How much do you spend per month?

theplk · Post by **theplk** » Tue May 28, 2013 8:40 am

I'm going to start tracking my expenses next month but I'm curious to know how much (or how little) most of you guys spend per month?

bulgaria · Post by **bulgaria** » Tue May 28, 2013 10:11 am

That depends on a lot of factors. Perhaps most importantly is where you live.

bibacula · Post by **bibacula** » Tue May 28, 2013 10:46 am

Actually, I was thinking of posting my spending, because I'm currently living in Taiwan, and other forum members seem interested in the cost of living in different overseas locations.
Over the last two months, I've averaged $597/mo. This includes a furnished studio apartment in one of the smaller eastern cities in Taiwan. I also go out for both lunch and dinner every day.
This doesn't include the $765 that I spent on trains, planes and buses to get from the USA to Taiwan.

bluejoey · Post by **bluejoey** » Tue May 28, 2013 1:22 pm

I'd be hard pressed to give an exact number, even though I chart it every month, because part of what I file under "expenses" includes the extra we're throwing at the mortgage each month.

directionseeker · Post by **directionseeker** » Tue May 28, 2013 2:29 pm

I have been tracking my expense for six years now and I still can't tell you the exact number, I will say maybe averaging SGD1,000 per month. But this number can go as high as 3,000 and as low as 650, so there is really difficult to provide one.
I do foresee my expense will be more stable after I read about ERE and Mr Money Mustache. I have cleared my student loan since then and now clearing some 0% credit card bill and personal loan (should be paid off in 2 months time). After all this, I think my expense will fluctuate between SGD 800 to SGD 1,000.

JohnnyH · Post by **JohnnyH** » Tue May 28, 2013 6:29 pm

Think there's another thread somewhere out there about this.
My big expenses will be $150 housing related, $150 grocery, $150 health insurance, $50 auto. Then big variable hobby & investment purchases.

C40 · Post by **C40** » Wed May 29, 2013 12:13 am

$500 per month? Very nice.
I'm at $1,000 per month. $500 is apartment rent. I usually have $250 or so of hobby spending per month in there.

Post by **jacob** » Wed May 29, 2013 12:34 am

I have a decade+ long track record of spending between $400-600 per month (that includes being single and my half of being married). This includes health-insurance and occasionally a vehicle.
It does not include buying stuff because I usually finance that by selling other stuff.

theplk · Post by **theplk** » Wed May 29, 2013 4:20 am

Thanks for the replies guys - really inspiring!
I will let you all know what my monthly spending in June is like soon.

bluejoey · Post by **bluejoey** » Wed May 29, 2013 4:34 am

I'll add that I used to track my spending down to the last dollar when I was single. Now that we're married, we still track things, but my wife handles the vast majority of our finances now, even though we're in agreement on how the money is spent. I get the fun job of plotting our spending, savings, and investments on a chart each month. : D

rube · Post by **rube** » Wed May 29, 2013 6:18 am

Average over last 8 months: € 2179

Highest month € 2982

Lowest month € 1966
Family of 4 (2 small children) in the Netherlands

bigchrisb · Post by **bigchrisb** » Wed May 29, 2013 11:30 am

Highly variable, and generally more than I should!
Average: $4,400/month. $2,400 in core expenses, $2,000 month on overseas travel and scuba diving.
Maximum recorded total spend: $7,400, minimum $1,033. While its no excuse, for context my income is fairly high and variable. Considered in the context of savings rates, highest savings rate month: 93%. Lowest 42%, average 74%. There is still a fair bit of fat I could cut in the expenses tab. However, a 20% cut in expenses would only raise my savings rate from 75% to 80%, and in my current situation I'm not convinced. If my income shrank significantly, I'd be taking a quick axe to the cost base, particularly the overseas travel.

Zeran · Post by **Zeran** » Wed May 29, 2013 1:15 pm

Avg £856 ($1295) over the last 4 months

£415 Rent

~£100 bills

~£100 food

The rest is on hobbies / entertainment / traveling.

zarathustra · Post by **zarathustra** » Wed May 29, 2013 2:39 pm

Monthly Expenses:
-Goal this year was: $1,000

-Actual so far: $1,375
Side note: I live in a van. (well, sleep & store clothes there)
Increase is due to 3 things:

(1) education expenses (to jump through one final hoop for my degree)

(2) best friend's wedding (one-time)

(3) doubled travel budget (likely more realistic than originally budgeted for)
Camping/Storage Fees $50.00

Cell Phone & Internet $0.00

Car Insurance $110.99

Utilities: Laundry & Batteries & Swim $16.35

Spotify/Hulu $9.99

Eating $263.29

Gas or transport $185.28

Caffeine $17.31

Going Out $169.19

Clothing $47.57

Books & Other Entertainment $23.13

Wax $50.60

Haircut/color $22.50

Cleaners, Air Freshener, etc $16.29

Beauty/Health Prods $3.94

Misc (Park, tickets, atm, carwash, etc) $39.34

Van $12.07

Medical & Dental $33.21

Gifts $10.83

Travel $157.17

Wedding $0.00

Education $136.08
TOTAL BILLS $1,375.14
Plenty to trim down on.

DividendGuy · Post by **DividendGuy** » Thu May 30, 2013 12:51 am

For quite a while I was only spending about $1,200-1,300 per month. I now have health insurance and so my monthly nut has been pushed up to a rather uncomfortable $1,400-1,500 level. I need to reexamine areas for reduction.

BlackRat · Post by **BlackRat** » Thu May 30, 2013 8:28 am

My weekly average without uni fees is $200 a week, so a bit under $500/month
weekly avarages:

$75 rent (I do live in a caravan in a friend's back yard, it includes all bills except my phone)

$8 alcohol (was 0, until I decided to buy some winemaking stuff)

$5 phone, prepaid

$29 food

$6 household stuff

$27.50 karate (includes tournaments and associated costs)

$12 uni stuff

$10 hunting stuff (stuff I won't need to buy again mostly, has gotten me a big stash of venison in the freezer so far)

public transport, fuel(when I borrow cars) and bike repairs are all running at ~$4.50/week

I have a couple more catagories, but they're even smaller... I'm proud of my average $1.79/week on eating out!
+$365 for a years gym membership
Getting a car soon and the insurance + rego will average $15+ a week though...

BlackRat · Post by **BlackRat** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 12:35 pm

Sorry, just under $900 a month, not sure how I came up with that

DebtSlaveNoMore · Post by **DebtSlaveNoMore** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 1:27 pm

Average: $5000/month for a family of three :S
So there are lots of improvements to be made here.

Canadian Dream · Post by **Canadian Dream** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 7:04 pm

$3000/month...family of four in Regina, SK, Canada. That's the delux lifestyle number (vacations, house renos, etc). Core spending is about $2200/month. We have been a bit over kill on spending for the last year...paid off the mortgage and slipped back into some bad habits. Time to clean up and take that number back down.

Fred Tracy · Post by **Fred Tracy** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 9:17 pm

Last month I spent ~$550. This month I moved in a new room mate so I'll probably end up at like $250 if you count his rent as me not having to pay that expense (it's $300/month).