How much does an family of four spend on these items each month?

Question

Assume this household is making around $75K a year.

Eating out

Spending/Entertainment

Electricity

Toys, games, etc. for the kids

Clothing

Answer 1

We are a family of two...soon to be 3!

Eating out-maybe $80 a month roughly

Spending/Entertainment-$300 only b/c thats the note on our boat

Electricity-$200 month is the highest ive seen Gas/water-$100 at most

Toys, games etc-$100 month b/c im prego so were buying little by little right now!

Clothing-$100 month maybe...only b/c my belly is growing

Mortage-$1100 monthly

Most of this is at the most....we also have two car payments that total $750 montly and two insurances that total $400 monthly!  We make a little more that 75K a year together.  We spend atleast $50-75 a week on groceries depending on what we need!  We try to do stuff thats free like the park or walking the dog together and playing boad games.  It costs a lot of money to take that boat out and we are trying to actually sell it!  Hope this helps!

Answer 2

there are 5 of us BUT we make no where near $75K a year...

Answer 3

you'll get different answers all across the board on this one...for instance, my family doesn't eat out, we were brought up in a home, where eating out was a special occasion, so ours is more of a yearly budget for eating out, which I would say is probably about 4-500 for the year.

we do something as a family at least once a week, movies typically now cost about 50 dollars for a family of four.

bowling last week cost us 60 dollars by the time we were done with shoe rentals, game amounts, and food.

we live in a community that has a pool, so we do that alot on the weekends, its 400 for the year.

and every year we buy season passes to the theme parks where we live so that we can go when we want, its was about 240 for the year for that.

electricity with the heat here in Georgia, has run us about 275 a month

toys and games for us are not monthly, the kids get toys and games on birthdays, and christmas. and maybe once in between if they've done really well in school, as a treat. but they have plenty of toys..and we stress outside play. christmas we spend 800 between the two kids, and birthdays (two of them) we spend 200 each (that includes the party and decorations, and gifts..one gift each)

clothing....is a bit more difficult, we don't buy it on a monthly basis, but a season basis, and it depends on who outgrew what...I would say its about 800 dollar a year, for each child, so 1600 a year. (this includes clothing for extra activities...dance, gym, basketball, halloween, etc)

Answer 4

We make more than that per year (before taxes), but we spend about:

Eating out: Maybe once a week...so about $50 a week

Spending/Entertainment/Vacations: About $5,000 per year

Electricity: About $75 per month

(For the kids--we're 17 and 19) Gas: Probably about $100 a week for filling up the 3 cars

Clothing--about $100 each per year

Groceries--about $150 per week

Car payments and mortgage--$0, all are paid off.

Answer 5

It's a little tough to tell you because some months we spend $0 on clothes, but the next month we'll spend alot.  So it's a average based on the year divided by 12.  And this is taking into consideration that we do make around $75k/year.

Eating Out:  $100

Electricity: $85/mth is the average so far this year

Kids stuff including activities:  $75/month average.  Doesn't include holiday presents

Clothing: $60/mth

Entertainment:  usually our own pocket money, and we allocate $280 a month for pocket money for us.

Answer 6

Wow, $75K a year... Then we could do all of those once a month.  How about cutting that in 1/2...

Right now we just pay for electricity and one of those other things every month, maybe.  $30

Our electric bill is $85 a month because we're on a payment plan... our house is only 1400 square feet.

Answer 7

Eating out – It’s not allowed but my husband veers off and stops at McDonald’s and Burger King when he has a chance. He probably spends about $20 a month, give or take.

Spending/Entertainment – We don’t do much here. I’d say $14.97 for our Netflix. We do this because we don’t have the extra money to go play so we stay home and watch movies. We don’t have cable, internet or a house phone.

Electricity – I live in FL and summer is approaching so our bill is going to go up. Right now it’s been about $165 and to save money we’ve set the thermostat at 78 all day long. And the bill has dropped down to $138. Let’s hope it stays there….

Toys/Games/Kid stuff – My son is 21 months old. We try and go to consignment shops to buy him bigger toys like basketball hoops and big trucks. And now that he’s almost 2 yrs old, I’ve learned that kids don’t want or need toys. They want your plastic containers and a plain box. So I’ve stopped buying so many toys. Monthly: $20 maybe??

Clothing – We never buy ourselves new clothes because we don’t have the extra money. Our son? If he needs anything, we’d rather buy it for him than us. And being that kids grow like weeds, we also will buy play clothes for him at a consignment store. Monthly I’d say maybe $40?

We have really watched our spending over the last 6 months. Tracked it and took note of it. And now we’re much more cautious and aware of what we’re spending. And if we train ourselves right, we’ll get so used to this budget and penny pinching that when the economy picks back up, we can stay on the same path and hopefully try to get ahead! (I know, I know, a girl can dream can’t she?)

Good post, I’m interested to hear other responses!

(Sorry, I just noticed the 75,000 income at the start of your question. But if I was making 75K, I'd stick to the same budget, pay off my debt, and put the rest aside for college tuition for my son)