My monthly spending plan
I always find it interesting to see people’s budgets, and have gotten some good ideas from some of them, so I thought I’d share my my current one. Two caveats though, this doesn’t include business or rental income or expenses. And some of the amounts might seem kind of low, but that’s because my husband & I each pay for half of joint expenses, which are marked with an asterisk. (So I’m only showing my half for those.)
Here goes:
Housing*
Principal: $170
Interest: $260
Escrow (taxes & insurance): $73.43
Repairs: $20
Improvements: $70
Maintenance: $5
Household expenses*
Groceries & paper goods/toiletries: $125
Non-durable goods: $2
DSL: $14
Landline: $13
Electricity: $61
Water: $17
Postage: $4
Yard cleanup: $9
Pets*
Cat food: $5
Kitty litter: $5
Dog food: $10
Boarding & license fees: $40
Vet bills: $6
Entertainment & personal spending
Netflix: $8.10*
Movies in the theatre: $10
Snacks: $10
Dining out: $150
Travel: $50
Events (concerts, plays, etc.): $50
Hobbies: $10
Gifts: $50
Son’s allowance: $12
Scouts: $10
Son’s cell phone: $7
My cell phone: $35 (actually this is a business expense, but I put it here since people will probably wonder why my son has a cell & I don’t. I wouldn’t need it if it weren’t for my business though.)
Future expenses: $50
Auto-related expenses
Maintenance: $10
Repairs: $100
Gas: $60
Insurance: $50
Health & appearance
Haircuts (me): $60
Haircuts (son): $6
Clothes (me): $33
Clothes (son): $45
Medical: $25
Dental: $15
Life insurance: $17
Total ordinary expenses: $1782.53
Total non-business & non-rental income (after taxes & 401k): $1888.94
I was putting the difference (and more) toward my student loan. Now that that is paid off, I’ll be saving for a few months (to pay more taxes, probably), and then we’ll start putting much larger additional payments toward the mortgage. (The amount shown above already includes a small additional amount to principal.)
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October 25th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
Do you account for where every penny goes on paper each month?
Im just wondering, since Im reading Dave Ramsey now.
What would be your second best book for me to read?
October 25th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
I don’t do much of anything on paper since no one can read my handwriting (including me, if I look at it months later).
But I do use Quicken and a couple of spreadsheets to track every cent of income & outgo (along with where it came from and where it went). I write down cash purchases (which I have maybe $7/month of) in my planner and then transfer them at the end of the month to the spreadsheet.
I liked all of the books in the sidebar here. They’re pretty much in the order that I liked them. If you’re looking for information on ways to track Your Money or Your Life has a lot in it on that.