Comments on: Why One-Budget-Fits-All Doesn’t Work – And Why It’s Difficult to Compare Spending Between People and Families

By: Georgie

Georgie — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 03:30:27 +0000

“Because we eat a healthy diet, we’ve had very low health care costs over the last year.”

You provide excellent principles, but sometimes your examples are off. Take this, for instance. Diet obviously effects one’s health. But despite what many USians seem to think, you can’t necessarily eat your way to health. Some people eat crap all the time and they’re fine (or at least, they function in a way which is acceptable to them), and some people suffer from severe chronic conditions which are only slightly effected by diet or not at all. Those in the latter category almost inevitably have significant health-related costs, so their spending plan will have to be adjusted to account for that – so of course your principle holds.

By the way, have you ever written a post on what to do if dealing with a combination of poor health, unemployment, and getting screwed by your insurance company? It’s pretty common and obviously the combination of poorly-treated health problems and unemployment are mutually reinforcing.

By: Rosa Rugosa

Rosa Rugosa — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:17:10 +0000

Before we bought our house (24 yrs ago)I did find it very useful to gather intelligence from other people’s budgets. For example, my Mom had records of monthly utility expeditures. A good friend had recently purchased a small home in our town, and was comfortable sharing financial info with me (not everyone would be comfortable doing this). So we went into home ownership with a realistic sense of what we could afford, with adequate provisions for things like utilities, property taxes, insurance, etc. I also had talked to my Dad about how much $$ he made, because that helped me gain a realistic picture of how much it took to support the lifestyle that my family had.

By: Olivia

Olivia — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:12:50 +0000

One of our biggest budget items is kids recreation — our daughter’s competitive swimming and our son’s tennis and chess tournaments. Tough to curb since it is hard to say no with all the opportunities kids have today.

As a couple with differing interests and values, it does make budgeting difficult. That’s why we have a “personal money” line item.

By: Lori

Lori — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:07:12 +0000

Totally agree. I have always choked when I’ve read in those sample budgets categories like “entertainment $200.00 per month” or “Clothing $200.00 per month”……and then see a separate category for “dry cleaning” and “satelite/internet” ….our entertainment budget is the cost of our satelite and internet services…. and clothing budget is we get what is needed when its needed (back to school/band uniform etc)…..and it is no where near $2400.00 a year or even $1200.00 a year.

By: Celeste

Celeste — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:51:43 +0000

Nice post. It’s so important that we remember that all that advice isn’t really advice it’s just someone’s point of view. That “budget” is just like the “diet” word. And we know that diets don’t work for everyone.

By: Mallory

Mallory — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:25:10 +0000

Really enjoyed your post. Actually, liked it so much we used it in our blog (http://wherefamiliesconnect.com/2008/09/08/determining-your-unique-budget/) as a reference today. What I agree with the most is that you have to be honest about what you’re going to spend. I think that would be the hardest part for me, deciding just how much I actually am going to spend on going out to eat or for coffee. Either way, it could be good to look at other people’s budgets for guidance but definitely have to focus on your own habits when making your personal plan.

By: reulte

reulte — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:08:04 +0000

Great post! Although I do have to say I slightly disagree with the advice to not use someone else’s spending as a model for your own. That can be valuabe when starting to learn how to use a budget. It’s a good idea to compare the spending figures of your habits with the spending figures of a national average to better understand where you might find the ‘fat’ in your spending and where you can pat yourself on the back for doing well.

By: J

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:13:06 +0000

Great post. I figured out a while ago that keeping up with the Joneses was a silly game, the only thing you need to “keep up with” is yourself and your family, and live your life the way you want to.

By: Denise

Denise — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 12:43:44 +0000

This is in response to food being a certain percentage of your budget. My sister lived in Paris, France for two years. For many, food was thirty percent of their budget and that is considered normal by many. Food is expensive, they eat very well and most of the transportation in the city is public. My sister made adjustments and lived happily for two years.

By: PetMom

PetMom — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 03:57:28 +0000

Excellent post Trent. Budgets vary based on so many factors that I don’t find it useful to compare the details of my budget to anyone else’s. We have 16 categories in our monthly budget, based on how we manage our income and expenses. That might be fewer categories than some people, but more than others. Our food category might be shockingly high compared to someone who eats as cheaply as possible, but our clothing budget is miniscule compared to those who must dress well for work. If I lump all our expenses into 4 big categories, many people might think it outrageous that 22% of our income goes to all the expenses associated with our home and cars. But that’s not uncommon living in California, where homes, property taxes, auto registration/insurance are expensive. Our other living expenses take about 20% of our income, we allocate a little over 30% to various retirement and personal savings, and 20+ % comes off the top for Uncle Sam!

By: Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course

Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 02:01:09 +0000

Thanks so much for providing, as usual such clear examples to help illustrate your point. It seems that these points can also apply very well to business dealings, since I think a lot of owners and those that work with businesses on key components (technology providers, etc.) tend to forget that each business is different and will have different needs and different items to add into their budgets. Similarly, tracking a budget (the actual document or spreadsheet you use) will work very differently depending upon your needs and the time you have to invest in it each week (which for particularly one-man operations and small business owners is not always very much time at all).

By: Andrew La Barbera

Andrew La Barbera — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:42:23 +0000

A healthy diet has NOTHING to do with health,it has more to do with gene’s than any one thing else. Sure it helps,but there are a lot more sick people who eat healthy than there are healthy people who eat a healthy diet!

By: Astrograd

Astrograd — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:17:48 +0000

Sorry–a bad mistype might skew the meaning of the above. Here’s a corrected version:

I’m in no position to tithe either — low grad student salary, wonderful stay-at-home-wife with two small boys who make frequent trips to the doctor’s office — but I do anyway. And somehow things work out. Part of that I attribute to God’s blessings, and part to the psychological aspect of taking it out first and making everything else fit around it. The same principle is true with saving money — if you start spending money and wait to see what’s left to *save* or tithe, there won’t be any. If you take tithing and savings out first, and then budget everything else around that you can find a way to make it work (like the pie crust analogy mentioned earlier).

By: Astrograd

Astrograd — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:15:10 +0000

I’m in no position to tithe either — low grad student salary, wonderful stay-at-home-wife with two small boys who make frequent trips to the doctor’s office — but I do anyway. And somehow things work out. Part of that I attribute to God’s blessings, and part to the psychological aspect of taking it out first and making everything else around it. The same principle is true with saving money — if you start spending money and wait to see what’s left to spend or tithe, there won’t be any. If you take tithing and savings out first, and then budget everything else around that you can find a way to make it work (like the pie crust analogy mentioned earlier).

By: Carmen

Carmen — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 09:33:28 +0000

K – I was, apologies for the confusion.

No conclusions drawn on your situation at all, just noticed how fortunate you were that 10% was your biggest outgoing given you have a mortgage. And daycare! Quite amazing. Well done; a very lucky situation to be in financially speaking. So dare I ask why you both work full time?

Most churches have the the 10% tithing recommendation (in the UK anyhow); when our mortgage was over half our income, sadly we were in no position to tithe anything regularly.

I totally agree with you that salaries are not much different wherever one lives; yet living costs can vary enormously.

By: Nienke

Nienke — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:45:15 +0000

I totally agree on this post! I am a student from the Netherlands and my ‘spending-pattern’ is so different from the “average” student. My boyfriend is from Belgium, so I spend a lot of my budget on train tickets and/or restaurants (most of the time we meet each other on Saturday in a town that isn’t too far away for neither of us, and then we ‘have to’ eat dinner in a restaurant in order to get some vegetables). Other students might spend their money on clothes or going out, I don’t. I barely drink and I buy my clothes second-hand at extremely low prices (just bougt a pair of trousers at $0,30, yay!).

By: Diane

Diane — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:19:47 +0000

Thanks for the great post and for this blog..it really is a great wealth of information. I am also a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and since your mentioned us in your blog I would like to share some advice that I have heard and read over and over again as a member of the church. It is, “Eat it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” This is great financial advice for anyone and easy to remember the next time you have an impulse to buy something your really don’t need.

By: Chiara

Chiara — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 01:56:13 +0000

I think the point is we have a lot less control over our health than we would like to believe – so eat good foods, but make sure your health insurance is in order. The vast majority of health is age and genes and luck. Of course there are some big whammies you can do to your health and good habits usually lead to long-term benefits, but good genes can cover a multitude of sins and bad genes can overwhelm even great habits. And then there’s the just plain luck of not catching a serious illness or getting in a disabling accident.

I have rarely been sick in my life, but can’t take that much credit for it – I have my father’s strong constitution. My husband has a lot of allergies and intolerances and gets sick frequently – just like his mother. There have been discussions of this on forums like (I believe it was) Freakonomics – that people in general vastly overestimate their own control over their health.

By: Alice

Alice — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 01:38:14 +0000

@oneofnine
I think it is great that you take care of your family the way you do. Seeing a chiropractor before there is a problem is a great way to not get sick in the first place. However, I do not think it is accurate to say that your “health care costs are ZERO (literally: ZERO),” only that they are incredibly minimal, or maybe that your illness caused expenses are zero. A $20 chiro visit is a good investment in your child’s health, but it is an expense.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:36:16 +0000

@oneofnine

Wow, your 3 year old sees a chiropractor? Every 6 weeks?? Whatever you deem best for your kids, I guess but I can honestly say that has never occured to me.

I remember my dad’s approach to childhood illness-we had to produce physical evidence of illness: a measureable fever or a disgusting bodily fluid- all others must go to school or get up and do chores or go to church.