Shopping exclusively at WF *really* adds up. Could you do a CSA or something to get great produce at lower costs? Or, stick to WF for produce only and go cheaper elsewhere for other things?

We make about that but also have a much lower mortgage (~$3100/month). Eating out usually means take out once/week for me and DH. We also use our AmEx for almost everything, but $4,000 would be a high month.

OP here -- we use it for everything -- that includes summer camps, pool, medical co-pays, new glasses, dinners out (not too many but they add up), Uber rides, hotels when we travel, etc. You get the picture. We don't travel much, but when we do, it's expensive!

I also shop almost exclusively at Whole Foods because I'm a produce snob. We are vegetarians, so we save on that!

I am going to investigate more each month to see line items, but really, I am shocked every month!

Mortgage - 2600
Childcare - 1800
Car/Insurance/Gas - 800
Utilities/Verizon/Cable - 500
CC - 3,500 - 4,500 a month. This is basically everything else, we have a travel card for miles.

I'm with you on the CC I think ours is way too high, that said 8k is a LOT, what are you spending it on? I am pretty loosey goosey with spending (baby is changing that slowly) but even at my loosest I wasn't getting to 8k.

Mortgage: 2975
Childcare: currently 1200, will jump to 2900 when #2 is born (3 years of double child care....ugh)
no car loan
Student loan $250
no credit card debt
Max out retirement accounts for both of us
Everything else is utilities, cable, food, etc that we can work around.

HHI is 250K

Mortgage - 2k
Childcare - 3k
Groceries and dining - 1k
529s - 1k
Savings - 1k
Utilities and phones - 500
Gas/commuting - 500
Kids activities and misc- 1k

And, just like that, it is gone.

We max 401ks. The numbers above are based in net income.

We make slightly less ($235k). After maxing 401k it goes to:

Mortgage (PITI): $4250
529s: $1200
IRA: $915
Cash Savings: $500
Investments: $500
Cell phone (kids included): $120
Utilities: $460
Credit cards: $2500
Travel, Insurance and other misc expenses: $1000

PITI - 3,400
Phone, Cable, Internet - 330
529 - 300
Aftercare - 730 (this will go away this summer - yeah!)
Summer Camps - 420
Tutor - 200
Housecleaner - 220
Insurance & taxes (life and car)- 200
Student Loan - 100
529 -300
Invenstments - 500
Utilities - 250

The daily expenses go on the CC, and we try to keep the bill to around 4K. In months when there are no "big" expenses, we can manage that. When we have home improvements or travel, it is higher.

Mortgage $3500
No car note
~$3k to retirement (pre tax)
Utilities/Cable/phones $600
Groceries $500
SLs $1400
save about $2500, but varies

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are people using credit cards instead of debit for airline miles? I just use debit for 100% of everything and don't even have a credit card. I don't trust credit card companies and don't want to pay an annual fee for rewards. Plus, I already accumulate about 100k per year through work (thanks to business class bonus miles).

You really shouldn't be using a debit card anywhere. If the money is stolen, it's gone and a major PITA to get it back. Credit card is much safer. We just pay it off monthly.

That depends on which bank it is, it is much better than 5 years ago in terms of security. In addition, you can set alerts sent to your e-mail/phone when the balance goes below a certain limit that the user determines, any charge above a certain limit, etc.

The bank may offer enhancements but there is no doubt that the protections for credit cards - Reg Z are fundamentally more protective than the Reg E that applies to debit cards.

We are slightly below $250 (Should be around $240 this year):

Mortgage PTI: $3700
Daycare: $1760
Aftercare: $325
529s: $670
Student loan: $320
Groceries: $700
Cable/internet: $120
Electric: $150
Cell phones: $125
Gas: $15
Water: $75
Charitable contributions: $300
Other spending: $1500-$1700 (So our credit card bill is this plus our groceries every month).
Savings (outside of pre-tax retirement): $1200-$1400

Our mortgage is 4500 a month and we spend about 5-6k on everything else. Some months are spender than others when we have multiple political contributions, vet bills, car maintenance, etc.

$3400 in mortgage. No student loans, car payments or daycare (but camp payments are coming up). 10% pretax to retirement. $600 to 529. Credit card is probably $4,000 to $8,000 depending on major purchases like travel or home repairs. In months where we spend less we move $2000 or so into money market or investment funds.

Anonymous wrote:Are people using credit cards instead of debit for airline miles? I just use debit for 100% of everything and don't even have a credit card. I don't trust credit card companies and don't want to pay an annual fee for rewards. Plus, I already accumulate about 100k per year through work (thanks to business class bonus miles).

I get 1% cash back for everything and %5 cash back on specific things each month (one month it's gas another it's groceries) on my credit card. So that's worth it to me plus my credit card company protects me from fraud and I have disputed charges on it like a restaurant tab that added a zero by mistake.

HHI: 225k - 250k depending on dh's second job

Piti : 3600
Phones: 140
Utilities with Internet 200 (we keep the house not too warm or too cold)
Credit card which includes groceries: 2000
Daycare: 1800
Health insurance: $300
Life insurance : 120 (2 1M policies)
Car insurance: no idea but probably 200
Going out (separate card) 600 but now almost nothing since we have a newborn

No debts other than mortgage.

Credit card can go to about $3k depending on the month but that's everything (groceries, clothes, diapers, household and yard stuff)

Rest to 401k and other savings
We have an old house so we keep a savings account for maintenance and upgrades.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are people using credit cards instead of debit for airline miles? I just use debit for 100% of everything and don't even have a credit card. I don't trust credit card companies and don't want to pay an annual fee for rewards. Plus, I already accumulate about 100k per year through work (thanks to business class bonus miles).

You really shouldn't be using a debit card anywhere. If the money is stolen, it's gone and a major PITA to get it back. Credit card is much safer. We just pay it off monthly.

That depends on which bank it is, it is much better than 5 years ago in terms of security. In addition, you can set alerts sent to your e-mail/phone when the balance goes below a certain limit that the user determines, any charge above a certain limit, etc.