What are your monthly expenses?

granolamom

Thu, Mar 27 2014, 6:08 pm

pause wrote:

What's amazing to me is how much food expenses per month vary so much in similarly sized families. One family of four spends 500 (how do you do that????) and another family of three spends 1000. One family of six spends 700 and another family of five spends 1400.

depends what you eat I guess.
we're a family of 7 (kids ranging from 4-15). our weekly grocery bill hovers around $250-$300. we eat meat/chicken only on shabbos but we eat lots of fresh fruit/veggies and my kids are lactose intolerant so I buy the lactaid milk which is not the cheapest in the store (although costco has a decent price, I am not always able to get to costco). I've been trying to get out monthly food bill to under $1000 and I just havent been able to do it, even with cutting out frozen pizza and impulse buys at the checkout counter (I always have kids with me).
I can see how easily a family of five can spend $1400 monthly. food is pretty expensive.

pause

Thu, Mar 27 2014, 6:12 pm

amother wrote:

I'm in the one who said we spend 1000 on food for 2 adults and a child. You're right it is a lot. We eat out a lot. The money could be saved but it makes my life easier right now so I don't feel bad.

I hope I didn't come across as being judgemental. That was not my intention.

I am simply amazed at the two ends of the spectrum, and I guess wondering about how I could lower our groceries bill... Smile

amother

Thu, Mar 27 2014, 7:05 pm

Family of six per month

Food: $1000
Tuition: $1250
Rent: $1450
Therapy: $900
Utilities: $200
Car: $100
Misc: $500
Business expense: $1000

And I'm sure I forgot some expenses...

amother

Thu, Mar 27 2014, 7:56 pm

Living overseas family of 8
rent 2151
groceries 1500 - 1600
tzedaka 1000 this month
education 600 including school and preschool
utilites - 300
health insurance 230
gas 100
cleaner 3h per week 180 - but I dont always have - I go on and off with cleaners -soem months I have and some nor

does not include medical, clothes, shoes, car expenses such as insurance, repair, regsitartion

Deep

Thu, Mar 27 2014, 8:16 pm

pause wrote:

Food is way more expensive in some oot communities. When I'm in NY, I'm always amazed by the fantastic deals on chicken and meat that seem to be ubiquitous.

amother

Fri, Mar 28 2014, 2:10 am

family of 4 in brooklyn = $4,265 for food, childcare/tuition and rent

this does not include utilities, pharmacy items, life insurance, health insurance, co-payments, cleaning help, cleaners, clothes, incidentals

amother

Fri, Mar 28 2014, 3:35 am

Family of 8 OOT:

Tzedakah $250+
Rent $900
Tuition $450
Food $1400
Utilities $300 (electric, phone, cell phone, averaged heat)
Car $500 (car payment, insurance, gas, some maintenance - more than in-town, we have to travel to get kosher food, for example)
Household $100 (diapers, paper goods, cleaning supplies)
Business expenses $100 (freelance)
Total $4,000

But many of those costs are flexible - I.e. Pesach adds $2-$3K to regular expenses, last year was bad for car - ended up costing closer to $1000 per month when averaged out, and lots of miscellaneous expenses, some predictable some not.

amother

Fri, Mar 28 2014, 7:47 am

2 adults and a toddler in ny:
Rent 1175
Utilities 50-60
Internet 50
Car 500
Food and household 600
Tzeddakah 350
Clothing and miscellaneous 200
Life insurance 150
Health insurance 400

So about 3500 a month. And we don't even pay tuition yet....

amother

Fri, Mar 28 2014, 9:05 am

I am also amazed at the low tuition costs, esp for those families with 3+ kids in school and only $300-500 tuition costs for a month!
Where do you find these schools, or does everyone really get a tuition break? I am just starting to send my kids to school but I have yet to see a school whose tuition is less than 6000 for a year! (and that is on the low end)
Is there some secret that I don't know about?

amother

Fri, Mar 28 2014, 9:28 am

OOT for a family of 3 1/2 Very Happy

Mortgage & taxes: $481
Utilities: $250
Car lease & insurance: $260
Health insurance: $150
Life insurance: $5
Phones: $35
Internet: $35
Credit cards: $500 (We are in the process of paying them off. We don't use them at all.)
Tuition: $100 (We got into the voucher program, and other grants still pending.)
Food: $600
Toiletries & Misc: $50

amother

Fri, Mar 28 2014, 9:33 am

I think those of us who are wondering about the tuition prices have to remember that there are all types of frum women on this site.

One lady said that her cheder tuition is 200 a month and that's a break from the 400 a month due to her husband working in the school. That means that staff gets 1/2 off, not sure if that's common in all schools or not. In either case though 400 is significantly the schools I would consider would charge but I'm not chassidish so it doesn't make sense for me to send to a chassididsh school.

so is there a secret- I think it might be to send to a chassidish school- amother are you interested?

I think the difference in schools also comes up in terms of attitude towards paying full tuition- if you send someplace where full tuition just covers your own kid or not even, you will have a a different attitude then if you are scrimping to pay it knowing that it goes to pay for your kid and 1/2 of another kid.

TwinsMommy

Fri, Mar 28 2014, 9:36 am

as far as tuition goes, we lucked out--- both our kids are special needs enough that they can't attend day school even with one on one aides--- they need the intervention specialists and social skills pullouts and adapted phys ed and OT and speech and all the goodies that come with public school. I'm so sad they can't be in day school (Yet?), but so incredibly happy with their public schools (aside from the lack of limudei kodesh). I forgot to put on my list $100 a month for tutoring (Jewish studies).

amother

Fri, Mar 28 2014, 10:03 am

Just to address the food amount discrepancy - we are a family of four (2 little ones who don't eat too much) and we pay close to $1000 per month for food. We could cut back on our grocery expenses a lot - if we didn't have guests for Shabbos. It would probably cut our food budget by 1/3 (making it closer to $600 than $1000), but we love having guests and B'H, we are able to afford it, so we have people almost every week. Shabbos makes a big difference in budget whether you eat out a lot, have guests or eat alone.

Maya

Fri, Mar 28 2014, 1:06 pm

amother wrote:

Chassidish schools cost way less than other schools. Some go down as low as $200 a month, and the discounts get steeper with each child enrolled.