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A Breakdown of Your Monthly Budget?

Posted by Cliff on from the how-much-do-you-spend-and-where-do-you-spend-it? dept.

Glonoinha asks: "I just finished balancing the checkbook after doing a stack of bills, the out-pile being higher than the in-pile, and I was wondering...do I completely underestimate the cost of living a regular lifestyle or am I getting taken for a ride? I am not interested in comparing paychecks, there are already plenty of studies out there to prove we are underpaid (well, most of us) - I am more interested in the overall picture. Where are you spending it? Post as an AC if you feel the need, but I am interested in a breakdown of monthly pre-tax income, taxes taken out, money put towards retirement, child support or alimony, mortgage or rent, car payment, medical insurance, car insurance, electricity, gas, water, entertainment, savings, liquor, food, vehicle maintenance, computer toys, and any other column you care to break out."

"The purchase price of your home, car, or any other property would be relevant if you were to include an indication to where you were geographically, and how you felt it was in relation to the rest of the region. If you were to include the type of work you do I would group those accordingly. If you are part of a two (or more) income residence, handle that however you wish but make a note of it so I can better tweak the dataset.

With a decent dataset made available I would be willing to do some statistical analysis and make the charts / compiled data available for download.

If you are not already doing a breakdown along these lines it may be an eye opener for your own use (but share it here to help make the dataset larger, more accurate.)"

5 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Re:mine by MightyTribble · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Dude, cut back on the ciggies and get a handle on those Credit cards. A good not-for-profit debt councillor should be able to take that $200/mo and make *real* inroads into your balances, not just paying the minimums.

  2. Re:Strange circumstances by hswerdfe · · Score: 2, Insightful
    That leaves me about $1000/month with almost no more bills.

    My advice, Save every fucking penny.
    I'm single and work fulltime and have a ton of useless money left over after each month....what do I do with it...I put some in RRSP ...som in GIC and some in the bank.
    because I know eventually I will need it.
    like the end of next month for instance when I quit my job.
    It Pays to think ahead
    --
    --meh--
  3. Re:You got it... by Phredd · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Everyone is missing the big picture here...

    Taxes are higher than ever before. The amount stated above, $5,700 * 12 months = $68,400.00. What happened here? I thought he said he made $100K?!? Where is the other $31,600?

    And that is before real estate taxes, sales taxes, car tag taxes, telephone taxes, and the list goes on...

    After all of these taxes are paid you will be lucky to still have $45k left (approx %65 of the remaining $68k).

    Where is the outrage in the streets?

    Go back to sleep everyone...

    Who is John Galt?

    --
    Phredd - "I have found people tend to take you far less seriously once you start waving your genitals at them..."
  4. Re:You got it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is the most revealing thread of comments that I have ever read on slashdot. The guy making $1000 a month says that the guy making $2200 a month makes and spends too much. The guy making $2200 a month says that the guy making $5700 a month makes too much money and spends too much, and they all agree the guy making $8000 a month is certainly making too much.

    I also wadger that as you go down the chain, the guy at the bottom is most liberal, feeling that since all the people above him are living lives of luxury, they should pay more taxes and give away their money to that guy at the bottom. This is too classic.

  5. Re:What I found... by ivan256 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm way to lazy to keep track of checks I write, yet I haven't payed an overdraft fee in years. How do I do it? I *never* write checks. Ever. If something requires a check I either have my bank send them one using the on-line bill payment system (99% of the time) or I go to the post office and buy a money order with my debit card (1% of the time). That way my ATM balance *is* my balance, and I never have to keep track of anything manually. My monthly banking consists of snapping my statement (with scans of cleared, bank mailed, checks printed on them) into a three ring binder for safe keeping.