When the year is winding down, it's nice to do some retrospection. For me, this gets quantitative. I found some infographics that show how the average american family spends their income.
I periodically download all our bank transactions and create a graph comparing us to the average American family. The way we managed to survive in 2010 was by keeping our transporation costs extremely low. We shared one car that was paid off and maintained liability-only insurance. Also, we almost never drove the car. We rarely ate out and made most of our meals from scratch. We spent next to nothing on clothing and appearances. We didn't make any donations to charities.
HOS = HOUSING When we were living in two separate places (Riverside, CA and La Jolla, CA) we spent 48% of our meager income on rent! Now even though we live in a relatively expensive area (Glendale, CA) in terms of housing (
3.59 x the national average) we spend less than the average American on housing costs. How, you may ask, do we achieve this miracle? We live in a tiny house. Our rent includes utilities. We do pay extra for a storage unit off-site, but even accounting for that, 24% of our spending goes to housing. I'm not sure how the Average American Family numbers were calculated but that means in 2010, we spent 28% of our income on housing. Now, we spend 18% of our income on housing. Turns out we spend almost EXACTLY the same amount on housing, but we're making more money.
TRA = TRANSPORTATION Now, we still spend less than the average American family on Transportation. Even with keeping our bicycles running in top shape, paying insurance on one vehicle, making car payments, and driving the car periodically, we're spending less than the average family. I guess it's easier for us since we don't have a large family (no kids). Also, CSUN gives us a sweet discount on Metrolink monthly passes, which get us around on weekends for free!
FOA = FOOD (DINING OUT) Here's where we really suffer. We eat on campus all the time and when we're home, we eat out and get delivery all the time. Out of 1,317 total transactions, 52% of them were eating out! We eat out 1.9 times per day! An average "dining out" cost is $12.37. Sometimes that's for 1 person and sometimes for 2 or more. But mostly for 2 people. This is literally eating up 9% of our income.
FOH = FOOD (DINING IN) Out of all transactions, 5% of them were going to the grocery store. We go to the grocery store 5.4 times per month. An average trip to the grocery store is $70. I feel like this semester (FA15) I had more free time so I did more cooking, but certainly not as much as I did in 2010. We were living very cheaply, shopping in bulk from
Winco.
INS = INSURANCE We're spending about half what the average American family spends for insurance. This is probably because we don't have to pay homeowners insurance and we only have one car. Glendale, CA is considered the WORST city in California, where drivers pay 62% more than the average Californian for the same coverage. If we lived somewhere else, and when we get the SmartCar paid off, this part of our expenditures will decrease.
OTH = OTHER I really have no idea what this spending is about. I put all ATM withdrawls into this category because obviously we don't know where or to whom that money went. Some goes to buy groceries at the Farmer's Market and some goes for tips to service professionals (our Massage Therapists for example). Why this category takes up 19% of our spending, I couldn't say. I put all our random travel expenses in this bracket. Taking out identifiable fun trips and academic expenditures, 8.2% of our spending is still uncategorized. I guess that's why it's good to put everything on plastic, so that you can look back at what they were.
HEA = HEALTHCARE We are blessed not to have had to worry much about this category. I think next year we'll see a further reduction since dear husband has stopped his membership in a Martial Arts gym, and I've stopped my membership to Bella Fitness. Not because these weren't good things, but because we weren't really using them and they were costing us $150 and $70 per month, respectively. We're still getting our massages every month, and maybe we can put those other monthly things we won't be doing in the future into dentist, podiatrist, and women's health care visits.
ENT = ENTERTAINMENT This includes movies, plays, musicals, and Netflix. I also put our phone and internet bills into this category. It's only 4% of our income. I guess we're doing well here. Or should I say that we could spend more here. I still want to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific down in Long Beach. Also we discussed buying an Annual Zoo Pass for next year.
APP = APPAREL (or Appearance) This includes clothing, shoes, and haircuts. We saved money in 2010 by doing homecuts. We also didn't buy hardly any new clothes or shoes. Now, we definitely spend more freely in this regard, although not lavishly. I've purchased quite a few new shoes this year, and so has my husband. I get new clothes almost every semester, due to wear and tear and the fact that I can't seem to maintain a constant weight.
DON = DONATIONS I put all the donations to various organizations into this category. We've been fairly generous this year: our nephew's Surf team, The OC Marathon, RailPAC, Steel Wheels Conference, CalBike, Rail User's Network, Ride 2 Recovery, Cal Bike Summit, LACBC, The Climate Ride, and others. Compared to the average American family, we could give a bit more. In 2010, we didn't really have any money leftover to give to charity.
ACA = ACADEMIA I had to make a category especially for us. Because being an academic has associated costs. I'm sure other industries have business-related expenses, but this year we made it to two conferences and purchased various books and supplies directly to facilitate our learning. We also renewed our memberships in professional societies, which again I'm sure other professionals do too, but I don't think there's an American Housewives Network that has dues of $100 per year.
You may be wondering: are you really that nerdy that you enjoy looking at your personal financial data and posting a blog about it? The answer is: yes, I am that nerdy. But also, we've been giving some serious consideration to getting into the real estate game. We're trying to pinch every penny and sock it away to use as a down payment. The funny thing is, we calculated this weekend that for homes in our area, we'd have to gather $80,000-$100,000 before getting the process going. We have saved nowhere near that amount. So this analysis may lead me to discover where we can save and redirect that part of our income to savings instead of spending it.
P.S. I did the drawings myself. I think I'm suffering from whiteboard withdrawls.
References
Source: NY Times Feb 10, 2008 Accessed: June 10, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/02/10/opinion/10op.graphic.ready.html
Accessed: December 14, 2015
http://www.creditloan.com/blog/how-the-average-us-consumer-spends-their-paycheck/
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/economy/2014/03/11/16046/report-glendale-has-the-highest-car-insurance-in-c/
