Couple of observations. I am the sole earner in our house. I am fortunate that I make about $140k and we live suburban Texas. In our family of 4 our basic expenses are as follows.
Mortgage is $2100/ month
Homeowners insurance $400/ month
Property tax $200/month
Car insurance $185/month
Electricity $250/month (average)
Natural gas $40/month
Water+trash $200/month
Internet $90/month
Streaming (disney/netflix/audible) $45/month
Groceries $400-600/month
Gas $200/month
Toll roads $50-100/month
Cell phone $200/month
Coffee once a week $40/month
Date night food (once a week) $500/month
Fucking health insurance for the family is $750/month (my contribution, my employer pays the majority)
Roughly $6250/month give or take.
We don’t have consumer debt, no car notes, no child care (stay at home parent cares for the kids) no daycare, and no paid child activities.
That is just our fixed expenses, something always comes up so obviously there is more but its inconsistent.
My car is a 2019 wrx that was $30k we paid it off last year but the note on that was $470/month. I couldn’t get that car for that price today.
We have an older suv for my partner and I have an old pickup that sits unused unless we need to make a hardware run, those vehicles are paid for, no loans and have been for 10+ years.
Our last house was purchased for $191k in 2016 and we sold it for $295k this past year.
Our insurance went from $1200/year to $4800 per year on that house before we sold it. Similar thing with property taxes.
Unless you have managed a 10% return or salary increase, your money doesn’t go as far as it used to.
I am happy to pay my fair share of taxes. For what I am paid, I feel like its reasonable to contribute more in taxes based on my earnings, but as a result, my take home is obviously not $140k. So when you figure fixed expenses are ~$75k, plus my 401k contributions, savings for my kids college fund, and incidentals for stuff like car tires, birthdays, christmas, house repairs, medical expenses, etc, its relatively easy to eat up the remainder of that pool.
What would Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey say about this extravagant internet connection you’re using right now? And did you eat today? Just expense after expense with you.
I’ll have to look into it. Last I checked, att, tmo, and Xfinity were all about the same for a 2 line unlimited plan. We talked about doing google fi a few years back but they were limited on devices.
Bruh, what? Mine is $2000 for two cars. Full coverage on both, and both of us have spotless driving records. Not even a single parking ticket in over 15 years (since we both started driving). My car is $1200 per year, and my wife’s is $800. Her car is 3 years older than mine.
FWIW, my area (North Texas) is notorious for bad drivers and uninsured drivers. Even if my driving record is spotless, the rest of the idiots on the road make my premiums go up.
My bad, its $185/month, just checked. The drivers, comprehensive coverage, my old truck, wife’s old suv, and my wrx. Progressive was cheaper by a significant margin vs state farm.
AH, 3 cars would do it. I saw you mentioned the WRX which I know is a “risky” car. But I was like, dang I haven’t had those prices since I was a 19 year old with an accident on record.
Yeah, clean record for 8+ years I am older than 35. Its gotta partially be the area. We got a homeowners insurance quote on one of the houses we looked at, regular house, $400k price, they wanted $16k per year in homeowners insurance… Not in a flood zone, no historical damage, no extra risk factors.
In suburban texas, you’re probably getting hit by the uninsured drivers bit, even if you’re not actually getting the uninsured drivers coverage. The area is just bad in regards to the amount of drivers on the road without it.
HEB means you probably saved 40% on your grocery bill each month. If you had to shop at Publix in Florida your monthly would be $1000+/month. Your insurance might also be double on both car and home.
HEB is significantly more than Aldi where we do most of our shopping. We do a HEB trip roughly once a month or every other month to get the stuff Aldi doesn’t carry.
The mortgage usually includes the principle, property tax, and the interest (also mortgage insurance too if you have that). Why do you have them all listed separately?
I was explaining this to my neighbor on a fixed income, that it costs over $6k a month to run my household, she looked genuinely confused for a second as she runs her life on about 1/30th that cash. What’s awful is we’re still going in the hole and I’m just using my 403(b) to collect my employer match so I can cash it out regularly and pay off expenses. So no savings is occurring.
I’m sorry to hear that. I was there 3 years ago on a smaller budget. I thought we were in a decent spot financially and then we had our first kid (planned) and my partner stayed home with our baby. Our income went down by roughly a third overnight and we had a $10k delivery bill and all the other new baby stuff. We burned though our savings in about 9 months even though I was working. I almost opted to sell my car but I was very fortunate to find a new job making about 30% more and we recovered. The stress in that situation is immense and I hope you find a way out.
Thank you, yeah I took a $30k pay cut into my current job after being laid off for 5 months, which destroyed us. Now I have to figure out how to consolidate and secure all the debt so we can get enough credit to consolidate and secure all the debt :) Hoping for a reversal like you, glad you found it.
Couple of observations. I am the sole earner in our house. I am fortunate that I make about $140k and we live suburban Texas. In our family of 4 our basic expenses are as follows.
Mortgage is $2100/ month
Homeowners insurance $400/ month
Property tax $200/month
Car insurance $185/month
Electricity $250/month (average)
Natural gas $40/month
Water+trash $200/month
Internet $90/month
Streaming (disney/netflix/audible) $45/month
Groceries $400-600/month
Gas $200/month
Toll roads $50-100/month
Cell phone $200/month
Coffee once a week $40/month
Date night food (once a week) $500/month
Fucking health insurance for the family is $750/month (my contribution, my employer pays the majority)
Roughly $6250/month give or take.
We don’t have consumer debt, no car notes, no child care (stay at home parent cares for the kids) no daycare, and no paid child activities.
That is just our fixed expenses, something always comes up so obviously there is more but its inconsistent.
My car is a 2019 wrx that was $30k we paid it off last year but the note on that was $470/month. I couldn’t get that car for that price today.
We have an older suv for my partner and I have an old pickup that sits unused unless we need to make a hardware run, those vehicles are paid for, no loans and have been for 10+ years.
Our last house was purchased for $191k in 2016 and we sold it for $295k this past year.
Our insurance went from $1200/year to $4800 per year on that house before we sold it. Similar thing with property taxes.
Unless you have managed a 10% return or salary increase, your money doesn’t go as far as it used to.
I am happy to pay my fair share of taxes. For what I am paid, I feel like its reasonable to contribute more in taxes based on my earnings, but as a result, my take home is obviously not $140k. So when you figure fixed expenses are ~$75k, plus my 401k contributions, savings for my kids college fund, and incidentals for stuff like car tires, birthdays, christmas, house repairs, medical expenses, etc, its relatively easy to eat up the remainder of that pool.
And all these rich jerks saying if you stop paying for streaming services you’ll be rich too
Don’t forget about my one $7.70 coffee per week. That’s what is the issue.
What would Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey say about this extravagant internet connection you’re using right now? And did you eat today? Just expense after expense with you.
Dave Ramsey would call
youthem* “lazy” and then proceed to tell people he doesn’t “do lazy.”I’m just impressed by the groceries. Our family spends twice that much but boys do eat a lot.
My kids are young but yeah, that cost is going up with groceries and them growing. Its impressive how quick you can eat money.
Why pay $200/mo for cell service when companies like Mint and Cricket exist? You could be paying under $200/yr for that alone.
I’ll have to look into it. Last I checked, att, tmo, and Xfinity were all about the same for a 2 line unlimited plan. We talked about doing google fi a few years back but they were limited on devices.
What vehicle insurance do you have that is 260 a month in insurance? I have two cars both fully insured and I am paying 800 a year TOTAL.
Bruh, what? Mine is $2000 for two cars. Full coverage on both, and both of us have spotless driving records. Not even a single parking ticket in over 15 years (since we both started driving). My car is $1200 per year, and my wife’s is $800. Her car is 3 years older than mine.
FWIW, my area (North Texas) is notorious for bad drivers and uninsured drivers. Even if my driving record is spotless, the rest of the idiots on the road make my premiums go up.
My bad, its $185/month, just checked. The drivers, comprehensive coverage, my old truck, wife’s old suv, and my wrx. Progressive was cheaper by a significant margin vs state farm.
AH, 3 cars would do it. I saw you mentioned the WRX which I know is a “risky” car. But I was like, dang I haven’t had those prices since I was a 19 year old with an accident on record.
Yeah, clean record for 8+ years I am older than 35. Its gotta partially be the area. We got a homeowners insurance quote on one of the houses we looked at, regular house, $400k price, they wanted $16k per year in homeowners insurance… Not in a flood zone, no historical damage, no extra risk factors.
In suburban texas, you’re probably getting hit by the uninsured drivers bit, even if you’re not actually getting the uninsured drivers coverage. The area is just bad in regards to the amount of drivers on the road without it.
Wouldn’t surprise me. At least the state is not using paper temp plates anymore. Its the one good thing they have done in the last 20 years.
HEB means you probably saved 40% on your grocery bill each month. If you had to shop at Publix in Florida your monthly would be $1000+/month. Your insurance might also be double on both car and home.
HEB is significantly more than Aldi where we do most of our shopping. We do a HEB trip roughly once a month or every other month to get the stuff Aldi doesn’t carry.
The mortgage usually includes the principle, property tax, and the interest (also mortgage insurance too if you have that). Why do you have them all listed separately?
You can escrow them or pay them separately. Ours is separate. Our last house was an escrow account all lumped together.
That makes sense
I was explaining this to my neighbor on a fixed income, that it costs over $6k a month to run my household, she looked genuinely confused for a second as she runs her life on about 1/30th that cash. What’s awful is we’re still going in the hole and I’m just using my 403(b) to collect my employer match so I can cash it out regularly and pay off expenses. So no savings is occurring.
I’m sorry to hear that. I was there 3 years ago on a smaller budget. I thought we were in a decent spot financially and then we had our first kid (planned) and my partner stayed home with our baby. Our income went down by roughly a third overnight and we had a $10k delivery bill and all the other new baby stuff. We burned though our savings in about 9 months even though I was working. I almost opted to sell my car but I was very fortunate to find a new job making about 30% more and we recovered. The stress in that situation is immense and I hope you find a way out.
Thank you, yeah I took a $30k pay cut into my current job after being laid off for 5 months, which destroyed us. Now I have to figure out how to consolidate and secure all the debt so we can get enough credit to consolidate and secure all the debt :) Hoping for a reversal like you, glad you found it.