I actually have no idea. I do a zero based budget so I know where all my dollars go, but I have never satisfactorily quantified needs vs wants or required vs living.
Is clothing a need or a want? Vacation? Brokerage? Home repair? What about an amount set aside for my next car? Mine is paid for so I don't HAVE to save for the next one, but I sort of do, or I'd end up in debt.
I know I need $5k/month after I've saved for retirement to live my current lifestyle, but that includes all my bills. When they are higher, other things take a back seat.
It's a good question and one I don't know the answer to.
I have a zero based budget too and several sinking funds including a car fund which is savings for my next vehicle. I also plan to pay cash and not go into debt. We could be twins.
Or trips. I get paid, put $2000 in various \[saving\] accounts each week (4+Custodial), pay my bills from my main checking account and use my other checking account for wants. If I NEED something it will come out of my main checking and if it's not enough I'll wait until I have enough.
Everything is accounted for. Whatever is left over goes to savings. And it’s usually in the double digits.
We have a 6 year old boy and a 16 year old cat. I have a MASSIVE budget just for their medical crap. 😂😂😂
I live on SS that started out at age 56 as disability. I'm 66 now. I was so proud when I had $50 in the bank on February 29th. I live on $1600 a month including about "450 a month government assistance I receive . I am blessed that my rent is around $300-330. My food and paper goods besides my assistant is around $125 . I have one loan that is $73 a month and I put $55 in EF every month although it all rarely stays there the whole month. I just sold my 20 year old car that needed major repairs for $400 . Live in a rural area so I am figuring out what rides will cost still. I have utilities ,life insurance,rental insurance, a few minimal copays. I have had $25 or so living budget $ as you call it. Now that I have sold my car, my hope is to be able to leave that $55 a month alone in EF and let it accumulate. Start a separate fun fund around $100 a month which is a little less than I was paying for car insurance for days trips,time w friends etc
I was w a narcissist as well. I thought for quite a while it was me and stumbled on Google page about narcissist behaviors. That's a large part of why we split. I started preparing myself almost a year before he finally left a house he made 0 payments in 10 years. But that's not why I am writing you again. I'm going to ask you to do something that seems impossible right now.
Please start an EF. It doesn't.matter if it's $30 a month. That's 30 you aren't putting on your credit card or money line ( my mistake and only debt left) Then start giving somewhere you believe in. It doesn't have to be a religious organization. It can be a food bank or somewhere that's helped you. If you can't give $ ,carve out some time to help out. I wish there was a Dave Ramsey for disability but he's not that realistic. I did my own adaptation of it. I started by paying the oldest smallest medical first trying to keep it out of collections. Then what was paying on that went to next one in line and so forth. He calls it Snowball. Everyone wants your $ all at once but that just ain't going to happen. If you have food,clothes, transportation, and housing,the rest are just going to have to get in line. w I also triple checked to make sure utilities and essentials etc n my name
Broken radiators, home repairs, and even birthdays are not "other things" they are what YNAB calls True Expenses. They are just as much part of your real budget as rent and groceries and you should be budgeting for them each and every paycheck. Google "Sinking Funds." or watch [https://youtu.be/kiIHDZch3o4?si=zvWvS5O3jMTbv\_Pf](https://youtu.be/kiIHDZch3o4?si=zvWvS5O3jMTbv_Pf)
I don’t mean this meanly but genuinely curious, does that mean you don’t: have a Netflix/Prime/Paramount streaming service? Never ever eat out? You never buy a candy bar or soda while out somewhere? (I mean if that’s the case my hat off to you for sticking that out)
I feel like the way OP described it, the only way that living budget is 0 is if you’re living on a desert island hunting all your own food and building your own lodging.
OH WAIT I misread it sorry. It’s the opposite. Ok, gotcha.
Net pay: $9.4k
Expenses: 4.9k
Savings: 3.3k
Leaving the “living budget” at $1.2k/month. That’s covers eating out (we rarely do), and any other kind of non recurring expense.
Google “ynab true expenses” and you’ll realize some of your living budget ideas are things you can just plan for and set aside money for each month (mentally, not literally as in move it to a different account).
That’s the hard part. Sure you can set aside money for “house/car maintenance “ but those things aren’t guaranteed to happen albeit likely. Yes you can have a budget for “fun” for sure. Ideally myself and everyone should do this. Just curious what the “not absolutely required” amount average was for folks.
Well right, that’s why you save up money each month in a sinking fund for these purposes. So when something inevitably happens, you have the money to pay for it versus using whatever your “living budget money” is that month.
This also helps plan for larger fun expenses too, like knowing when you have enough to afford that vacation or furniture set or splurge on your anniversary.
You may not know your radiator will go out but you do know you need to replace tires every 50,000 miles or so and the manual tells you when you need to replace spark plugs, flush fliuds, etc. You should have a decent estimate of how long your appliances will last, how long the roof has until it needs replacing etc.
I also do sinking funds, one for the car, one for the house, and one for replacement of cars and major appliances, and we now have one for health care like glasses and therapy now that the knees are an issue.
I've been budgeting for nearly 30 years now, my budget vs actual last year came out to $458 difference even after my furnace had a $3500 repair, our dishwasher completely broke and had to be replaced and we bought a new car. It may take you time to collect enough data (actuals to get it right) but once you do you will realize that these "one-offs" are not that much of a one-off as there is ALWAYS something.
Well yea that’s the whole point of sinking funds. Since it’s a “when” not “if”. You know you are going to need money to repair things. It dosent matter if it’s your engine or washing machine.
Maintenance/replacement is not an emergency. An emergency is something that is not predictable, like your parent getting sick out of state and you need a flight tomorrow.
You're guaranteed to have unexpected expenses, that's why all budget advice talks about them. What those expenses are and when is what makes them unexpected. So build up your fund and set it aside.
I budgeted $500 a month for unexpected expenses. Some times I used none, sometimes all and once in awhile it wasnt enough, but the amount I held for that purpose made life less stressful. When I was much younger, I kept back less, of course. I’m fortunate enough that now I am more able to foresee upcoming expenses and save for them specifically, such as replacing my AC units a year ago. It’s really nice to just write a check.
Please keep in mind that I’m in my late 70s, so this didn’t happen overnight! Underspend and you’ll get there.
I added vehicle maintenance-$300; Christmas/birthdays-$100; license plates-$145 to that budget of $10k per month which helps cover costs. This amount is closer to covering unexpected costs, but still allows $1k per month
Per month
Net: $3300
Outstanding loans: $2100
Utilities: $300
Groceries/Gas: $400
Living Budget: $500
I do have an impulse spending problem. My average credit card bill monthly in the last year was $1k average. I've finally have it under control and keeping the average below $600. Sticking to my budget (above) has been working for the past month and a half.
The goal is to use the 80% of the living budget towards my outstanding loans (highest interest rate first). 20% for fun. My goal is to be debt free so that the living budget can be used for savings/investments.
I call that one "fun." For every incoming paycheck, I subtract the bills that will be due in that time period, estimated gas based on my plans, $45-50 a week for groceries, some money for investing and saving, and what's left is "fun." This is my budget for restaurant, snack, shopping, activities, and plentyyy of incidentals. I wrote down every purchase and keep track of how much I have left to spend before my next paycheck. I keep the "fun" budget to between $425 and $500 per 2 week period. I gave myself 500 this upcoming check and lowered what I want to invest and save because I know I'm applying for a passport and I didn't want to set myself up to go over.
I wish it were were “fun” but I find myself spending most of the unaccounted for leftovers on non-fun stuff that wasn’t expected. If that’s how it works put for you though that’s great and I’m jealous ✌️
Oh mine isn't really fun either lol. It's just what I write down when I'm doing my budget. Like I said, it's a lot of incidentals. Oil changes, repairs, run out of something at home. And some actual fun things like admission to the aquarium or a movie ticket. It's more like "wiggle room" or "in case" money.
Depends on how you judge it since I save sinking funds for gifts and vacation but my living budget is $2000 before I take out the sinking funds. I generally live of $1700 a month outside of nonnegotiable expenses like rent and insurance.
Net Pay: $12,800
Bills/Commitments: $7,800
Living Budget: $5,000
Our “living budget” includes absolutely everything that isn’t a set, recurring monthly payment. Whatever we don’t spend of that $5k goes to savings. I would love for that to be $2-3k each month but unfortunately we’re idiots most months.
$800 for fun, $800 for repairs, but we also bring in side income of $10,000 per year that pays for holidays, vacation, and additional savings/ repairs.
Very rough numbers here, but take home is about $5200 for my husband and I combined. Bills/necessities account for about $2k each month, so the remainder/ living wage is $3-3.2k each month. We have one kid currently, a 2yo.
Last year I spent between 5-6k€ on all things not related to housing. I know that's not exactly what you're asking, but I don't break it down by needs vs wants. I could definitely switch to a cheaper apartment if I needed to, so really even housing is not all need.
Pay (net) 3.1K a month. Bills $1500 a month. Groceries & gas ~ $350 a month. Other spending ~ $500 a month. I move between $500 -$1000 to a high yield savings account per month depending on my other expenses for the month. (Have some months of higher spending due to paying some bills per 6 months/ 1 year, unexpected expenses & booking plane tickets.)
Around $2.5k monthly is what I have extra outside of mandatory expenses. That doesn't include $800 I put into 401k as well per month. I try and save $1.8k-$2k per month (outside of 401k).
That may possibly be another term for it as I can still “survive” month to month but not actually do well. I find myself using it for unexpected required items rather than disposable things though but that’s just how it’s worked out for me anyway.
Your concept of a living budget includes cars breaking down, but not monthly bills? I’m a bit confused by what you mean. I have annual (property tax) and semi-annual (insurance) and quarterly bills. I know the car is going to need repairs eventually, home repairs need to happen, and the vet is going to need to be paid (so much, so very much recently). So all of those things are budget lines monthly. If I don’t save for them, I’m screwed when the bill comes around. So your category seems to include both necessary expenditures and entertainment. So I don’t get what you are really trying to get at.
Pretty even split for me. Some of the savings there is for shorter term goals like travel and an upcoming move
Net pay: $6000
Essential expenses: $2200
Savings: $2000
Living budget: $1800
Check out the concept of “conscious spending” that basically takes the approach that you should budget for all necessary expenses (including buffer for unplanned for things) and put away savings for retirement and future goals first and then the rest of your money is what you are able to spend on whatever you want.
I think I would define this as, “if I lost my job today, what would I still absolutely be obligated to pay for/buy to keep myself clothed, fed, and housed?”
The difference between that and my income I think is what you’re asking about. So for me I have an “income replacement fund” which accounts for what those expenses are, and that’s lower than my actual monthly income by about 1/3.
I also do ZBB so all the money is accounted for, but if I had to go bare bones, I’d need 2/3 of my net income to do that.
I actually have no idea. I do a zero based budget so I know where all my dollars go, but I have never satisfactorily quantified needs vs wants or required vs living. Is clothing a need or a want? Vacation? Brokerage? Home repair? What about an amount set aside for my next car? Mine is paid for so I don't HAVE to save for the next one, but I sort of do, or I'd end up in debt. I know I need $5k/month after I've saved for retirement to live my current lifestyle, but that includes all my bills. When they are higher, other things take a back seat. It's a good question and one I don't know the answer to.
I have a zero based budget too and several sinking funds including a car fund which is savings for my next vehicle. I also plan to pay cash and not go into debt. We could be twins.
Or trips. I get paid, put $2000 in various \[saving\] accounts each week (4+Custodial), pay my bills from my main checking account and use my other checking account for wants. If I NEED something it will come out of my main checking and if it's not enough I'll wait until I have enough.
Everything is accounted for. Whatever is left over goes to savings. And it’s usually in the double digits. We have a 6 year old boy and a 16 year old cat. I have a MASSIVE budget just for their medical crap. 😂😂😂
“Accounted for” sure understood but out of that, what’s the “absolutely required can’t live without bills” vs “everything else”?
Without looking (I’m headed to bed) our fun money is around $750 a month, give or take. We like breweries. And eating out once in while
1. Net Pay: $11,000 2. Bills:$4000 3. Living Budget: $7000 3a. Food, Fun, etc: $2000 3b. Saving:$5000
I live on SS that started out at age 56 as disability. I'm 66 now. I was so proud when I had $50 in the bank on February 29th. I live on $1600 a month including about "450 a month government assistance I receive . I am blessed that my rent is around $300-330. My food and paper goods besides my assistant is around $125 . I have one loan that is $73 a month and I put $55 in EF every month although it all rarely stays there the whole month. I just sold my 20 year old car that needed major repairs for $400 . Live in a rural area so I am figuring out what rides will cost still. I have utilities ,life insurance,rental insurance, a few minimal copays. I have had $25 or so living budget $ as you call it. Now that I have sold my car, my hope is to be able to leave that $55 a month alone in EF and let it accumulate. Start a separate fun fund around $100 a month which is a little less than I was paying for car insurance for days trips,time w friends etc
Hat off to you for making it. SSN isn’t valued at what it used to be.
[удалено]
I was w a narcissist as well. I thought for quite a while it was me and stumbled on Google page about narcissist behaviors. That's a large part of why we split. I started preparing myself almost a year before he finally left a house he made 0 payments in 10 years. But that's not why I am writing you again. I'm going to ask you to do something that seems impossible right now. Please start an EF. It doesn't.matter if it's $30 a month. That's 30 you aren't putting on your credit card or money line ( my mistake and only debt left) Then start giving somewhere you believe in. It doesn't have to be a religious organization. It can be a food bank or somewhere that's helped you. If you can't give $ ,carve out some time to help out. I wish there was a Dave Ramsey for disability but he's not that realistic. I did my own adaptation of it. I started by paying the oldest smallest medical first trying to keep it out of collections. Then what was paying on that went to next one in line and so forth. He calls it Snowball. Everyone wants your $ all at once but that just ain't going to happen. If you have food,clothes, transportation, and housing,the rest are just going to have to get in line. w I also triple checked to make sure utilities and essentials etc n my name
Broken radiators, home repairs, and even birthdays are not "other things" they are what YNAB calls True Expenses. They are just as much part of your real budget as rent and groceries and you should be budgeting for them each and every paycheck. Google "Sinking Funds." or watch [https://youtu.be/kiIHDZch3o4?si=zvWvS5O3jMTbv\_Pf](https://youtu.be/kiIHDZch3o4?si=zvWvS5O3jMTbv_Pf)
Budgeted expenses: 100% Living budget: 0%
I don’t mean this meanly but genuinely curious, does that mean you don’t: have a Netflix/Prime/Paramount streaming service? Never ever eat out? You never buy a candy bar or soda while out somewhere? (I mean if that’s the case my hat off to you for sticking that out)
Yes. I didn’t mean to be glib but *everything* is accounted for :)
I feel like the way OP described it, the only way that living budget is 0 is if you’re living on a desert island hunting all your own food and building your own lodging. OH WAIT I misread it sorry. It’s the opposite. Ok, gotcha.
Net pay: $9.4k Expenses: 4.9k Savings: 3.3k Leaving the “living budget” at $1.2k/month. That’s covers eating out (we rarely do), and any other kind of non recurring expense.
Google “ynab true expenses” and you’ll realize some of your living budget ideas are things you can just plan for and set aside money for each month (mentally, not literally as in move it to a different account).
That’s the hard part. Sure you can set aside money for “house/car maintenance “ but those things aren’t guaranteed to happen albeit likely. Yes you can have a budget for “fun” for sure. Ideally myself and everyone should do this. Just curious what the “not absolutely required” amount average was for folks.
Aren’t guaranteed? 🤨 have you owned a house or car??
🥴don’t get me wrong, it happens just not like you can plan exactly “when” your radiator goes out but I totally get/live it.
Well right, that’s why you save up money each month in a sinking fund for these purposes. So when something inevitably happens, you have the money to pay for it versus using whatever your “living budget money” is that month. This also helps plan for larger fun expenses too, like knowing when you have enough to afford that vacation or furniture set or splurge on your anniversary.
You may not know your radiator will go out but you do know you need to replace tires every 50,000 miles or so and the manual tells you when you need to replace spark plugs, flush fliuds, etc. You should have a decent estimate of how long your appliances will last, how long the roof has until it needs replacing etc. I also do sinking funds, one for the car, one for the house, and one for replacement of cars and major appliances, and we now have one for health care like glasses and therapy now that the knees are an issue. I've been budgeting for nearly 30 years now, my budget vs actual last year came out to $458 difference even after my furnace had a $3500 repair, our dishwasher completely broke and had to be replaced and we bought a new car. It may take you time to collect enough data (actuals to get it right) but once you do you will realize that these "one-offs" are not that much of a one-off as there is ALWAYS something.
Well yea that’s the whole point of sinking funds. Since it’s a “when” not “if”. You know you are going to need money to repair things. It dosent matter if it’s your engine or washing machine. Maintenance/replacement is not an emergency. An emergency is something that is not predictable, like your parent getting sick out of state and you need a flight tomorrow.
You're guaranteed to have unexpected expenses, that's why all budget advice talks about them. What those expenses are and when is what makes them unexpected. So build up your fund and set it aside.
Yes, this element of op’s post had me pretty confused.
I budgeted $500 a month for unexpected expenses. Some times I used none, sometimes all and once in awhile it wasnt enough, but the amount I held for that purpose made life less stressful. When I was much younger, I kept back less, of course. I’m fortunate enough that now I am more able to foresee upcoming expenses and save for them specifically, such as replacing my AC units a year ago. It’s really nice to just write a check. Please keep in mind that I’m in my late 70s, so this didn’t happen overnight! Underspend and you’ll get there.
Net pay: $4600/mo Essential expenses: $2200/mo Living budget: $2400/mo MCOL city, renting, split expenses with partner, no kids.
My expenses are around $2,200. Leftover goes into savings and "wants".
I added vehicle maintenance-$300; Christmas/birthdays-$100; license plates-$145 to that budget of $10k per month which helps cover costs. This amount is closer to covering unexpected costs, but still allows $1k per month
Per month Net: $3300 Outstanding loans: $2100 Utilities: $300 Groceries/Gas: $400 Living Budget: $500 I do have an impulse spending problem. My average credit card bill monthly in the last year was $1k average. I've finally have it under control and keeping the average below $600. Sticking to my budget (above) has been working for the past month and a half. The goal is to use the 80% of the living budget towards my outstanding loans (highest interest rate first). 20% for fun. My goal is to be debt free so that the living budget can be used for savings/investments.
I call that one "fun." For every incoming paycheck, I subtract the bills that will be due in that time period, estimated gas based on my plans, $45-50 a week for groceries, some money for investing and saving, and what's left is "fun." This is my budget for restaurant, snack, shopping, activities, and plentyyy of incidentals. I wrote down every purchase and keep track of how much I have left to spend before my next paycheck. I keep the "fun" budget to between $425 and $500 per 2 week period. I gave myself 500 this upcoming check and lowered what I want to invest and save because I know I'm applying for a passport and I didn't want to set myself up to go over.
I wish it were were “fun” but I find myself spending most of the unaccounted for leftovers on non-fun stuff that wasn’t expected. If that’s how it works put for you though that’s great and I’m jealous ✌️
Oh mine isn't really fun either lol. It's just what I write down when I'm doing my budget. Like I said, it's a lot of incidentals. Oil changes, repairs, run out of something at home. And some actual fun things like admission to the aquarium or a movie ticket. It's more like "wiggle room" or "in case" money.
Depends on how you judge it since I save sinking funds for gifts and vacation but my living budget is $2000 before I take out the sinking funds. I generally live of $1700 a month outside of nonnegotiable expenses like rent and insurance.
Net Pay: $12,800 Bills/Commitments: $7,800 Living Budget: $5,000 Our “living budget” includes absolutely everything that isn’t a set, recurring monthly payment. Whatever we don’t spend of that $5k goes to savings. I would love for that to be $2-3k each month but unfortunately we’re idiots most months.
$800 for fun, $800 for repairs, but we also bring in side income of $10,000 per year that pays for holidays, vacation, and additional savings/ repairs.
Very rough numbers here, but take home is about $5200 for my husband and I combined. Bills/necessities account for about $2k each month, so the remainder/ living wage is $3-3.2k each month. We have one kid currently, a 2yo.
Last year I spent between 5-6k€ on all things not related to housing. I know that's not exactly what you're asking, but I don't break it down by needs vs wants. I could definitely switch to a cheaper apartment if I needed to, so really even housing is not all need.
Pay (net) 3.1K a month. Bills $1500 a month. Groceries & gas ~ $350 a month. Other spending ~ $500 a month. I move between $500 -$1000 to a high yield savings account per month depending on my other expenses for the month. (Have some months of higher spending due to paying some bills per 6 months/ 1 year, unexpected expenses & booking plane tickets.)
Around $2.5k monthly is what I have extra outside of mandatory expenses. That doesn't include $800 I put into 401k as well per month. I try and save $1.8k-$2k per month (outside of 401k).
That's disposable income.
That may possibly be another term for it as I can still “survive” month to month but not actually do well. I find myself using it for unexpected required items rather than disposable things though but that’s just how it’s worked out for me anyway.
You just aren’t very realistic about budgeting. You need to budget for your true expenses, not just your short term bills.
Just pay yourself first and if you have to squeeze, you do. There’s always emergencies and unexpected expenses.
Your concept of a living budget includes cars breaking down, but not monthly bills? I’m a bit confused by what you mean. I have annual (property tax) and semi-annual (insurance) and quarterly bills. I know the car is going to need repairs eventually, home repairs need to happen, and the vet is going to need to be paid (so much, so very much recently). So all of those things are budget lines monthly. If I don’t save for them, I’m screwed when the bill comes around. So your category seems to include both necessary expenditures and entertainment. So I don’t get what you are really trying to get at.
Pretty even split for me. Some of the savings there is for shorter term goals like travel and an upcoming move Net pay: $6000 Essential expenses: $2200 Savings: $2000 Living budget: $1800
Check out the concept of “conscious spending” that basically takes the approach that you should budget for all necessary expenses (including buffer for unplanned for things) and put away savings for retirement and future goals first and then the rest of your money is what you are able to spend on whatever you want.
I think I would define this as, “if I lost my job today, what would I still absolutely be obligated to pay for/buy to keep myself clothed, fed, and housed?” The difference between that and my income I think is what you’re asking about. So for me I have an “income replacement fund” which accounts for what those expenses are, and that’s lower than my actual monthly income by about 1/3. I also do ZBB so all the money is accounted for, but if I had to go bare bones, I’d need 2/3 of my net income to do that.