@Orinoco, how did you quote the prior post like that? (Sorry gang, I really don't know.)
When I looked at the numbers, at first I thought it was a perfect example of keeping up with the Jones'-- despite the different location, climate, cost-of-living, etc... many of the expense levels are pretty similar. Why? Social Pressure?
But after spending a bit of time with the data, you can see it seems somewhat fudged-- car maintenance is the same for all locations, and some other points, too-- so probably some of the data comes from surveys or studies, and some is speculation. IMO the combination is likely inaccurate.
Though, almost all good spending surveys suggest that the majority overspends in this country.
Speculating on "normal" people's budgets
By the way, this is a really interesting site that lets you drill down into people's spending by category for different zip codes, ages, household types, income levels, etc.
http://money.bundle.com/everybodysmoney/
I wanted to post it earlier but had forgotten the name.
http://money.bundle.com/everybodysmoney/
I wanted to post it earlier but had forgotten the name.