How much do you spend a year?

amother

Teal

Thu, Aug 31 2017, 3:25 pm

Per month:

Mortgage and utilities: 3k
Food: 2k
Tuition: 3.5k (4 kids but one is in UPK this year B"H)
Babysitter: 1.5k
Car and metrocard expenses: 500
Internet, water, phone, life ins, gardening, other maintenance: 500
Clothing, camp tips, school fees, school supplies, gifts for bar mitzvahs and weddings, toiletries: 500

That's 11.5k per month, so it's 138k per year, but really we spend around 150k per year including home repairs and vacations.

amother

Ecru

Thu, Aug 31 2017, 3:53 pm

yogabird wrote:

Including a mortgage?

Yes, my mortgage is $1,000 a month. (Including taxes and insurance)
Here are some more details:
-we have one car and own it (bought used)
- landline through the internet (on family plans for our cell phones)
- no cleaning lady
- minimal dry cleaning - I iron dh shirts
- mostly hand me downs for kids from relatives

amother

Silver

Thu, Aug 31 2017, 4:29 pm

We earn 70,000 and we use every penny.

3 children kh

amother

Copper

Thu, Aug 31 2017, 5:57 pm

85k brooklyn 3 kids. I get off easy. Dh is a rebbe and gets parsonage. We dont send kids to dh school but our tuition is given straight to our kids school so our taxable income is lowered a lot. We pay a lot less taxes and health insurance (obamacare) than other ppl who technically earn same as us.

amother

Brown

Thu, Aug 31 2017, 6:45 pm

We earn $180k and spend about $90k a year. 4 kids under 9.

tichellady

Thu, Aug 31 2017, 6:46 pm

A lot. Life is expensive

mille

Thu, Aug 31 2017, 8:41 pm

Just as a general overview, we own a house and have one kid in daycare (around 14k/annually), according to my budget spreadsheet we spend about $71k/year not including pre-tax contributions (e.g. 401k) because as far as we are concerned, that money doesn't exist. We save 25k/year at our current rate.

amother

Apricot

Thu, Aug 31 2017, 11:53 pm

Brooklyn... 3 kids in school... spend about 65k

MrsDash

Fri, Sep 01 2017, 12:34 am

Wow! I'm not going to say how much(little) we spend a year. It might make some here cry... Midwest, baby! Wink

amother

Linen

Fri, Sep 01 2017, 12:43 am

amother wrote:

I have no idea how much I spend. Buy what I need,DH pays the bills. Save a little every month.
DH always complains that I spend to much, I promise to be more careful and the cycle continues!

Mortgage is $3300 by 12 = 40k
Tuition is - 12k (2 kids)
$2500 monthly in food - 30k

Thats 80k on nothing. Clothes, Yom Tov, 1-2 vacations, utilities on house, phone bills, car lease insurance and gas etc...

I would hate to know what that final number is!

2,500 per month on food with 2 kids? Just clarifying since we spend about 1,600 including papergoods and cleaning products and everyone always tells us we spend too much. Do you eat out a lot?

amother

Violet

Fri, Sep 01 2017, 1:18 am

Mortgage and utilities 38k (flatbush)
Tuition 30k (3 kids)
Health Insurance 24k
Groceries 12k
Clothing and shoes 3k
Vacations 3k
Day Camp 4.5k
2 cars leased 6k
Cleaning help 5k

That's 125.5k for the big ticket expenses. There is plenty not included here.

amother

Amethyst

Fri, Sep 01 2017, 2:44 am

europe.

50.000 euro , 2 kids, we own our house/no mortgage, just utilities, tuition, food, insurence, savings, cleaning help, etc.

amother

Indigo

Fri, Sep 01 2017, 8:37 am

I never worked the numbers but probably about $60k. Part of it goes on the credit card or my parents help out. Actual income is less than expenses. We're trying to fix that. No car. Renting. 5 kids kah.

Per month
1600 rent
1500 tuition/child care
260 utilities, phone
1200 groceries and household stuff
250 interest
200-500 other

amother

Peach

Fri, Sep 01 2017, 10:32 am

Mortgage: 30k
Tuition: 26k
Cars:6k
Insurance, all types:7k (?)
Housekeeping:5k
Food/household:24k
Utilities:5 (? - we just moved, so still have to learn)
Camp/babysitting:4k
School transportation:3k
Phones, yard, maintenance, vacation, clothes, yom tov, gifts, unexpected: 5k? (guessing here)

Total approx 115k (I overestimated some factors I think). Our pretax duel income is 180k, but after taxes and expenditures, we really don't have much to put away. We try whenever possible to pay back loans (student loans, recent moving expenses) around 1k a month. I really hope we can one day make it to the point where the very little extra we have a month goes towards savings. It's ridiculous, because we are well (as in, more than double) above the mean household income in the US or our state, and yet we struggle. Rarely buy clothes for me, wash my own sheitels, one vacation a year that we utilize point/miles for, meat only on yom tov, frugal shopping (recently I have taken to driving a few hours into Lakewood before yamim tovim to shop at their discounted stores selling last years styles for my kids, who only get new clothes for yom tov), dd pays for half of her camp. Need 2 cars because dh and I both work full time, but 1 car is a 12 year old clunker that's about to die (I added in lots extra to the car expenditure above to count all the recent mechanic work, and probably soon new additional monthly care payments as the current car is likely to be fully dead very soon). It's so depressing to work so hard, and yet barely have our heads above water.

4 kids, but oldest is enrolled in the school where dh works, so we get really reduced tuition for her. And unfortunately, even with a salary that is (on paper) decent, we still have to ask for reduced tuition for our other 3 kids, because full tuition in our area (OOT) is 14k/child. I wish I didn't have to, it's so humiliating. But if we paid full tuition for all 4, that would seriously be most of my take-home pay.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack this thread. Just putting our expenses on paper does this to me.

amother

Coral

Sun, Sep 03 2017, 2:09 pm

I keep track of every penny, so can give an idea

5 kids, 2 out of school
out of town
rent
Around $100k on very tight budget
tuition is high
no cleaning help
One car
no prepared takeout/pizza/ bakery/frozen foods etc
I watch every penny
I'm paying off debt, in addition to the 100k we spend, we save zero at this point, hope to once we get get a good grip on debt repayment, a result of being underemployed due to unavoidable factors for many years.

I remember the days I thought 100k a year was well off!!

amother

Honeydew

Sun, Sep 03 2017, 2:16 pm

Around $300, not including taxes, tuition, and occasionally gifts from mil. Can't expect any help from fil or sil or folks, ah well...

amother

Lime

Sun, Sep 03 2017, 2:20 pm

amother wrote:

Around $300, not including taxes, tuition, and occasionally gifts from mil. Can't expect any help from fil or sil or folks, ah well...

I don't understand this post. You spend 300k on life before tuition and tax and you even think about help?

amother

Ecru

Sun, Sep 03 2017, 3:29 pm

amother wrote:

We earn $180k and spend about $90k a year. 4 kids under 9.

That's amazing! May I ask what you do with the remaining money? Save? Invest?

amother

Ecru

Sun, Sep 03 2017, 3:30 pm

MrsDash wrote:

Wow! I'm not going to say how much(little) we spend a year. It might make some here cry... Midwest, baby! Wink

Yup! That's where I live!!