
Ask HN: Not-so-rich not-so-poor folks on HN, how do you spend your money? - lazybreather
I want to know where your money goes every month. Percentage would be more relevant than the actual numbers. I am interested in people who can go a year or two without working and cannot afford to buy a luxury yacht.
My major expenses seem to be almost always without any prior planning. Is there anyone out there who knows what they&#x27;re going to spend in the next 6 months +-20%?
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thrwaway69
I don't have any answer for the first half but yes, I know what I am going to
spend for the next 6 months.

I plan it out depending on the trends. Usual expenses for personal hygiene,
cooking, daily wear etc are subscriptions I make on Amazon and other places at
a discount. Dad save a lot on time that way.

I buy clothes 3 times a year and in a burst. Early enough before people start
buying clothes for the season and later enough to not have to get from the old
stock. That way, price is cheaper and I have more freedom in selection.
Sometimes old stock can have good stuff too that never gets out of fashion.

Electronics I go for a generation behind just before the launch and sale days
when students are going to college/school. I have a few places I ask for
opinions so I don't have to do the research myself. There are communities for
that such as suggest a laptop, build pc, etc on many major platforms. Upgrade
cycle is 4 years - near august or december.

I have booked flight tickets already for 2 upcoming trips at a really
reasonable price. I try to book them months before with an additional payment
for a zero cancellation upto 24 hours before. Even if I have to pay for that
feature, it's not much of a cost compared to the cheap tickets I get.

Electricity, phone, internet, water etc bills are automated via local payment
apps. I get points on payments made via the app as well as for using the
credit card.

I use emi/credit wherever possible to avoid paying upfront. I had dad set
those up on autodebt as well. Building that credit history.

I wish I lived in less remote area, I could have subscription based groceries
too.

The biggest benefit I guess doing it like that is I can easily download
reports, transactions and put them up for tax returns. I can also set
expenditure on different cards and family members by default this way. Green
those cards equally, haha.

As for the percentages, I would say food and daily essentials are the biggest,
medical costs/insurance premiums/investments,
electricity/internet/mobile/water bills, transportation and rent. The rest as
I said before is preplanned and happens in burst on set months.

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gshdg
4 parts rent to one part food to one part everything else (transit, utilities,
laundry, etc), for recurring monthly expenses and small luxuries (a beer, a
coffee, a movie ticket, etc).

One rent equivalent each to clothing and health care (includes dental and eye
care) annually.

One rent equivalent per year to gifts; 3 to charitable donations; 1-2 for
vacations; 2 for misc expenses and larger luxuries.

For every dollar spent, roughly a dollar goes to savings and a dollar to taxes
(high tax locale by US standards, low by broader developed country standards).

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fsajkdnjk
it used to go to my "fuck you" pile of cash but now i put it all into stock
market. cash is just dead value that depreciates with inflation. i keep some
for bad times but the rest is in equities.

~~~
uberman
Oddly enough, I too call my investments/savings my "fuck you pile of cash"!

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Finnucane
Every month? Food, mortgage, cat food. Savings. Other stuff tends to less
frequent. I recently bought a new banjo, and a new guitar.

