Sadly, I don't have the full breakout of my 2023 expense category totals (it was on my work laptop, and I lost access when I left), but I do know we spent less in 2024 than in 2023. I'll be curious to see how things play out in 2025. While we largely have two major expenses already planned (college for both boys!), I wanted to take a closer look at our 2024 categories & see if any can use tweaking or revising in 2025.
Areas where I expect us to spend less in 2025:
- Groceries. I'm expecting our grocery budget to drop a bit in 2025, as Sam will be out of the house for 8ish months of the year, and Nick will be out for the last 3ish months. That's a large chunk of our grocery budget between the teens.
- Gas. Sam doesn't have his car at college, so I'm expecting our gas bill to drop a bit.
- Boys "all" - this is a category that covers a huge variety of expenses, but we did see a drop from 2023 to 2024, as things like club soccer for Sam dropped off of our expenses. Nick finished his last season of club soccer in the fall of 2024. He will be playing high school soccer & tennis, but those are much less expensive than club sports. He will have graduation expenses & the like, but I'm still expecting this category to drop in 2025, as more of our spending shifts to college expenses.
- Income taxes - I earned a lot less in 2024, so our IRS bill (paying in April, 2025) is expected to be less.
- Utilities - we've tried to instill reasonable habits, but the boys are known to take longer showers, leave the lights on & the normal teenage things.
- Dining out - 2024 was an expensive year for dining out, and I want us to make a more dedicated effort to trim this back.
- Clothes - similarly, I don't need much with not working, and the boys are largely through their growth spurts. I do expect Nick to need some warmer clothes, depending on where he ends up for college.
Areas where I expect us to spend more in 2025:
- College. This one is a no brainer, but with two boys in college, we will definitely be spending more. We will use our 529s to cover the 2025 expenses, but will need to start cash flowing Sam's college in 2026.
- Health. M picked up the cost for all of our health insurance 1/2 way through the year, and the full run rate of this in 2025 will be higher than we paid in 2024.
Areas that I expect to stay (roughly) the same in 2025:
- Travel. It was a huge chunk of our 2024 budget, and I'm expecting that to stay the same in 2025. We have a trip to Spain in April, and our 20th anniversary trip to Italy in the fall. Between those, we'll have trips to/from my family, college transportation trips for both boys, and likely another skiing trip. Potentially some college tours as well for Nick. We will continue to do what we can to optimize miles, points & perks to keep the expenses as reasonable as possible.
- Everything else. We have a few additional categories (gifts, charitable donations, etc) that I'll expect to remain the same year over year.
What about you? Are you looking to change any of your budget categories for 2025, and make any increases or decreases?
Most of my budget lines have stayed the same, though I think I will have to raise health expenses this year as well as heating and electrical. I need to see what this really cold month has done to our heating bill, which won't be available until next month. I will probably end up raising this one a bit.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
I'll need to use this year to try and track my h better so I can understand where I'm spending.i do t save many work expenses since I work mostly from home and office attire is casual Friday most days- so few people are there to see me anyway. Travel will be the big new expense but I'm trying to trim elsewhere to save for that.
ReplyDeleteI am only going to take one trip this year. That is not counting driving to the girls places. Or if there is a death in the family. SO I really hope to save up enough to dig myself out of the house needs work hole...
ReplyDeleteI imagine now that TheHub is retired and we can actually travel since he is no longer married to his office that our travel budget will increase. Everything else should stay close to the same with the exception of taxes. They should go down, but who knows what will be voted next as taxable income.
ReplyDelete