Anonymous
04/02/2021 14:26
Subject: We spend around 18K a month, where does it go?
I like how some people are taking OP very seriously and writing paragraphs in response and others are just like “LOL troll AF!”
Which one is correct?!!
Which one is correct?!!
Anonymous
04/02/2021 14:23
Subject: We spend around 18K a month, where does it go?
Hey OP, did you know clothing is reuseable? You aren't supposed to throw it in the garbage after the first time you wear it. You can launder it and wear it a whole bunch of times! You're welcome.
Anonymous
04/02/2021 14:22
Subject: We spend around 18K a month, where does it go?
Everybody gets new clothes every month?
Anonymous
04/02/2021 14:21
Subject: We spend around 18K a month, where does it go?
You buy too much stuff. I may cut you some slack on the kids clothes if they are teens/tweens - my son is growing an inch a month lately and aging out of kids clothes so if you have three in that age group, you may always need to be buying shoes and stuff. If they are also in that age bracket, go to Costco to buy things in bulk to feed the bottomless pits.
But overall, you are compulsive spenders. I have been buying much more “stuff” during the pandemic (late night mindless “add to cart”) because I’m bored, but that’s been more than compensated for by the lack of kid activities and other entertainment expenses. The “digital subscriptions” are it. Use some of the stuff you have.
But overall, you are compulsive spenders. I have been buying much more “stuff” during the pandemic (late night mindless “add to cart”) because I’m bored, but that’s been more than compensated for by the lack of kid activities and other entertainment expenses. The “digital subscriptions” are it. Use some of the stuff you have.
Anonymous
04/02/2021 14:20
Subject: We spend around 18K a month, where does it go?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I also have a family of 5 but spend more like $12,000 per month. Here's where we differ:
1) Auto - we're actually higher than you here because of my wife's luxury SUV.
2) Kids activities - We're way lower here. I think our kids just aren't in as many things (tend to do school teams rather than private, no music lessons any more, etc). We're also spending a lot less on clothes for kids.
3) Entertainment - we're lower here. We have digital subscriptions and whatnot, but not much else during covid times.
4) Food - we're at about $1500 total for eating out and groceries. We have takeout multiple times a week, so it's not like we're doing it all from scratch. I'm always under $1000 on groceries, so that seems really high.
5) Gifts - We're much lower than $500. $500 is more like the high month when DD and DW have birthdays a few weeks apart.
6) Home/property - Our mortgage is lower; our housekeeper is $400/month, and our yard care is cheaper. But don't listen too much to all the DCUM people, who seem to have cashed out equity from prior homes and magically have $400k mortgages on $2 million houses.
7) Insurance - This is crazy low. I'd suggest looking at your life insurance levels and making sure they are high enough.
8) Personal care - we're in the $200 range, probably.
9) Shopping - We spend 2500-3000/month, but that includes home items, kids clothes, adult clothes, gifts, streaming, and some other items you have broken out elsewhere.
So there's lots of fat. But if you are saving 10k+ a month, maybe it doesn't matter that much. Still, double check that life insurance so it doesn't all come crashing down if someone dies unexpectedly.
I mean 12K/mo in spending isn't crazy for a family of two government lawyers making 150K/year each. Plus term life insurance is cheap, so it isn't hard to insurance this lifestyle. (20-year term for me was 30/mo for about 1.75M- bought at 30)
PP here. 12k/mo is just our non-private school, non-vacation spending. DW is a SAHM, so there has to be enough to cover private school tuitions, college, and lots of other stuff, so our life insurance is more like $8 million, which costs more.
Anonymous
04/02/2021 14:20
Subject: We spend around 18K a month, where does it go?
Anonymous wrote:This is a joke/troll, right?
Yes, but it can be fun to engage with trolls.
Anonymous
04/02/2021 14:17
Subject: We spend around 18K a month, where does it go?
This is a joke/troll, right?
Anonymous
04/02/2021 14:12
Subject: We spend around 18K a month, where does it go?
Anonymous wrote:I also have a family of 5 but spend more like $12,000 per month. Here's where we differ:
1) Auto - we're actually higher than you here because of my wife's luxury SUV.
2) Kids activities - We're way lower here. I think our kids just aren't in as many things (tend to do school teams rather than private, no music lessons any more, etc). We're also spending a lot less on clothes for kids.
3) Entertainment - we're lower here. We have digital subscriptions and whatnot, but not much else during covid times.
4) Food - we're at about $1500 total for eating out and groceries. We have takeout multiple times a week, so it's not like we're doing it all from scratch. I'm always under $1000 on groceries, so that seems really high.
5) Gifts - We're much lower than $500. $500 is more like the high month when DD and DW have birthdays a few weeks apart.
6) Home/property - Our mortgage is lower; our housekeeper is $400/month, and our yard care is cheaper. But don't listen too much to all the DCUM people, who seem to have cashed out equity from prior homes and magically have $400k mortgages on $2 million houses.
7) Insurance - This is crazy low. I'd suggest looking at your life insurance levels and making sure they are high enough.
8) Personal care - we're in the $200 range, probably.
9) Shopping - We spend 2500-3000/month, but that includes home items, kids clothes, adult clothes, gifts, streaming, and some other items you have broken out elsewhere.
So there's lots of fat. But if you are saving 10k+ a month, maybe it doesn't matter that much. Still, double check that life insurance so it doesn't all come crashing down if someone dies unexpectedly.
I mean 12K/mo in spending isn't crazy for a family of two government lawyers making 150K/year each. Plus term life insurance is cheap, so it isn't hard to insurance this lifestyle. (20-year term for me was 30/mo for about 1.75M- bought at 30)
Anonymous
04/02/2021 14:08
Subject: Re:We spend around 18K a month, where does it go?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My 2 cents - personal care is low; my highlights are $300/month add botox, fillers, skincare etc. Clothes $ super high; food about right. House cleaning about right. Cars high but I HATE spending $ on cars and cars in general.
Fascinating... hot mom?
More likely a self-proclaimed hot mom who actually resembles a Frankenstein-inspired science project gone awry...
Anonymous
04/02/2021 14:07
Subject: We spend around 18K a month, where does it go?
I also have a family of 5 but spend more like $12,000 per month. Here's where we differ:
1) Auto - we're actually higher than you here because of my wife's luxury SUV.
2) Kids activities - We're way lower here. I think our kids just aren't in as many things (tend to do school teams rather than private, no music lessons any more, etc). We're also spending a lot less on clothes for kids.
3) Entertainment - we're lower here. We have digital subscriptions and whatnot, but not much else during covid times.
4) Food - we're at about $1500 total for eating out and groceries. We have takeout multiple times a week, so it's not like we're doing it all from scratch. I'm always under $1000 on groceries, so that seems really high.
5) Gifts - We're much lower than $500. $500 is more like the high month when DD and DW have birthdays a few weeks apart.
6) Home/property - Our mortgage is lower; our housekeeper is $400/month, and our yard care is cheaper. But don't listen too much to all the DCUM people, who seem to have cashed out equity from prior homes and magically have $400k mortgages on $2 million houses.
7) Insurance - This is crazy low. I'd suggest looking at your life insurance levels and making sure they are high enough.
8) Personal care - we're in the $200 range, probably.
9) Shopping - We spend 2500-3000/month, but that includes home items, kids clothes, adult clothes, gifts, streaming, and some other items you have broken out elsewhere.
So there's lots of fat. But if you are saving 10k+ a month, maybe it doesn't matter that much. Still, double check that life insurance so it doesn't all come crashing down if someone dies unexpectedly.
1) Auto - we're actually higher than you here because of my wife's luxury SUV.
2) Kids activities - We're way lower here. I think our kids just aren't in as many things (tend to do school teams rather than private, no music lessons any more, etc). We're also spending a lot less on clothes for kids.
3) Entertainment - we're lower here. We have digital subscriptions and whatnot, but not much else during covid times.
4) Food - we're at about $1500 total for eating out and groceries. We have takeout multiple times a week, so it's not like we're doing it all from scratch. I'm always under $1000 on groceries, so that seems really high.
5) Gifts - We're much lower than $500. $500 is more like the high month when DD and DW have birthdays a few weeks apart.
6) Home/property - Our mortgage is lower; our housekeeper is $400/month, and our yard care is cheaper. But don't listen too much to all the DCUM people, who seem to have cashed out equity from prior homes and magically have $400k mortgages on $2 million houses.
7) Insurance - This is crazy low. I'd suggest looking at your life insurance levels and making sure they are high enough.
8) Personal care - we're in the $200 range, probably.
9) Shopping - We spend 2500-3000/month, but that includes home items, kids clothes, adult clothes, gifts, streaming, and some other items you have broken out elsewhere.
So there's lots of fat. But if you are saving 10k+ a month, maybe it doesn't matter that much. Still, double check that life insurance so it doesn't all come crashing down if someone dies unexpectedly.
Anonymous
04/02/2021 13:56
Subject: We spend around 18K a month, where does it go?
Most absurd: your expenses for eating out, children's clothing and activities, and shopping.
Anonymous
04/02/2021 13:49
Subject: Re:We spend around 18K a month, where does it go?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Your budget seems eerily similar to ours. It doesn’t seem like we live extravagantly, but I guess that is relative.
OP here. Tell me more! Was it budget creep as your income went up?
Anyway, it's not that we *need* to cut back, as we are continuing to save a lot of money. But I do sometimes have a moment of thinking, holy hell, 18K a month, how did I get here?!?
The person who said we don't really say "no" is spot on. We don't really say "no" because of money. We DO say "no" to our kids all the time for other reasons, and I certainly don't buy things when I think I wouldn't use it, but if I want something, I buy it.
I guess I can't decide if this is how I want to live, or if it's worth cutting back, mostly so I remember how to do it.
DP. We could comfortably afford a budget like yours form a financial standpoint, but I feel like there would end up being a lot of waste if we did (even accounting for our family of four vs. yours of five). I think a useful starting point would be to think about areas where your spending may be wasteful. For instance, how much food do you throw out each week because it doesn’t get eaten? There are plenty of times when. I could go for eating out rather than making something at home, but I don’t because I know we would end up throwing out other food we already have. If you’re throwing out a lot of uneaten food, maybe trim back the grocery budget and only buy what you’re reasonably going to eat rather than everything you might eat.
Same goes for clothes. Do you often find yourself donating stuff that’s in practically new condition? If so, perhaps you’re not being very thoughtful about what you’re buying, especially for kids. You mention babysitting costs, so I assume at least some of yo ur kids are fairly young. Given how quickly kids that age grow out of clothes, I bought quantities of clothing that were tailored to what they would actually need for a season rather than everything I liked.
Anonymous
04/02/2021 13:48
Subject: Re:We spend around 18K a month, where does it go?
shopping and person care are out of control
Anonymous
04/02/2021 13:47
Subject: We spend around 18K a month, where does it go?
OP, we spend about the same and we don’t have kids or a dog. Just two adults and one cat. Top that!!
Anonymous
04/02/2021 13:47
Subject: We spend around 18K a month, where does it go?
$500/month on kid’s clothes is crazy. I just can’t even imagine what I would buy for my kids at that rate, nor where it would all go. Their closets and drawers are already overflowing and we do about 2 big shops each year at about $500 each (this is for 2 kids, not 3, but still...)