Ladies, How about we share our monthly budget and understand where we can improve? Let me share mine. I try to stick to my budget max and I do in most of the categories. Groceries: $300 Rent: $1100 Restaurants: $150 Entertainment: $50 Shopping (for both of us): $100 General Shopping: $100 (including gift, home shopping etc) Travel: $300 Auto: $120 Bills and Utilities (electricity bill, gas, phone, internet): $500 (We travel a lot for work; So, our gas bill is pretty high when comparing normal household) Everything covers in the above budget except sending money to parents.
Uma.. ur budget seems pretty good For us, budget varies every month.. we may plan for some trips once in 3-4 months All the basic mandatory needs - rent +bills and utilities + entertainment + commute expenses - all this sums up for 2000$ we have buffer 300$ for personal/home shopping since we are pretty new to US.. rest we use it for loans and savings.. or planning for next trips.. still am cracking my head to find an optimal budget.. and areas to save and improve I use budgetin apps at times, and it helps.. this thread can be moved to US forum I guess, so we can expect lot of replies..
Uma ji ,same case for me also houserent+utilites+bills+expense itself $2000........ weekly groceries is reaching $100 ......am planning to cut it down .... remaining for paying loans ....... Previously we were spending more on restaurants and dress ........ later i minimized it........ May i know where u folks are shopping ? i did it in Macy's couple of time a big hole in my wallet .........
ladies, Monthly rent will vary from state to state. So we cannot do much on that. Here is my budget in the current state we are staying. Rent: 1200$ Groceries: 100+$ per week (we are a family of two) Utilities: 500$ (cable+internet-130$,Phone-160$,water/electricity/gas/trash etc-300$) Gas for Car: 150$ ( this varies based on trips. We use premium gas for our sports car and hence low mileage/more cost since this is a guzzler) Entertainment:250$ Eating out: Again this varies. 100$ (approximate) Misc (like shopping,gifts): 150$ Please let me know where we can try to reduce our expenses.
Guy here. Interesting thread, we should have in US section. Budgeting depends on income level, lifestyle, kids and most importantly location. Most of the numbers posted here are reasonable. I used to spend bit more than some posted here. I am single by the way. Most of my married friends clock much higher numbers, with a majority (close to 60%) going to housing. Mine is a bigger city so it is higher than Texas, etc but much lower than California or East Coast. I have got buddies who are older, most of them are higher incomes however. Here are some number I gathered. Many of them spend a lot for housing. 80K Single Income Smaller Midwest City - Around 2K, with Infant. 200K-250K HH Income in Bay Area - Around 4-5K, with Infant. 175K-200K HH Chicago Downtown - 3-4K 150K Single Income Chicago Suburb - 2.5-3K, with Infant 300K-350K HH DC Area - 7-7.5K (With 2 Kids) 400K-450K HH NYC - 10K (with 1 Kid)
Thanks k11! that's a great info. How come your friends share their income and monthly budget? I'm just curious I think we shouldn't consider house expenses as they differ by location. I'm looking to improve the budget in other categories. thanks Anusha, 2012, and Helpmeanger!
Yes we were disscusing some investment ideas in RE. Money leftover every month is how we got to the numbers. Of course this is not strict, approximates. Seems guys do not mind sharing.
K11, That's true. Women don't discuss financial matters unless thay're really close friends. Thanks for your info!
I use Quicken for my personal finance. I can budget well for my income with this SW. My HH expenses are roughly $10K/Month (including house +Tax(on our income) etc..) with 3 adults+kid
OP, can you give some tips to reduce the budget? Mine is more or less similar to yours, except for rent, its $ 800. We tried to reduce it by changing the cable to basic one. We use more internet. We are family of two, still our grocery goes to around $800 per month. I'm very much worried on that front. Just don't know how to reduce it :-(
