So What's in Your Budget?

My Sunday Morning Musing

Many years ago I was an active user and contributer to the forums on a budgeting website called Mr. Money Mustache. The Clif notes version of the site was that an engineer making say $100+K per year lived an ultra frugal lifestyle and retired in like his mid 30’s. He treated any and all debt as a hair on fire emergency to be destroyed and had tips to drastically reduce any bill imaginable. People would come to him with their budgets and he would post these with permission asking where they could cut corners.

The income ranges on these vignettes from overwhelmingly the US and Canada were stunning. Some people were on social security looking to trim expenses from their $900 monthly check while others made close to $1 million yearly. What I noticed quickly was that most people were like fish, in that they grew to the size of the tank (of money) that they were in. That’s all I could think when I saw this vignette from New York (okay Brooklyn). I think it is mistitled, however.

Home Economics No. 1: Living in Brooklyn on $466k joint income

A quick calculation from their $25K monthly take home pay is that this couple makes $304K per year, while around $13,500 per month goes to taxes. I’m happy I’m not contributing $162K per year to bombs and vaccines. I’ve just saved $13,500 per month by not being in that tax bracket!

I’m amazed by how low the food budget is at $700 total per month. I spend close to that in the US and Thailand on food and with the exception of a restaurant meal maybe once per month, which might be sushi or Asian Buffet or a splurgy thing at Nai Yang Beach, we always cook at home. In Thailand we harvest directly from our land 10%-50% of what we use.

Even I’ve managed over $3900 in savings and checking before, though I can’t say it has happened lately. Yeesh.

This woman seems a bit pound foolish and penny wise. If I were her I’d worry less about some $22.99 Amazon purchase and put all effort into reducing the tax bill. Which should be easier with a baby and being a full time employer of a nanny. Obviously there’s considerable cost savings from one parent, usually the mother of the newborn, staying at home with the baby, but this arrangment is not for everyone. I’m glad I passed on the $280 bill per month in baby formula by breastfeeding though.

What turned me off to the Mr. Money Mustache Forum was the degree of judgement that crept into the comments section. It didn’t seem to matter what income level the person was at they had items on their budget that were viewed harshly by somebody. Tops were bad habits which the person had specifically listed in their budget ie their monthly allocation for alcohol, cigarrettes or even something like a $50 per week Friday night outing. The lower the income level of the person showing their budget, the more harshly any spending which indicated any level of escape or enjoyment was viewed. It was like the minimum wage McDonald’s worker needed to be confined to this punishing existence of paying rent, eating gruel and thinking about what bad karma they had brought from past lives that had led them to this low station in life.

Higher up on the income levels were frivolous expenses like some women who spent say $200 a month on manicures. There were multiple variations on those types of things from $500 monthly hairdresser bills to hundreds spent on tailors. I noticed all of the judement was levelled at personal discretionary income, which in all cases made up a small percentage relative to what went to FEWS resources (Food, Energy, Water Shelter) or taxes and regulatory compliance. Some expenses such as $14000 per month for cancer treatment were not only accepted by the community, but the budget could be used to launch a GoFundMe! Meanwhile there was that poor ambitious 19 year old low wage worker with the pregnant girlfriend who was on bed rest due to worries about pre term labor. He had a few people who went so far as to tell him he should pressure his girlfriend to abort even on third trimester, but many more lamented their foolish lack of foresight in getting her pregnant, ie creating life, to begin with. No more gruel for you peasant how dare you try to procreate with less than a $100K annual income!

My husband seems to be working a lot. Him and brother Tee have been sleeping on the construction site, as per this picture. I don’t consider this a 100K home yet. Maybe with inflation in a few year it will be!

Ka has mentioned that the foreman has an opportunity for him potentially to get some land in Phuket. I’m keeping an eye on this space. Maybe it will work out, maybe it won’t.

There’s three things which the social media space has made less and less significant over the years which are all very important in the real world. The first is personal and detailed health struggles of people, which contain all relevant information, including drugs, alcohol, smoking, vaccines, addictions, diet, sleeping, exercise and eating patterns and whatnot. These are all of the questions that a good doctor would ask anyways. Sexual history and menstrual cycles, if appropriate to gender and age, should also be on there.

The second involves actual financial health as Mr. Money Mustache did a great job of covering and I am thrilled with The Purse for picking up a similar torch. How much money is actually coming in from any and all sources? What is it spent on? Is there debt? I’m sure many people in the US will be filing their taxes soon which will ask all of those questions. It’s interesting that all of these instabeauties and tiktokers don’t mention this stuff.

The third area, in honor of it being Sunday, involves sin and repentence, which in more general terms could simply mean the ability to say “I screwed up and I’m sorry.” It’s so rare in social media that genuine repentance of this sort gets shared far and wide. It’s like water for the soul in a desert of unaccountability.

The first two never talked abouts simply got merged into the government apparatus. Doctors and insurance types know your detailed health information while your twitter followers almost certainly don’t. Tax authorities and other three letter agencies are probably paying very close attention to your earnings and spending.

The category of repentence remains in the purview of God, methinks. They have’t figured out how to monetize it directly.

So what’s in your budget?

Buy me a ko-fi