I always find it useful to compare our spend year on year, as well as by category. Unfortunately, I don't have our full 2023 spend data (the data was on my work laptop & I no longer have access to it), but I do know we spent significantly less than we did in 2023, which is always a positive.
A few notes about the below, which is a categorization of our total net spend. It doesn't include: savings, standard tax withholding, charitable giving or retirement, as all of that is automatically deducted. Our house is paid off.
- 1.97% - gas
- 2.36% - dining out
- 3.14% - addition to Nick's 529
- 3.30% - insurance (house & cars)
- 3.48% - utilities
- 4.05% - groceries
- 4.32% - house
- 5.64% - cars
- 5.87% - everything not categorized in another way on this list
- 7.94% - boys (minus college spending)
- 13.69% - 2 quarters of college
- 15.93% - travel
- 27.31% - taxes (property taxes plus additional money to the IRS, as we didn't have enough withheld)
Based on this and our expected household changes in 2025, we will be updating our budget. It's always very useful to see how well we did against our planned budget. Do you track your finances? Any big learnings this year?
I have updated what I can on our budget for now. I need to see how much natural gas, electric and fuel will go up before I do so in those categories.
ReplyDeleteI did learn that using appliances other than the stove and oven can save us on electrical costs.
God bless.
There can be good learnings from playing around with utility usage, Jackie. (HP)
DeleteI don’t track ours by the year but by the month. But I’m rethinking this and going to try to do it by the year this year. I’m inspired by your posts.
ReplyDeleteIt's really more helpful for us to do year on year vs months, as we have some erratic months depending on entertaining, who is home, travel expenses, etc. The year on year gives us a much better picture. I do have a standing run rate of how much we're spending & use the time elapsed in the year to see if we are on or off track. I used to do monthly & yearly tracking, & this simplification was really helpful & probably even more useful for us. (HP)
DeleteYes. I tracked by a notebook and enjoyed tracking. Unfortunately it burned up in the fire. But I know insurance, housing expenses for youngest son in his last semester (tuition was covered by scholarship ) and taxes were my biggest in 2024, followed by taxes, food, vacation and gas. I only replaced the. bare necessities, such as underwear, after the October fire in 2924, so I anticipate a huge expense replacing furniture in 2025. I currently sleep on an old couch! Cindy in the South
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry about the fire, Cindy. I can't imagine. Much love to you in 2025 as hopefully a rebuild year of positivity. (HP)
DeleteI have a fancy spreadsheet for tracking spending. It automatically adds up each month and then a running total for the year. That makes it easier to keep an eye on things like restaurants without getting distracted by occasional things like taxes.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to notice that healthcare was almost 25% of our spending. I think that has more to do with the state of the system in the US than our needs.
Also -- I'm wondering how much you spent on cars total. That seems to be over several categories...
The spreadsheet is helpful, and we have something similar. And, that is a wild amount to spend on health care! Although, I suppose it depends on the overall size of your budget.
DeleteOn the car side, we bought two cars in 2024, and sold another, so that's the big chunk. We paid cash.
We also spend an obscene amount on gas, with Nick being the big outlier. He drives a lot, and is also the driver for most of his friends. We've discussed having him contribute to gas, but so far, haven't made the jump. I drive an electric car, so no gas or charging costs there.
We also insure and register the cars, which adds up as well. Two teen drivers on the cars is not for the faint of heart. The insurance is a huge portion of the overall cost.
I consider the cars total to be very point in time specific. In a few years, the boys will be off of our insurance, responsible for their own gas, and we will gift them the cars. For now, all cars are currently "ours".
(HP)