Monthly Budget? (Boise, Nampa, Kuna: health insurance, mortgage, loan)

[PraiseU]

I am trying to get an idea of what my month expenses would be if I paid for home cash. I would purchase a 1500 sq home. I would like an acre and I am not sure what the cost would be for managing this much size lot, with a small garden.
I have not lived in the snow either, what cost can I expect?

We are two adults and two young children age 8.

Monthly Projection
Property tax on an 80,000
Fire and flood insurance 25.00
Cell phone (no house line) sprint 50.00
Food for four 700 month (mnth)
Gas?
Electric?
Sewer?
Water? (is a well possible)
Gardening supplies?
Vehicle gas 40per wk 120.00 mnth
HealthCare 600 mnth
Household entertainment (four people) 120 mnt


I know I am missing a lot, can I get some of your input.
What am I missing?
Do any of these numbers seem incorrect?
Thanks in advance,

[Hp1167]

I'm not really sure you'll find an affordable acre lot within the Boise area... maybe as you get out toward Kuna or Nampa.

I looked really quick on the Intermountain MLS, and found just 5 properties with at least 1 acre and 1500sq feet minimum... 3 of these places are obviously trash, and only 1 looks legit. There about 15 below 300k. I didn't look really to see the exact area, but my bet is they're on the periphery of the cities.

[PraiseU]

I am a little embarrassed at my original post. I did it late at night and rushed it. I now realize I cannot go back and edit it.

I cannot figure out how to paste an excel spreadsheet or upload it either. So, all I have (regarding # or guesstimate) is what I pasted in my original post above.

Let me amend the one acre. It isn't realistic at this price. While we could get a loan and take on a mortgage our goal is to be debt free (Dave Ramsey Idea)

Cancel the one acre.
----------------------------------------
What I would like to know is...
What would my monthly nut be?
I did an excel spreadsheet however, I couldn't figure out how to past it into the body of this thread. I would like to have people comment regarding what they think some of these expenses are based on their experience.

[PraiseU]

Link to my budget in a more organized format

[vashdown]

The monthly family entertainment of $120 is way too low.

Where is your clothing expense? You can look in Craigslist for free children's clothes, and do clothing swaps, etc...

Health care at 600? Is that through your employer? Seems a bit high....

[vashdown]

How about Savings?

And Investments or/ Retirement and IRA?

I opened your spreadsheet- 40 dollars a month on clothing is really low. That is 1 pair of jeans.. unless everything is free, or used, which can be an option.

How about Misc. expenses like Babysitting? Haircuts? And didnt even mention a vacation?

[cleosmom]

Are you figuring garbage in with utilities? If not you'll need to. I see health insurance (does that include dental?) and homeowner's insurance, what about auto?

You have a family of four, two are children, so you'll have school registration fees, school supplies and of course field trips etc.etc. Depending on the school possibly uniforms which would be in addition to normal clothing costs. Also add in winter gear as most likely if you're not from a cold climate you'll need to add to your stock.

Haircuts. You'll need more outdoor items than what you're used to; snow shovel(s) and/or snow blower, decent tires, if not snow tires for the vehicle(s) during winter.

[PraiseU]

Thanks for these ideas. Since, I did this budget we have attended a 13 week budgeting class by Dave Ramsey, whew. My homeschooling wife has been doing the home budget and i am doing the work budget. I am self employed with one employee. I will post these new budgets. I am not sure if anyone is interested in my business one, but I think I will put it up too. Thanks again for your thoughtful and realistic ideas

[Lacerta]

Since no one answered your property tax question, my property taxes run right at 1% after my homeowner's exemption. My house is assessed at around $110k, and my property taxes are about $1100. So on an $80k assessed value, I would expect $800 ballpark. But if you end up in Canyon County, their taxes are considerably higher from what I am told, also, if the home you buy does not have an exemption in place, you may have higher taxes for the first year until you can get that in place.

For utilities, on a house that size, I would figure an average of around $250-$350 monthly for power, gas, sewer, water, and trash if you are fairly conservative. Spring and fall will be lower, summer and winter will be higher. Obviously if you leave your house abnormally warm or cool, that will have an effect on your bills. Or if you water a large lawn and don't have pressurized irrigation (that can be a $200 water bill by itself) Or if your family likes to shower 8 times a day. Vaulted ceilings or skylights will also make your heating/cooling bills higher, and the energy efficiency of a house plays a huge role, but on average $250-350 would be in the ballpark.

You will have an initial expense when you move in for gardening expenses, and an initial expense for snow gear but after that initial expense, I think budgeting $100/month for household expenses would be reasonable. Many months you may have nothing, but then you will have something that will be more expensive, like a water heater, or A/C. Other than that, you have things like furnace filters, lightbulbs, batteries, fertilzer, bug spray, weed spray, new hoses, winterizing your sprinkler system, etc.

Personally, I don't budget things like savings into my calculations. Of course, I just do a rough budget in my head, anyway. For me, it is all savings, and I want to know what I have for average expenses any given month. Anything above is either invested or put toward my buffer. So if I make $4000/month and I can figure that my monthly expenses are only $2500 average, I know I am saving an average of $1500 per month. Where that goes after that, I figure separately.

Oh, and I suggest that after you figure everything you can think of for your budget, you then add $100 for "unexpected random expenses", because it seems like there is always something you can't anticipate. Some months that might be some extra for clothes, some months, it may be extra gas, some months it might be for an unpaid sick day you had to take, etc.

[PraiseU]

https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=83401fbe046ea684&page=play&resid=83 401FBE046EA684!178&authkey=1ctxHM0BPak%24

Thanks for all your input. I put some new budgets together. We first had to do one for my business. Then we could move on to the home.
I am technically challenged on uploading my budgets to City Data. I am not sure if these will work. I did two attempts. One to embed into this post. The other a link to the budgets.
We have come a long way in the Year and half of planning. No clear roads for us, I will keep working hard and keep an open mind.