I was chatting with a friend the other day, and her sister messaged her on Skype. Her sister was curious as to about how much she should be spending on common household expenses. Well, I was also curious and decided to hit the books to see what good rules of thumb are.
According to the Motley Fool, you might consider the following very rough guidelines:
Housing and utilities, 25-30%
Food, 10-15%
Vehicles, 10-15%
Insurance, 5%
Saving and investing, 10-15%
Entertainment, 5%
Clothing, 5%
Medical, 5%
Childcare and education, 1-8%
Gifts and charity: Up to you!
Of course, where you live is a major factor in how little you pay for each category. For example the DC area, housing is very expensive. In a rural part of the country like Oregon rent and mortgage prices are more manageable.
It’s fun reading your blog all these years later :) Been following it for 13 years now! Remember when we used to do Blogger Meetups??
J, oh man, I miss those days. With 2020 and the whole covid thing, I haven’t had a chance to go to many meet ups.