How much money after everything is paid for?

[The_Jim]

I budget 450 every two weeks for a family of 5. My wife is consistently telling me 900 a month for food is simply not enough

I keep telling her our food budget is ridiculously high.

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I don't think your out of line. Were a family of 6 and are in that ballpark. We have done a few things to try to mitigate it, but eating reasonably healthy isn't cheap...

 

[southLA]

save and invest half of what is left after taxes.

 

[TaperPin]

I'll ask again, can you show me what a $10.71 day looks like?

Breakfast: What are we having?

Lunch: What are we having?

Dinner: What are we having?

Snacks: What are we having?

Assuming we are only drinking water.

I eat oatmeal every morning - as much steel cut oats as I want is only $.14 a day. A couple small links of sausage is $.40.

Even making pancakes from scratch, a few sticks of bacon, and hash browns is only about $1.

Buying basic lunch meat for sandwiches, some sprouts, lettuce, tomato, and condiments won’t be over $2.

Half an entire head of romaine lettuce is $1, dressing/tomatoes/cucumber/croutons about $1, 1/4 lb of tritip $2, so a decent steak salad is not more than $4.

A decent loaf of bread each day for garlic bread, sandwiches, toast in the morning, is maybe $2 per person.

Glass of wine is only $2.

Making spaghetti with premium San Marino tomatoes, sausage, and a splash of wine is cheaper than the steak salad.

Home made pizza is less $4/person.

$10 roast made with a huge amount of carrots, onions, celery and potatoes goes a long way and serves 4.

25 lbs of rice goes a long way.
Rice dishes like risotto or Spanish rice are dirt cheap and easy.

1/2 lb of sweet and sour chicken (or Cajun, or teriyaki) over a big bed of rice with broccoli and bell peppers is less than $4 per person.

Little bags of popcorn are expensive - giant bags of popcorn are really cheap per serving. Same with chips. A small baggie of chips helps break up the monotony of sandwiches.

$5 Costco cooked chickens are cheaper than raw - add $3 Alfredo sauce and $2 pasta and it serves 4, plus there’s left over chicken breast for lunch. Or take off the breasts, boil the rest for homemade chicken soup.

Potatoes are almost free when purchased in large bags on sale. Short ribs and vegetables over a bed of mashed potatoes is one of my favorite meals. Making baked potatoes in large batches works for lunch, or to fry at breakfast, or to mash at dinner.

Carrot and celery snacks are almost free.

Frozen peas or corn are very inexpensive when bought in the largest sizes.

Industrial size cornbread mix makes it very inexpensive.

Pies are very inexpensive to make.

Turkey is free at many places before thanksgiving if you buy groceries there - I’ve boiled entire turkeys for soup, made 6 months of sandwich meat. In July I won’t turn down turkey breast and a good gravy over mashed potatoes - maybe a $.50 meal.

Banana bread made with $.19/lb over ripe bananas is dirt cheap. Biscuits are also dirt cheap.

Chips & salsa on taco night are dirt cheap. We have a tortilla press and homemade are better tasting than store bought. Lettuce and tomatoes are left over from salads, cheese is maybe $.50, taco meat $2.

When out of elk, I used to get hamburger on 1/2 price clearance sale every Sunday as the butcher cleaned out his case for the weekend.

Chili is cheap to make, especially when large bags of dry beans are used.

Anything with dried beans is dirt cheap.

Damn it - I shouldn’t write while I’m hungry. *chuckle*

Americans are famous for having large amounts of the expensive ingredients and small portions of the cheap ones, and often to cut food costs drastically we can eat the same foods, just reducing the portions of the expensive part. It reminds me of street food in other countries - they make the most out of inexpensive ingredients.

 

[Crow Hunter TN]

Those are some seriously impressive numbers, congrats to you and your spouse, as I'm sure there was a lot of hard work, good choices, and temporary sacrifices that went into making those number at this point in your life.

Also, sorry you guys are DINK's against your will as that is truly some generational wealth you guys are accumulating at that rate.

Looks like you might need to have a conversation with the wife about being a full-time trophy husband if the engineering manager gig turns into a grind.

Thank you. We have sacrificed so much that it has become our lives. It is "what we do". My wife works an enormous amount. She works from 7am until 6 PM every week day, we eat supper and then she goes back and works until midnight most nights and most weekends. (She is WFH most of the time)

We are saving/investing to purchase our "perfect" hunting property/build a house when we retire early in 5'ish years. So we aren't letting up.

Undoubtedly, if my wife had been able to have children, we would not be here. She would not have been able to work so hard and get promoted so highly.

Personally, I would have rather had kids and worked longer/harder, but that wasn't how life worked out for us. I think having kids would have made us vastly more "wealthy" than having fiat currency.

I don't want to quit my job. I get paid to break things and then figure out why they broke.

 

[Andrew12gauge]

Thank you. We have sacrificed so much that it has become our lives. It is "what we do". My wife works an enormous amount. She works from 7am until 6 PM every week day, we eat supper and then she goes back and works until midnight most nights and most weekends. (She is WFH most of the time)

We are saving/investing to purchase our "perfect" hunting property/build a house when we retire early in 5'ish years. So we aren't letting up.

Undoubtedly, if my wife had been able to have children, we would not be here. She would not have been able to work so hard and get promoted so highly.

Personally, I would have rather had kids and worked longer/harder, but that wasn't how life worked out for us. I think having kids would have made us vastly more "wealthy" than having fiat currency.

I don't want to quit my job. I get paid to break things and then figure out why they broke.

Not to pry too much, but have you and your wife looked into adopting? There are plenty of children born every day that could use a loving and stable home life. Infant adoption is generally expensive but it sounds like you and the wife can handle the cost. Raising children is definitely rewarding in many ways, just not financially usually


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[Crow Hunter TN]

Out of curiosity, I checked our grocery spend.

For the last 3 months we averaged $267.33/month which would be roughly $9/day for 2 people (assumed 30 day month).

I don't know what my wife eats during the day, probably nothing since she usually only drinks coffee and eats supper, but I normally eat a bowl of instant oatmeal or a protein bar and a cup of milk for breakfast, a peanut butter sandwich and a banana or apple or box of raisins for lunch and then whatever my wife fixes for supper. Something like Ritz cracker rolled chicken tenders with steamed broccoli and some kind of little potatoes sliced up and some fruit for dessert. We also try to buy whatever we have coupons for and eat that.

On weekends we eat a real breakfast which is usually 2 eggs and 2 frozen biscuits and some milk or she makes flapjacks/pancakes with real Canadian maple syrup (that she gets cans of when she is in Quebec). Then we usually skip lunch and have something cooked nice for supper/leftovers. (Meatloaf, shells and cheese, green beans, mashed potatoes were last weekend through Tuesday night)

We usually "cycle" one month will be a $350+ grocery bill and the other will be less than $200. When she is traveling, I usually just eat a sandwich since I don't cook. (That is most of the cheap months )

We only eat out on very special occasions or if her company pays for it. We might get steak once a year if we find a good deal.

 

[KsRancher]

200k for a household doesn't seem that high to me. In my example, It took me nearly 20 years in my "career" field and a masters degree to make 80k/year. As far as comparing ourselves to others, I constantly wonder how much I'd be earning in another career field after 20 years and a masters degree. I'd imagine any engineer or something would be making closer to 120k/year with that amount of time and education. Get 2 engineers or other professionals together and that 200k amount docent seem high.

I was just looking the other day and saw truck drivers with CDLs making more than me, heck at the hospital in my town, I don't believe anybody there is making less than 50-60k to start as in entry level work in rural Alaska.

Now if we're talking about non skilled, jobs that just don't pay great, yeah, not many households are going to have a factory worker and a librarian (not that there's anything wrong with those jobs) bringing in 200k + per year.

I suppose it's a regional thing. Starting entry level at our local Ks hospital would be low $30,000 range. CDL truck driver in my area would be around the 50-60k which is right at the national average for company drivers. The percentage of people making over 75k in my area would be well under 1% of the population I would guess

 

[Afhunter1]

I wanted my wife to stay at home with our kids (3) so I kept going to school at night until I had a bachelors degree in accounting. Then after about 10 years in I went back for an MBA.

I make a decent salary (CEO small business)
I also have purchased 2 rental buildings that net us 2.5K each month
I started a beef farm and have about 30 pairs of angus + chickens for eggs and meat
I buy and sell a few things over the year too for some extra cash

My oldest just graduated from college in May, Middle child just started her 3rd year in college, youngest is graduating high school this year.

My wife is now starting to look for a job to go back to work

We have had years where we didn't save much and years we saved a good bit but the one thing we did right we started early. I started maxing out our roth's and my 3% employer match when I was 22.

Now at 43 we have a sizeable retirement portfolio and hope to be out of the game at 55. We have paid for most of the kids college also. There is always ways to make more money if you want to put in the effort and stick to a budget.

 

[Crow Hunter TN]

Not to pry too much, but have you and your wife looked into adopting? There are plenty of children born every day that could use a loving and stable home life. Infant adoption is generally expensive but it sounds like you and the wife can handle the cost. Raising children is definitely rewarding in many ways, just not financially usually


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We looked at it very seriously. However, we ultimately decided against it due to my personal experiences growing up.

 

[307]

So, somewhere between $.50 and $25,000.00...

 

[HuntHarder]

I'll ask again, can you show me what a $10.71 day looks like?

Breakfast: What are we having?

Lunch: What are we having?

Dinner: What are we having?

Snacks: What are we having?

Assuming we are only drinking water.

Instead of challenging others to make a grocery list, challenge yourself. I did that very thing a couple years ago. It was really easy to eliminate crap and also make better, healthier meals.

 

[HuntHarder]

I suppose it's a regional thing. Starting entry level at our local Ks hospital would be low $30,000 range. CDL truck driver in my area would be around the 50-60k which is right at the national average for company drivers. The percentage of people making over 75k in my area would be well under 1% of the population I would guess

I'd imagine you are a quite a bit low on cdl drivers. National averages are only straight time comparisons generally. In Az, we hire grunts, who have to have CdL's, at around 80k before OT. They all approach or surpass 100k

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I suppose it's a regional thing. Starting entry level at our local Ks hospital would be low $30,000 range. CDL truck driver in my area would be around the 50-60k which is right at the national average for company drivers. The percentage of people making over 75k in my area would be well under 1% of the population I would guess

It's definitely regional, nurses where I live who have flight nurse training make ~185k/year, even teachers can make 100k/year around here. There's some local/regional entities here where a basic office job starts at 60-70k.

My dads wife son just got a nursing license and he started at like 70k in Las Vegas, Im not sure what the cost of living or rent is there.

 

[KsRancher]

I'd imagine you are a quite a bit low on cdl drivers. National averages are only straight time comparisons generally. In Az, we hire grunts, who have to have CdL's, at around 80k before OT. They all approach or surpass 100k

Wow. That pretty good. The only truck drivers around me making that kind of money are the ones that own amd drive the truck.

 

[KsRancher]

It's definitely regional, nurses where I live who have flight nurse training make ~185k/year, even teachers can make 100k/year around here. There's some local/regional entities here where a basic office job starts at 60-70k.

My dads wife son just got a nursing license and he started at like 70k in Las Vegas, Im not sure what the cost of living or rent is there.

Dang. My wife is a HS english teacher and makes in the low $40k gross

 

[HuntHarder]

Dang. My wife is a HS english teacher and makes in the low $40k gross

out of curiosity, would you say your total cost of living is lower than most? At the end of the day, you have to figure out what works for you. I have buddies who live in rural North Dakota. They make a lot less money than I do, but their way of life is also a lot different. The Concrete jungle life is expensive. I'd say my buddies rural life seems wealthier in terms of life satisfaction than mine. Kids from a 10-15 mile radius all go to the same school. Here in Az, we have a school every mile it seems.

Money is great, but there are tradeoffs. If you are happy and making it, keep at it.

 

[KsRancher]

out of curiosity, would you say your total cost of living is lower than most? At the end of the day, you have to figure out what works for you. I have buddies who live in rural North Dakota. They make a lot less money than I do, but their way of life is also a lot different. The Concrete jungle life is expensive. I'd say my buddies rural life seems wealthier in terms of life satisfaction than mine. Kids from a 10-15 mile radius all go to the same school. Here in Az, we have a school every mile it seems.

Money is great, but there are tradeoffs. If you are happy and making it, keep at it.

Definitely cheaper than most. I would say that the biggest savings would be our housing.

 

[KenLee]

Just curious whats left over every month after all bills, food, and gas are paid for. I just recently made some big moves in life and am thinking about my budget. On a regular old month, with no extra income or side jobs, I should have atleast 2k per month to do whatever I want to do with. Save or spend. I'm not sure if thats good, bad, or indifferent.

Are you meaning after booze and wild women, cause that's 2 very different numbers?

 

[KenLee]

I budget 450 every two weeks for a family of 5. My wife is consistently telling me 900 a month for food is simply not enough

I keep telling her our food budget is ridiculously high.

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Tell her $450 every 2 weeks is actually $975 per month. Then back away.

 

[SDHNTR]

Just curious whats left over every month after all bills, food, and gas are paid for. I just recently made some big moves in life and am thinking about my budget. On a regular old month, with no extra income or side jobs, I should have atleast 2k per month to do whatever I want to do with. Save or spend. I'm not sure if thats good, bad, or indifferent.

You’re looking at this wrong.

1. First required expenses.
2. Then required savings to meet future financial goals.
3. Discretionary spending.

In that order. If you try and group 2 and 3 together, 2 will never happen. Savings must come before spending.

And ultimately, your question is impossible to answer without knowing more, a lot more. A formalized financial plan would be highly advisable. And how anyone else’s situation may be similar to or different than your own is entirely irrelevant. What matters, and all that matters, is that your family is cared for, and your financial goals are on track to be met. That’s unique to you and you alone.