I went through our family budget, and assigned percentages to each expense item.
Some comments:
Gasoline is very high. A lot of that has to do with all the running around we do with our boys. I have made a category called "special needs", and that is all the other expenses related to caring for children with special needs. So, really some of that gasoline line item should go into the special needs line item.
Retirement Savings is too small. It was more than that a year ago, but I decreased savings a bit for cash flow reasons.
Housing and vehicle loans, added together, are probably smaller than most.
You'll notice that I have a line for Credit Card. And, yes we have put on more credit card debt. Current balance is about $550. I hope to have it all paid off by September, at that rate of payment.
The Eat Out line is way too high, but it is what it is. Again, some of that could be tucked into the Special Needs line.
My Budget
April 9th, 2015 at 01:19 pm
April 9th, 2015 at 01:40 pm 1428586848
Just my humble opinion, keep the eating out line well-funded. No doubt that there will be days when your wife is just plain old tired out from running around and taking care of others. Freedom to say "I don't feel like cooking, let's go out tonight!" is a luxury that should be a necessity. God bless you all for taking such good care of your little guys.
April 9th, 2015 at 02:05 pm 1428588332
April 9th, 2015 at 09:50 pm 1428616257
The one line that kind of jumps out at me is telephone. Telephone at 3.9% is almost a quarter of your total food spending, groceries & eating out at 12.5%, for a large family. So to me phone cost seems on the high side.
But overall it looks good. Best of luck as you work towards upping that retirement percentage over time!