lawn Service, etc.) - $500
Misc (Target, Kids Activities, Clothing, etc) - $1,000
[/quote]

I live in DC, in NW 20001:

Mortgage (incl. insurance and property tax) = $1400
Daycare for 2 year old (fulltime) = $800
Pre-school for 4 year old = FREE! (we live in DC) 
Camps ($300 for entire year - DPR camp) = $25
Food, groceries and eating out = $1000
Utilities, phone, internet and other household bills = $300
Misc, non food groceries and other needs =  the remainder $475 (usually less, actually)[/quote]

I'm not the first PP who asked for a breakdown, but surely you recognize that your expenses are unusual (even disregarding the low, low, mortgage) for a middle/upper middle class family around here?  $825/mo for 2 kids' care?  it must not be full time care for both (no before/aftercare for the 4 yr old?).  Your utilities are low.  No gas or car costs?  No insurance of any sort?  No travel?  No charity?  I'm not saying that if you add all these up you would be anywhere near the 11k posters, but 4k still seems artificially low.[/quote]

I disagree.  Sure, in the DCUM bubble it might be "low" but that's not how normal families live.  We don't spend more than $4k a month because that's our full take home pay after about $400 a month in savings (and more pre tax in retirement).  I track it every month in Quicken and our monthly spend runs between $3800 and $4100 and averages to just over $4k throughout the year.  After care is free (title 1 school so free for everyone), pre school for toddler is full time.  Our utilities aren't low.  We live in a 1500 sq foot row house.  How much more could it possibly cost for gas and electric and water and internet/phone (we don't have cable)?  We do travel regularly - including to Europe every other year - and that comes out of the remainder - in misc - and savings or frequent flyer miles (earned from credit card, we put all charges on credit card and pay off each month) and we stay with family so no accommodation costs.  We also go on inexpensive camping trips.  We live close to downtown DC and though we have a car we don't use it often and don't have a loan on it.  I did miss off car insurance which is about $600 a year, so I guess that comes out of the $475 that's left over (I also rounded up in some categories).  We also donate about $500 a year.[/quote]

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