How much do you spend a year (living expenses)?

W

willister

Care to share? Just worked out our family budget with the newborn arriving 6 months ago - worked out to be $24.5K per year, simple breakdown as follows:

Utilities $3,500
Transport Fees to Work: $1,550 ($129 x 12)
Fuel: $1,500 ($50 a week x 30 weeks avg)
Car Costs: $1,700 (Rego plus Insurance plus self servicing)
Groceries: $5,500
Clothing: $2,500
Mob Phones & Int: $1800 (2 Mobs plus cable int)
Medical & Dental costs: $1,000
Baby Costs: $3,000
Dining: $2,500 ($50 per week eating out)

Holidays (bi annual): $7K avg.

Australia is really expensive considering we live pretty thrifty.
 
When I was in the UK in th 1990's it used to be expensive compared to Australia, it has swapped.

Don't do a budget but

I have 5 kids, and my teenage son's grocery bill is close to yours by himself.

Ballet, Gymnastics, Basketball and Soccer all running at the same time is not cheap either. From experience your baby is quite cheap now but it ads up.

thanks for sharing
 
We must be doing something wrong, and one wouldn't even say we're extravagant.

This is our breakdown PER WEEK (family of 5). Annually with misc costs that come up we're probably pushing $70K a year easy.

Food/groceries $550
Electricity/gas $33
Petrol $60
Kids sport/related costs $18
Lunch at work $20
Dinner out/takeaways $100
Phone $15
Mobile phone $20
School expenses $20
Gym $12
Internet $13
Transport $10
Car Repairs $30
Car insurances/Rego $40
Health Fund $60
 
Highlygeared said:
We must be doing something wrong, and one wouldn't even say we're extravagant.

This is our breakdown PER WEEK (family of 5). Annually with misc costs that come up we're probably pushing $70K a year easy.

Food/groceries $550
Click to expand...

What did you buy for $550 per week :confused: I'm assuming 5 adults worth of food then?

I'm not that much better though. 2 people household, spent about $2500-$3000 per month roughtly. There's strata every 2 months so that adds up.
 
Per year (2 adults)

Utilities $2,000
Various insurances $2,000
Rates: $1,600
Transport Fees to Work: $1,500
Fuel: $0
Car Costs: $0
Groceries: $5,000
Clothing: Depends, no real set amount
Mob Phones & Int: $1400
Medical & Dental costs: $5,000
Dining/entertainment (locally): ~$1,000?

I don't spend much on the last category with the view to save it and spend it on the same thing overseas instead :)
 
Highlygeared said:
This is our breakdown PER WEEK (family of 5). Annually with misc costs that come up we're probably pushing $70K a year easy.
Click to expand...

Same - I just ran some basic numbers and we'd spend $6k per month for a family of 4. There's quite a few things we could save on....but some of those things make my life a LOT easier.

Cheers

Jamie
 
EN710 said:
What did you buy for $550 per week :confused: I'm assuming 5 adults worth of food then?

I'm not that much better though. 2 people household, spent about $2500-$3000 per month roughtly. There's strata every 2 months so that adds up.
Click to expand...

No wonder the super market chains do so well.

Not any good at home economics but would $5 a meal be considered average these days?
 
willister,
I have attached our actual expenses. I update this every June based on actual costs.

Few differences from 'norm'.
1. We have 3 kids: 6, 4 & 2 years olds.
2. Parents live with us. So they do the general groceries. We pay all other house bills. That is why our bills may look higher but no much for groceries.
3. We give $500 a week to grandparents for daily expenses. That is included in 'Child care' expenses.

Hope this can a help a little to plan ahead :)
 

Attachments

  • Expenses.xlsx
    11 KB · Views: 148
My family, consisting of myself, my wife and daughter tend to spend approximately:

F/N $2000

School Fees $8000

Holidays $10000

Annual: $70,000
 
Two adults in a house:

Water $1,000
Electricity $250
Gas $500
Council Rates $1,500
Transport Fees $200
Fuel: $500
Car Costs: $2,000
Groceries: $5,000
Clothing: $500
Mob Phones & Int: $1600
Dining: $2,500
Holidays $8,000

Subtotal $23,550

Buying random stuff $10,000
P&I on PPOR $36,000

Total $ 69,550
 
willister said:
Care to share? Just worked out our family budget with the newborn arriving 6 months ago - worked out to be $24.5K per year, simple breakdown as follows:

Utilities $3,500
Transport Fees to Work: $1,550 ($129 x 12)
Fuel: $1,500 ($50 a week x 30 weeks avg)
Car Costs: $1,700 (Rego plus Insurance plus self servicing)
Groceries: $5,500
Clothing: $2,500
Mob Phones & Int: $1800 (2 Mobs plus cable int)
Medical & Dental costs: $1,000
Baby Costs: $3,000
Dining: $2,500 ($50 per week eating out)

Holidays (bi annual): $7K avg.

Australia is really expensive considering we live pretty thrifty.
Click to expand...

Mortgage paid off (before kids?), well done!
 
Don't know exactly, but my credit card bill is $10-12000 a month.

We do have firm plans to start thinking about preparing to start a budget though.
 
I would like to know how people only spend $100 per week on groceries, my soon to be teenage son would eat more than this by himself. Either people are underestimating what they spend, eating out a lot or eating cheap and not particularly well.
 
hugh72 said:
I would like to know how people only spend $100 per week on groceries, my soon to be teenage son would eat more than this by himself. Either people are underestimating what they spend, eating out a lot or eating cheap and not particularly well.
Click to expand...

+1, imagine having more than one! The moment they come home they ask What's to eat? I am used to it now so I say FOOOOOD!

Also, doesn't anybody go to hairdresser, or spends money on family presents, or entertainment?
I could never stick to a budget, so I go about as suggested in a book sometime ago.
Pay yourself first, automatically divert between 10-30% to a different account, for saving then investing. From the remaining money, then pay all bills, loans, and spend on food, etc..., then what's left use for WANT spending not NEED spending. It works for me!
 
hugh72 said:
I would like to know how people only spend $100 per week on groceries, my soon to be teenage son would eat more than this by himself. Either people are underestimating what they spend, eating out a lot or eating cheap and not particularly well.
Click to expand...

I cook every night. You can make nice meals for under $10 that easily serves two.
I do it by shopping seasonally, so currently cauliflower is in for example as you can buy a big one for less than $2.
Same goes for potatoes, I bought 5kg for $2.99 last week and saw a sign for $1.99 yesterday. Or I bought 2kg of beetroot for $1.99.

What helps in our case is that we're both vegetarian and meat tends to be more expensive.
I also only eat after work (it's called intermittent fasting, but I won't go into it) so I generally have the leftovers from last night and then start cooking a new meal.

You certainly don't have to spend a fortune to eat well.
 
spludgey said:
I cook every night. You can make nice meals for under $10 that easily serves two.
I do it by shopping seasonally, so currently cauliflower is in for example as you can buy a big one for less than $2.
Same goes for potatoes, I bought 5kg for $2.99 last week and saw a sign for $1.99 yesterday. Or I bought 2kg of beetroot for $1.99.

What helps in our case is that we're both vegetarian and meat tends to be more expensive.
I also only eat after work (it's called intermittent fasting, but I won't go into it) so I generally have the leftovers from last night and then start cooking a new meal.

You certainly don't have to spend a fortune to eat well.
Click to expand...

Maybe I have forgotten whats its like buying for 2 people as opposed to a tribe, childrens sport and other activities would probably burn though another 10k easily before considering school fees. We used to budget carefully but now just pay down debt, invest and spend whats left, I think as our incomes and assets have risen we haven become as loose as a Labor government with a ever expanding balance sheet. :eek:
 
hugh72 said:
I would like to know how people only spend $100 per week on groceries, my soon to be teenage son would eat more than this by himself. Either people are underestimating what they spend, eating out a lot or eating cheap and not particularly well.
Click to expand...

Agree - 15 years ago when I was single - I was probably spending a tad more than $100 pw - and I was absolutely FRUGAL - friends used to have cracks about me being a tight a*se (pardon the pun).

Have no idea how a couple, let alone a small family in this day and age can exist on $100+ per week on groceries/food. I've always been a good spreadsheeter and my spreadsheets tell it as it is (I do this for a living), so can only imagine people are unconsciously understating their budgets or not including every single purchase, coffee snacks and all.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

K
Internal Rate of Return 621%
Replies
17
Views
3K
Ausprop
A
Back
Top