Personal budgeting

[matty77]

Allow spending money within the budget, money that you can spend on what ever you want. Its important to give yourself something, even if its just one beer a week!

Its amazing though, when you start to add up all the little things you buy over a month, at the end of the month it usually adds up to a surprising amount. Thats why I dont understand people who buy lunch at work everyday, if they worked out how much they would save each week if they made lunch, even 4 days a week, its huge!

 

[Tyler Durden]

Allow spending money within the budget, money that you can spend on what ever you want. Its important to give yourself something, even if its just one beer a week!

Its amazing though, when you start to add up all the little things you buy over a month, at the end of the month it usually adds up to a surprising amount. Thats why I dont understand people who buy lunch at work everyday, if they worked out how much they would save each week if they made lunch, even 4 days a week, its huge!

Yeah I try to eat in the office to save money. I buy about $15-20 worth of stuff from the supermarket to provide me a week's worth of lunch in the office. Works great!

 

[Julia]

. Thats why I dont understand people who buy lunch at work everyday, if they worked out how much they would save each week if they made lunch, even 4 days a week, its huge!

You're quite right. I worked with a woman once who was for ever complaining about having no money. She said it was impossible to save for a house deposit, couldn't afford private health insurance etc.
However, she ordered in lunch everyday from a top restaurant, around $25 per day, then often bought takeaway from the same restaurant for dinner!
Just unbelievable.

 

[InvisbleInvestor]

I buy my lunch virtually every day. Spend about $1,800 a year just on lunch money. And I don't regret it at all. I like eating different food every day. Personally, I don't see it as a huge expense, nor one I'm going to cut back on (in the near future).

For me, it's the people who smoke/drink excessively that are burning a hole through their wallets (and lungs/liver).

 

[awg]

We have a large family food bill.

If I was young again, I think one of the best things you could do for your budget is to intensely study nutrition, cooking and food economics.

So many people are overweight and eat food that is excessivly processed, has too many calories and is too expensive.

I was talking recently to a young person who has been able to make the switch from bad to good eating habits by study and realisation, and the change is all good.

As food would be a big expense for most, it does allow plenty of scope for saving, with the added benefits of improved health, and in addition, I have found that the ability to prepare tasty meals can have other pleasant outcomes

 

[matty77]

Reminds me of a guy I was talking to the other night, the conversation went something like this (he is about 35)

me "So do you own a house yet, at least prices seemed to have slowed now or maybe they might go down?"

guy "nah I cant afford to buy my own house so me and the wife rent, hopefully one day we can afford it"

me "so what else do you get up to?"

guy "Just bought a brand new fishing boat, love to fish, its great fun"

me "So umm, how did you afford to buy a nice big boat?"

guy "oh I just got a loan from the bank, all good"

me "hmmmmm"

its not word for word but you get the idea.

 

[Smurf1976]

If he's 35 and has no deposit then, unless he has a high income (from whatever source), it's getting a bit late...

With property prices relative to incomes the way they are, I really can't see how it's viable for someone on a "normal" wage to ever own outright unless they can either work long hours (ie lots of paid overtime or a second job) or can sustain two incomes for many years. Either way, it pretty much rules children out of the question.

There's more to life than owning a house that's for sure. But 35 and basically not a cent to his name? He'd better not upset too many landlords...

 

[Ruby]

We have a large family food bill.

If I was young again, I think one of the best things you could do for your budget is to intensely study nutrition, cooking and food economics.

So many people are overweight and eat food that is excessivly processed, has too many calories and is too expensive.

I was talking recently to a young person who has been able to make the switch from bad to good eating habits by study and realisation, and the change is all good.

As food would be a big expense for most, it does allow plenty of scope for saving, with the added benefits of improved health, and in addition, I have found that the ability to prepare tasty meals can have other pleasant outcomes

Yes, you're right. Huge savings can be make on food without sacrificing any enjoyment, and the health benefits are great. I enjoy cooking and learned a lot about good nutrition when my children were young. Now I can produce delicious and nutritious meals very economically, and with lots of variety.

 

[CanOz]

Hi all,

I was wondering if I could get some idea of the expenses living in a city in Australia. Not a major capital city, just a small rural city, like Ballarat.

For example: monthly
Utilities
Water...$50
Electricity...$200
Gas.....$50

Living expenses .. Family of three
Groceries...$1200
Clothing... $400
Travel...$500
Entertainment....$500
Phone...$200
Internet....$100
Insurance...$100
Misc...$700

Car expense
Fuel...$300
Misc...$100



Property tax...$1000


Please feel free to enlighten me on my accuracy in terms of expenses. It's been a while since we lived in Australia.

The above expenses assume the PPOR is owned outright as is one automobile.

 

[CanOz]

Hi all,

I was wondering if I could get some idea of the expenses living in a city in Australia. Not a major capital city, just a small rural city, like Ballarat.

For example: monthly
Utilities
Water...$50
Electricity...$200
Gas.....$50

Living expenses .. Family of three
Groceries...$1200
Clothing... $400
Travel...$500
Entertainment....$500
Phone...$200
Internet....$100
Insurance...$100
Misc...$700

Car expense
Fuel...$300
Misc...$100



Property tax...$1000


Please feel free to enlighten me on my accuracy in terms of expenses. It's been a while since we lived in Australia.

The above expenses assume the PPOR is owned outright as is one automobile.

Bump....

Anyone care to adjust my estimates??

 

[Ves]

Bump....

Anyone care to adjust my estimates??

Canoz - big picture, adding up your expenses and annualising them I arrived at $54,000 for the year.

My partner and myself can manage on a fair bit less than this in Brisbane (without going to extremes), and it appears that you have added in a fair bit of padding for entertainment, clothing and other lifestyle choices etc. so you've covered discretionary spending pretty well.

Sounds reasonable to me! But not sure on your exact lifestyle goals.

 

[tech/a]

Can Oz

I know what your trying to find out.--a comparison.

A little Duck story.
In the First week of marriage (My first Marriage)
I clearly remember sitting down with Julie my then wife and going through
our budget (40 odd years ago ) In the end we had $5 left for us!

That was the week I left my last employment and went to work for myself.
It was and still is clear to me that Budgeting isn't for me (in my personal life).
A must for Business---so the only way around it is the have surplus which well exceeds
commitments.---Took a while but job done!

 

[Country Lad]

Bump....

Anyone care to adjust my estimates??

Sorry CanOz but I am not much help because I have not stayed, let alone lived in the one place for more than a couple of months in the last 8 years and the only budgeting I have ever done is in my businesses.

I have friends who retired as self funded retirees just north of Brisbane about a year ago. They have sufficient capital not to need to skimp but also do not splurge. Their experience indicates about $60,000 per year gives a good lifestyle with some travel and entertainment.

But as Ves says, it depends on the lifestyle.

Cheers
Country Lad

 

[Judd]

You could be a little light on in regards to car expenses but everyone is different.

My breakdown of costs last fin year was:

Petrol - $4,099
Insurance & Registration - $1,290
Regular servicing, including four tyres, so knock off a $1k - $2,019
Total - $7,408 or $620 per month. All in after tax $$s.

Utilities, including internet, electricity, water, gas, rates, telephone (mobile) was $6,738.

As for groceries, entertainment, threads, insurance etc well I'm now single and don't drink so it's not really relevant.

PS: Forgot to mention. As a young lad, I worked with a property manager in a major hospital, he gave me some advice which was try and put aside each year 1% of the capital value of your home for repairs and maintenance including replacement of whitegoods as you never know when things blow up or need fixing. It stood me in good stead as I've never had to scratch around for funds to replace, fix things or paint the house (inside OK but stuff getting up scaffolds although I will do it if necessary.)

 

[craft]

You mention family of three (I’m assuming the 3rd is a child) – not sure how old the third is but I didn’t see anything in the budget for education. It can be expensive in Aus if you choose not to go public. Then there’s possibly extra curricular activities like music, sport etc which can also get expensive if your child gets serious about something.

Its hugely discretionary depending on what you want for your child anything from a few thousand at one extreme using a public school and non-organized activities to 30K+ plus a year per child.

A family of three with a single wage earner, earning AWOTE would net about 65K after tax, benefits etc. That should give you some idea of expenditure for average standard of living. – owning you house, car etc and you could spend less and still maintain average. Take housing purchase costs out and Regional is probably as expensive if not more so then city.

 

[CanOz]

Thanks allot for the replies, lots of good stuff there.

My wife is more budget conscious than me to be honest. After living in China for so long now, we're curious as to the cost of living in one of the most expensive countries on the planet...

We still have no kids yet, but are starting an IVF program soon. So education will play a part in a few years time....hopefully.

For two of us, we have averaged about 12,000 RMB per month for the last two years. We own our home here though, would likely keep it too as its too nice to sell, likely wouldn't realize the value anyway.

We would likely buy a PPOR and one IP to start with.

So our discussions lately have been more about the cost of living in Australia vs here.

We're both good savers, but at the same time there is a certain lifestyle that we're accustomed to.

With personal budgeting i think its important to have a savings goal, knowing that you can comfortably save that amount if you stay within your budget.

No doubt my wife will continue to track every dime spent though....

 

[trainspotter]

Minimum 60k a year to live comfortably in OZ CanOz.

Me personally averaging near on double that as lifestyle is a bit extreme and not ready to slow down just yet.

 

[skc]

For two of us, we have averaged about 12,000 RMB per month for the last two years. We own our home here though, would likely keep it too as its too nice to sell, likely wouldn't realize the value anyway.

You must have one hack of a lifestyle in China?

Last time I spoke with a friend their he paid 1200 RMB per month for 3 full time live-in maids in Shanghai... or something ridiculous like that.

As for living expenses in Oz. Here's something I worked out for my parents who are going to retire in Oz next year. They own their property outright and the total isn't that much different to yours.



The one item I see you missing is health insurance (and other health related budgets) - definitely required if you plan to have a child imo. Another one might be a home cleaner... since you are used to having 3 live-in maids in China

You can remove entertainment all together after you have your child though. Good luck with the IVF.

 

[prawn_86]

SKC, $100 pw week for 2 peoples food seems fairly low??

When we were in Aus our basic monthly budget for 2 people in inner city was:
2k rent
800 food
500 all bills (car, fuel, health insurance, utilities)
1400 spend

This doesn't include any holiday funds or 'savings' (which we also had) but we could live comfortably on the above

 

[skc]

SKC, $100 pw week for 2 peoples food seems fairly low??

For my parents they'd probably consume 2kg of meat a week... good cut beef @ $25/kg while chicken is at most $10-12 /kg. So protein is probably $40/week. Fruit and veg even if they eat 1kg per day total at say $5/kg, that's another $35/week.

Dairy products probably $5. 2L of milk + cheese etc. Egg a dozen @ $5. Carbs like bread and pasta - $5.

That's ~$90/week. The rest goes to other odd bits and pieces like condiments and other processed foods.

Yes it is probably on the light side but an additional 25% isn't going to change the overall budget much at all.

P.S. Australia whilst having a pretty high cost of living, cooking at home isn't overly expensive on a relative basis imo.