Annual Living Expenses

Frugal Bachelor · **Joined:** Wed Aug 29, 2007 7:02 pm **Posts:** 44

Frugal Bachelor likes to look at his spending on an annualized basis to get big picture view of how much he's spending against how much he's earning and to see trends from year to year. This is all spending, not including taxes, saving, or debt principal payments.

His total spending is 2007 (single guy living alone in TX) is $22,951.74, which is divided into 4 categories: Rent ($8.5K), Insurance ($1.5K), Vacation ($1.5K), and Spending ($11.5K) - the last category will increase by maybe $500 before the year is over, the others are paid up, this year's total will come in around $23,500.

Anybody else have this info and willing to share? Frugal Bachelor is interested in seeing how it compares to others, both singles and couples with kids, people living in more expensive places or cheaper places, people who live more frugally, or less frugally, etc.

nickel · **Joined:** Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:39 pm **Posts:** 284

I don't have these data readily available, but I do have a question...

Is there a reason that Frugal Bachelor refers to himself in the third person?

SJean · **Joined:** Mon May 14, 2007 7:20 pm **Posts:** 309

The only one I can readily tell you is rent: $6900. Not including utilities or anything. I don't have enough data to tell you other spending.

floppel · **Posted:** Sun Dec 02, 2007 12:30 pm

I only have data from the last two months, but when I extrapolate it:

Single guy, SF bay area
Rent+Utilities: $22.8k

Insurance: $0.7k
Vacation: $0
Spending: $9.6k

I still kick myself for signing a 11 month lease for this expensive apartment.

honeybee · **Joined:** Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:01 pm **Posts:** 90

floppel wrote:

I only have data from the last two months, but when I extrapolate it:

Single guy, SF bay area
Rent+Utilities: $22.8k

Insurance: $0.7k
Vacation: $0
Spending: $9.6k

I still kick myself for signing a 11 month lease for this expensive apartment.

Boston area... diiiiitto.

srowl · **Posted:** Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:14 am

Ouch, sorry for those rents.

Here's our breakdown (2 adults plus an 8 month old):
PITI + Utilities: $13.5K
Insurance: $1.5K
Vacation: $0.5K
Other: $17K

ambition · **Joined:** Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:07 am **Posts:** 193

My numbers are as follows:

-Rent & Utilities = 9.2k
-Insurance = 1.6k
-Vacation = 1.5k
-Spending (food, entertainment) = 4.8k

Mine includes a fifth category, the dreaded student loans = 6.2k. I will be working soon to aggressively reduce this.

Anne · **Joined:** Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:50 am **Posts:** 295

Single, Chicago, these are projected amounts for 2008 since 2007 was wacky due to a condo sale and divorce:

PITA + utilities: $21,000
Insurance (health): $1,800 pretax
Vacation: $2,500
Other Spending: $7,800

brad · **Joined:** Thu Apr 05, 2007 3:05 pm **Posts:** 1192

These acronyms flying around confuse me. Is PITI the same as PITA? Or is PITI just a PITA? ;-)

Anne · **Joined:** Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:50 am **Posts:** 295

brad wrote:

These acronyms flying around confuse me. Is PITI the same as PITA? Or is PITI just a PITA? ;-)

Ha! I don't know if I made up "PITA" or what. I have a condo, so in my case "A" (assessments) replaces the usual "I" (insurance).

marsman57 · **Joined:** Tue Sep 18, 2007 12:27 pm **Posts:** 354

Interesting, a very quick analysis shows my rent+utilities is only about 12.5k a year on average (13.6k if you include cell phones for the wife and I in that)

JerichoHill · **Posted:** Mon Dec 03, 2007 2:54 pm

nickel wrote:

I don't have these data readily available, but I do have a question...

Is there a reason that Frugal Bachelor refers to himself in the third person?

The Rock Says It Doesnt Matter if you talk about The Rock in Third Person!

jenolyman · **Posted:** Mon Dec 03, 2007 4:37 pm

I do a monthly budget w/ a quarterly total & average, so I was able to get a pretty good picture of where our money is going. December isn't quite finished yet, but I can see several areas my husband & I need to work on. This is for a family of 5 (3 kiddos, ages 6,3 & 1).

Mortgage: $13,095 (includes taxes & insurance)
Extra principal payments on mortgage: $2,000
Charitable contributions: $5,467
Roth Contributions: $8,000
Utilities: $1,923
Personal Allowance: $1,800
Groceries: $3,902
Car Insurance: $865
Gas: $1,943
Household stuff: $1,916
Cable: $586.20
Telephone: $300
Internet: $227 (Only since July)
Eating Out/ Entertainment: 1,108
Car Repair: $580
Gifts: $554
Kids stuff: $1,632
Misc.: $1321
Vacations: $1,600

Thanks for making me sit down and figure all this out!
Jen

HollyP · **Joined:** Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:38 am **Posts:** 280

In the suburbs of Boston for a family of four, I spend more than $24,000 annually on mortgage for a modest fixer-upper house, and another $18,000 for day care/after school care/summer care for two children. I expect to spend $600 for electricity, $600 for phone, $600 for internet access, $2,300 for oil, $6,760 for food (including dining out).

I will be very happy next year when both my kids are in school. I think we'll be able to stop our frugal living.

jdroth · **Posted:** Tue Dec 04, 2007 12:55 pm

I intend to make a post out of this again in early 2008, but here are a few highlights:

Housing: $19,656 (mortgage & interest, half paid by Kris)
Comics: $900 (down from $3200 in 2006)
Dining out: $1800 (holding steady)
Groceries: $1200 (down $600 from 2006)
Cable: $300 (down from $800 in 2006)
Phone: $100 (down from $600 in 2006)
Vacation: $2,000 (up from $800 in 2006)

There are lots of other expenses, of course, but many have caveats. For example, my book spending is up for the year, but part of that is personal finance books, and another chunk is because I caved and re-signed with Audible, but paid for a year in advance in order to get a discount.

More detailed numbers on the blog in about a month.

Annual Living Expenses

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