Recurring monthly expenses (minus mortgage/rent)

[Luv Bunnies]

For our family of 4 (one of whom is away at college but home for breaks), our fixed monthly expenses are around $1200. That includes our HOA fee, electric/gas, water, cable, internet, cell phones, auto and homeowner's insurance and alarm monitoring. Our house is paid off so no rent or mortgage. No credit card balances or car payments. We live in a townhouse so our HOA fee covers the roof, outdoor repairs, sidewalks, painting, gutter cleaning, gardening, etc.

 

[DnA2010]

This has reminded me I need to confirm some costs that DH pays (money comes from the same place, but some stuff on his cc)

Electricity- $160 (averaged)
Gas- $55
Internet/House Phone- $125? (not sure- DH knows)
City Water/Garbage/Recycling- $67 ($200/quarter)
Cell Phones (3)- $150
Streaming- $25? (not sure- DH knows)
Life Insurance- $100? (not sure- DH knows)
Insurances (Vehicles below,House)- $500
So say $1,125ish? Could be less as I'm not sure exactly the streaming, internet costs

Insurances from above:
House Insurance- $1000/yr
Vehicle Insurances (1 car, 1 SUV, 1 Horse trailer, DH motorcycle for 6 months)- $5,000 maybe?- crazy expensive here in BC Canada

Our mortgage (includes city taxes) is around $2,500/month, so we are $3,600 before anything else

 

[kathy884]

About $2450 for a family of three (add another $900 (total of $3350) if you include property taxes and groceries which I know you said to exclude, so that's not in the $2450) -- no mortgage, no auto loans, pay off credit cards monthly, etc.

Monthly Expenses or monies to put into funds monthly
300 a month pre-tax for medical, dental, vision for family of three and long term disability buy up insurance (come out of paycheck off the top)
300 a month homeowners insurance (replacement cost coverage -- earthquake coverage etc. too) This is funding to pay annual bill.
300 a month to pay semi-annual auto insurance premiums on cars
200 a month high speed internet, streaming services, other computer subscriptions -- things like apple music, etc.
250 a month (electric, gas, water, sewage, trash pickup)
200 a month cell phones
120 a month cleaning service
120 a month hair care (coloring, highlights, haircuts) -- I get my hair colored and get highlights every 10 weeks.
400 a month in savings fund to buy cars for cash every 10 years or so (could defer -- we use monies for large auto repairs as needed too)
80 a month tennis club membership and court time
80 a month for rep season tickets
50 a month to cover preventative snaking by plumber for tree roots every year, grass and tree treatments, treating ash trees to prevent bore ash disease every two years, turn on and turn off of sprinkler system
50 a month to pay annual umbrella liability insurance policy

 

[kathy884]

I should also say I do not currently have a cell phone bill. I'm still on my parents plan (I'm 37... so yeah I'm riding that wave), and I only use my husband's old phones so no phone payments or anything. Once the kids are older and start getting phones then I will need to add that.

lol -- My parents practiced tough love and stopped paying my cell phone bill (having me on their plan) when I turned 54. Looks like with that example that I'll be paying for my son's cell phone bill for a long time.

 

[Rob Huff]

Family of four. Taking 2020 monthly averages:

$273 health insurance (pre-tax)
$90 dental insurance (pre-tax)
$763 property taxes (modest home in expensive area with superb public schools)
$81 homeowner's insurance+umbrella policy
$141 gas+electric (gas is high in the winter (heat), eletric in the summer (AC))
$119 water+sewer+trash+recycling
$40 internet+TV
$35 phone (my wife's plan - my phone is paid by my employer)
$148 auto insurance
$25 auto licensing
$53 life insurance
$95 for DVC dues
$27 YMCA (our portion - remainder is subsidized by employer)
$1,890 total ($1,127 if you exclude property taxes)

In addition to the above, we all spend/set aside the following amounts:

$352 giving (includes church)
$592 HSA contributions (pre-tax)
$208 college savings (we've kicked this up in 2021 to $400/month)
$358 saving for the next car purchase
$391 saving for vacation
$1,901 total

We pay most of our medical bills from the HSA -- not the most efficient long-term savings move, but I suspect that we'll turn the HSA into another IRA after a couple more raises in the coming years. The practical impact of this, however, is that medical bills don't impact our budget because the cash in the HSA is there to cover the expenses. We don't have vision insurance, my employer covers my disability policy, and there are a couple of one-off expenditures for which I don't save along the way. The only one that jumps out at the moment is that I'll spend $200-$250 once a year getting a cord (or more) of wood dumped in the driveway.

 

[Darcy03231]

For oil, electric, cable/internet, sewer, cell phones & insurance (car & home) - about $1000/mo

No car payments, mortgage or credit cards.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Interesting to see what others spend.

We are a household of two adults and are at $1,750 and that is all electric, gas, water/sewer, insurance (homeowners, auto, life and umbrella), internet, YouTube TV, cellphone plans, and all subscription services (on-line newspaper subscriptions and streaming services), and also includes a new car lease that is $620 of that total. We actually went down to one car (pandemics show you want you can do without....and a second car is definitely one of those things), but since we were going with an electric vehicle for the first time, we decided to lease it to see how we like it.

 

[StacyStrong]

This month it was $626.30 for gas, electric, cell phone, water, water delivery, car insurance, cable, and internet. An extra ~50 a month for health, vision, dental and 150 a month for my HSA. So about $825 give or take.

I did not include my minimum on my student loan because it's in forbearance. I have no credit card debt + my car is paid off. I also did not include subscription services because those can be stopped at any time. But, if I did, it's about ~25 more because I only have two.