monthly charges

[Miracle Whip]

Can anyone give me ideas of a monthly charge card bill for 2 people. We put our gas and groceries on our charge. Our last bill was $1330 which consisted of

$312 gas
$316 groceries (includes dog and/or cat food)
$80 Chiropractic visits
$163 traffic ticket and a wheelbarrow that I bought

This leaves about $400 in miscellaneous charges - eatting breakfast at gas stations, etc. When I have a full time job I usually only grab breakfast and take my lunch. I will eat lunch in town - like today, because I was job searching. Still, that seems like a lot - $400 - which includes chewing tobacco for Bob I am sure...

Is this average - above average? We do pay it in full but this is ridiculous, given our income.

[Cat]

Those misc charges add up fast! When we started recording what we were spending on it was amazing where we could stream line because of little things we were spending money on. We are now making a car payment with the money we stream-lined out of our spending - and we didn't think we were extravagant before - didn't go out much, didn't buy name brand, etc. But a little thing here and there just balooned by the end of the month.

Get a spread sheet and track everything over a couple months time - it will open your eyes.

[JackieB]

Our groceries are close (about $70 a week for two of us). Gas is a lot less because we are both self-employed and work out of the home (about $150 a month). Something seems to come up every month that is unexpected, but predictable in terms of the fact that every month has something like a minor car repair or toner for the printer.

My guess is that if you and your husband both are on board with trying to save as much as possible that you could cut out almost all of the $400 in miscellaneous. We keep a spreadsheet and track every single dime spent (or nearly so - probably within a dollar or two each month). The fact that every dime spent has to be recorded in the spreadsheet helps keep us diligent about saving.

[Kaitlyn]

Wow, I'm impressed with you two who track it between your spouse and yourself! I'm very penny pinching whereas the boyfriend spends money like it's going out of style. I save by not eating out more than twice a week at most, not spending money on things I don't need, etc.

[lisakaye]

Jackie B... is there a copy of the spreadsheet that you use that you could post a link to? I would really like to start doing that so that we can figure out where all of our money goes... Thanks..

[Miracle Whip]

There should be spreadsheets that you can use on your computer, under whatever Microsoft works program you have. I picked up a budget planner at Staples years ago, it was first a present from my grandmother. I liked that one because there was a column for every day of the month and a lot of categories to put your purchases in. I agree that it does help. I never used a charge card in those days to buy crap at gas stations and I had money left over each month to INVEST. The charge cards just make things too dang easy. Debit cards too. Our grocery bills were $35 a trip but I guess we went to the store a lot. Need to plan a bit more probably

[JackieB]

Jackie B... is there a copy of the spreadsheet that you use that you could post a link to? I would really like to start doing that so that we can figure out where all of our money goes... Thanks..

Sure. Let me just clean the stuff out of it that applies only to our family and I'll be glad to provide you with a copy.

[menagerie]

I keep up with where we're spending everything in Money. Our grocery and gas bills very as I work technically as an independant and drive alot on occassion and for groceries we buy neccesary items but have been eating deer thru out the year, this year we'll have rabbit too. Every check or debit is allocated to something.

In order to reduce our expenditures we don't buy lunches or coffee 'on the road'. Think about it, even at $5.00 a day for lunch that adds up real quick, plus I loooooove my cappucinos so cutting those two out makes a big difference. We also don't just buy things because the urge hits us anymore instead we think seriously about it and 9 times outta 10 realize we don't really want/need it anyway.

[Miracle Whip]

Gotta love the deer. Can't remember the last time I ate beef. I think it was when a lady at the stable wanted to "tip" me for taking care of her horses while she was out of town. That was last summer. We still have venizon leftover from last year.