How much do you spend each month and what does your budget look like?

Zascar

As suggested in this thread on how much savings do you have, it might be interesting for those who are willing to share a picture into what their budget or average monthly spend looks like.

Like many others are was pretty shocked to see how little some people can apparently live on, despite being on a relatively low income some can save the majority of it. Serious hats of to you but I have no idea how it's done. So I'm very curious to see what a typical budget / monthly spend looks for the low earners, but also the medium and high earners also.

Suggested Formatr:

• Rent:
• Bills:
• Food & Household:
• Transport & Travel:
• Shopping & Clothes:
• Entertainment & Eating Out:
• Savings

Feel free to alter the above to your needs - I did not add in kids but if you have them they are always a significant expense. If you are happy to share your earnings vs savings that might be useful.

HamSarris

A data engineer on 100k tells us how he saves 5k a month by not buying branded dishwasher tablets.

The Journal has plenty of these already.

https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/money-diaries-10-5098244-May2020/

antimatterx

I live at home, and I'm saving for a mortgage. This is my usual (pre covid, I spent nothing really now).

Rent: 0
Bills: 0
Food & Household: 100
Transport & Travel: 80
Shopping & Clothes: 50
Entertainment & Eating Out: 100
Savings: 2K

Canyon86

Software engineer on 50k plus company car

Rent: 0- I am living with parents saving for mortgage and I am sale agreed on a property and going through legalities at the mo
Bills: 50 household bills , gym 29 spotify 20 netflix 15
Food & Household: 200
Transport & Travel: 0 I have a company car
Shopping & Clothes: 150
Entertainment & Eating Out: 200
Savings: 900
BIK:80
Loan: 188

vikings2012

Rent: 0
Car insurance; €53
Phone and subs: €32
Gym: €23
Food €100
Diesel: €75
Shopping & Clothes: €100
Entertainment & Eating Out: €200
Holiday fund - €100
Car maintenance - €25
Sport fees/equipment - 80
Adverts/eBay random stuff - €50
Savings -,€1,900

Above is per month

Jim2007

Zascar wrote: »

As suggested in this thread on how much savings do you have, it might be interesting for those who are willing to share a picture into what their budget or average monthly spend looks like.

Like many others are was pretty shocked to see how little some people can apparently live on, despite being on a relatively low income some can save the majority of it. Serious hats of to you but I have no idea how it's done. So I'm very curious to see what a typical budget / monthly spend looks for the low earners, but also the medium and high earners also.

Suggested Formatr:

• Rent:
• Bills:
• Food & Household:
• Transport & Travel:
• Shopping & Clothes:
• Entertainment & Eating Out:
• Savings

Feel free to alter the above to your needs - I did not add in kids but if you have them they are always a significant expense. If you are happy to share your earnings vs savings that might be useful.

For people that own their own home, substitute the average of ownership: insurance, maintenance, a provision for upkeep etc..

Febreeze

Income - I get paid weekly but I'm going to use a monthly over view of this - €2,000 (that's minus overtime so some months I can do overtime and other months I don't get it) so this is more of a "real" wage


Rent: €280 a month (I live at home to save for the time being).

Bills: Included in the rent so it gets split between the members of the house.

Food & Household: €120 a month (I shop once a week so I can batch cook so some weeks I can spend less than others) so this is more of a guesstimate. That's also including food and toiletries in different shops.

Transport & Travel: €25 for petrol every 2 weeks. I live close to my job which is the only time I use my car. Most times I walk to places if needed. Friends and family live close so again I usually walk or we meet up locally.

Shopping & Clothes: I don't buy clothes as my wardrope is full to the brim so I can get away with buying something new for now (except for Christmas when I treat myself to christmas day clothes). I'm not a huge spender on clothes as I hate shopping.

Entertainment & Eating Out: I use my family Netflix account so that's free. I treat myself to a take away once a week so €120 a month which is probably the only exciting thing I do. €9.99 for Spotify.

Savings: €1,000 a month

Health Insurance: €45 a month

I also put money to the side for my car insurance and tax (€80) that I pay at the end of the year so I can pay them off straight away rather than going into savings or scrimping to pay nearer the time. Usually if the money is there way before they are due then I stop putting that money to the side and put it in my rainy day.

The usual few bob I have left over the day before payday usually goes into a "rainy day" savings so I can use that towards maintance of the car (which is due soon) or if I want to treat myself to something which again is rare.

I've plenty saved in my savings that I do not touch as that's for a reason and then I've my rainy day savings which I can go weeks without touching or I can dip in from time to time if something is needed.

Kerry25x

Married couple, no kids, joint income and expenses.

Mortgage: €522
Bills: €250
Food & Household: €300
Transport & Travel: €10-€20 per week on fuel now with my husband working from home, usually €40 a week.
Shopping & Clothes: carries a lot from month to month but could be €100-€300
Entertainment & Eating Out: honestly have no idea, we eat out a lot.
Savings: Aim for around 2.5k-€3k month.

Find it hard to break down expenses because they change from month to month and I don't track them closely enough. Mortgage and fixed bills are €770 a month, try to keep all other expenses (food, fuel, shopping, misc) to €550 a week - manage this by transferring that amount on to our Revolut card every Friday.

Deal with yearly bills (car tax & insurance, house insurance, property tax etc) as they come up, out of savings usually. We like to go on big holidays, to Africa or Asia mostly, a few times a year so that really eats in to our savings. We save a lot but spend it pretty easily too.

GazzaL

HamSarris wrote: »

A data engineer on 100k tells us how he saves 5k a month by not buying branded dishwasher tablets.

The Journal has plenty of these already.

https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/money-diaries-10-5098244-May2020/

Jaysus, that's depressing reading how anal some people are about money. The fella is most likely earning more than his partner yet is splitting bills 50:50 down to the cent. And renting out a room instead of enjoying having their own space together which they can well afford... Having seen stuff like this before, I'd advise his partner to run a mile.

GazzaL

GazzaL wrote: »

Jaysus, that's depressing reading how anal some people are about money. The fella is most likely earning more than his partner yet is splitting bills 50:50 down to the cent. And renting out a room instead of enjoying having their own space together which they can well afford... Having seen stuff like this before, I'd advise his partner to run a mile.

I’d have thought most people split bills 50:50? Certainly how I have always one things with my wife. Separate accounts and split everything 50:50.

Kerry25x

Blair Glamorous Tendinitis wrote: »

I’d have thought most people split bills 50:50? Certainly how I have always one things with my wife. Separate accounts and split everything 50:50.

I don't know what most people do but for us we were together about 18 months when it began to feel a bit rediculous to be owing each other money so we switched everything to a joint account and pooled our savings together. You'd want to have similar attitudes to money of course, we're both pretty relaxed so it works out well.

Febreeze

Myself and partner split 50:50 just because it works out cheaper. We used to just pool it all together and when we sat down and done the maths, one wage was bigger than the other and one was left pretty much paying and the other had some left over. Now I will admit, I won't ask anyone for a a cent. I could be left with €1 with everything paid for, food bought and bills and rent paid for and I still won't ask for money if I fancied something. That's just the way I am. When I would see there was money left over, I refused to spend it. "Just in case" I would say and my partner said it wasn't right to just feel like I couldn't ask for money. He would give it too me if I needed it but I'm just too stubborn. Maybe it was my upbringing, I'm not sure but I point blank refuse to ask for money when I've nothing left over.

Mind you I wouldn't agree or disagree with it. Every couple is different but personally our wages are our own. For now anyways until we do eventually get a mortage then things could change but it works out when split that we have our own set amount for ourselves and its up to us what we do with it. Don't worry we aren't that scabby, we help each other when help is needed but I don't feel the need to wounder who owes what or who paid more. When it's split, it's split and no one can give out or have an issue.

We've got separate savings for the deposit that will be joined together when we have enough and then our own savings for whatever we want or as my mam calls it a "secret savings". That we use for ourselves or for birthdays and Christmas etc. Anything that we have left over when all is paid and done for, it's our own.

Kerry25x

Kerry25x wrote: »

I don't know what most people do but for us we were together about 18 months when it began to feel a bit rediculous to be owing each other money so we switched everything to a joint account and pooled our savings together. You'd want to have similar attitudes to money of course, we're both pretty relaxed so it works out well.

Wouldn’t be a fan of pooling at all, prefer to get paid into our own accounts and keep savings separate. We have a joint account which we used to put a fixed amount of money into each month for common bills but now with Revolut making sending and receiving money so easy we just transfer money back and fourth depending on who pays a bill or pays for the shopping etc.

Anything outside of common bills is our own to save/spend as we want (I.e. our salary is our own and not a shared resource). I think a joint account makes this very unfair as one person could be spending more than the other and end up using the other persons money etc.

o1s1n

Yeah I've a lot of hobbies that cost money and it would be weird paying for any of it out of a pooled resource. Doesn't seem fair!

Kerry25x

Blair Glamorous Tendinitis wrote: »

I think a joint account makes this very unfair as one person could be spending more than the other and end up using the other persons money etc.

I guess we just have a different mindset, there is no other person's money, it's all our money. We were both 23 and on low incomes when we decided we wanted to share everything but I had a lot more in savings, then I supported him for a couple years while he was studying. Now 9 years later he earns a lot more than me but it doesn't matter to us.

theteal

I suppose every case will vary but theres not a chance we could split bills 50:50. MrsTeal insists on paying half the mortgage so I'm not going to argue - although when maternity leave kicks in in a couple of months I'll be on the hook for the full amount. But ordinarily I pay council tax, gas+electricity, water, virgin media, house + pet insurance, netflix - I'm sure I'm forgetting some. She pays her own car insurance and rather randomly the contents insurance is on that policy also. I work fulltime in IT, she's a nurse working less the 30hrs so to split dòwn the middle makes zero sense. Either way, I see it as the familys money so that's just what things cost.

Edit: I may as well contribute to the OP
Mortgage £840 /2
Council Tax £1800pa
Childcare £200
Gas+electricity £42 (goes up to £110 in winter months)
Water £17, waste £13
Car insurance £240pa, Tax £180pa
Netflix <£5
Virgin Media £43

fits

Wow some of you have very low expenses. For our house it’s like this b

Mortgage 1200
Childcare 1200
Car insurance; €60 ( 2 cars)
Electricity 150
Phone and subs: €50
Food €600
Diesel: €150
Shopping & Clothes: €100
Entertainment & Eating Out: €50
Car maintenance - €25
Health insurance €200
Life assurance/mortgage protection € 150
Savings 700
I’d like to save more but not really possible at moment. We are doing well enough not to have any other loans.

We pay majority of our salaries into joint account and everything comes out of that. Keep a bit back for ourselves.

messy tessy

Rent: 0- I am living with parents since lockdown. Previously paying €1,200 a month on rent.
Bills: €40 phone, spotify €10
Food & Household: €300 - €400 (under protest from my mother. I feel I have to contribute something though)
Transport & Travel: €50. Not including tax/ insurance in this.
Shopping & Clothes: €20 / €50. Can't remember the last time I bought clothes... so this is likely overstated.
Entertainment & Eating Out: €50. Odd coffee and takeaway here and there.
Savings: €3,000

Savings now would be twice as much as before lockdown. Bought a new car a few months ago, but no interest in getting more stuff just because I have more cash now. Parents won't take money off me but do try to sneakily pay for things and help out as much as I can.

Creamy Goodness

Essentials:
- Mortgage: 1100
- Car loan: 350 (this was a silly mistake buying 1 week before C19 hit Ireland, over paying this to get it gone quicker).
- Savings: 1000
- Pension: 500 (with match).

Bills:
- Electricity: 80
- Income protection: 30
- Home insurance: 25
- Car insurance: 46
- Bins: 22
- Motor Tax: 23
- Petrol: 60

Entertainment:
- Netflix/Apple Music/Disney+: 21
- Mobile: 10
- TV & Broadband: 90

Food:
- Wine subscription: 80
- Takeaway: 30 (once a month)
- Food: 300 (roughly 75 per shop for two people).

Misc:
- Clothing: 100 (I tend to buy as I need so this would be a guess, for example I've lost 2 stone this year, this month I spent roughly 500 on new clothes this will be spread over the entire year with maybe a few bits and bobs at Christmas).

I really should start some holiday fund, I tend to lash it on the credit card at the right time and spread the cost over two pay cheques.

Creamy Goodness

Mr.S wrote: »

Same, or take it from our rainy day fund. I'd setup separate accounts on AIB and do it neatly but seems you can only have 2 savings accounts with them? I'd love some sort of Vaults feature like Revolut.

Also...Wine Subscription...which do you use? Trying to find a decent one

Was thinking of using vaults for car insurance/tax/holiday fund going to set them this week.

This is the one I used https://www.winelab.ie/firstlookclub . I like it because each month one bottle is a special buy only for the subscribers. If they get good feedback they look to stock it.

GazzaL

Blair Glamorous Tendinitis wrote: »

I’d have thought most people split bills 50:50? Certainly how I have always one things with my wife. Separate accounts and split everything 50:50.

I've always earned more than my partners and always saw it as my responsibility to pay more because of that.

Kerry25x wrote: »

I don't know what most people do but for us we were together about 18 months when it began to feel a bit rediculous to be owing each other money so we switched everything to a joint account and pooled our savings together. You'd want to have similar attitudes to money of course, we're both pretty relaxed so it works out well.

That sounds ideal. It's also not good if one person owes the other person in the relationship money, particularly if it's a significant amount. It can become a real problem.

Kerry25x wrote: »

I guess we just have a different mindset, there is no other person's money, it's all our money. We were both 23 and on low incomes when we decided we wanted to share everything but I had a lot more in savings, then I supported him for a couple years while he was studying. Now 9 years later he earns a lot more than me but it doesn't matter to us.

For me, sharing funds is the sign of a serious, committed relationship. It's a sign of trust, particularly if one person earns (significantly) more than the other. Otherwise it's almost like you're just housemates that ride each other.

Irish_rat

Monthly net 2500

Mortgage:650
Bills: 120(gas, esb, TV, broadband, phone)
Food & Household: 250
Transport & Travel: 80
Shopping & Clothes:40
Entertainment & Eating Out: 280
Savings: 1000

Roughly.

Febreeze

I had to make a few changes as I previously messed up and change in rent....

Income (I get paid weekly so I've just rounded it up to monthly with overtime. Some weeks are different) - €2100 a month

Rent (Rent is split between family members) - €480 a month

Savings (that I don't touch) - €800 a month

Rainy day (for car maintenance and just overall if I want to treat myself which is rare) - €200 a month

Tax/Insurance - €80 a month (a pay yearly so I spend most of the year saving this then towards the end when I have it all saved the €80 goes into my Rainy day funds and I start back again when all is paid)

Health Insurance - €44.58 a month

Spotify - €9.99 (I use my families Netflix so that's free)

Counselling - €30 a month (some months I don't get to go because of changes of roster but it's the majority of times)

Food shopping - €120 a month (usually varies each week but near enough the same amount which usually includes Aldi and Dealz for the toiletries and cleaning)

Petrol - €20 (every two weeks. I live close enough to the job and rarely use my car for a lot of the times after that)

Take aways - €30 (once a week. It's the only thing I look forward too these days since we can't get out much and I'm honestly not in the humour for booking places just so I can eat)

Phone credit - €20 a month which is all you can eat date and free text and calls to the same network so I use WiFi mostly so I don't really buy that much credit

That's pretty much it. I get paid weekly so whatever I have left on the Wednesday evening I put that into my Rainy day funds and let that build up a little bit and start all over again on payday. It works out pretty well.

Zascar

Fair play to all the people who can live in half nothing and save the other half, I wish I was able to do that. I do however get the impression these are mostly aspirational numbers. No one seems to pay right rent, or have significant car payments etc. What I don't understand is for me almost every month there is some/several non-bugeted expenses, that are often significant.

For example, just off the top of my head, in the last few months alone I've had 3 birthdays, wife, mother and close friend, all of which have meant I had to splash out - flowers, present and or dinner/drinks out. I've had to put 4 tyres on the car and replace some suspension. I had to buy my wife a new phone. I bought a new desk setup so I can properly work from home. I had to buy some home/kitchenwear like a food processor, and some stuff for the house in Ikea. Then I have a new baby so I also had to buy a cot, car seat, playpen and so much other stuff I cannot tell you. Normally I would travel at this time of year but we did a very short staycation instead. Also, very few here have put down eating out or boozing - yet (pre covid) restaurants and pubs are packed across the country.

Am I alone in these expenses?

The Mighty Quinn

Zascar wrote: »

Fair play to all the people who can live in half nothing and save the other half, I wish I was able to do that. I do however get the impression these are mostly aspirational numbers. No one seems to pay right rent, or have significant car payments etc. What I don't understand is for me almost every month there is some/several non-bugeted expenses, that are often significant.

For example, just off the top of my head, in the last few months alone I've had 3 birthdays, wife, mother and close friend, all of which have meant I had to splash out - flowers, present and or dinner/drinks out. I've had to put 4 tyres on the car and replace some suspension. I had to buy my wife a new phone. I bought a new desk setup so I can properly work from home. I had to buy some home/kitchenwear like a food processor, and some stuff for the house in Ikea. Then I have a new baby so I also had to buy a cot, car seat, playpen and so much other stuff I cannot tell you. Normally I would travel at this time of year but we did a very short staycation instead. Also, very few here have put down eating out or boozing - yet (pre covid) restaurants and pubs are packed across the country.

Am I alone in these expenses?

You're not alone on those expenses, no. Every faaaacking month I seem to have some sh*t I can't get out of. This month was 4 new tyres also. However, I think some people genuinely don't have those expenses. The prime candidates for having large money saved in my opinion would be people in mid late 20s, qualified in something, living at home, not in a relationship, no children, live in city so don't own and run a car. Easy save money then if you're that way inclined.

cefh17

I (27) have been keeping track of expenses/budgeting since 2017 so know these values are mostly right (have used average over the last 12 months, some months higher/lower). For the likes of car tax/insurance/gifts I have a monthly amount for each so by the time the bill is due it's there ready to go

Max pension AVC for my age (15%) with employer match (8%). Had been putting 10% net into ESPP and saved roughly 500 into a savings acc. Originally putting it towards house deposit but buying's been put on hold another while.

Necessities:
Rent - 588.50 (Shared 2 bed in the West with the GF)
Groceries - 150
Electricity/Broadband - 69
Medical - 30
Barber - 10

Transport:
Diesel - 50
Upkeep (Service/maintenance) - 80
Tax - 23
Insurance - 60

Personal:
Socialising - 135
Canteen/Takeaway -130
Clothes - 15
Vape - 30
Random purchases (Games etc) - 85
Charity - 45
Holidays - 100

Subscriptions:
Google Drive / Netflix / Phone / Gym - 45

Gifts:
Christmas/Birthdays/Other - 190

pwurple

Zascar wrote: »

Fair play to all the people who can live in half nothing and save the other half, I wish I was able to do that. I do however get the impression these are mostly aspirational numbers. No one seems to pay right rent, or have significant car payments etc. What I don't understand is for me almost every month there is some/several non-bugeted expenses, that are often significant.

For example, just off the top of my head, in the last few months alone I've had 3 birthdays, wife, mother and close friend, all of which have meant I had to splash out - flowers, present and or dinner/drinks out. I've had to put 4 tyres on the car and replace some suspension. I had to buy my wife a new phone. I bought a new desk setup so I can properly work from home. I had to buy some home/kitchenwear like a food processor, and some stuff for the house in Ikea. Then I have a new baby so I also had to buy a cot, car seat, playpen and so much other stuff I cannot tell you. Normally I would travel at this time of year but we did a very short staycation instead. Also, very few here have put down eating out or boozing - yet (pre covid) restaurants and pubs are packed across the country.

Am I alone in these expenses?

Yes, we have have expenses, but I try my damnedest to plan them.
I find it easiest to do by grouping the expenses in buckets using google sheets, or an excel file.

For example, I have a list of costs that I KNOW are associated with a car and I put them in a car budget on one page. That includes tyres, tax, insurance, servicing, cleaning.

For babies / children, I put a list together of Childcare, clothes, shoes, activities (sports etc).

For housing, there's the mortgage, insurance, alarm servicing,repairs, gutter and drain clearance, garden expenses

Then I have other buckets for food, sports.
Item : Annual cost : Monthly cost

What;s left over then is discretionary for social life, sports, birthdays etc

Front sheet has a very simple list then of the totals, so I know what my leftover discretionary budget actually is, accounting for all those one offs. That way if I've a birthday cost coming up, I know I can't afford flowers from a florist, fancy dinner and an expensive gift all for one person.





When I was under pressure financially with baby costs, I took a good hard look at the top three most expensive things in our lives, to see what we could do to reduce cost. One was the car, divided annually, it was nearly as expensive as our house. We had a heap of 'unexpected' maintenance costs on the car in the previous 3 years. The car was oldish, tax was high etc. So we did a comparison on paper with a new car, for the total cost of ownership. Buying a new car (electric) fit our commuting needs and reduced the cost of ownership so much (no petrol, lower maintenance, lower tax), that the cost of the new car paid for itself in 3 years.




It's finding the right tool for you sometmes, and writing it all down in a way that makes sense.

Some people are putting an awful lot of time in doing spreadsheets etc I wouldn’t have the patience for it. I just do most of the in my head.

Bubbaclaus

Blair Glamorous Tendinitis wrote: »

Some people are putting an awful lot of time in doing spreadsheets etc I wouldn’t have the patience for it. I just do most of the in my head.

Why would spreadsheets take an awful lot of time?

Bubbaclaus

Bubbaclaus wrote: »

Why would spreadsheets take an awful lot of time?

Some of the level of detail some people go into it would certainly take time. I personally just don't see the need for that level of detail. I know my account balances at all times and I know my major expenses and just work out in my head as I go after that.

For example I will think about my car insurance the month its due - look at my balance on that month and see can I (a) want to/can pay it in one go, (b) pay with credit card and spread over two months, (c) pay from savings or (d) pay with instalments. Make decision almost instantly and forget about it until next year (its usually option (b) or (c) or a combination of the two)

Creamy Goodness

Blair Glamorous Tendinitis wrote: »

Some of the level of detail some people go into it would certainly take time. I personally just don't see the need for that level of detail. I know my account balances at all times and I know my major expenses and just work out in my head as I go after that.

For example I will think about my car insurance the month its due - look at my balance on that month and see can I (a) want to/can pay it in one go, (b) pay with credit card and spread over two months, (c) pay from savings or (d) pay with instalments. Make decision almost instantly and forget about it until next year (its usually option (b) or (c) or a combination of the two)

There’s no right or wrong way to do this sort of stuff. If it helps the person “spending hours” on a spreadsheet plan their spending then that’s all that matters.

Also you’re in a great position to think of your car insurance just in the month in comes up in. Some people’s insurance is €400 some is €2000. It really depends on your circumstances but I’m sure people who can just absorb that cost in the month it falls is very low. Some people can have credit cards, some can’t both for personal or bad credit reasons.

Paying in instalments for car insurance is awful as they apply interest on it, home insurance doesn’t do this which I found odd.

Not saying you’re wrong, I’m kinda more like yourself doing things in my head but can totally understand how others may not be able to do this and I’m incredibly lucky that I can.

Creamy Goodness

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

There’s no right or wrong way to do this sort of stuff. If it helps the person “spending hours” on a spreadsheet plan their spending then that’s all that matters.

Also you’re in a great position to think of your car insurance just in the month in comes up in. Some people’s insurance is €400 some is €2000. It really depends on your circumstances but I’m sure people who can just absorb that cost in the month it falls is very low. Some people can have credit cards, some can’t both for personal or bad credit reasons.

Paying in instalments for car insurance is awful as they apply interest on it, home insurance doesn’t do this which I found odd.

Not saying you’re wrong, I’m kinda more like yourself doing things in my head but can totally understand how others may not be able to do this and I’m incredibly lucky that I can.

In fairness I wasn't really saying there is anything wrong with doing thing the way people do them more just saying there is a good bit of work involved.

I would use spreadsheets etc for specific things with large and specific budgets for instance our wedding and I will do the same for our house build as we are self building and managing it ourselves. But personally for day to day spending etc I do see the need for tracking and planning everything in detail. I also have to do a lot of budgeting and planning at work and this also puts me off facing into it. I do keep a P+L spreadsheet for my betting tough :-).

pwurple

Blair Glamorous Tendinitis wrote: »

Some people are putting an awful lot of time in doing spreadsheets etc I wouldn’t have the patience for it. I just do most of the in my head.

Once it's set up, it's 10 mins, once a month. Hardly killer effort to keep the finances on track and avoid nasty surprises.

I'm clearly not the superbrain you are either. :pac: Everyone's situation is different though. Once you've a smattering of kids on the go, with the expenses you need to keep on track for them (swimming lessons, school expenses, dental, medical yadda yadda) a couple of cars, motorbikes, some properties. Maybe you have gone through a few employers and in the process picked up some shares, insurance policies, pensions etc to keep track of, it gets a little bit complex. I definitely can't keep it all in my bloomin head!

Plus, we're married, we share the information, so both update it as needed.

But hey, I'm probably about 20 years older than you if you're on your first house and planning a wedding. Just not there yet maybe

cefh17

pwurple wrote: »

Once it's set up, it's 10 mins, once a month. Hardly killer effort to keep the finances on track and avoid nasty surprises.

I'd agree with that amount of time. It's nice to have the money set aside for car insurance/tax/birthdays/christmas etc without even realising it. I wouldn't trust my self control to have it there without a use, because you'd fine one :P But to each their own if they don't need to use spreadsheets/a budget app

ELM327

We pool some money into a joint account for shared bills. I earn more so the ratio I put in is higher compared to herself. Generally I pay about 650 into the joint account per month which covers all shared bills like shopping, netflix, esb (which includes fuel as we have a Tesla), sky, internet, amazon prime, etc. In addition to that:

Mortgage: 395
Car loan: 1000
Car storage (vintage car): 70
Savings: 250, more if available at end of month
Pension Contribution (excluding match from employer): 100
ESPP: 250

Health Insurance: 100 as BIK, approx 50 net


The rest goes on miscellaneous stuff like xbox games, RKings raffle tickets (lol) and - especially true as we are WFH during covid - anything left goes to savings.

Slanty

Zascar wrote: »

Fair play to all the people who can live in half nothing and save the other half, I wish I was able to do that. I do however get the impression these are mostly aspirational numbers. No one seems to pay right rent, or have significant car payments etc. What I don't understand is for me almost every month there is some/several non-bugeted expenses, that are often significant.

For example, just off the top of my head, in the last few months alone I've had 3 birthdays, wife, mother and close friend, all of which have meant I had to splash out - flowers, present and or dinner/drinks out. I've had to put 4 tyres on the car and replace some suspension. I had to buy my wife a new phone. I bought a new desk setup so I can properly work from home. I had to buy some home/kitchenwear like a food processor, and some stuff for the house in Ikea. Then I have a new baby so I also had to buy a cot, car seat, playpen and so much other stuff I cannot tell you. Normally I would travel at this time of year but we did a very short staycation instead. Also, very few here have put down eating out or boozing - yet (pre covid) restaurants and pubs are packed across the country.

Am I alone in these expenses?

Exactly the same boat. Every month I have an expense that knocks a junk out of my wages/savings.
Everybody seems so low for food and shopping! I spend roughly 150€ a WEEK for a family of 2 young kids.
Then we have school, swimming lessons, cloths every couple of weeks!
I’m 33 and was always comfortable but the last few months we are finding it tough.

pwurple

Mr.S wrote: »

My banking app does it all for me, automatically. Breeze.

Your banking app tells you to expect new tyres in 3 months time? Handy.

Zascar

Blair Glamorous Tendinitis wrote: »

Some people are putting an awful lot of time in doing spreadsheets etc I wouldn’t have the patience for it. I just do most of the in my head.

There are some very good apps and website that help you /do it for you:
https://www.youneedabudget.com
https://www.spendee.com
Revolut also gives you some good insights

EDIT: Spendee connects to your bank and imports all the transactions so you don't have to do it yourself. You just need to categorise when it gets it wrong.

Irish_peppa

Copy pasted this from an old boards post for android.

I use Expense Manager by Bishinews

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...expensemanager

Backup is slightly clunky but works and you can use Google Drive and/or Dropbox.

Export to Excel or pdf among other options.

Geuze

Fixed costs

Mortgage 10,070
Health insurance 2,300
Car insurance 650
House insurance 400
Mortgage Protection policy 260
Mortgage Protection policy 101 old policy, kept it going
Life insurance 270 less 40% tax relief
Income protection 640 less 40% tax relief
Life insurance (wife) 150
TV licence 160
Broadband 600
Electricity 1,000 at least
Heating 1,000 at least
Bins 276
Motor tax 200
Mobile phone 300

Total 18,377, so 1,500 per month, before groceries, diesel, commuting costs, clothes, etc.

I pay 4771 on 8 insurance policies!!

danoriordan1402

I logged everything we spent over a 2 month period - was shocked how much we spent on food. 2 adults and 1 child, 30 Euro a day it worked out to be. Most days you would go to the fridge and there was nothing
Lot more sensible these days.... still, don't get me started on pet cost's.....

Fitz*

I'm kind of lucky with my living arrangements so the bills side of it are lower, but this is my outgoings:

Rent - 500
Spotify - 0 (family account)
TV & WiFI- 70
Netflix - 12
Groceries - 180
Eating out / pints - 150 (this will increase the more the country opens up)
Gym - 38 (I paid the 500 up front for the year but works out at this per month)
Leap card / travel - 50
Loan - 50 (last payment upcoming)
Clothes - 75
Travel - ?
Savings - 600

Gonna try move some of them around. Some things like eating out / clothes shopping were fairly non existent during COVID so are up the up now. I've changed my savings amount to higher for the next standing order and I'm aiming to absorb the difference from something the loan, clothes shopping or take aways. Travel is a no-go now, but I would travel a nice bit.

Poor_old_gill

Everything here is combined between myself & my wife:

Income €7500

Mortgage + mortgage protection: 2000
Car loan: 500
Credit Union Loan: 700
Loan to family: 500
Elec & Gas: 150
TV, Spotify, Netflix, Broadband: 150
Food & Alcohol for home: 1000
Insurances: 450
Savings: 1200
Phones, bins & all other miscellaneous: 150
Living/Entertainment/Purchases: 700

We've had to run it fairy tight as we have had some big expenses in the last few years - bought & renovated a house 18 months ago, got married last month & now have a sprog on the way.

Food is a big cost as that includes pet food aswell, while we make all meals at home (even when offices were open)

Antares35

Kerry25x wrote: »

I don't know what most people do but for us we were together about 18 months when it began to feel a bit rediculous to be owing each other money so we switched everything to a joint account and pooled our savings together. You'd want to have similar attitudes to money of course, we're both pretty relaxed so it works out well.

Good point on having similar attitudes. OH and I split costs on big things like rent, mortgage savings and child costs but what's left is our own. I like having autonomy over my own spending.

stinkbomb

Blair Glamorous Tendinitis wrote: »

I’d have thought most people split bills 50:50? Certainly how I have always one things with my wife. Separate accounts and split everything 50:50.

I wouldn't think it's the norm, at all. What if you earn twice what she does (or vice versa)? You split everything down the middle meaning you have loads left to spend on yourself or save, and she can't afford to do either.....and what if you have kids, and/or one of you has to stop work, what then?

No, I think its beyond weird to be married to someone and owe them half of every pint of milk they buy....

JustAThought

Y but not eveyone has the same attitude to spendingand - more importantly - to debt. I have some friends who have eyewatering personal debt for recreational spending that got totally out of control - they are -or were -passing debt from one credit card to the next and finally getting merged debt cards & teying to take out liabs to pay off the debt. For incidental spending at 18% interest or so. Frightening. I also know someone who years after they broke up with their OH had a solicitors letter calling in a personal guarantee they had made for them in their 20’s - and never dreamed would be called in 10 years after they split up!!

I’ve gone through different phases of frugal/broke/save/spend but have never even in long term relationships tied up my banking with my OH. I’ve paid my share and been generous and arguably taken advantage of but I don’t have that level of trust nor want that level
of control over someone. If you want to spend you hard earned money on a fancy car or designer jeans or gambling or booze - then do it - it’s your money and your decision . My mortgage, devts and costs will be paid first and I won’t be in the terrors at the end of the month or running around hysterically banging on doors looking to borrow in a monthly panic. Thank GOD.

Current monthly outgoings
Mortgage prefer not to say
- car insurance eyewatering -70
- petrol monthly - 80/100
- coffees monthly - 50 ( yes I know)
- reading material - 30
- internet monthly - 70 ( I know)
-phone bill mobile - 40
- Food monthly - 180
- Pet stuff monthly - 30
- Random purchases - 120
-Fancy cakes for visiting people - 25
Electricity just got bill for month - 80
Gas just got bill for month - 25
Occasional takeaway splurge - 20
Wine’o clock - e10/12 per bottle 60
Car tax due (360 covid arrears)

Must turn off all gadgets & lights 😱

Im saving a fortune on cinema & going out and on not oaying meter parking or tolls.

Next month is going to be boredom fancy book purchasing online - Ive budgeted about e300

Antares35

stinkbomb wrote: »

I wouldn't think it's the norm, at all. What if you earn twice what she does (or vice versa)? You split everything down the middle meaning you have loads left to spend on yourself or save, and she can't afford to do either.....and what if you have kids, and/or one of you has to stop work, what then?

No, I think its beyond weird to be married to someone and owe them half of every pint of milk they buy....

I agree with this to a certain extent. OH would be very much split everything down the middle. It came to a head one day when I came home with a few bits I had picked us up and he asked how much it cost. When I said thirty quid he said "cool I'll wire you 15" - I just stopped it right there, we can't live like that the rest of our lives! Told him he was treating our relationship kind of like you would a housemate.

We split the big things but what's left is our own, mostly because we have different things we would spend money on. I've several pets I had before we met and I wouldn't expect him to wade in on food and vet bills. I also like to buy a nice bottle of wine etc. Whereas he is a bit more frugal and would prefer to invest what he has over. So that way, there are no arguments. But we're lucky we are on more or less the same wages. I can see how an unfairness would creep in if our wages were very different.

Myself and partner split bills along the lines of the ratios of our take home paycheques. Means I get a benefit if she gets a promotion/pay increase too!

Sunrise_Sunset

At the moment we spend about 40% and save 60% of monthly income.
Savings includes sinking funds for things like car insurance, property tax, Christmas, kids expenses (birthdays, school, activities).
A huge chunk of the savings will be spent on renovating our house.

Pre-covid we were probably spending about 60-70% and saving 30-40%.

Jim_Hodge

stinkbomb wrote: »

I wouldn't think it's the norm, at all. What if you earn twice what she does (or vice versa)? You split everything down the middle meaning you have loads left to spend on yourself or save, and she can't afford to do either.....and what if you have kids, and/or one of you has to stop work, what then?

No, I think its beyond weird to be married to someone and owe them half of every pint of milk they buy....

Anything other than a joint account seems strange to me. From we married all accounts and savings were joint. There's no such thing as my money and her money and we each just work away from the accounts.

Jim_Hodge

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

Anything other than a joint account seems strange to me. From we married all accounts and savings were joint. There's no such thing as my money and her money and we each just work away from the accounts.

We never really liked joint accounts we have a joint current account which we used to put a set amount each into each month to cover bills but we never really got fully into using it and once we got Revolut we don’t really use it at all anymore.

We use our own current accountS and Revolut accounts etc, get paid into our own accounts and have our own savings accounts. Shared expenses are split and money sent via Revolut to the person who paid it etc.

We are a few years married now and I could never see us really starting to use a joint account again and absolutely no way would we consider getting paid into a joint account as we both like to have control of our own salary and just share the expenses.

I don’t see fairness in a joint account if I’m honest, if one person has more bills than the other then the one with lower bills would feel like they were spending the other persons money if they went out and bought something for themselves etc etc. Much prefer separate money.