Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does someone only spend $150 a month on groceries?
Are you an extreme couponer?

I was wondering this myself. That's less that $40/week on groceries.

That's alot of rice and beans.

Anonymous wrote: Hm let me see...

$1300 - rent
$400 - car payment
$90 - utilities
$300 - health insurance
$150 - groceries

That's all for us. Family of 3 with #2 on the way.

We visit my country every other year, DH's country every other year and we take vacation in the US every year. The US vacations are usually very cheap because DH travels for work so among nights free in hotels, rental car points and flying miles we spend almost nothing.

So you don't by clothes, or anything other than food? No Christmas presents? No...anything? I thought OP was talking about what she actually spends each month, and everyone else is leaving out all of this shit, as though they never have car break down, have a sick pet, get a hair cut, buy a baby shower gift, etc.

Anonymous wrote: Hm let me see...

$1300 - rent
$400 - car payment
$90 - utilities
$300 - health insurance
$150 - groceries

That's all for us. Family of 3 with #2 on the way.

We visit my country every other year, DH's country every other year and we take vacation in the US every year. The US vacations are usually very cheap because DH travels for work so among nights free in hotels, rental car points and flying miles we spend almost nothing.

I don't believe this for a minute. So you're saying that you never need to buy clothes or gas, have your car serviced, or pay medical expenses out of pocket? Those are just a few of the necessary expenses I can think of that fall outside of this ridiculously unrealistic budget.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Y'all seriously need to buy cheaper houses....3k mortgage? $600 food? That doesn't include shampoo and tp? wow....

Are you not from DC?

I'm the poster with the 3K mortgage (PITI--meaning property taxes and insurance are included), and our house cost just over $600K and and we put 20% down. There are very, very homes in NW DC with 3 bedrooms that cost under $650K in a good school district.

And $600 for food means $150/week. Thats 21 meals to feed a family of 4 per week. Each meal costs $7.14 average to feed the entire family. Why do you think that is a lot? Maybe you need to take a math class.

Yes - I have a mortgage of $430,000 at an insanely low rate, and with taxes and insurance, we pay about $2500/month (and that's not including the condo fee, which of course many don't have). $3000 all in for taxes and insurance is a lot, but it's hardly extravagent.

Anonymous wrote:How does someone only spend $150 a month on groceries?
Are you an extreme couponer?

I was wondering this myself. That's less that $40/week on groceries.

Anonymous wrote:Y'all seriously need to buy cheaper houses....3k mortgage? $600 food? That doesn't include shampoo and tp? wow....

Are you not from DC?

I'm the poster with the 3K mortgage (PITI--meaning property taxes and insurance are included), and our house cost just over $600K and and we put 20% down. There are very, very homes in NW DC with 3 bedrooms that cost under $650K in a good school district.

And $600 for food means $150/week. Thats 21 meals to feed a family of 4 per week. Each meal costs $7.14 average to feed the entire family. Why do you think that is a lot? Maybe you need to take a math class.

How does someone only spend $150 a month on groceries?
Are you an extreme couponer?

Y'all seriously need to buy cheaper houses....3k mortgage? $600 food? That doesn't include shampoo and tp? wow....

Partner in a small/medium-sized firm. The firm subsidizes associates and staff, but partners pay the whole cost of insurance. A small fairly small pool (made smaller by the fact that anyone who has another ER plan option from a spouuse chooses that option), a couple of bad claims experiences, and poof - ridiculous premiums. Most ER plans are heavily subsidized by the ER, and most people don't know the true cost of their insurance (although it's typically not as high as mine, it's much higher than they realize). Large pools of insureds also make a big difference.

This is because partners are self-employed for tax purposes; they own the firm. The employees are paying a portion, while their employer, the firm, pays a big chunk of the premiums for them. The partners ARE the employer; they are not employees of the firm. Therefore each partner pays the full cost of his/her insurance.

Our "bare bones" budget:

$3K mortgage (PITI)
$120 transit/parking/gas
$600 food (no eating out, mostly vegetarian meals)
$150 electricity/water/gas
$100 cell phones
$1K health insurance/medical bills
$100 sundries/toiletries
$100 clothes/shoes for family (pro-rated over course of year)
$200 emergency fund
---
$2470

Let's round up to $3K for misc expenses, that would still be $6K minimum, and it doesn't include taxes, saving for retirement or college, internet/cable access, flights to visit family, diapers, unexpected home repairs, and paying back student loans. It also assumes that we have a fully paid car which won't need replacing any time soon, a short commute, and cheap parking.

It's tough, for sure.

Anonymous wrote:So it isn't your bare bones monthly cost of living, it's the cost of living you think you need to stay home. That's a pretty big distinction. Anything that includes nights out, coffee house coffee, toys and gifts is not a bare bones budget.

This.

That said, I do think this is a GOOD distinction. You want to know if you can live happily on one income, not just survive. I'm glad to see it laid out as a realistic budget, because that means it's actually likely to be sustainable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have to ask, even assuming that your mortgage is 2k, how in the hell do you spend 3k on survival? I don't understand what you call bare bones....break it down, then I'll help you spend less.

For us, it's health insurance. Just over $2000/month for family coverage. Looking to change plans, so hopefully that will go down a bit, but it's not something you can do without. So with $1000 left over, there's not a lot to cut.

How is it that you spend that much on health insurance? Are you self-employed and purchasing your own plan? I have difficulty imagining an employer charging 1k a paycheck for health insurance---even McD's is cheaper than that for it's employees.

Partner in a small/medium-sized firm. The firm subsidizes associates and staff, but partners pay the whole cost of insurance. A small fairly small pool (made smaller by the fact that anyone who has another ER plan option from a spouuse chooses that option), a couple of bad claims experiences, and poof - ridiculous premiums. Most ER plans are heavily subsidized by the ER, and most people don't know the true cost of their insurance (although it's typically not as high as mine, it's much higher than they realize). Large pools of insureds also make a big difference.

Thanks mister lawyer I am sure you are struggling to it make in your tiny 300k a year salary

Easy there, crankypants. I'm not complaining at all about my life - and I don't think you can point out where I do. Merely responding to a question about why health insurance premiums are so high.

I'm not sure what our current budget is (need to redo it after a new baby) but its also not anything close to a bare bones budget either. If we needed to cut back, we certainly could-especially on food.

Off the top of my head, our critical expenses (not counting things deducted from our pay checks) would be:

Mortgage (including escrow): ~$3100
Utilities: $300 (obv varies month to month, but that's probably what it averages to)
Phones: $125
Transportation: $100 (includes insurance and gas. Brand new car with 2 years free maintenance, we both metro to work and walk a lot of our errands)
Food: $1000 (we spend more, but this is one area we could easily cut back if needed, especially if one of us was home)

I'm sure I'm missing some obvious expense, but we don't have student loans, car loans, or credit card debt. So throw in maybe $500 for random other expenses (like home maintenance) and that gets us to about $5000.

Of course, our actual budget is higher-includes things like dinners out, dh's love of high tech gadgets, travel, charitable contributions, clothes, etc.

Hm let me see...

$1300 - rent
$400 - car payment
$90 - utilities
$300 - health insurance
$150 - groceries

That's all for us. Family of 3 with #2 on the way.

We visit my country every other year, DH's country every other year and we take vacation in the US every year. The US vacations are usually very cheap because DH travels for work so among nights free in hotels, rental car points and flying miles we spend almost nothing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have to ask, even assuming that your mortgage is 2k, how in the hell do you spend 3k on survival? I don't understand what you call bare bones....break it down, then I'll help you spend less.

For us, it's health insurance. Just over $2000/month for family coverage. Looking to change plans, so hopefully that will go down a bit, but it's not something you can do without. So with $1000 left over, there's not a lot to cut.

How is it that you spend that much on health insurance? Are you self-employed and purchasing your own plan? I have difficulty imagining an employer charging 1k a paycheck for health insurance---even McD's is cheaper than that for it's employees.

Partner in a small/medium-sized firm. The firm subsidizes associates and staff, but partners pay the whole cost of insurance. A small fairly small pool (made smaller by the fact that anyone who has another ER plan option from a spouuse chooses that option), a couple of bad claims experiences, and poof - ridiculous premiums. Most ER plans are heavily subsidized by the ER, and most people don't know the true cost of their insurance (although it's typically not as high as mine, it's much higher than they realize). Large pools of insureds also make a big difference.

Thanks mister lawyer I am sure you are struggling to it make in your tiny 300k a year salary