Some Data Points from 2011
I don’t know about you, but there was a time when I was absolutely fascinated by other people’s financial spending data. I’m going to share some of my spending information from 2011.
There are a few caveats. I’m getting this information from Yodlee, which means (for example) if we paid $500 for a group cave tour and everyone paid us back, Yodlee still thinks we spent $500 for that because I didn’t do something special to correct it. It also neglects some of T’s spending , though aside from rent (which I included), his spending on his personal card is quite low. I also wasn’t diligent about categorizing gifts, so if I bought a shirt for a gift, it probably just showed up under clothes. And most of my Amazon.com spending is thrown in to “hobbies”, because I didn’t categorize it as we went.
ANYWAY, here is approximately what we ended up spending in 2011, in order.
- New Car – $26,300 (with registration, taxes, etc.) for a new VW Golf TDI
- Rent – $19,000 for a one bedroom half a block from the beach
- Travel – $7,000 (mostly euorpe, but also backpacking and trips home). This number is highly questionable but in the right ballpark at least
- Groceries – $5,400 Includes alcohol and various household supplies
- Restaurants – $3,500
- Insurance – $1,900 mostly car ($1400) but also renters/jewelery
- Student Loan Payments: $1,500
- Hobbies – $1,400 (includes gym, race fees, running shoes, amazon purchases)
- Fuel (diesel)- $1,400
- Entertainment – $1,200 (includes a kindle, amazon purchases that I think were books, tickets to various events, bar nights)
- Electronics – $1,200 for T’s new computer!
- Clothing – $1,100
- Personal Care – $900 Hair, eyebrows, nails, Sephora
- Netflix/Internet – $620
- Car Expenses – $400 (mostly dent repair)
- Gifts – $400 (as mentioned above, this is much lower than it really was)
The rest of the categories were <$300 each, plus some cash spending that I have no idea what it went to.
Needless to say, this is not as accurate as I would it to be. This is why I’m committed to tracking my spending for 2012!
I didn’t keep track of how much we spent last year… and I’m not sure I want to know. With wedding expenses, everything (especially clothing) went out of whack. By the way, did you know that your ad is showing Banana Republic at 30% off? Nooooo temptation!
That is so awesome that you bought a VW Golf TDI, such a sweet car! That one was originally on the top of my list.
Good luck with actually tracking your spending this year!
Something I did to help me is to count all cash spending as Entertainment and not track it once it leaves my pocket. Occasionally I will re-reconcile the tracking if I used it for something like renewing my driver’s license, but most of the time, it’s counted as pending when it’s gone.
I’ve actually been tracking my data since I was 16, so I have some pretty good data at this point. It’s so motivating to go back and see how I saved 80% of my paychecks when I was 16. I think it’ll take quite a few raises and/or some huge bonuses before I get to that point now.