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We held ourselves to very strict budgets our entire work lives. We over-saved. We are in a position where we fear running out of years before running out of money
But it is hard to break old habits...hence my quest for the cheapest Butterball I could find this Turkey Day.
Lotsa things are cheaper here, but not turkey. It was $56 for a big one. Pretty sure not Butterball, LOL.
But I'll trade that for affordable health care....(no deductibles, no co-pays: $80 per couple)
Normally, however, I spend $130 a month on my hair, $200+ on cloths/shoes, hobbies? varies, utilitiesrun avg $500 a month. No car payment as I prefer to keep my 15 yr old ford focus wagon forever, if possible.
$500 a month seems terribly high for utilities. That would be electricity plus water plus natural gas, right? And perhaps you include a trash pick-up fee? If you use propane instead of natural gas, that usually costs and arm and a leg, so that might be part of the explanation.
I would presume you live in an area where either you have high heating costs in the winter or high air conditioning costs in the summer. Is that correct?
Utilities are one item that I don't spend much on, even in high-cost-of-living coastal California, because the heating and air conditioning needs are pretty minimal.
$500 a month seems terribly high for utilities. That would be electricity plus water plus natural gas, right? And perhaps you include a trash pick-up fee? If you use propane instead of natural gas, that usually costs and arm and a leg, so that might be part of the explanation.
I would presume you live in an area where either you have high heating costs in the winter or high air conditioning costs in the summer. Is that correct?
Utilities are one item that I don't spend much on, even in high-cost-of-living coastal California, because the heating and air conditioning needs are pretty minimal.
My main house is 3910 sq ft and cottage 600, so it's utilities for both houses. Natural gas: H2O heaters, dryer and HVACs.
The killer is the electric 220 irrigation pump and pool pump. I live in southern NM.
I don't have cable and only netflicks so phone/internet is $110 and cell phone $15 a month. Trash is $27 for weekly pickup.
And yes, the AC costs run the electric bill up to $300+ in the summer.
My main house is 3910 sq ft and cottage 600, so it's utilities for both houses. Natural gas: H2O heaters, dryer and HVACs.
The killer is the electric 220 irrigation pump and pool pump. I live in southern NM.
I don't have cable and only netflicks so phone/internet is $110 and cell phone $15 a month. Trash is $27 for weekly pickup.
And yes, the AC costs run the electric bill up to $300+ in the summer.
Thanks for clarifying. I had completely forgotten that phone service is considered a utility. "Irrigation pump" means you grow a large garden or that you maintain pasture land for grazing animals? I don't think I've ever had a monthly electric bill over $50 in the 16 years I've been here, but then my townhouse is only about 1600 sq. ft.
It's interesting how variable different people's needs can be.
I have the following budget items tightly nailed down and yes, I still have a home mortgage.
Mortgage W/Property Taxes
HOA Fee
Homeowners Insurance
Medical & Life Insurance Expenses
Utilities
Cable/Internet
Cell Phone
Church
Auto Insurance
Auto Maintenance & Gasoline
Gifts (X-Mas. Birthdays etc)
Pharmacy
Once I do retire we could probably save $100/month but cutting back on services we don't need so much that we do enjoy on cable television and the extras on the cell phone. For right now I have them all figured in the budget but what I can't seem to get a handle on is the following:
Food
Entertainment
Clothes, Hobbies and Beauty Shop
Vacations and Emergencies
Putting these four items into a common pool of money if I retire now (I'm turning 69) we have a total for Food, Entertainment, Clothes, Hobbies and Beauty Shop we have a total monthly budget of $1,417 or $327 weekly.
If I wait another year and retire at 70 we have a total for Food, Entertainment, Clothes, Hobbies and Beauty Shop we have a total monthly budget of $1,609 or $371 weekly.
Emergencies? We do have long term health insurance and as far as the home we have a condo and the condo association pays for all maintenance on the outside such as new roofs, brick work and the like. For home ownership emergencies the worst thing that could go wrong is the HVAC or water heater to go out and have to be replaced. No fun but not the end of the world and we do have savings enough to cover those items. Also, we do have enough cash savings where we can change all those things out and buy a new car so.... well... the $1,417 wouldn't necessarily have to include emergencies as we think of them.
I have life insurance where if something happened to me my wife would have enough to bury me and pay off the mortgage so she would be just fine.
Our Part G insurance includes Silver Sneakers so the gym is included in the budget.
Clothes? When I retire I plan to wear shorts, sports shirts and tennis shoes nearly 100% of the time. I really don't see that much going to clothes.
Barber shop and beauty for us. Nothing extravagant at all.
Hobbies? My wife loves scrap booking and if I do anything I might take up golf again as I would get senior discounts.
Entertainment? An occasional movie date night out and when we dine out it's never extravagant maybe the Outback Steak House and oftentimes we will split a meal not to save costs but we are eating less and even if we split it seems we still take home a doggie bag.
Travel? I have enough in the car budget where we can travel 1,500 miles a month but with the family so close I don't see us traveling more than 500 miles a month.
Food? We eat very healthy but not extravagant. Lots of fish, salads.... very little steak because I don't even like steak anymore.
For work I design fire sprinkler systems and I've always enjoyed it.... lucky that I always found work fun but now I want to really cut back a lot. Maybe work one day a week for a fifth of the pay I get now but I am not including any job earnings in my budget.
I always thought I would work full time to 70 but lately I just don't want to deal with the stress of working 40, 45 and 50 hours weekly. I like the idea of bugging the wife, going to the condo association pool every day and hitting the gym at least once daily. Swimming? I could live half my life in a swimming pool. Never anything better in my opinion which is one reason we purchased the condo we did.
[B]$1,417 monthly or $327 weekly for food, entertainment, clothes and emergencies. Is it doable in comfort?
[/b]I am burnt out, I am tired of working all the time. Never thought this would happen but here it has hit me, hit me suddenly and I just don't want to deal. On Monday I would rather be at the pool instead of work. Never, ever thought I would feel like this.
I would say based on the bolded that it is doable because the only mandatory item there is food. I'm sure you have enough clothes in your closet to last a long time, you could forgo entertainment if you had to and emergencies could come from savings or go on a credit card. Not to mention there are a myriad of ways to save on a food budget if necessary.
I don't currently budget because I don't need to, but I did before we retired. In my experience and from what I see of people I know personally, people do not radically change the way they spend money when they retire unless they are forced to or unless something specific changes in their lifestyle. So, for example if you spent 10-12 dollars eating breakfast/lunch in a workplace cafeteria and now you eat at home, obviously there is a savings. If instead, you get takeout or eat out both meals, no savings and may cost you more. Ditto if you brown bagged it to work there wont be much change.
Before we retired, I developed our budget regarding discretionary expenses by using all our cash, credit and debit expenses and subtracting out things that belonged in other specific categories like home/car repair, etc. Then I just called it discretionary cash expenses.
That plus all our mandatory expenses for mortgage, taxes etc was our budget. I have a certain amount I expect to save still each year. I monitor that monthly. If we are on target fine. If not, I look for areas to cut back.
Those savings are for any emergencies or more likely self insurance for end of life care.
One thing I forgot to mention, is if you are moving to a new house especially in a different area of the country, you need to factor in those expenses.
There are always expenses for a new home and all the new trash cans, towels, etc can add up.
Also, if you move to a different type climate......consider that.
For example, we knew the short sale we bought was missing an A/C unit as it was a vacation home and theft of units was common during the recession. What we didn't know was that A/C do not last as long in FL as in NY, so a couple years after we moved in we were replacing the main A/C unit at 6 grand. You don't know what you don't know and it can be costly.
In this case, ask in the forum you are moving to of people that moved there what expenses they incurred that were unexpected.
I could say the same about groceries lol. Who would think groceries in FL could be more expensive than NY........but they are if you live in a smallish town where there isn't a lot of competition.
I don't really budget but it's always in the back of my mind. I have always lived frugally but have found the money to do some of the things I want to do.
Travel has always been important to me and I will scrimp and save all year so that I can go to England for a few weeks out of the year. It's like being in another world, a beautiful world, and the memories keep me going all year long. Now I have step grandchildren there so that's one more reason for going. We go on the cheap--both of us were raised to not be wasteful.
We have one car now and it's an old car but it's a good car, low insurance too. We must spend about $250-$300/month on food. Probably eat out once or twice a month, usually lunch. I go to Aldi or buy things on sale at a regular grocery store but will stop for something special at a place like Fresh Market every once in a while.
I rarely buy clothes and when I do it will be a place like Marshalls/T.J. Maxx or buy it on ebay. Sometimes I find very nice brand name clothing in thrift stores--and being retired, I have the time to do that. We do need expensive winter coats in this climate but those can be bought in the thrift store or on ebay. We do not scrimp on shoes as that's a practical matter but at least get them on sale (or new on ebay, lol.)
Utilities are killers in this part of the country and a/c will be about $300/month in summer. We just moved to an apartment and are stuck with central a/c--not a good thing to have in New England but here we are. Where we just moved from, we used the a/c about two nights during the summer so this will be quite a change. At least summer only lasts about four months.
Cable/internet runs high here. There is only one provider and you don't save any money by not getting cable even though we really don't watch it very much. We stream free programs from the internet mostly.
We get hair cuts every 6 weeks or so and pay about $15 at a discount place that does a good job. I color my own hair and buy the product cheaply online.
Winter heating bill is to be determined since we haven't spent a winter in this apartment yet. Hopefully, this upstairs level will get some heat from the apartment below us.
Money gets spent on the dog but he is a love and he provides exercise for us both with his demands for nice long walks every single day. Money gets spent on plants in summer although I do save the seeds and take cuttings so as not to waste money. Hoping I can still grow at least one tomato plant and a tub of beets even though I'm in an apartment now. Maybe even some fresh lettuce! Beautiful flowers too all summer long as gardening is one of my hobbies.
Almost everything goes onto a credit card that gives points and I pay it all off at the end of each month. Being retired gives you more time to shop around for bargains. Time for the thrift store, time to wait for sales, time to do your own hair, time to poke around in places like Big Lots (one of hubby's favorite places). Being retired, you are not buying things anymore--for the most part, you already have all you need and you are getting rid of the excess. You are enjoying what you have and enjoying having leisure time.
Well, a budget doesn’t mean you have a limit to what you are allowed to spend. It is simply an acknowledgement of what your current costs are compared to what your income is. Budget includes inflow and outflow. In retirement, income is typically a combined source of fixed & variable income and safe investments withdrawal rate. If your budget shows your outflow is more than your inflow can support, THEN you need to adjust. I still have a budget even though my outflow is far less than my inflow while I am working. It means I know what I am spending. The surplus is savings. In retirement in 2 years, I will know what line items in my current budget get deleted, increased or remain.
Last edited by Perryinva; 12-03-2017 at 07:26 AM..
we are retired and set goal posts . that is our max safe spending each year . we can easily spend more than we should doing all kinds of things and traveling so we try to monitor total spending and stay within .
so far this year we went way over buying a new car for cash and my wifes's dental but the markets were exceptionally good this year too so not a problem . the car was not a regular expense and will not re-occur for a long time .
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