View Full Version : My 2011 Budget - For Your Review
This is my 2011 budget.
No More Peaking At Me Naked! hehe
Hey Dude, thanks for posting. The only thing I see that you might be able to whittle down a lot is the gym membership. Mine, at Ballys, is $84/year because when I bought it I opted for the 3-year full payment up front with a lifetime of lower annual payments ever after. I think my first 3 years were around $600 for 3 years ($200/year) and now it is fixed at $84/year. My sister has a similair one at 24 Hour Fitness. She paid for 3 years up front ($600 - or $200/year) and now hers are fixed at $45/year for ever after. Those are both full use at any club on the planet memberships. So if you know you'll use the gym on a regular basis, then you might look into that. Otherwise everything looks pretty low to me. I'll post my "basic" one below too. Similair to yours I think but without a mortgage or assn. dues.
Here's mine (approx.): Bare in mind I'm debt free, mortgage free, don't have internet access at home, cable TV or any expenses for outside personal grooming like hair cuts, pedicures, manuicures, etc.., SoCal climate so low heating and coling bills, compact car.
Property tax (which includes annual trash and sewer charge): $1,000
Homeowners Insurance: $350
vehicle reg: $100
vehicle insurance: $350
electric: $150 (between $10 - $15/month)
gas: $300 (between $15 (most of the year) - $50 (winter)/month for heating, cooking, water heater)
water: $250 (approx. $20/month)
home phone: $250 ($22/month fixed rate)
cell phone: $100 (pay as you go tracfone used very little)
gym membership: $84
and everything else is lumped into one catagory: food, pet food, vet bills, toiletries, gas for the car, travel, maintenance and repairs, clothes, etc... aprrox. $6,000 per year ($500/month).
Total: approx. $9,000/year for everything
Editted to add: The reason i lump all the last stuff in together is that I don't actually have a budget/track those things. What I do is at the beginning of each month I withdraw $500 from my bank acct, it goes in an envelope and I just use that to pay cash for everything like food, gas, entertainment. Some months I spend less than $500 (and the remainder stays in the envelope along with a new months $500), and sometimes (rarely) I need to spend more. I try to stay within that $500 limit for everything and if I start to run low, will adjust my spending to reflect that. And since I'm an "all cash, all the time" person, I find it easy to stay within budget.
Wow -- you guys are frugal rock stars! I think many people in a less targeted crowd would look at those annual numbers and assume they are MONTHLY TOTALS!
I think it is probably more likely that people are going to be asking you for advice rather than giving it. Spartana, I know you follow YMOYL principals, and heydude it sounds like you do too (the comment about upping your entertainment budget, for example). For me, that is really the key question/process that seems to help people most when assessing budget. Is this in line with my values and giving me the kind of life I want.
I am all for frugality, and am doing my best to keep our family budget stable or reduced from last year's spending even in the face of significant inflation/currency depreciation that greatly affects our bottom line, but we have made the deliberate choice to spend more in a few areas this year. Travel/vacations is the huge one. After many years of spending almost all of our vacation time/money just visiting family, this year we made the choice to start taking more "for fun" trips. First one was to Hawaii this summer, combined with a trip home to the mainland US. Pricewise, it was painful, but it was the best vacation we have had in years and a wonderful family experience. Major impact on the budget bottom line, but that was ok. Others would look at our vacation budget and cringe, I'm sure (international flights for 4 people don't come cheap!), but for us the cost in dollars and life energy are both worth it.
Sorry, long rambling response, but that's my style. :) 3:30 am and I can't sleep, so might as well write....
lhamo
Wow -- you guys are frugal rock stars! I think many people in a less targeted crowd would look at those annual numbers and assume they are MONTHLY TOTALS!
I think it is probably more likely that people are going to be asking you for advice rather than giving it. Spartana, I know you follow YMOYL principals, and heydude it sounds like you do too (the comment about upping your entertainment budget, for example). For me, that is really the key question/process that seems to help people most when assessing budget. Is this in line with my values and giving me the kind of life I want.
I am all for frugality, and am doing my best to keep our family budget stable or reduced from last year's spending even in the face of significant inflation/currency depreciation that greatly affects our bottom line, but we have made the deliberate choice to spend more in a few areas this year. Travel/vacations is the huge one. After many years of spending almost all of our vacation time/money just visiting family, this year we made the choice to start taking more "for fun" trips. First one was to Hawaii this summer, combined with a trip home to the mainland US. Pricewise, it was painful, but it was the best vacation we have had in years and a wonderful family experience. Major impact on the budget bottom line, but that was ok. Others would look at our vacation budget and cringe, I'm sure (international flights for 4 people don't come cheap!), but for us the cost in dollars and life energy are both worth it.
Sorry, long rambling response, but that's my style. :) 3:30 am and I can't sleep, so might as well write....
lhamo
Well it does help to be single and childless when it comes to having low expenses :-)! Guess I should have put that in there too. Not sure if Hey Dude is single and childless (I think so) but it really is hard to even compare mine/our expenses to those who have kids and spouses - especially if one of the spouses isn't working a paid job. I was recently dating a guy with 3 young kids and just the food budget alone for a trip to MacDonalds was crazy. Everything from neding a larger home to medical bills to clothes to...well...everything! Don't know how you all do it. As a single childless person I could do alot more to make my expenses even lower - and have in the past - as I don't have to worry about anyone complaining except my dog :-)! And fortunately for me, I happen to LIKE things that are free or llow cost better then expensive things anyways - except fancy olives - so that helps to keep costs low while keeping me satisfied too.
Gardenarian
10-13-11, 4:34pm
This is so helpful! I'm trying to put together a budget with dh and this gives us some essentials.
Thank you!!! I will post ours when we are sorted out (don't hold you breath :-)
Also want to add - our property tax, homeowner's policy, and earthquake insurance come to more than $12,000 a year alone - and we paid over $17k for health insurance last year. Nuts!
Bastelmutti
10-13-11, 5:02pm
Well it does help to be single and childless when it comes to having low expenses :-)!
True! Area of the country matters somewhat, too. I salivate over the prices of things some people here pay compared to what we pay in the Chicago area. And that's not even Manhattan.
For me, these budgets are not applicable to my family of 4 currently, but are very interesting thinking forward about the time in a few short years when we will be w/out kids in the house and then further into retirement.
Also want to add - our property tax, homeowner's policy, and earthquake insurance come to more than $12,000 a year alone. Nuts!
YIKES!! That is nuts! Why so high? On my old house (valued at $200K to $300K which I bought for $120K) in Orange County, CA my homeowners insurance was around $335/year, eathquake policy was also around $335/year - with a $24,000 deductable - and my million dollar personal liability policy was $195/year. My property taxes were a whopping $300/year!! I had bought the home in Calif from my Mom and was able to keep her same property tax rate (Prop. 58 - Parent/Child Property Tax Exclusion). She had bought the house 25 years or so before and had very low prop taxes and in Calif our rates can't go up by more than 2% a year (and are 1% of the purchase price). So it was a good deal.
Your health insurance seems high too but I know that people who have pre-existing conditions pay alot more in monthly premieums then other's do. I get free/ low cost healthcare thru the VA because I have a military service connected disability. I do an annual financial assessment (earnings and assets) which determines how much in co-pays I pay each year - it's based on a sliding scale.
Also for any Calif property owners: Besides the Parent/Child - Grandparent/Child Prop. 58 I mentioned above, there is also Prop. 60 & 90 which allows anyone age 55 and older to transfer their property tax rate (tax base value of their home) to a new home when they sell their old place - as long as the new place is less then what you sell the old place for. For example: You bought a place for $20K 30 years ago and have $300/year property taxes. You sell that place now for $300K and buy a new place for $299K. Normally your property taxes would be $2990/year (1% of the purchase price) but you can keep the same $300/year in property taxes if you are 55 or older. Prop 60 is for transfers within the same county and Prop 90 is for transfers between counties. As of now prop 90 is only good between 8 counties so if you move from one county to another make sure this is allowed in the county you aremoving to. This is only good one time though. This is also good on new construction and you have 2 years between sale of the old place and purchase of a new place. And of course you can buy a new place that is much lower cost then your old place sells for too - they don't need to be near the same price.
our expenses run $45,000 per year. This worked really nicely when DH was making $68,000 per year. :)
Right now, we are earning (or running along at) $45,000 per year. So, we are breaking even. I would like to move beyond this again -- and as our business grows, i think we'll get there.
lhamo, yes, i believe the point of simple living is not to see who can spend the least BUT see who can spend the least on things that are not in line with their values in order to spend the most on things that are (or time on the things that are as many of the things in line with values cannot be bought).
my main goal right now is to get debt paid but once i do, i plan to spend more on what i enjoy. i struggle with paying more debt off now to enjoy more later or to start enjoying some more now but take a longer time to pay off debt.
fidgiegirl
10-13-11, 9:55pm
Thank you, heydude and spartana! You are really savvy savers! I couldn't think of a dang thing that you could save on, though I do envy your low insurance costs, and was somewhat surprised, being CA. I've never lived there but imagined EVERYTHING to be more expensive. Our homeowners is about $800 a year.
I will post some of my numbers soon!
Nicely done,Hey Dude and Spartana.
Heydude and Spartana, those are very admirable numbers.
I think we spent about $36,000 last year not including anything related to housing (mort/utilities/insurance). We're a family of 4, but one child is only here part time (student). I'm not happy with the figure and hope this year's numbers look a bit better. Housing costs seem to be the biggest variable depending on location.
jennipurrr
10-14-11, 11:58am
Your post inspired me to post my numbers, which are not nearly so good but its a work in progress. Thanks for the inspiration!
I haven't done much budgeting lately. My small pension and interest from CD's was covering my expenses pretty well. Now that interest rates are so low, I'm overspending and need to take a look at things. I have to say that one item that has tripped me up on budgeting is the unexpected or irregular. I had furnace repairs that were close to a thousand dollars this year and also expensive repairs on my 10 year old car. I like to have a group of friends over every few months and usually get a little beer and wine plus a light dinner and it always surprizes me how much that adds up to. I'm frugal about gifts, but holidays can clip me for some additional costs. And my water heater is getting old...and so on.
I use a debit card for most purchases and can come back to the monthly statements to compare estimates to real life, which helps me.
Anyway, good to see some ideas and numbers other folks are using since I'm taking a look again.
Ahhh, I do not see the numbers...is this thread dead or am I missing something here?
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