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I liked how the gentlemen in one family referred to a $694/month car payment as a beater car. It's possible they had two car payments and one car was a beater though. Just thought it was funny the way it was stated.
One thing I noticed is that people spend a lot of money on food. The first family spent almost $2.5k on food that month. Even if I throw in our craft beer hobby it would probably take us almost 3 months to spend as much as they did in one month and we also have two kids, probably just slightly younger than theirs appear to be.
I thought this was an interesting article as well. And I also agree with the food expenses. We have two teens and a tween and don’t spend nearly $2500 a month on food, and we eat very well. I was shocked at that expense. I wish the article had shown what the take home pay was for the month too. That would have added something.
Including groceries , bring in and some prepared food we buy we can hit 250 - 275 a week .
It was a lot more when we were eating out a lot …
Being pretty much retired we are out everyday with our photography and usually stop at good places to take out .
I think it's a bit different if you can afford it though. I think it was pretty obvious given the credit card debt, medical debt, etc. that many of the households spending a lot of money on food couldn't really afford to. The family I specifically mentioned spent over $2.4k on food that month and also spent ~$2k servicing debt that month.
Yea, that first family is out of control. They spent $740 on pet care, and $580 on mortgage. Zero concept of the meaning of the word budget.
The single mom was reasonable outside of the medical bills and probably the closest I am too.
I think we spend ~$5000 as a household of two. During COVID. Outside of COVID, that number would go up. We live in fairly high cost area, and spend more on housing than all but the Bay Area family, but we spend less on other things, no kids.
One thing I noticed is that people spend a lot of money on food. The first family spent almost $2.5k on food that month. Even if I throw in our craft beer hobby it would probably take us almost 3 months to spend as much as they did in one month and we also have two kids, probably just slightly younger than theirs appear to be.
And out of that $2.5k, $900 was in restaurants. I love how they can spend $900 to go to restaurants, $300 for cable tv/Internet, and over $700 for their dogs, yet they can't get married because he's owed back child support for his other children for over 10 years.
Sounds like a quality guy.
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