I copied all debits listed in our checking account for the last 90 days into an Excel spreadsheet, then labeled each one with a category. I sorted by categories, totaled the categories and all the expenditures, then calculated what percentage of our spending each category was.
My categories may not have been completely accurate, because I can’t always tell what a debit is for, and I also may have debits that fit more than one category. I also left out transfers to savings and two one-time debits that didn’t really fit anywhere.
Here’s what I found out.
Bills: 21.99%
These are our regular bills that we will arguably always have, like rent, phone, internet, power, websites, etc.
Food: 19.67%
Eating out and ordering in.
Car Payments: 14.91%
My Yaris. Sean likes to make double payments each month. Should be paid off soon.
Health: 14.88%
Various bills related to my congestive heart failure. Nice.
Entertainment: 8.47%
This is mostly the purchase of DVDs and books from Amazon.com, though it also includes a few webcomic-related purchases (t-shirts, books, subscriptions).
Furniture: 7.26%
The dining room table, my desk and filing cabinet, and the decorative stuff I recently bought at Target.
Groceries: 3.89%
Anything I buy for home use, including toiletries and cleaning stuff and, of course, food.
Beauty: 2.47%
My salon visits and Sean’s haircuts.
Gas: 1.92%
I really thought this would be higher in the list.
Clothes: 1.87%
This isn’t accurate, as I usually use my Cato card to buy my clothes, so this percentage only includes the stuff I recently bought Sean from Lands End.
Family: 1.58%
Basically if we spent money on family, like presents or cards.
To put that in perspective, here’s a nifty pie chart:
I knew we I spent a lot of money on eating out, but that is a pretty big portion of our overall budget.
I’m not sure what to make of all this yet. It’s definitely given me something to think about.