NBR Poll: How much does your household spend, monthly?

KittahMama

DH doesn't make a TON- but he earns a decent wage.  When I was working when we were first together I was in sales making good money.. that lasted until mid 2009 when I was let go.  After that we readjusted our strategy with money.  We didn't have a car payment for the first few years (and only bought my car used, as a really good deal two months before I lost my job).  I took another job within a month but at 1/2 the pay.  We got pregnant two months later. 

We were/are savers.  It meant when I had to leave work due to preterm labor (and it wasn't a protected position because my company was so small) that we could afford it.  It has also meant we have been able to afford me SAHM even though that was NOT our plan. 

Our income right now is so screwed up because we are paying for our house in Kentucky and living up here, but don't pay for the rent here.  So we have some duplicate bills.  We've been saving everywhere, though.  Our house in Kentucky has the heat set really low and the realtors have to turn it up to show the house, and we cut off cable/internet (but kept phone for our alarm system).

If you saw us though, you may think we are big spenders.  We have three cars- a porsche boxster (paid off), a corolla (paid off) and my Volvo XC90 which will be paid off in less than a year.  We don't carry any debt but our mortgage, though, and we save every penny we can.  I buy clothes for DD either secondhand, online or at outlets and I've begun using coupons.  If I don't have  coupon I have a hard time buying something full price!

But I can't imagine spending less than $2k a month for expenses.  Rent alone is $600 or so!! Car insurance is about $100-$200 for one person, then add on any expenses like gas, groceriers and you get to $1k quickly!

buckeyethor

Ttimes3:

Miller238:

buckeyethor:

I have a lot to say about this but I think it best to just shut up before I get started.

What is this supposed to mean?

Yes, now I want to know. Everyone is entitled to her opinion. 

I can get pretty riled up about money stuff. We get a lot of it from DH's friends saying things like "Oh well you have a master's degree so of course you have enough money for ___________ ". Um well, no, that is not how it works. These friends have no idea what we pay for monthly and how quite a bit of it has nothing to do with our current spending (ie stupid cc debt from college). It just gets my goat and gets me all fired up that these friends make all these assumptions about our finances.  So maybe ppl spend x% of their income on prior debt and that their current monthly take home pay is not really what it is after debts.