I know I spend way too much on books - books which I could probably borrow from the library for free, I'll buy and then justify by lending them out ... I have been to the bookstore (online or IRL) intending to buy one or two specific books, and before I know what's happened, I have 18 ... oops!
But at the supermarket, I'm pretty good - normally, if it's not on my list, or I don't need it, I don't buy it. Whereas a friend (who lives just with her DP) can easily go to the shops intending to get milk and a pack of timtams, and will end up spending $300 on anything and everything, and then get a potplant on her way out ...
Another friend would easily spend $200 a week on clothes and accessories, and $50 a week on make up, skin care and hair products (not including her seasonal clothes, shoes, bags shop, and not including her annual work wardrobe revamp). Her clothes shopping is in her budget, it makes her happy, she always looks impeccable. That's just how she rolls.
Another friend has a good job, but lives in an absolute dump, basically lives on pasta, dim sims and chicken nuggets, still wears clothes I saw him in, in high school (we were class of 98... ) but he never has any money - because he saves ever penny for travel. He goes on these incredible adventures to Nepal for hiking, and whitewater rafting in the Grand Canyon, and cliff diving in South America ...
Another friend recently bought an $82K on a car on finance - so his $$ is currently going to pay off the interest!
Mortgage -v- Renting.
Private -v- Public schools.
Organic locally grown food ... professional haircuts ... home renovations ... ?
Eating out, going out, fine wine, pets ...
Where does your money go?
Please please please - no judgment about others' choices. You don't tease me about spending extra on my favourite cheese, and I won't judge you for buying $45 thingamie-bobs ... This is an interest piece
Peanutter I am another book lover here who will happily buy a book rather then borrow, so no judgement there!
Where do we spend our money on:
Private schooling
Overseas holidays annually - usually for anywhere between 3-6 weeks and most of the time in Europe. This year we are taking the family camper-vanning around NZ for 3 weeks in May
Mortgage
Fruit that is a bit more expensive then the norm (bananas when $20 a kilo)
Meat from butcher as opposed to a supermarket
Hairdresser every 6 weeks ($140)
Chiro every fortnight for me and every 2-3 months for kids ($35 per session)
Occ Therapy sessions for DS ($75 per week)
Kids are currently doing this term - piano, dancing, swimming, soccer and gymbakids (total cost around $900 for the term)
Contribute $600 to my parents mortgage every month (have been doing this for 4 years now to help them out as they were struggling financially)
Sponsor 3 world vision children at a cost of approx $100 per month
Contribute around $400-600 per month into ongoing investments (shares etc)
Ummm that is all I can think of besides your other normal things - I suppose the above things would all be considered luxuries, and in reality if we cut out things like the holiday etc we would be paying off our mortgage a lot quicker but that doesn't concern us...we want to live and enjoy ourselves.
It used to be books and CDs. Then it was shoes, shoes and more shoes. And makeup.
Now it's groceries and household stuff. My favourite homewares store is having a closing down sale, so yesterday I bought a crepe pan, a bud vase, silicon egg poaching things, silicon pie weight beads in the shape of hearts, a candy thermometer, an icing spatula and other stuff, some of which will actually be used. The extra groceries are for the things I think I have to make, so I have 750gm of cream cheese sitting in the fridge. I can't remember what i bought that for. Icing a cake probably. I have 101 different types of gluten free flour or other weird ingredients. I'm desperately trying to cut down on it, because I'm like your friend. I'll go to the shops for milk and come back with stuff we dont need/cant afford
I also spend too much on my family tree research. That's my hobby.
rent - we weighed up the house we were paying off (mortgage) plus travel/maintenance we needed to do/rates etc and decided it was more viable, for the time being, to rent muuuuuuch closer to work
paying off car/ivf debts
essentials
not much money left after that!!
we choose to live on a tight budget to get a better rental and live very close to work - with me working only part time. i COULD go full time again (when at full health) and probably will - but not until we need the funds for something else (education for DD etc) - at this point in time, our priority is only working as much as is needed for us to live and spend all the time we can with DD. after fighting so hard, spending so much money, and sacrificing pretty much everything to be able to bring her into the world - i'm not going to sacrifice my time with her to work more (and, to be honest, not get the same amount of money in my pocket for the work i do, cos i'd go into the next tax bracket - one more day at work would put me in another tax bracket, and for 8 hours at work, i'd bring home about $50 in wages for the fn, lose about $30 in ftb, and lose another day a fortnight with DD - i'm not giving up time with her for $20 in my pocket!)
i have a friend that works every weekend through the year as a sports writer at a newspaper in NSW. she rarely takes time off work except for a month at the end of january/early feb each year, when she goes on a major overseas holiday. she saves all year for it. her parents started it when she was younger, and she continues it now. i've had some amazing photos and emails sent to me about her travels overseas! she loves it! she's told me she thinks it's great that i've settled with a family but it's not "her" - and i totally believe her. she is happiest doing what she is doing now. i'm enjoying getting her emails every couple of days at the moment as she holidays!
And if we happen to have any money left over which nowadays is very common. The rest of our money goes on:
DP's lunches at work (he spends over $20 a day)
Computer games/parts/accessories
Magazines (DPs geeky mags - atomic, powerplay and sometimes fishing)
We go out to dinner at the local club once a fortnight
Phone credit
Alcohol (usually beer or wine for DP)
Random bits of clothing for either myself or DD
Shoes/handbags
Hair dye
Its different things every fornight but this is generally what we spend our money on.
The really noticeable things in our budget are Childcare and school fees, between them they account for a lion share of my salary.
We live off dh's wages, and the other thing we spend $$$ on are my medical expenses. Which isn't something that I pay every week as such, but its a lot when it crops up & over the last couple of years it accounts for thousands that we would otherwise have saved in an attempt to get a bit more fat between us and bare bones.
Food is top of the list for us. Like a pp said, I buy only free range meat from a butcher and it doesn't come cheap. Likewise top quality fruit and vegetables
I used to spend a fortune on the girls' clothes but thankfully a school uniform has made a lot of that unnecessary. I guess this baby can pick up the slack though ;-)
Our home and garden. We have top quality everything in our house after our renos, and live on an acre so there's a lot of garden installation and then maintenance.
My only personal extravagances are reading and my hair. I read books very quickly and am seriously OCD about how they should be treated so I never borrow or lend. My hair is an every 5 week thing, with a colour every second time.
The main place where our money is going at the moment is the crap US to Aus $ exchange range. DH is paid in US dollars, and the exchange rate is killing our budget.
Mortgage
Bills
Food shopping
Whatever is needed for DS and DD
$5 into DS bank account every fortnight
DS daycare
Then, the odd occasion stuff
Online poker - max $25 once every 3 months
Poker tournament at the casino - max 1 tournament @ $130 once every 6 months (I save money up throughout the 6 months to play in it)
New clothes for me once every 3 months
Haircut once every 18 months (I'm due for one soon)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - even though I should be cleaning or sleeping
Mortgage...we pay quite a bit extra per month, hoping to send girls to private schools for secondary education,
Bills...we're in front with all bills, we pay the same amount of each every month.
Food...yeah that's crept up but I love cooking.
Currently renovating the outside of our house.
Spend too much on clothes for the girls, should spend more on myself.
Hoping to go on a decent holiday next year, saving to take girls to Disneyland in 5 or so years
Operations, ive had surgery late last year, DD2 just had surgery and DD1 will need a GA in coming months as well, PHI is getting a work out!! Just added extras cover on as well
Morgatge
Bills
Groceries
Transport, we own our car and motorbike, they need petrol and services
School Fees
PHI
Family Day Care for DD
Public Transport, I train it to work.
Lunch for me 1 day a week (I only work two days, I buy lunch one of those), Coffee on those days I work is a must.
Kids essentials like clothes.
Kids activties such as Tae Kwon Do and Gym Monkeys, and then the entertaining activities during school holidays such as trips to the movies and other things.
Other things :
I am a high maintenance girl, I get waxed every 5-6wks and my eye lashes tinted. I no longer colour my hair, I have it cut every 6wks.
I buy perfume, cosmetics and so on.
Books for my Kobo, music sometimes from itunes. I love music, so CD's is another thing.
Dinners with MG.
Clothes, shoes that are not really necessary, still however much wanted.
Wine/Bubbles
Chocolate is essential in my house.
DH is low maintenance...not much really. Just clothes (not very often), beer, Bunnings and building materials for projects. A boys golf weekend every year.
He has a betting account that he puts $20 a fortnight into...so far that account has got him alot of free weekends away
Rent & associated living expenses
Travel - currently putting money towards Hawaii and a few trips interstate throughout the year
Shoes, handbags
Make-up & beauty stuff
Haircuts (my hairdresser just got promoted so each cut is $100 and I get it done every 5 weeks), hair stuff (colour & contemplating getting my hair straightened)
Waxing etc (threading for my eyebrows, waxing for my hooha)
Clothing soon as I'm in-between sizes & planning on dropping another size before Hawaii
Uni
I go overseas every year.
If the major thing that I'm hoping happens this year, overseas travel will become much easier
I love buying my books brand new. There is something really special about opening the cover for the first time and settling in for a good read. Unfortunately I've gone from a new book every week to maybe a new book every quarter. I'm re-reading alot of my favourites now. Books are so expensive.
My money gets spent on:
Mortgage
Utilities
Food
3 dogs and 1 cat (food, vax, medical)
Our DS
We used to eat out once a week now maybe it's once every 3 weeks.
Travel - That is our big luxury - we try to go on an overseas holiday every 2 years (next one coming up this May) We will sacrifice alot for that holiday.
The usual stuff like mortgage, bills, savings for us, a gift account, and a little savings for the kids each, childcare/preschool (one day @ day care for the boys and two days @preschool for DD), groceries, living essentials like clothes, shoes ect, mostly for the kids though.
Other than that, if we have extra (DH will almost always earn a bit extra from OT), we pay half of what is left over off our CC, then half goes into an account for holidays. DH and I get a little play money each fortnight too, which is usually spent on things like food (lunches out, or treats like icecream...), magazines and books, and I am trying to make sure I get my hair done once every 8ish weeks or so.
But all of those extras are sporadic and only if we can afford it.
Travel to see my kids and for them to see me (I pay for flights). And travel in general.
Food. I spend a lot on food for someone who doesn't eat much. I like good food. I don't like cooking it. Recipe for spending a lot.
Clothes and shoes. I love clothes, I love shoes. It's my biggest indulgence. I spend next to nothing on beauty products and hairdressers so it all goes to shoes and clothes.
Mortgage
Groceries - we try to buy good quality, ethical if we can.
Childcare
Smaller Debt
What I call communications - so mobiles, home phone, internet and Austar (yes, we have pay tv, but out where we are DVD hire is just not practical, we don't really get to go out much and we limit what DVD's we buy. )
Also due to where we live, Internet and home phone is more expensive, we pay a fortune just to have 12gig per month. It also means we can dump the home phone for voip etc. Also mobile reception can be dodgy, so need home phone as backup.
Mortgage
Bills
Running costs of cars (we own ours outright)
Kids saving accounts
I do online shopping for food, so there is no temptations. I have stopped going to "shop at home parties" so I am not obliged to buy. We are in a position at the moment where we don't have extra money each week, so really cutting back on buying something cause we like it, or it's a good saving.
I did however spend $140 today on new clothes and shoes for me, but that was my birthday money
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where does your money go?
) but he never has any money - because he saves ever penny for travel. He goes on these incredible adventures to Nepal for hiking, and whitewater rafting in the Grand Canyon, and cliff diving in South America ...
)
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