Look at His Monthly Bill

[CARebel6969]

[quote=quitejaded;10787]This is the monthly bill of a seemingly average guy. Do you have any advice for him? He's paying 6,091 a month!

Mortgage..... $2,015.00
Electric........ $400.00
Cell Phones.. $330.00
Cable........... $176.00
Car Payments.. $880.00
Insurance........ $155.00
Food.............. $1,000.00
Gas................ $800.00
Entertainment... $100.00
Health Insurance. $235.00

My only advice is switch to MetroPC and pay unlimited for 50 bucks.

Also, here is the monthly bill for a mother. Any advice for her?
Looks like she spends almost 7000 a month. She gets a lot more bang for her buck than the first guy, though![/quote

we have a family of 5 and can live on a about
4 cell phones that coast $154 a month
food is about $ 350 a month
gas in 2 Cars is $ 200 a month
house is $ 750 a month
car and house ins. $ 200 a month
and now we get to best one the water bill runs about $124 a month
and we do all of that and still have about $400 that we as a family can have fun on.

[lucille]

What city is the first guy in? That matters since housing is all over the price ranges depending on where you live.

[Xin Lu]

I'm guessing he lives in California.. not sure, though. The 2000 mortgage is pretty cheap for where I live since the average price of crappy shacks here is like $700k to $800k

[lucille]

I'm following the guess that he probably lives somewhere housing is expensive like Cali.
Here is what I would look at:

Mortgage..... $2,015.00 - not going to touch this since housing is really expensive many places.

Electric........ $400.00 - why is his electrical bill this much? Ours is about $145 at 7 cents a kilowatt and we run a server rack plus the power usage of 4 people. Even if electric is for heating & cooling he could lower that by not running heat or cooling high when not home.
Cell Phones.. $330.00 - why so high for one person? Even with a 1000 minute plan our Verizon bill was only $120 a month. Maybe he needs to talk less or not use his phone for web surfing? If your using that much of your own phone minutes for work then work should be providing a phone or reimbursing you.
Cable........... $176.00 - This probably depends on who your provider is.
Car Payments.. $880.00 - for one person? Is this for one car? If your single you don't need multiple cars. If one car payment is that much your doing something wrong. Go buy a honda or a toyota. If your car is tied to your work image you should try to find some way to make it a work deduction.
Insurance........ $155.00 - Is this just car insurance? Certain states have really high insurance rates so that might be right. Not having full coverage on a really expensive car will make your rate go down.
Food.............. $1,000.00 - I'm guessing most of this is eating out, not groceries. I'm getting the feeling that lots of these costs are "lifestyle" costs. Learn to cook and don't eat every meal somewhere expensive. Even nice areas have a Chipotle.
Gas................ $800.00 - Maybe lots of commuting? Either there is a ton of driving or horrible gas mileage. Living closer to where you do things or getting a car that gets better mileage? Drive less? Even when I had to commute 45 miles to work our gas bills were not that high.
Entertainment... $100.00 - this actually looks cheap.
Health Insurance. $235.00 - health insurance isn't cheap. Unless you have health conditions some of the basic plans can be cheaper.

The cell phone, car and food expenses look really high. If someone is worried about their finances those would be some obviously places to look at cutting your spending. If they are have-to's for work than work should be paying for them or you should be taking some sort of work expense deduction.

[khorrell]

Interesting, I didn't even bat an eye at the electric costs as that is pretty typical in my region. I have learned, particularly from the comments over at the Wise Bread Blog, that electricity costs really vary around the country.