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Forum -> Household Management -> Finances
How much for a family of three per month?
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amother
Peach


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 12:55 pm
groovy1224 wrote:
Listen, you do you, no hate but it really 'amazes you' how people make it work with smaller numbers than this?

If you have a 6K mortgage, I'm assuming you own a large home.
$1500 in food plus takeout is..a lotta food?
I've never even heard of $1800 monthly gym membership.
Plus you are able to save.

Again, I'm not bashing you for your numbers, but do you really feel like you're living with the bare minimum?


The gym is a lot because I have a personal trainer. And I totally don’t live on the bare minimum. But I’m not spending like a millionaire and I spend $20,000. So how can someone make it on $4,000? That’s my question. Not how can someone make it on $8,000 or $9,000.
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amother
Bisque


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 12:58 pm
amother wrote:
The gym is a lot because I have a personal trainer. And I totally don’t live on the bare minimum. But I’m not spending like a millionaire and I spend $20,000. So how can someone make it on $4,000? That’s my question. Not how can someone make it on $8,000 or $9,000.


You would think the tuition committees ask the same question. But they don't.
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amother
Mistyrose


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 12:59 pm
amother wrote:
We spend $20,000 a month. Sometimes more. 3 kids. These numbers people manage on always amaze me.


Peach, please help me. I am trying to figure out how to tighten our budget. I also quite can't comprehend the tiny numbers everyone posts. What is your food budget not just groceries , total food including eating out?
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amother
Magenta


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 1:02 pm
amother wrote:
The gym is a lot because I have a personal trainer. And I totally don’t live on the bare minimum. But I’m not spending like a millionaire and I spend $20,000. So how can someone make it on $4,000? That’s my question. Not how can someone make it on $8,000 or $9,000.


Easy. By renting a small apartment and not paying tuition costs or car leases.

I recently moved, but where I was living before my budget was around 3000 and I was living very comfortably (just me and husband).
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amother
Taupe


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 1:08 pm
amother wrote:
You spend less the $750 a month on food for a family of 5??

What to do you eat?

As for me, we eat chicken or meat for dinner every night. Fruit and vegetables. Cereal and yogurt for breakfast. I probably spend $30-$50 on takeout every week as well.


Fleishigs for dinner at least twice a week (besides Shabbos leftovers). Chicken and rice. Schnitzel. Grilled chicken. Meatballs and spaghetti. Stews and soups. Macaroni & cheese, fried fish, tuna casserole, baked ziti, sometimes eggs and bagels, homemade pizza... those are the most common dinners in my house. We like simple foods.

Plenty of fruits and veggies. I stock up on meat and chicken at lower prices and freeze when possible. We don't have large roasts or fancy meat except for YT, it doesn't get eaten.

My kids get lunch in school, I didn't count that toward my total - do you make lunches?

Breakfast - I eat cereal, kids eat yogurt, oatmeal, homemade waffles (I make a big batch and freeze so we can just pop into the toaster), smoothies. I shop for staples (pasta, baking ingredients, cereal, juice, coffee etc.) at Target or Shoprite, not in kosher stores, which really adds up.

I don't know, maybe my numbers are off (I haven't had to examine spending in a while b"H) but I don't usually spend more than $150 at the supermarket every week, plus a larger staple stockup every month or so.
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amother
Black


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 1:09 pm
amother wrote:
I do pay for a personal trainer. And one of my kids needs Pt as well, and that’s part of my gym expenses. My son goes to a personal trainer at the gym who does exercises with him to strengthen him.


This thread is for families of 3. Obviously as a family grows needs increase and expenses increase. My posts are for 2 adults and a toddler. You can't compare that to a family paying tuition and therapy.

That's how the numbers are so off
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amother
Black


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 1:19 pm
amother wrote:
That is a LOT for food. I have the same family size and spend less than half of that, and I'm not the most careful spender when it comes to food. What are you buying??

OP and others in Lakewood, prices at NPGS are almost always cheaper than everywhere else. (I tend to shop in other stores just because of the Pride of the Farm milk, but when I was watching my spending more carefully I always shopped at NPGS.)


For some reason NPGS has the name of being cheap.

Evergreen has cheaper chicken, meat and vegetables. Shop carefully with sales and you'll do way better.

Also, walmart for cereal, canned goods, snacks, honey, etc etc
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amother
Ivory


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 1:20 pm
amother wrote:
I must say I am impressed with your resourcefulness!

Buy obviously we live in different places where things are priced differently. Also we pay about $850 alone a month for our cars...

What would you say your total monthly spending is? I can’t seem to get a clear picture.


I'm sorry my post was a bit all over the place embarrassed our average is 1300 euros.
Of course some months more and some less. But my husband usually makes an Excel sheet every 3 months and then we check where we saved or where we spent too much. To the posters who say they spend 20k.. don't feel bad because I love in Europe.. I think Europe is just much cheaper and the wages are much lower than the US. So I guess it wouldn't be fair to compare! I actually don't know any family who could spend 20000 euros a month. Most people I know make 40000 or maybe 60000 a year. Health insurance covers all medical costs beside dental. Depending where you live, you usually don't need a car. You can use the train and most of the time the train tickets are paid by the employer.
We do make an effort to to buy things on sale.. and that does save tons of money. But things like insurance, cars etc. That's nothing you can influence I guess.
But we do buy everything that doesn't need to be bought a kosher store in a regular supermarket. We don't eat meat so often, mostly shabbos and then maybe one other time during the week. Sometimes my husband wants only soup for dinner so we have soup and bread. We both love pasta.. which is also very cheap. Sometimes there's great coupon deals. A couple weeks ago I bought some food, detergent, toothbrushes and got all the money back.
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amother
Taupe


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 1:24 pm
amother wrote:


Evergreen has cheaper chicken, meat and vegetables. Shop carefully with sales and you'll do way better.

Also, walmart for cereal, canned goods, snacks, honey, etc etc


Interesting. I never bought produce at NPGS, and I don’t shop at Evergreen (too far). Staples always seem to be cheaper at NPGS, I do my pre-Pesach shopping there. I buy whatever possible at Target and Shoprite except for things that need to be “kosher brands.”
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amother
Ivory


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 1:24 pm
Mayflower wrote:
When you compare European and US financial needs, it's really comparing apples and oranges. Healthcare is extremely cheap in Europe, and tuition, day care etc. is much lower. Wages are also much lower. People in Europe tend to have less money to spend but at the same time need much less, making it possible to have a good quality of life with much less resources.

That said I think 760 EUR rent / month including all expenses is very cheap even for Europe.


Yes it's extremely cheap. Much cheaper than the apartment I had when I was single. Like I said.. we just got lucky. We were looking for an apartment and a lady told me about this building which was newly renovated and they got money from the government to renovate it. Which means the government decides how much rent they can ask for. They're not allowed to raise the rent for 10 years. Once they do the price will go up, it will be about 350 euros more per month. But we will have more kids by then besrat hashem so we will need a bigger apartment anyway.
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amother
Ivory


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 1:29 pm
amother wrote:
$2000-savings
$1500-food
$1800- gym (I know that’s a lot but it’s very important to me for health reasons.)
$600- cleaning help
$600-therapy
$600-tutors
$500- car insurance

Then there is clothing, household products, gifts, extra curricular, babysitters, takeout/restaurant, toys, school supplies, household repairs, gas....

There is also stuff like doctors, dentists, Yom tov expenses, vacations, outings....

The list goes on and on.

There is always things to buy.

Believe it or not, I need to budget carefully.


See so those are expenses you wouldn't have here. Therapy is covered by insurance. Gym is 20-30 euros a month. Sometimes if you get a good deal it's 10.
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amother
Black


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 1:35 pm
daniels mom wrote:
I'm in Lakewood too, pay a lot more for childcare and car insurance! Do you send to a CHS daycare?


Not chs.
$240 for 915-2, husband watches baby until 4, $30 a week for aftercare until I get home. That's a total of $360.
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mom!




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 2:41 pm
amother wrote:
Interesting. I never bought veggies at NPGS just because they’re not great there, and I don’t shop at Evergreen (too far). Staples always seem to be cheaper at NPGS, I do my pre-Pesach shopping there. I buy whatever possible at Target and Shoprite except for things that need to be “kosher brands.”


This is pure lashon hara. Regardless of the fact that they are cheaper than most stores on regular groceries. Even if they weren't to post such a thing on a public forum, is 100% lashon hara.
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amother
Black


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 2:48 pm
daniels mom wrote:
This is pure lashon hara. Regardless of the fact that they are cheaper than most stores on regular groceries. Even if they weren't to post such a thing on a public forum, is 100% lashon hara.


I edited. I didn't mean for something I wrote to lead to lashon hara. If you can taupe please edit as well.
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amother
Chocolate


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 4:29 pm
amother wrote:
That is a LOT for food. I have the same family size and spend less than half of that, and I'm not the most careful spender when it comes to food. What are you buying??

OP and others in Lakewood, prices at NPGS are almost always cheaper than everywhere else. (I tend to shop in other stores just because of the Pride of the Farm milk, but when I was watching my spending more carefully I always shopped at NPGS.)


Yes the groceries are cheaper there, however:

Problems with NPGS-

- don’t have pride of the farm milk as you mentioned

- the fruits and veggies are very very expensive

- the chicken is costly and the meats is not the hechser I need.


I use Gourmet Glatt which is a bit more expensive but has everything I need and amazingly sales. The customer service is amazing. The delivery option from the store is extremely convenient.
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amother
Black


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 4:39 pm
amother wrote:
Yes the groceries are cheaper there, however:

Problems with NPGS-

- don’t have pride of the farm milk as you mentioned

- the fruits and veggies are very very expensive

- the chicken is costly and the meats is not the hechser I need.


I use Gourmet Glatt which is a bit more expensive but has everything I need and amazingly sales. The customer service is amazing. The delivery option from the store is extremely convenient.


It sounds like you're doing ther best you can and your budget is in the range of normal.

Do you have records of last year to compare emu it was lower then? Were the fixed expenses less then?
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amother
Chocolate


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 6:04 pm
amother wrote:
It sounds like you're doing ther best you can and your budget is in the range of normal.

Do you have records of last year to compare emu it was lower then? Were the fixed expenses less then?


This is the strange part-

my rent was higher $1300 plus $150 utilities (we moved now $1000 total)

Babysitting was $630 now playgroup is $345

The only thing I could think of: Baby was a baby and formula was covered by WIC. Now she’s a regular toddler eating applesauces, yougurts, juice lots of snacks, cheese sticks extra which cost an extra $30 around a week. So my food bill was definitely lower. More like $500 a month. I also had no cleaning help or barely. Now I take one a week for two hours.

She also just started walking in the summer, I got her expensive first pair, she outgrew them quickly (two moths later) and I looked in the department stores, couldn’t find went back to the Jewish stores and spent another $80... other than that her expenses are same. Same diapers, clothes ect.

Insurance was lowered a drop.

And yet... we spent $4,000 a month as opposed to this years $4500-5000

I’m really scratching my head!
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amother
Green


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 7:09 pm
amother wrote:
We spend $20,000 a month. Sometimes more. 3 kids. These numbers people manage on always amaze me.


Wow!! Good for you for being able to afford 20k a month . May I ask what you and your husband do for a living ?
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amother
Green


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 7:12 pm
We spend around 5k a month for a family of 5. We don't eat out or buy takeout .
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amother
Forestgreen


 

Post Thu, Nov 08 2018, 8:05 pm
amother wrote:
We spend around 5k a month for a family of 5. We don't eat out or buy takeout .


Same here and we do occassionally buy takeout. (Sometimes more than occassionally) Smile
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