How much do you spend per day?

[Sum Dum Gai]

They had a statistician on NPR yesterday talking about consumer spending. One of the things that came up during the piece was that they ask Americans everyday how much they'd spent the day before. It got me wondering, what's your daily nut? If you add up all your mandatory expenses, shelter cost, utilities, groceries, transportation, taxes, insurance, etc. how much you need to earn to cover your basic needs per day?

Housing (PITI, utilities) = $76.33
Transportation (just gas) = $10
Groceries = $20
Insurance (all except home) = $23.84

Just the very basics total = $130.17

[whoisjohngalt]

If I added all that up, I would have a heart attack and than I would have to add medical costs to that number... so, I'll just keep it a mystery for now

Lena

[Deleted]

I agree with Lena. Plus, then I would have to look at spread sheets, dig out the calculator and calendar, and who knows what else.

Doing it my way, I spent $0. I ate cereal for breakfast and soup for lunch . . . both from the pantry. I am eating pizza from the freezer.

Once a week, though, I spend A LOT on groceries.

[midjd]

Our monthly spending works out to around $100-$125 per day, assuming a 31-day month...but since the mortgage payment and my SL payment are due the same day, most of that spending takes place in one day

[Abby Normal]

About $115. Taking annual spending and dividing by 365.

Plus, then I would have to look at spread sheets, dig out the calculator and calendar, and who knows what else

I'm too lazy to do all that.

[lynnerself]

It really makes a differnce if we include taxes.
Gross pay for 2 ($150,000) minus savings (about $60,000) devided by 356 days = $253/day.

[findingdeadbeats]

$53 a day. Once I am done feeding two young adult teenagers - much cheaper!

[Sum Dum Gai]

It really makes a differnce if we include taxes.
Gross pay for 2 ($150,000) minus savings (about $60,000) devided by 356 days = $253/day.

That's how much you make per day, I was asking how much you spend just to cover essentials. If you strip all the fat out of your budget, what's your minimum number needed to cover essential expenses?

[lynnerself]

I thought you meant everything that we actually spend per day. Which would be all of our money except savings.
Defining basic needs could get tricky.
And way too complicated since I don't have a written budget.

[Gardening Grandma]

May 4, 2012 23:43:54 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

It really makes a differnce if we include taxes.
Gross pay for 2 ($150,000) minus savings (about $60,000) devided by 356 days = $253/day.

That's how much you make per day, I was asking how much you spend just to cover essentials. If you strip all the fat out of your budget, what's your minimum number needed to cover essential expenses?

I actually do have a "what if the worst were to happen" budget.
It comes to $118/day (excluding taxes). Includes pet care, eliminates all entertainment/gift/other discretionary spending. If we had to, we could live on that, but I sure would not want to.

ETA
I'm surprised that you didn't post this on the regular board. It's definitely related to personal finance.

[DVM gone riding]

Clearly Dark you are crossing that line>>>> I mean you but money in the title and all



That came out sarcastic right? You never know on here

[DVM gone riding]

Huh I thought it was going to be per day not counting necessities like shelter. That I think is a more interesting number, didn't we discuss an article about that? I spent a lot this week but then I always do the first week of the month as that is the pay the mortgage, pay the board pay the whatever week since I only get paid once a month.

I too have a minimum budget--unfortunately unemployment isn't enough to cover it--close but not enough. That is the budget I use for calculating what 6 months of expenses is that I need to save for. But the minimilistic budget isn't what I actually spend, its what I could get by on if I had to.

Back of the envelope net pay on average minus savings comes to $130/day--sounds about right

[weltschmerz]

Way too much. I'm the kind of person who goes out to buy a jar of pickles and comes home with a leather jacket.

[hoops902]

Using just Dark's categories (because I really don't want to calculate my daily cost of clothing or something).

Housing:$13 (no mortgage, just taxes and essential utilities)
Gas:$10 (that's half of it since the wife and I split the cost)
Groceries: $10 (for me only, including what I spend at work on breakfast, soda, etc)
Insurance (including home): $5

Total: $48

[suesinfl]

May 4, 2012 17:16:16 GMT -5 whoisjohngalt said:

If I added all that up, I would have a heart attack and than I would have to add medical costs to that number... so, I'll just keep it a mystery for now

Lena

[midjd]

Ah, I think I misunderstood the OP the first time around. For just the basics for both DH and me:

Housing (PITI, utilities) = $34.43
Transportation (gas, budgeted maintenance) = $20.28
Groceries = $13.33
Insurance (health, life, LTD, etc.) = $4.16
Total = $72.20

Eek, that means the other $26-$50 we spend a day is on nonessentials... interesting exercise.

[Deleted]

Housing = $77
Transportation = $26
Groceries/Restaurants = $40 (eeek!!)
Insurance (health, life, car, house, umbrella) = $44

$187. Wow. I am working on cutting my grocery bill in half. DH is a contractor so we pay for private health insurance.

[lurkyloo]

Housing = $100 per day (PITI is just about $3K a month)
Everything else = $40 per day

I already do it this way more or less. I microbudget--keep a running total in my head and allow myself $40 a day to spend. That doesn't include utilities right now, but it does include gas, groceries, gifts, and some fun money that could be diverted to necessities instead. I personally cover half the mortgage ($50/day), make sure the utilities get paid and buy all groceries in addition to my own work/commuting costs. DH covers his personal commuting costs and other work-related expenses, the cable/internet bill, car/liability insurance, and a lot of our eating out. If he lost his job (highly unlikely) we could cut most of those expenses down pretty hard...but it'd be a while before we needed to. So a bare-bones budget for me would be probably around $150/day.

[tallguy]

If you add up all your mandatory expenses, shelter cost, utilities, groceries, transportation, taxes, insurance, etc. how much you need to earn to cover your basic needs per day?

I can do mine for about $18,000/year, so $50 a day. And property tax is over a third of that.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Clearly Dark you are crossing that line>>>> I mean you but money in the title and all

I had to test and see if they'll move money threads back to the main board or leave them here.

[daisylu]

I find it interesting that these basics account for about 20% of what I gross in a day.


Housing (PITI, utilities) = $23.17
Transportation (just gas) = $5.50
Groceries = $16.67
Insurance (all except home) = $3.33

Just the very basics total = $48.67

[thyme4change]

I had to test and see if they'll move money threads back to the main board or leave them here.

My tongue hurts from biting it.

[resolution]

May 7, 2012 13:20:47 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

I had to test and see if they'll move money threads back to the main board or leave them here.

housing $9.67
transportation $1.61
groceries $6.45
insurance $3.62

Total $21.34 per person

I am also baffled with the thread location issue. My beauty salon thread is still on the main YM forum.