Monthly Income?

[mill4023]

Mortgage(including tax and ins) - $1700
Basic Utilities - $350
Car payment - $500
Gasoline - $300
Car insurance - $150
Cell Phones - $250
TV/Internet - $160
Karate - $125
Preschool - $540
Braces - $185
Food - $800 (no eating out)

Total: $5060

That $800 a month for food is what I think we could get by on, pretty bare bones for a family of 7.
But our biggest problem is the unexpected miscellaneous expenses that always come up. Home or car repairs, Dr's visits, new shoes or clothes, birthday parties, etc, etc.

 

[MowgliFan]

Our bare bones budget would be:
$775 - mortgage, insurance, taxes
$400 - gas, insurance (no car payments)
$400 - food
$235 - phone/internet, water, electric
$30 - DH's prescriptions
$85 - household, pets, misc.

Total: $1925.

Cutting landline/internet would save $45/m, but I wouldn't do that because I do stuff online and earn that money back. I could reduce food by $100 if I had to, and save on gas by letting DH drive my car instead of his truck (we do this sometimes already). Some months our electric and water are a little lower, so overall I'd say bare bare bones could be $1800 (which we've had to do before).

Our current budget is pretty close to $1925 - no cable, our phones are each $15/m (tracfone & net10), etc.

 

[Eastern]

I thought I lived relatively simply but according to this poll I am a spendaholic.

 

[estherhead]

Just added ours up and it's around $2500.00. But that includes my vehicle which will be paid off soon. We are a family of five. If we really had to, we could move in with my parents who have a big house with an apartment in the basement. That would get rid of our mortgage ($1000.00 incl tax & ins) and utilities. Our other option would be to rent our part of our house that would bring in more money. Currently we make around double that which is why we can pay for our Disney addiction. And we have FOUR iphones. Obviously, those would go. But if we had to... and we moved in with my parents... I bet we could live on $1000-1500. That would include any rent/help with utilities to them (they have cable and internet we could share). And they have big gardens so I would can and freeze more stuff than I currently do.

I guess for me right now I work full time so I waste money on conveniences. But I'm really good at the Suzy Homemaker stuff too. I just can't do both at the same time as there are only so many hours in a week.

 

[Soben]

This is a good thing to know, when I figure my 1 year emergency fund, I use my bare-bones number. $2K for our family of 5.

However, Health Care is kind of an unseen, since it's coming straight out of DHs paycheck and is subsidized by his employer and the tax benefits. If something happened to him or his job and that's what caused us to go "bare-bones", I can think that would totally double our estimate. If he was the sick one and was uninsurable, I guess we would just have to kiss everything we've saved goodbye. It's kind of depressing.

Also, bare-bones calculations don't include my sinking funds. I save for our next car, appliances, home repairs, things that would still come up and be needed. But since they aren't payments, I didn't include them.

 

[kamik86]

Just taking out our savings and not really cutting back any other budget items I got 2K. But that measn not cutting down on what we spend in food and we really could.

However that number will be going up soon. We are under contract to buy a house and PITI will be about 300 more then what we pay in rent now. But we gain another bedroom, a half bath, bigger rooms of everything else, and a yard. Lose the noise from others in the same building... so definitely worth it.

 

[DisneyEater]

I find that whatever amount I make (despite it now being double what I made 5 years ago) is just under what my wife's bare bones budget is.

 

[JessB320]

I find that whatever amount I make (despite it now being double what I made 5 years ago) is just under what my wife's bare bones budget is.

Hehe love this so true

 

[plummer925]

Sorry. I should have read further. I do see now that you said you are mortgage free. That's awesome.....And yes the fact that you plant your own garden I'm sure is a big help to you. I would like to be able to plant a garden. It's a lot of hard work and I can't manage to keep house plants alive.

I'm kind of with you - I can hardly keep plants alive but hubby seems to have a green thumb. About all I can manage is plants that take care of themselves - cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, etc.

 

[AngieMouse86]

My DBF and I could live off around $650-700/month BUT we are lucky to be in a practically rent-free living situation right now, so we are saving heavily to move out on our own. That amount doesn't include what we'e putting away though, just food, gas, cell phones, internet and the nominal rent/utilities amount we do pay.

Our savings are adding up nicely though, as our 2 big things we're saving for are our next Disney trip and moving out. We're trying to be very smart about striking out on our own though and are factoring in the cost of every little thing; One of our younger coworkers recently moved out but she failed to factor in stocking her kitchen with food, furniture, having a little extra money to buffer her from unexpected expenses, etc and is now having a very tough time.

We also realize how lucky we are to be able to have such low expenses right now, so while it may not be ~cool~ to live with parents/MIL, it's brought our expenses down. We all get along well, too, so it's not a bad situation. I count my blessings.