Family budget comparison 2008 – 2012 ..after the relocation.

We had to move last year and relocated to a more expensive area.  Evidently we spent $ 16K more.

As new place of residence  and more expensive area,  I averaged our three previous 3 years of expenses, when we lived in the same environment.  

Non-inflation adjusted table:

Observations:

-         I was hoping that medical insurance coverage is going to be free, with the new job. However its terms and conditions were changed and I have to pay out of pocket 10% of all the bills even if the insurance is given for free by the employer (effectively it's not any longer).

-         The child went to school, so it became  much cheaper for the time being.  The school is free.

-         We have realized that the area is much more expensive and manage to restrict ourselves on new clothes but this is only temporary and hardly sustainable in the long run.

-         We treated ourselves with a vacation to an exotic destination. It  was relatively expensive in comparison with the previous year, although the airline tickets were 50% discount ( I used my air miles) .

-         Pure car insurance alone cost us about $1,600 but there has been some additional fees – car service, renewing driving licenses and insurance for the next year.  A comparable price (apples to apples) would be $2,200. Nevertheless  it is still higher than average $1,488 over the last three years.

The life style is not changed that dramatically – the house is about the same size, schools an areas are quite the same.  On their hand it was not a question of choice, we just followed the jobs, as the salary has not changed much.

This is the same information presented, per category:

Family budget consumption categories (2007-2011 vs. 2011-2012), as percentage of total: 

If you will pay closer look, it could be noticed even percentage wise our consumption categories are changed. We are paying much higher price to maintain the same life style -  house, car,  food. This is not taking into account that the overall bill is much higher.

In the three previous year about 60% or $ 40K were essentials (home, bills, nursery, car, food) , last year  it was 75% or $ 60 K and hardly anything could be done about it.

One of the possible solutions is to take on more work, I managed to get three additional working days. This time cover the coming cold winter gas & electricity bills.