Look at His Monthly Bill

[quitejaded]

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!

In San Diego for a family of 4 to live in *safe* neighborhood suburbia it looks like this.

Mortgage..... $3600 (4 bedroom, 3 bath, pool, 1/2 acre - includes insurance and taxes).
Electric........ $400.00
Cell Phones.. $20-$40 (we have one it's a tracfone where you load the minutes)
Cable........... $80. (includes internet)
Car Payments.. $550. (2 cars)
Auto Insurance........ $240. (we have the full tamale so i can drive on field trips and my husband can park at work)
Food.............. $1,000.00 (this is only $250 per week which also includes cleaning supplies, personal hygeine stuff, achohol - i rarely drink but my husband like's his cocktails - and occasionally eating out). If times were tight i could get this number down to about $150. - $175 per week but that's without any extras - no eating out, generic everything (even laundry soap Sad ) ..... barebones all the way - when i shave the food buget this is where i have some wiggle room ..... but people complain when i go barebones.
Gas................ $500. (2 drivers - it used to be $800 when my husband had a longer commute)
Entertainment... $150.00 (movies, mini golf, b-days, entertaining, arcade)
Health Insurance, Life Insurace, Dental, Vision. $575.00
Kids activities (baseball, soccer, karate, dance, piano, etc) - $100-$200 (cost per month plus equipment for 2 kids and that's low. many families spend twice or three times this amount to give their kids an edge)
Grooming - $65. - (haircuts - this is where i cost more than everyone about $400 per year and i do my own nails.)
Pool - $50 - $75 - (that's just chemicals ... i am the pool guy)
Starbucks - $30.
Clothing - $50-$75 - (clothes, shoes, socks, underwear, pj's, hats, sunglasses, backpacks, this or that ..... etc.)
Dry Cleaning - $60
Christmas - $100. - i took a poll this year of my friends with families .... our average bill here was $1200 ..... it's ridiculous and here i was so conservative. every year i give my husband a list of people to buy for and how much it will most likely cost and he approves it.

This does not include savings, 401K contributions, college contributions, saving for vacations. It's expensive. I could never provide this type of lifestyle.

[rstlne]

It's all relative though. I wouldn't consider a $6K nut excessive if he is generating an income that can more than sustain that.

My suggestions:

1. Sell the car, pay off the car loan, and get an inexpensive used car.

2. Food is also rather high. Does that include eating out? If so, have some home-cooked dinners instead and consider packing a lunch to work.

[khorrell]

I'm curious about the question...is this someone you know, or a hypothetical?

The number that jumps out at me is the cell phone - that is a lot of money. We pay about $60 per month for two lines. Granted, we have a great plan that is no longer available, but I know that he could save some money there.

[1littlething]

I agree that it's all relative. To me, that is an insanely expensive lifestyle. My suggestions would be to downsize. Det rid of the car, find a gently used one. Dump the huge house , teach the kids to share bedrooms/bathrooms. Find a much cheaper cell phone plan, stick with the basics, turn things off or unplug them when not in use, and cook as much food at home as you can.

[Jeremy]

Wow, $1,000/month on food? One area we don't skimp on at our house is in the food department, but we make out quite well on $500/month on food, and that includes a lot of buying lunches while at work and so on. That has to be one of the biggest areas to cut on that first person's budget.

The electric also seems quite high, but that depends on a number of things that aren't discussed, such as how large the house is. I see gas on the list as an expense, but is that gasoline, or gas for heating? Since I don't see gas or commusting as an expense I'm assuming all of their major appliances run on electricity. Going on our 1,500 sq ft house with all electric appliances, I can say that even in the dead or winter or the hottest summer, we've never cracked the $250/month mark for an electric bill.

And finally, the cell phone bill. Without knowing how many people in the family have phones it is hard to say, but this number seems very high, even if there are 4 phones in the family. Is this some fancy phone plan with extra data packages for laptop use? If there is a need for a ton of minutes or data plans, are these personal needs of business needs? If this high bill is in part due to business needs, they surely better be deducting what they can.

Otherwise, the rest of the expenses seem reasonable. Car payments might be high, but that is obvious and relatively typical for a household with 2+ newer cars. IMO, a big waste, but some people feel the need to have these vehicles, so that is up to them to decide whether or not to change.

[Xin Lu]

Man...my hubby and I spend maybe half the amount of the first guy, and we're two people. He could consider getting a roommate and cut down on his housing expenses. If he had more than 2 bedrooms he could consider getting 2 roommates and that could save more than a thousand a month. The car payment is really high, but if he can't ditch the car it might be a good idea to pay it off early depending on the interest rate. My hubby paid off his car early by three to four years and that saved him a lot of money. The cellphone bill is really high as many people have said. Food for 1 person is $1000 a month? That comes out to more than $30 a day and could definitely be cut down. The electric bill could be split if he has roommates.

As for the family of four...I think the mortgage is the highest thing and that may be hard to get rid of since San Diego real estate is slipping a lot lately. I think otherwise the budget is actually fairly realistic.

[jdp]

Whoa. Who says thats "average"?

[Xin Lu]

yeah...I really wonder what the average American spends every month.
Before I got married I spent less than 1k every month because I had roommates and the company had free food a lot of the times. When you are single and don't have kids it's easy to save a lot.

[briank]

The cell phone bill seems rather large, and almost $200 per month on cable seems really high as well. Now that he has written down what his expenses are, he should look at them and decide based on his income and preferences which expenses are worth it, and which can be reduced. "Know thyself"

[The Honest Dollar]

Besides what everyone else has said, maybe he needs to consider cutting out some of the extras when it comes to cable. You can get basic stations for under $100. He can also cut out cable altogether, maybe cut internet too - he can always get access for free at the library.