I recently stumbled across this article about the famous Amy Dacyczyn. If you care about frugality and haven't yet read the Tightwad Gazette books, get yourself to a library posthaste!
Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to see how their annual budget stacks up to ours.
Annual Dacyczyn Budget
Vehicle Maintenance/ Gas - $5250
Groceries - $2640
Utilities - $2500
Medical/Vet - $1550
Property Tax - $1400
Auto Insurance - $1100
Home Owners Insurance - $1100
Furniture - $520
Gifts - $500
House repairs - $250
Telephone - $250
Miscellanious - $230
Vacations - $150
Clothing - $115
Entertainment - $100
Hunting/Fishing License - $75
Scout Fees - $70
Books and magazines - $50
Total - $17580
Annual Gluten Free Frugal Budget
Vehicle Maintenance/Gas - $3000
Groceries - $6060 (youch!)
Utilities - $3600
Medical/Vet - $0 (perhaps not realistic?)
Mortgage/Tax/Ins - $8436
Furniture - $0
Gifts - $1224
House repairs - $0 (sure, right)
Phone/Cable/Internet - $1116
Miscellanious - $744
Vacations - $0 (again, not really)
Clothing - $240
Entertainment - $216
Hunt/Fish - $0 (this is realistic)
Kid Activities - $0 (we have asked for and received this expense as gifts from family)
Books - $300
Student Loan Minimum Payments - $2568
Preschool - $630
Total - $28134
Which, actually doesn't sound too bad, really, considering theirs is a debt-free budget. Of course, the problem is that we DO travel, and we DO have home repair expenses, and every time we have a baby there ARE medical expenses not covered by insurance and my FLEX planning. We also go over this budget pretty regularly. Those expenses just come out of that extra we put onto the debt or into savings every month, setting back our goals and plans.
Always, always I'm striving for more discipline with the budget.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
On Tightwaddery
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2 comments:
I love the Tightwad Gazette books - I read them over and over.
I noticed in the article that the TG III book was "coming out this month." Umm, I checked the copyright on my book (on the shelf behind me) and it said 1996. So those figures are about 12 years old. I wonder if inflation has eroded the Dacyzyn buying power a little...and if your budget it closer to theirs now.
Wouldn't it be great if Amy would publish a 2008 budget?
I would LOVE in Amy would publish anything. She's so inspirational! I've heard their kids are in college now and that the whole family is still very frugal.
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