Not including rent, car payment, other bills, etc.
I monitored my spending this week and it totalled $80. 70% of it was on food. What do you spend per week on food/gas? I am trying to see how much lower I can go per week to save.
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posted: Jul. 30, 2010 @ 1:26p
FichteScholar
Member
posted: Jul. 30, 2010 @ 1:29p
Only food and gas could be very volatile! (Green for your saving effort.)
woodsley
Senior Member
posted: Jul. 30, 2010 @ 1:31p
I find it hard to make a limit of how much we spend every month for grocery. That is because like this months we have spent so far like $400 on grocery (for 2 adults) most of which are on sale meat to stock up. Do you include eat-out expenses in your food bill?
PS: we do eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetable and no frozen food.
growingdollars said: Only on expenses such as food and gas.
Not including rent, car payment, other bills, etc.
I monitored my spending this week and it totalled $80. 70% of it was on food. What do you spend per week on food/gas? I am trying to see how much lower I can go per week to save.
FichteScholar said: Only food and gas could be very volatile!
Indeed. For next week, I would be at 0 dollars, since I'm on work travel. Trying to get such a day to day view seems pointless. For myself, I tend to buy groceries in batches, so saying I "spent" 50 bucks for food one day isn't really accurate. It especially skews it if you buy a big batch of freezable stuff, or spices that are going to last a long time.
growingdollars
Senior Member
posted: Jul. 30, 2010 @ 1:34p
woodsley said: I find it hard to make a limit of how much we spend every month for grocery. That is because like this months we have spent so far like $400 on grocery (for 2 adults) most of which are on sale meat to stock up. Do you include eat-out expenses in your food bill?
PS: we do eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetable and no frozen food.
growingdollars said: Only on expenses such as food and gas.
Not including rent, car payment, other bills, etc.
I monitored my spending this week and it totalled $80. 70% of it was on food. What do you spend per week on food/gas? I am trying to see how much lower I can go per week to save.
Yup, this is the approximate total food (including eat-outs) and gas for the entire week. I am single and live alone at the moment.
How much other people spend is irrelevant. If you are trying to cut your expenses, the best thing to do is to keep an itemized list of everything you spend for a month, then go back and figure out how you could have done things differently. Do you buy soft drinks one at a time out of a machine? Do you pick up a candy bar when you buy gas? Do you eat lunch out every day? Do you buy coffee out? Many people piss a lot of money that way.
growingdollars said: Yup, this is the approximate total food (including eat-outs) and gas for the entire week. I am single and live alone at the moment.But did you only eat food that you actually bought during the week, or did you have stuff in the cupboards/freezer from past weeks that you also consumed?
Gas is another matter - did you start the week with a full tank and fill up at the end of the week, to account for what you actually used during the week? Or did you fill up at the end of last week, and end this week with a nearly empty tank, meaning some of this week's gas cost was pushed to another week?
growingdollars
Senior Member
posted: Jul. 30, 2010 @ 1:51p
Glitch99 said: growingdollars said: Yup, this is the approximate total food (including eat-outs) and gas for the entire week. I am single and live alone at the moment.But did you only eat food that you actually bought during the week, or did you have stuff in the cupboards/freezer from past weeks that you also consumed?
Gas is another matter - did you start the week with a full tank and fill up at the end of the week, to account for what you actually used during the week? Or did you fill up at the end of last week, and end this week with a nearly empty tank, meaning some of this week's gas cost was pushed to another week?
I only ate food that I bought during the week. At the moment, I don't have anything kept in cupboards/freezers
I started the week with low gas and put in some gas this week. It is now at the same low point as 7 days ago.
Everybody has different expenses depending on a lot of factors. Someone in manhattan might spend $0 on gas but probably spends a hell of a lot more than you on food/groceries. You cut corners and go lower based on your specific situation.
growingdollars said: I only ate food that I bought during the week. At the moment, I don't have anything kept in cupboards/freezersThen you are probably spending too much. You are either buying everything in small quantities or you are buying too much prepared food or you are eating out too much. Learn to buy in bulk, buy on sale, and cook.
Gasoline budget depends on what and how much you have to drive. You can't just spend less unless you get a more efficient vehicle, carpool, or take public transportation. Since I started keeping track, some years I averaged $100/mo, others $75/mo. My averages for groceries and restaurants is $330/mo. But I'm a snob and buy most groceries organic, don't cook often, and rarely eat fast food.
What about entertainment? Do you lump that in here, or separate it out?
hemophilia
Member
posted: Jul. 30, 2010 @ 4:18p
I am a single female and am considered quite thrifty by my family--food per month is ~$120, I rarely eat out--have seen way too much on "Kitchen Nightmares" and like to eat quite healthy, I walk to work and almost everywhere else--drive one day a week to run errands, so gas is ~$20/month. Cell phone is unlimited minutes--$60/month, I do not keep a land line. Work a lot, so do not spend for internet or TV--can pick up wireless or just do it at work, entertainment--I read, exercise, walk dogs, or watch television--get books from half.com or fatcitybooks.com. Food for dogs (1 great dane and 2 weimaraners is ~$50/month)
hemophilia
Member
posted: Jul. 30, 2010 @ 4:18p
I am a single female and am considered quite thrifty by my family--food per month is ~$120, I rarely eat out--have seen way too much on "Kitchen Nightmares" and like to eat quite healthy, I walk to work and almost everywhere else--drive one day a week to run errands, so gas is ~$20/month. Cell phone is unlimited minutes--$60/month, I do not keep a land line. Work a lot, so do not spend for internet or TV--can pick up wireless or just do it at work, entertainment--I read, exercise, walk dogs, or watch television--get books from half.com or fatcitybooks.com. Food for dogs (1 great dane and 2 weimaraners is ~$50/month)
I keep an excel spreadsheet and keep track of every dollar I spend. I update it every night by taking out receipts from the day and remembering any cash I spent. I split up expenses into different categories. One of them is booze. Having said that, I don't budget well. I just keep track of it well. haha
hemophilia said: I am a single female and am considered quite thrifty by my family--food per month is ~$120, I rarely eat out--have seen way too much on "Kitchen Nightmares" and like to eat quite healthy, I walk to work and almost everywhere else--drive one day a week to run errands, so gas is ~$20/month. Cell phone is unlimited minutes--$60/month, I do not keep a land line. Work a lot, so do not spend for internet or TV--can pick up wireless or just do it at work, entertainment--I read, exercise, walk dogs, or watch television--get books from half.com or fatcitybooks.com. Food for dogs (1 great dane and 2 weimaraners is ~$50/month)
sonarboy1 said: I keep an excel spreadsheet and keep track of every dollar I spend. I update it every night by taking out receipts from the day and remembering any cash I spent. I split up expenses into different categories. One of them is booze. Having said that, I don't budget well. I just keep track of it well. haha
I have a booze category too! You are not alone! lol
Probably about $10/day on food. Gas is about $50 to fill up about every two weeks. I don't really set a hard budget or anything, but in my mind I allocate $400/month for food and gas, so that's about right. Those are my main regular expenses outside of rent+utilities.
Family of 4 about $1K per month on food alone, + another $100 per month on gas. We eat well and buy quality meats at a local butcher, fruit at a farmers market that is much fresher than the grocery stores and like specialty breads.
We rotate on who gets to choose the restaurant and usually get stuck with a $120+ sushi outing once a month.
We buy many items in bulk when it goes on sale which helps make up for the expensive outings...
hemophilia said: I am a single female and am considered quite thrifty by my family--food per month is ~$120, I rarely eat out--have seen way too much on "Kitchen Nightmares" and like to eat quite healthy, I walk to work and almost everywhere else--drive one day a week to run errands, so gas is ~$20/month. Cell phone is unlimited minutes--$60/month, I do not keep a land line. Work a lot, so do not spend for internet or TV--can pick up wireless or just do it at work, entertainment--I read, exercise, walk dogs, or watch television--get books from half.com or fatcitybooks.com. Food for dogs (1 great dane and 2 weimaraners is ~$50/month)
Mods please give this new member the status of a Senior Member, she is going to fit right in here!
Do you realize that your food budget is larger than your rent budget? Yikes. Also, I'm with Marketing Mike - what is personal care? Are we talking waxes, because if so, you shouldn't need one weekly I thought.
And $62.50 per WEEK on gas? Hummer? Tahoe?
I'm absolutely not knocking your decisions at all, but do realize that if you were looking to optimize, it shouldn't be hard at all to trim some of the fat from that budget. Props for at least knowing where all the money is going, though...
Do you realize that your food budget is larger than your rent budget? Yikes. Also, I'm with Marketing Mike - what is personal care? Are we talking waxes, because if so, you shouldn't need one weekly I thought.
And $62.50 per WEEK on gas? Hummer? Tahoe?
I'm absolutely not knocking your decisions at all, but do realize that if you were looking to optimize, it shouldn't be hard at all to trim some of the fat from that budget. Props for at least knowing where all the money is going, though...
Yeah my bf and I spend a lot on food.
BMW M5 for daily driver.
I track every penny and this is my revised budget. It was a lot more when I had a side job in addition to the day job. Had to cut back a lot in the past two years.
wilkinru
Senior Member
posted: Jul. 31, 2010 @ 9:46a
kiasuchick said:
Yeah my bf and I spend a lot on food.
BMW M5 for daily driver.
I track every penny and this is my revised budget. It was a lot more when I had a side job in addition to the day job. Had to cut back a lot in the past two years.
Yea? The Maserati was just costing too much I guess.
I don't really keep track of all of my day to day expenses since it would be an onerous process and wouldn't add much value. Instead I've focused on observing what I do on a daily basis and coming up with ideas to minimize everything. I'll share some (begin wall of text):
Food - I never eat out and bring my lunch to work(usually costs about $2-4). If I don't have time to bring my lAunch I walk to the super market instead. Eating out is super expensive... I can't justify tipping someone 20% for taking an order, bringing it to a table, and refilling a few drinks... so I just avoid the situation altogether. I generally buy groceries from super WalMart since it's cheaper.
Phone -- Cell phone is on a $30 a month plan sero plan that work pays for. At home I use Ooma to save cell phone minutes, for house alarm/911 backup, or if I need to fax. I believe I pay about $2-3 a month(have to pay taxes on new units) for Ooma and it works good.
Cable TV -- I generally get a 6 month discount for $30/month and when it expires I tell them we're in a recession and threaten to cancel service... they usually give me a new 6 month special. For recording I use a HTPC with a tv tuner and windows 7 media... it's a lot more functional and I don't have to rent any boxes from my cable company. I always skip commercials... they drive me crazy... constantly trying to make people feel inadequate to buy crap they can't afford.
Transportation - I moved 1.25 miles from work. My state offered a free motorcycle class that was 3 days long (fri, sat, sun) and give you a motorcycle license. After that I went to craigslist and bought a 2006 Kawasaki Ninja 250... asking price was $2000 and I got it for $1200. I believe it gets 55-60 MPG and insurance is about $13 a month on it (I will cancel in the winter). Gas always gets charged to penfed 5% card. Fun hobby and will save me money. For maintenance I do a lot of it myself... youtube has some really good videos to learn... if you're lucky your car will have a "shop manual" that makes things easy.
Insurance - Unfortuantely I bought a new car coming out of college. I fully intend to drop down to liability only in a few years but the car's book value is currently still around $13K... a little too high for my comfort. My deductible is $1000 and I shop for housecar insurance frequently to make sure I'm getting a deal. Keeping my driving record clean is a big priority... I fight any speeding tickets to the death and don't file insurance claims (it would probably have to be 2500+ for me to consider a claim).
Housing - Bought a foreclosure for about 100k. Put 20% down. My P&I is something like 450. I disputed my property taxes with the city(long process) and got them dropped 25%. For any home improvement stuff I go on PlasticJungle.com and buy discounted gift cards for lowes/Home Depot. That generally takes 8% off and then I use a 10% off coupon (go to post office and ask for change of address packet... they come with 10% lowes coupons and hd will accept). If they're having a sale on something and I use my 8% + 10% + 2% schwab card I can usually buy stuff for 50 cents on the dollar.
CollegeStudent Loans - Consolidated a variable loan into a 2.25% fixed rate. Tax deductible... not worth paying off. Did "graduated" payment plan to delay as much as possible. Paying $44 a month on $12K off. Going to grad school now. Bought $150 new text books for $50 off eBay/half.com by searching for ISBN number. I plan to resell them next semester... will probably only cost me $10 after resale.
Utilities -- I turn AC off at night and use a window unit to sleep(cost $99 at Sears... paid for itself many times over). It uses about 1/3rd the power and I don't cool rooms I don't use. I put vent covers over floor vents I don't use to make sure they're well covered to save extra (search for "Magnetic Vent Cover"). I use a programmable thermostat to help cut down further. In the winter I use Micathermic space heaters generally (they are silent, can be wall mounted, and very efficient). Belkin makes some nice surge protectors for saving power... for my home theather it has a wireless switch to cut the surge protector(F7C01008) off when I leave the house... another one(CNS08-T-06) for computers has an 11 hour timer that will automatically cut off the monitor and all extraenous stuff if you forget. For the water bill I live in an old city that doesn't have water meters... they charge by the number of rooms instead. This unfortunately is very wasteful and offers no incentive to conserve water. My friend joked that I should let the water run all day and put a water turbine in the sink to generate electricity to sell back to the power company. I bought a water filter and never consider bottled water unless dying of thirst.
Clothing -- I buy most everything on eBay and often I get good deals on designer clothing. A lot of things I buy used like coats but some things are a non starter (shoes, underwear, etc).
Haircuts -- Made friends with a girl going to beauty school and she cuts it for free every 2 weeks or so. Before that I was getting it cut every 6-8 weeks.
Taxes -- Put as much as possible in 401k or Roth so uncle sam can't squander it. Donate stuff to charity for write off. Use TurboTax.
Vacations -- I generally go to betterbidding.com and look for good deals. For memorial day I got a rental car for $12 a day with a Priceline bid, got a 4 star hotel in a 50 story skyscraper for something like $48 a day. Took food with us to minmize eating at restaraunts (unhealthy + expensive). Searched online for city promotional websites that had coupons to events.
For buying general stuff I get it off eBay. I use "eBay Bucks" program that gets a 2% rebate, FatWallet CashBack, and the charles schwab 2% card. That generally takes about 6% off the price of anything, I don't pay sales tax and the price is usually very low compared to retailers. I haven't bought anything from a mall in years... I occassionally walk in and look at prices for a good laugh.
LiquidityCredit - I have 100+ credit cards... take all 0% deals I can find and use rewards checking. If I ever default American Express is going to have a hitman out looking for me.
scripta said: UtahDealSeeker said: scripta said: UtahDealSeeker said: ...Good sushi and drinks can set you back a minimum of $100 easily.Drinks are always ridiculous, but you can have plenty of really good sushi without spending that much."really good" sushi for less than $100 with drinks for 2 people? I am all ears if you can point me to a couple of places.I didn't promise drinks: sushikirala.com in Bevery Hills, Sushi King and Sushi Roku in Santa Monica, Sushi Ya in Pas from what I remember. I also liked Otom, but I hear it's closed. I only know one restaurant that's really expensive ($400+/pp) and requires reservations a month in advance, but I've never been there. If these places aren't good enough, I'd like to know where you get your sushi.
I should check those places out. I did not care for Sushi Roku.
The last time I had really good sushi was in Izakaya in Manhattan Beach. Kanpai is pretty good for me since I know the management so I get 20% off.
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