A Peek at Our Monthly Budget

Some people have asked about how we’re able to pay so much toward our debt each month.

Of course, a big part of it is that Mr. TMG and I both make six figures, so we have a bit to work with. The other part is that we try to keep our expenses in check. As we all know, it’s possible to make a lot, spend even more, and end up broke.

I thought it would be helpful to pull back the curtain on our monthly budget so you can see our other typical expenses.

Budget background

Our budget is for 2 adults, a toddler, an infant, and a pup.

We live in a city with a moderate-to-high cost of living.

We use a zero-based budget. This means every dollar we bring in gets a job.

For us, any money we bring in that isn’t allocated to another expense by the end of the month goes on our debt. We keep a cushion in our checking account, so although we use a zero-based budget, our account never actually gets to zero.

With that background in mind, here’s a look at an average month’s budget for us. It doesn’t include expenses that come out of our check before we get paid, such as daycare for our toddler (about $900/month) or health insurance.

It also doesn’t include our tithe (or other giving) because I don’t share our actual income, and you could easily figure out how much we make. 🙂

Hopefully seeing how we handle our expenses will give you some ideas for your own.

Monthly expenses

Mortgage $1120.05

Our mortgage payment includes our property taxes and insurance. The mortgage company can adjust it based on actual costs from the previous year.

When we first bought our house, our mortgage was about $1300/month. Our home was a new construction, so the mortgage company estimated the taxes we would owe.

We ended up owing less than expected, and the mortgage company refunded the excess in our escrow account and lowered our monthly payment for the next year.

Taxes have since increased, so we likely will see a slight increase in our monthly payment soon.

HOA $77.44

The HOA payment includes a $2.44 convenience fee to pay our dues online by credit card. We set up a recurring payment, and my is it convenient!

Groceries $574.10

This includes food, as well as non-food items that we buy at the grocery store, such as paper towels, toiletries, etc.

We don’t actually spend this much each month, but some months we’re up there, so we prefer to budget higher just in case.

Household items $75

We don’t know the best name for this category, so we just call it “household items.” It’s for things we need for the house that we can’t find at the grocery store. We either buy at a non-grocery store or order online.

Kids $225

Anything we buy or pay for related to the kids goes here. Diapers, wipes, new clothes because kids grow like weeds, contributions to parties and activities at daycare–all of it is here.

As with some of the other categories, we often don’t spend this much, but sometimes we spend more. Kids are expensive.

Home alarm $32.50

This is a fixed cost. We use a small, local company, rather than one of the bigger, national companies.

We haven’t actually needed them yet (knock on wood), but they’ve been super responsive every time we accidentally set the alarm off, so I feel pretty secure. 🙂

Electricity $139.43

This is the amount of our highest electricity bill last year. We include this in our monthly budget, but many months the actual bill is lower.

For example, last month’s bill was $62.69. When we’re under-budget in a category, we put that amount to our debt.

Natural gas $135.36

Like electricity, this is the amount of our highest bill from last year, but many months the bill is lower.

Last month, our bill was $95.07.

Water and sewer $88.04

Our bill is either $69.06 or $88.04, depending on how much water we use in the month.

Where we live, the bill is calculated based on a tier system by 1000s of gallons used. We fluctuate between two of the tiers each month, but we budget for the higher one.

Life insurance $53.27

This is the monthly cost of life insurance for both of us.

Car loan $788.77

We bought an SUV a few months ago with the shortest loan term available (36 months) and plan to pay it off by the summer.

Gas $207.60

We live in a city that is pretty car-dependent. This is the typical cost of gas for our cars.

Mr. TMG student loan $1991.85

Fixed, self-explanatory cost.

Internet $60

Another fixed, self-explanatory cost.

Hulu $0.00

Mr. TMG pays for a premium Spotify plan ($9.99) with his personal spending money. Recently, Spotify announced a deal where premium members get Hulu free. Woot!

Cell phone $34.45

Mr. TMG has a prepaid cell phone plan with a company called Total Wireless. He gets unlimited talk and text and 5GB of data each month.

My phone is paid for by my employer because I also use it for work.

Personal spending $800

We each get $400 a month to spend however we want. Having it in the budget gives us freedom and permission to spend it.

We started doing this not too long after we got married, and it’s been really helpful.

Entertainment $150

If we go out to dinner or to an event together, we categorize it here. We typically don’t spend the full amount each month.

College savings $400

We put away $200 for each kid in 529 plans and plan to bump this up once we finish paying off our debt.

Once-in-a-while expenses

We don’t budget for medical expenses each month because we don’t have those kinds of costs most months. We add a line item for those expenses as they arise.

For example, if we know one of us has a doctor or dentist appointment one month and will have to pay a copay or buy new contacts or something like that, we would include a line item for medical expenses in the budget for that month with an estimated cost.

We also budget for miscellaneous expenses as needed. For example, if we have a wedding one month and we need to get a gift, we would budget for it in a line item for miscellaneous items that month.

Sinking funds

These aren’t actually separate accounts, but we include a line item for the approximate monthly cost of these expenses, even though they’re not paid monthly, so we make sure we have the money accounted for.

Pest control $46.67

We actually pay for pest control quarterly.

Car insurance $115.03

We pay our car insurance twice a year.

Dog care $295

This covers our dog’s food, medicine, annual exam, and daycare cost.

We take her to doggie daycare twice a week and pay for a 30-day package every 3 or 4 months or so. The cost of the package works out to about $20/day.

Personal care $105

This covers personal care services like haircuts, pedicures, etc., which we don’t get every month.

That’s it

There you have our typical budget for the month. Nearly $4000 of our budget goes to minimum payments on our debt, so once the debt is paid off, our expenses will be much lower.

I hope you can pull something from our budget in managing your own finances.

You can also get the spreadsheet template we use for our budget to give you a headstart on your own. Check it out below!

How do your expenses compare to ours? What would you do differently if you were in our shoes?

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