Personal Finance/Budgeting: Basic percentages

In My Humble Opinion
21

[QUOTE=Brown Eyed Girl]
…So I expect that at least 50% of our income will be going to debt reduction; but whatever it is I’d prefer to get the debt eliminated within six months. I don’t think it’s that bad really, maybe ~ $9-10k.
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Wow, it’s really great that your folks are putting you up while you kill off the debt.

One thing I discovered is that it’s extremely easy to underestimate the amount you spend on food, especially these days. I originally budgeted $100/week for food for one person (me). Eating out once a week after work, plus going to the company caf for lunch blew through that real fast.

As part of a group, you should have more of a chance for trading off tasks such as cooking, and doing them more efficiently in bulk. Having to do everything by oneself is one of the greatest disadvantages of living alone.

22

[QUOTE=Sunspace]
I’ve never owned a car, though. My understanding is that my auto insurance rates are far more determined by my experience and history of ownership, which is “not recently and not much”, and apparently puts me in the Most Expensive category next to the louts who crash their “arrest-me”-red Mustangs on the 401. I can actually afford a car; I can’t afford the insurance. The impact of my credit score is minor by comparison.
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Huh. I’m no expert on auto insurance. Mine is auto-deducted and it’s pretty low considering we’re older and own a soccer mom vehicle. My driving record is pretty clean, hubby’s not as good, but not horrible. I would assume that it’s based mostly on your area, your vehicle type, and your driving record. Although, I do know if you’re a young male (under age 25), it’s going to be steep regardless of those three factors. I only learned recently that our auto insurance is affected by our credit score, so I suppose we could be spending even less, but we have a long and good record (no claims, no missed payments) with our provider so I think that counts for something as well.

Keep in mind that you can usually save a little money on car insurance if you also carry renter’s insurance with the same company. It’s not much, but savings is savings.

There are also secured cards which actually are credit cards with a spending limit equal to the amount of collateral, usually a savings account or certificate of deposit which you can earn interest on. That’s also something I’ll be looking into once I’m out of the hole. There’s a lot of great into at bankrate.com I’m sure there are people around here I’d take financial advice from other than me, as well. :wink:

23

[QUOTE=Sunspace]
Wow, it’s really great that your folks are putting you up while you kill off the debt.

One thing I discovered is that it’s extremely easy to underestimate the amount you spend on food, especially these days. I originally budgeted $100/week for food for one person (me). Eating out once a week after work, plus going to the company caf for lunch blew through that real fast.

As part of a group, you should have more of a chance for trading off tasks such as cooking, and doing them more efficiently in bulk. Having to do everything by oneself is one of the greatest disadvantages of living alone.
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Yeah, we are very lucky that they are willing to give us a hand and a roof. I suppose it beats hearing about perpetual money dilemmas, watching us flounder and bailing us out every couple of years. They are good people and have an obvious interest in our success as well. :slight_smile:

It is easy to underestimate your food spending, especially when you’re eating out. We hardly ever ate out as a family, but when I was employed, I would spend $7-10 daily for lunch. So stupid…and I paid the price for it: wasted upwards of $40/wk on one meal/day and gained 20 pounds. :smack:

But I’m a pretty savvy grocery shopper and can easily feed a family of 3 on $450/mo, even though we are all addicted to $7 cheese (oh, how I miss it!). I was shocked to find out how much public assistance gives out for monthly groceries on top of food bank chits. It’s way more than I need, so I must be doing something right. The crappy thing is that I couldn’t buy TP and shampoo with it. Eating out, however, just kills the food budget, so for the time being, it’s just not an option. We just have to get better about fixing lunches to take with. That’s my weakness, I need a decent lunch when I’m working or I’m just miserable.

I’m kinda curious to see how feeding four adults and a kid works out. I’ve never done that before and it sounds like a lot of food. Well, at least we’ll have help. My husband and I both cook, although my dinners tend to be a bit more elaborate involving, you know, more than one dish. :smiley:

24

[QUOTE=Brown Eyed Girl]
I’m kinda curious to see how feeding four adults and a kid works out. I’ve never done that before and it sounds like a lot of food. Well, at least we’ll have help. My husband and I both cook, although my dinners tend to be a bit more elaborate involving, you know, more than one dish. :smiley:
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I hope you can do it for $450 a month. I’m feeding two young adults, myself and Hubby, and our groceries are about $120 a week. We only buy meat in bulk, and don’t buy a lot of unecessary things.

Last year when we had four kids here it was probably $180 a week.

Does your family eat leftovers? I probably cook about 3 times a week, and we eat the leftovers the rest of the days.

25

[QUOTE=NinetyWt]
I hope you can do it for $450 a month. I’m feeding two young adults, myself and Hubby, and our groceries are about $120 a week. We only buy meat in bulk, and don’t buy a lot of unecessary things.

Last year when we had four kids here it was probably $180 a week.

Does your family eat leftovers? I probably cook about 3 times a week, and we eat the leftovers the rest of the days.
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Well, I’m pretty sure I can. That’s $150 person and with a teenage boy in the house, we were spending closer to $600-650. He, by far, out-ate any of us.

ETA: And yes, we do leftovers and we make good use of our Bisquick cookbook. :slight_smile:

26

Don’t forget when food shopping that the little off-brand groceries can have some really good deals. At my local “dirty store” (and it is, kind of dirty, old building, etc) you can often get close out deals on things like an 8oz package of sliced Swiss Cheese for 1. They sell Pepperidge Farm bread for .89/loaf. That retails for 3.69 at Kroger. They have suprisingly good meat, and often very cheap. It's sort of like Big Lots for food. It's not a fancy store, but if you look weekly and stock up, you can often find good deals. Brown bagging your lawn can save big. Never buy from the vending machines at work. I keep a 12-pack of Coke under my desk and drink it with lunch. .20/12 oz can versus $1.25/20oz bottle.

Do you have pets? Make sure you find your local low-cost vet. For flea protection for my dogs and cats, I buy the largest Frontline (for dogs) and Advantage (one vial of dog Advantage will do four cats) and dose it out with a syringe.

StG

27

You are missing ‘unexpecteds’

cars break down, dishwashers need replacing…new roof…heater etc. It is best to save for these unexpecteds all along…slowly month by month. A % should go into ‘savings’ specifically designated for them…at least 5% and more likely 10%.

If you are renting and not owning, this is mitigated somewhat…but there will be something. If you do not set aside $$$ for them, they will bust your budget when they do and damage your morale/elan/discipline to follow a budget.

28

[QUOTE=Brown Eyed Girl]
Well, I’m pretty sure I can. That’s $150 person and with a teenage boy in the house, we were spending closer to $600-650. He, by far, out-ate any of us.

ETA: And yes, we do leftovers and we make good use of our Bisquick cookbook. :slight_smile:
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I figured if you thought you could, you could. But I get $150/wk per person —> $150 X 4 = $600. Unless I’m calculating that differently than you are. :wink:

29

NinetyWt - When they move, the adult son is staying behind. So they’ll only have 3 people (2 adults, one child) X $150/mo. I think

StG

30

Mmmm… lawn.

31

Throatwarbler Mangrove - You’ve never had a nise grass-clipping salad? Very economical.

What can I say - it’s migraine day along with sinus hell.

StG

32

Dandelion leaves go nice in a salad. Or would, if we weren’t trained to think of dandelions as ‘weeds’ and herbicide them to death… because of their histories of herbicide and pesticide applications, I’m not certain whether many lawns are safe for growing food crops.

33

[QUOTE=StGermain]
NinetyWt - When they move, the adult son is staying behind. So they’ll only have 3 people (2 adults, one child) X $150/mo. I think

StG
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Ah, here’s my mistake. I was multiplying by weeks instead of per capita. So, she’s saying $112.50 per week. Got it.

Sunspace, I think Broomstick was recently talking about harvesting her dandelion leaves. I’d never heard of it before that.

34

[QUOTE=BlinkingDuck]
You are missing ‘unexpecteds’

cars break down, dishwashers need replacing…new roof…heater etc. It is best to save for these unexpecteds all along…slowly month by month. A % should go into ‘savings’ specifically designated for them…at least 5% and more likely 10%.

If you are renting and not owning, this is mitigated somewhat…but there will be something. If you do not set aside $$$ for them, they will bust your budget when they do and damage your morale/elan/discipline to follow a budget.
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Absolutely. But I’m not missing them. It will be built into savings once we’ve covered our debt. I do expect it will be easier to maintain our budget once we have savings set aside and that is our first goal is to get that $1k emergency fund set aside within no more than 3 mos. After that the savings will be built up to 3 months worth of income and whenever we need tap into it for, well, emergencies, we’ll be increasing the payout to savings to replenish it.

My plan is to sock that emergency fund away into a separate interest-bearing savings account and keep the main savings account tied to the checking (ING) for accumulating savings for irregular expenses, which is built into the 15% miscellaneous group. Every month, we’ll have a set amount of funds transfered to both savings accounts (the emergency fund and irregular expense fund).

35

[QUOTE=NinetyWt]
Ah, here’s my mistake. I was multiplying by weeks instead of per capita. So, she’s saying $112.50 per week. Got it.
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Yeah, when I was keeping up with the shopping and we had money, I was going about once every three weeks for the large bit and then once more in between perishables like milk and veggies. My normal grocery trip for upteen bags of groceries to last for the 3 weeks was typically around $300-350. Then I’d go back and spend another hundred or so for milk, bread, cheese, fruit and other stuff we went through a week or so later.

I’m not a fanatic coupon clipper (although I use a few), but I usually buy stuff on sale and use the loyalty cards or shop at you-bag-it type stores. There are a few items I’m pretty brand loyal and some off brands I avoid like the plague, but I’m learning how to be more flexible. Buying in bulk is sometimes good (48 rolls of TP!), but I’ve found that Sam’s Club can be dangerous as far as sticking to a budget. My best talent is the ability to walk up to the register with an overflowing grocery cart and be able to estimate the final total to within $2.00. Impresses my husband every time. :slight_smile:

36

My girlfriends and I are saving a LOT of money by doing a weekly Supper Swap - each of us fixes 4 dinners (filling a 9 x 13 pan) and we trade them. Voila, a week’s worth of meals. It’s so much cheaper buying food in bulk, plus the variety of cooking styles helps keep us from getting bored. And I LOVE only dirtying my kitchen 1x/wk.

Re: those percentages, that’s close to what we’ve been doing and it’s working well, it’s doable. I’ve been tracking costs in Excel and breaking things down for about a year now.

37

About 1/3 of my take-home goes for the mortgage (PITI). One nice thing about owning is that my pay goes up from time to time, while my mortgage (P&I, at least) basically stays the same. At my first job, I was paying more to rent a 2 BR apt in a suburb than a fellow teacher was paying for a 3BR house on prime real estate b/c they’d bought it 25 years earlier.