• Mortgage $1000
• Tuition/daycare $1300
• Electric $100
• Gas $175
• Phone/cable/internet $140
• Life insurance $185
• Garbage $17
• Subscriptions $12
• Cell phones (2 total) $70
• Water $35
• Charity $200
• Groceries/supplies $500
• Entertainment $100
• Personal $100 (haircuts, drycleaning, etc)
• Total: $3934

We should have a cushion as our income is higher than the total. However, I think I may be forgetting something.

• Rent $1,500
• Insurance $126.71
• $206.31 Electricity
• $50 water, trash and sewerage
• $148.03 Cell phone
• $25 TV
• $100 for subscriptions and fees
• $400 food and supplies

 Total $2,409

This does not include work expenses.

To shelliajean2 regarding vet visits - My vet's office is also a goodly distance away from me, but they are very good about mailing meds using my debit card for payment plus a small fee for postage.  I just call them up when I'm running low which saves me gas money and time.  But, if you can, go ahead and buy a year's supply of heartworm preventative, because you can usually get a rebate from the manufacturer if you buy a year's supply at a time.   Flea/tick preventative usually also have a rebate for a year's supply. You might also check out the on-line suppliers of meds (PetMeds.com to name one).  Your vet faxes in a prescription and then you can order directly from them.  

Expense    Monthly    Yearly
Mortgage    1000       12000
St Ln 1       419         5028   ("St Ln" is my shorthand for "student loan")
St Ln 2       333        3996
St Ln 3       149        1788
Insight        100        1200   (Cable/phone/Internet)
Power          55          660
Gas             30          360
Water          40          480
Health Ins   283        3396
Car Ins         90        1080
Life Ins       233        2796
Groceries   100        1200
Gasoline    100        1200
Cell Phone 100        1200
Total          3032     36384

Income After Tax    3200    38400
Disposable    168    2016

So, with DH home, there's not a lot of wiggle room, but we have a fully funded emergency fund, as well as a good savings cushion, so the disposable just gets put away. Still, it's sobering to realize we're spending $36,384 per year. 

DH has his final interview for a new position Monday. If he does get the job (oh, I hope!), our new budget will look like this:

Expense    Monthly    Yearly
Mortgage    1000       12000
St Ln 1        419         5028
St Ln 2        333         3996
St Ln 3        149         1788
Insight         100         1200
Power           55           660
Gas              30           360
Water           40           480
Health Ins    283         3396   (We'd have to evaluate the benefits offered by DH's new job, so this item could change)
Car Ins          90         1080
Life Ins        233         2796
Groceries    100         1200
Gasoline     200         2400
Cell Phone  100         1200
Daycare      580         6960

Total          3712       44544   
Income After Tax    6950    83400   
Disposable    3238    38856   

We'd split the disposable between savings and paying off the student loans as fast as humanly possible if DH does get this job. He has plenty of work clothes already (conveniently, dear FIL retired, and he and DH wear the same size of suit), and I just can't imagine him not bringing his lunch every day. We've scoped out the particular daycare a few times before, and used their drop-in for baby-boy (not to mention that the director is one of our closest friends) so we're content that it would be a good fit for him. Gasoline would double, because DH would be working a ways away. 

Expected Income: $2500.00 (5 paydays this month)

Expected Expenses: $2404.00

Suplus $96.00

This is only because of using the 5th payday for bills instead of Savings like we usually do. I have mixed feelings about that.

Church $200

Mortgage 879.

Electric 80.

Phone/Internet 81.

Long Distance 16.

Trash 1st Qtr bill 72.

Grocery 150.

Christmas excess bills 100.

0 interest cc 50. (put new hay tent on it)

Auto rpr/tags 57.

Gasoline 150.

Auto/term Ins. (removing the van) 130.

non food 30.

Misc 75.

Cash on hand 80.

dining 80.

Farm Grain 40.

Charities 28.

Medical Insurance 106.

Not happy about it, but glad I remembered the extra payday.

Mine is going to be ugly. Dh will have a very small paycheck next week (maybe 4 days). If I am careful, we can make it.

Mortgage       0

power          140

truck            250

car              440

phone           75

cells           150

cable           75

auto ins       72

car insp and tag renewal   75

other part child support   160

parents                 350

homeowner's ins    261

home depot           160

total                      2208

This does not include food, gas, or church. It is also the minimum I can pay on things. Thankfully homeowner's is once a year and hopefully will be done with home depot in a few months. I think my "pantry" and freezer will be my best friends this month...but we will be fine, just a lil nervous

hofmama,  how did you get your grocery bill so low? $100 a month is amazing!    Your life insurance seems high to me, we pay about $60 a mth for 250,000 coverage each.   just interested in the differences between countries.

I would like to have your gas and electric bills! 

Our bills are pretty fixed. Our line of credit interest went down to 3.5% so our interest went down a $100 last month. 

We have all the birthday gifts  we need for the next 4 ones so we are ok there.  just will be dinners out but that will be under entertainment.   I don't want an anniversary present (feb 19)  of course I may see something by then

I just have to pay off everything!  so will tighten the belts here. We had extra household and clothing expenses this fall.  kinda of a all at once thing instead of spread out.  some things I ordered online like the dvds from columbia house which I haven't received yet so not paying for anything until I have it. 

plus I just got my order for our parrots breakfast food. he eats abba 92 which is like a hot cereal for weaning birds since he needs the extra vitamins etc. since he doesn't eat veggies etc.   We used to go out and get it but the only store that has it 1 1/2hr round trip so easier to order online and pay for shipping plus I order a couple of toys for him to make it worth it.

 A large part of the difference in our life insurance is the level of coverage; we have 2 million on me and 1.5 million on my husband (we have a lot of debts from our law school education, as well as a kid who'd be in college if we bit it, so we want to make sure there's plenty of assets to cover all that).

 As far as groceries, I use a bunch of strategies. We buy a beef each year from one of my clients, who sells it to us for $2/lb processed (he was really grateful for how I handled his case, I guess). We price book and stockpile. We grow a huge garden, can some, dry some, etc. We eat a lot of simple foods and plan our menus around our pantry and freezer. Lots and lots of scratch cooking (yay crockpot and bread machine). We do a lot of multi-use meals, ie, roast a chicken, then make chicken caesar salad with the leftover meat and boil the carcass for soup.  Everyone takes leftovers for lunch. Not much in the way of snacks, and sodas are something we only have when we have a birthday party/host a holiday. Other than the baby, everyone else pretty much limits their milk to a glass with breakfast and a glass with dinner. We shop Aldi like it's going out of style. We use the Coupon Mom for our toiletries. I'm sure there's lots of techniques out there that we haven't figured out, but we're getting there! :)

Wow you do great on groceries!  We don't garden much. My homestay student had a look of horror when I said braces   We don't have many useful coupons, and prices are higher here too. a roast chicken is the cheapest at $6.99 from superstore but I don't trust there meat.   buying a roasting chicken over $2 a lb. no walgreens rebates etc.  I do buy sales and watch prices, stockpile etc.  meat is mostly $2 plus a lb here.

We do have lots of processed snacks  but I only buy on deep sales.   I am feeding 5 with two meat eaters.     If I did all you did I couldn't get my budget that low. 

How many in your household, Hofmama?