Jump to content

What is your monthly budget for discretionary?

Dirtyhip

By Dirtyhip
in The Café

 Share

Recommended Posts

Dirtyhip Flahute

Dirtyhip

Posted
Posted

If you remove home expense, prop tax and insurance, how much do you spend on food, gas, entertainment and personal care?

We go about 1000 for those each month.  Possibly closer to 800-900.  

Budgeting is fun.  Spend less/save more.

This month, we will get hit with some bike purchasing, and prep for vacation. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Randomguy Flahute

Randomguy

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Old#7 said:

It's hard to say because we're running two houses at once. I burn about $600 a month here in VA. Wife probably the same in Ohio. That expense will go down once she moves here in two weeks. My guess will be in the $800 range because I'm cheap.

With more people in the household, you will be drinking more.

  • Heart 2
  • Awesome 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ChrisL KOM / QOM

ChrisL

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, UglyBob said:

My wife handles the budget, so I have no idea. If I want to buy something, I beg...

^^^ This!  J/K not really but kinda...  We really don't budget discretionary funds and if for some reason we want to do something or buy something small we just buy it.  My wife is always saying we don't have money for frivolous expenses but it really depends on what she determines frivolous.  If I want to renew a big rag, we don't have the budget for it but just last night she asked me to join her gym so we could work out together after work as with the shorter days she doesn't want to walk in the dark... So $40 a month is OK but $30 a year is too much?!?!? 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Razors Edge Flahute

Razors Edge ★

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, Chris... said:

Our food budget is $400 a month

gas about $75 a month

entertainment $75 a month

My internet/cable bill alone is way more than $75/month :( But my gas is less than $75 :)  Of course, entertainment is a pretty broad category - so Netflix adds $10, Amazon Prime (entertainment via videos and purchased books) alone is $8 - not including purchases - and going to a movie, concert, or show even just twice a year would average $10-$20/month.

Man, this budgeting stuff adds up fast.

Tom

  • Heart 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Longjohn Flahute

Longjohn ★

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

how much do you spend on food, gas, entertainment and personal care?

Personal care? Is that medical?  Medicare sucks, my insurance broker said I was buying the best medicare advantage plan out there. I hope she lied. I'm thinking about switching this month (annual renewal period). What's up with that annual renewal period, why can't you dump crappy insurance at any time you want? Probably $1,000 in medical this month. Entertainment? That would be my wife's phone bill (she pays for my phone, hers, her mom's and our daughter in law's phone because she wants to) she also pays who knows what for Direct TV. I pay $100 a month for satellite internet. We eat out every Sunday and that cost varies a whole lot. My wife probably spends $50 a week on gas, I probably average $75 a month in my car. Our food varies a lot too, we buy what we want. It's really nice to shop for groceries and not be concerned about what it costs. Probably $200 a month but I may be way off on that. She buys stuff, I buy stuff, we don't worry about it. I didn't save a lot off the grocery bill with my garden this year. I grew more tomatoes and peppers than I could use as well as squash and green beans and cabbage. That was nice but didn't really save us much on groceries.

  • Heart 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Razors Edge Flahute

Razors Edge ★

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Chris... said:

Our internet is $60

We have Netflix and Sling tv. I forgot about sling, it’s $25 per month

So that is a "cord cutting" option, correct? How does that work out? $35 + Internet is certainly a less expensive option, but do you think it is a good combination or are you considering other options?

Tom

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ChrisL KOM / QOM

ChrisL

Posted
Posted

Maybe I"m taking this down the rabbit hole but medical is a huge financial burden for us, is only getting more expensive and I'll have to carry my kids for years the way it's going...   That is probably are largest expense besides our mortgage, wait it's more than my mortgage... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Longjohn Flahute

Longjohn ★

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, ChrisL said:

Maybe I"m taking this down the rabbit hole but medical is a huge financial burden for us, is only getting more expensive and I'll have to carry my kids for years the way it's going...   That is probably are largest expense besides our mortgage, wait it's more than my mortgage... 

Private medical insurance is way expensive but I'm on medicare that I have paid for out of every paycheck I have gotten for many many years. That is supposed to pay 80%.  The plan I pay for is supposed to "help" with the other 20%. It's pretty crappy, I still have to pay $$ for everything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Randomguy Flahute

Randomguy

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Chris... said:

If you like the live tv programming experience it’s ok. I could drop it with no regrets. There is nothing on live tv that I couldn’t live without. 

I have Netflix and have recently dropped Amazon prime.  The only thing I would miss is football, is there football on Sling/anywhere?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Kzoo Flahute

Kzoo

Posted
Posted
54 minutes ago, UglyBob said:

My wife handles the budget, so I have no idea. If I want to buy something, I beg...

This.  I don't have to beg - I have a credit card but I am careful.  I get an allowance each week that covers my typical expenses.  I get an expense check from work from time to time and that becomes my mad money used maybe for a cycling purchase of gift purchases.  She does a good job on the finances and I don't complain.  If we go out to eat she pays.

  • Heart 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Parsnip Totin Jack KOM / QOM

Parsnip Totin Jack ★

Posted
Posted
20 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

Private medical insurance is way expensive but I'm on medicare that I have paid for out of every paycheck I have gotten for many many years. That is supposed to pay 80%.  The plan I pay for is supposed to "help" with the other 20%. It's pretty crappy, I still have to pay $$ for everything.

Your medical expense would be less if you kept the rubber side down. Just sayin'

Link to comment
Share on other sites
UglyBob Domestique

UglyBob

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, Kzoo said:

This.  I don't have to beg - I have a credit card but I am careful.  I get an allowance each week that covers my typical expenses.  I get an expense check from work from time to time and that becomes my mad money used maybe for a cycling purchase of gift purchases.  She does a good job on the finances and I don't complain.  If we go out to eat she pays.

Ok, I don't really beg, but not being aware of the bottom line I always feel the need to ask. If it's under 50 bucks, I don't bother, be anything more and we like to make the decisions together. That goes both way. The closer she gets to retirement, the more we are trying to save, but it's not like we deny ourselves too often. I have a house full of bikes and a nice video drone that can attest to that.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Dirtyhip Flahute

Dirtyhip

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I don't consider internet a discretionary expense.  We kind of need that to operate.  Banking, business, etc. Netflix would be cindered discretionary, I guess.  Our entire budget operates within $2000 a month or so.  300 for all utilities (including internet and $10 for Netflix).

Personal care meaning shampoo, haircuts, and chamois creme.  

Medical expenses come out pretax mostly.  We do very well budgeting my HSA. I am lucky to be in good health with a decent medical ins policy.  I spend extra for a better policy (pre-tax).

I do admit to handling the finances for our home and rental.  My husband never needs to beg for cycling stuff.  Usually, it's more of a pre-notification of what he needs.  We have cut back on the brand new bikes every single year.  That was our biggest problem in the last 10 years. Bike crack is addictive.

My x-fit membership got cut.  Now that I learned the moves better, I can craft my own WOD.  They post their WOD on a blog, so I can steal it daily, if I want.  So, now I just pay for a cheap membership at my work gym.  There are some missing things, like no pull up bars, no boxes for box jumps, and no medicine balls.  It's a trade off, I guess. 

24 minutes ago, Ltdskilz said:

Is bourbon discretionary?

I would assume yes.  :)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Scrapr Domestique

Scrapr ★

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Randomguy said:

I have Netflix and have recently dropped Amazon prime.  The only thing I would miss is football, is there football on Sling/anywhere?

You bet. Sling is good. I bought up the sports package. $5 per month over the basic $20. I did it to get pac 12 channels. I should have dropped over the summer but did not get around to it. Sling has a couple of espn sec tbs and maybe a bit more. I do miss mlbn. I bet that becomes a stand alone in the near future

Link to comment
Share on other sites
petitepedal Flahute

petitepedal ★

Posted
Posted

I pay $70 a month for internet and a land line...no tv..I am over the air only..I do debate basic cable and high speed internet and dropping the land line..but I am not a fan of Comcast..and I like my e-mail provider...hair is $80 every other month..Gym is $22 a month. Wine needs to be less:whistle:..I put $$ into 3 different savings accounts each month

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MickinMD KOM / QOM

MickinMD ★

Posted
Posted

I love keeping a budget. I did it for a couple years as I approached retirement and it gave me a great estimate of retirement spending needs after I adjusted for no more mortgage and other down or up spending adjustments.

After Soc.Sec. kicked-in, on top of my pension, I started doing it again and there are free spreadsheets that make it easy to do.

The user-friendly free spreadsheet I use is the "Personal Budgeting Spreadsheet." the 11th one (even though the title says "ten...") listed here:  https://christianpf.com/10-free-household-budget-spreadsheets/

 If you don't have Excel a free equivalent, LibreOffice Calc, is part of the free LibreOffice suite here: https://www.libreoffice.org/

It's actually a "workbook" of 14 spreadsheets: One for setting up your categories and budget, one for a summary, and one for each month of the year, where you enter date, category, expense and any notes. The category column has a dropdown box in every cell with the variable spending categories you listed on the budget page, so you don't have to spell and potentially get it wrong and misplaced.

My Monthly budget in the areas Dirtyhip asked about:

Food: $275, Gasoline $45 (retired, Honda Fit), Personal Care $30 (only including hair cuts, toothpaste, shampoo, fingernail clippers, etc.), Entertainment $70.  Total: $420.

Actual spending:

Food: $244.49, Gasoline $40.56, Personal Care $28.94 (only including hair cuts, toothpaste, shampoo, fingernail clippers, etc.), Entertainment $79.09.  Total: $393.08.

Food doesn't include Restaurants $125/month budgeted and $91.56 spent, or Beverages $30 & $37.43, or Snacks $60 & 69.71.

I divide my variable spending into categories that are basically necessities or luxuries. That way I know how much fat is in my budget in case I need to cut back on spending - I can cut back on luxuries and look for cheaper sources of the necessities.  In the future I may add categories like "fruit" or "fish" to encourage healthier eating.

I also cut back on the unhealthy categories like snacks each year. In 2014 I spent an avg. $97.81/month on snacks.  I'm a little over the budgeted $60 at $69.71 in 2017, but I'm going in the right direction. I'll try to get under $60 in 2018.

  • Heart 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
shootingstar KOM / QOM

shootingstar

Posted
Posted

Well, maybe I should be tight as Mick. $275 for food / month?  Do you have a garden?  If I spend $320.00, that does mean eating certain things repetitively for moi.  But yes, I could scale down and still have some great meals. My mother did it for hubby and 6 children.

Eating out in restaurants probably is where the money drips out for us..  I get a haircut (wash, cut, style) for $50.00 and that is CHEAP for women's hairstyling. Fortunately only needed every 3 months or so.

So for discretionary monthly costs as DH asked at beginning of this thread, it would be closer to $800.00.

Note: we don't have a car. We use transit maybe 4 times per month.  Our higher costs is plane travel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Kirby Flahute

Kirby

Posted
Posted

I saw this article about the average food budget in Canada and it reminded me of this thread.  They say the average in Canada for a family of 4 is  Candian $220 a week (approximately US$172 at current exchange rates).

 

https://globalnews.ca/news/3828492/healthy-food-cost-canada/

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Square Wheels Flahute

Square Wheels

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Kirby said:

I saw this article about the average food budget in Canada and it reminded me of this thread.  They say the average in Canada for a family of 4 is  Candian $220 a week (approximately US$172 at current exchange rates).

 

https://globalnews.ca/news/3828492/healthy-food-cost-canada/

My family of 2 would not survive on that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...