Monthly cost - Family of 4

[mzcatieboo]

Food $800(a month)
Fuel $400
Water $120(Water here sucks big time)
Telstra $470(Home Phone, 2 Mobiles, Internet & Foxtel)
Car Loan $800(04 Prado)
Inrent $180(tv & washing machine)
RAC x 2, Life x 2, Health $700 ( house & car insurance, both life insurances & health insurance)
Declan & Maddison $200(they get that put into there joint account)
Spendings $1,000 (includes DD formula prescription, mine & DH monthly prescriptions.)

TOTAL $4,670

DH has a great paying job whats left over at the moment is paying off the Prado Loan & Building up a deposit for a rental house

[Feijoa Mum]

I just worked ours out yesterday and for a family of 7 (not including food here as that is very flexible and I can cut that down) is about 3890per month. Shocking that our expenses and bills have gotten so high.

Heres to reducing our overheads for 2011 and remember even 50c off that credit card is 50c you dont pay in interest.

[~Kim~]

Dan ours would be pretty similar only we don't consciously save and we don't have PHI anymore.

[Faithful Mumma]

Per Month
Mortgage -$1963
Electricity - $190
Gas - $45
Phone, Mobile & Net $180
School Fee's - $300
Creche Fee's - $150
Water - $60
Insurance for x2 Cars and House & Contents $140
Rego for x2 Cars $86
Rates $116
(All Utilities I pay weekly, and have a set amount automatically bpayed each week through my net banking, so I never get a bill. Same with rates and creche fee's, school fee's come out fortnightly. Best thing I have ever done. No late fee's then!)
= $2870

Then we have our variables...
Food $170 per week (About $700 for month)
Petrol $150 per week (About $650 per month)

So that equals $4220

We don't have Car loans, and our "BEST" car is a Holden Commodore and is 9 yrs old, but is in excellent condition and well looked after, so I just don't see the sense in paying interest on a new car that will do the same job, but maybe look flasher! I love my Commodore anyway, it is black, my fave car colour anyway! Our second car is just to get DH to work and back each day (a 20 min freeway drive), and is about 12 years old ( a Falcon)....it is nice to know that they are all ours. We bought each of them with cash.

Time for a budget me thinks! I have never "paid ourselves" first in terms of a set savings amount each week, and intend to start doing this starting this month.

[sangie]

Could you consolidate your car and home loans? Might save you a little. Also shop around for the best rates on those loans and switch (only if it isn't going to cost you the earth in exit fees of course).
It's hard isn't it? We are working on cutting our expenses down too. We are saving quite a bit on groceries with having our own veggie garden. Also I've been making an effort to shop around and buy in bulk where I can. I don't buy the kids clothes as I request they get them for birthdays and Christmas and we are lucky enough to get hand me downs for DS as well.
I'm sure you know this but if your DH travels for work and needs high speed internet for work then that is a tax deduction. Or get him to request a fuel card if he hasn't got one.

Best of luck

[Amy_jellybean]

Hi hun,

We are a family of 2 (ttc) and our costs are over $6k a month!!!!! Trying to get it down at the moment though.

[Jaycee]

I think the big variables here are mortgage / rent costs, childcare costs and motor vehicle costs.

All the other stuff is quite similar for everyone.

Our monthly spend is anywhere from $5.5k to $6.5k, however our mortgage is $2.5k per month so that's a pretty big chunk out of the monthly spend.

[Megan]

Mortgage $1700
Phone/gas/elec/House & car insurances/regos/rates $1200
Food $800
Petrol/Gas $250 (makes a big difference now that we own both cars, and one is on gas)
Childcare $350
DS Swimming/music $100

So, that's $4400.

That's for a family of 3. I'm shocked it's that high actually.

[deletedit]

I think the big variables here are mortgage / rent costs, childcare costs and motor vehicle costs.

All the other stuff is quite similar for everyone.

Maybe not electricity. We spend about $900 a quarter on it, much less in summer. Never worked out how to get it lower, yet I see all these people with teeny tiny electricity bills and I wish I had those
Our mortgage is $600 a month, will get lower if we can find a buyer for our current house. We spend about $2500 a month for a family of 5.