Family budget comparison 2008 – 2013

Non-inflation adjusted table:

Observations:

-         Education expenditure is up. Expect to raise further next year.

-         Car insurance cost dropped by 3.5%. No claim period and shopping around allowed us to select cheaper car insurance. Another reason - we happened to pay twice for our car insurance last year for 2011 & 2012.

-         We spent less on vacation this year.  Last year family trip cost us almost 2,200 more and there was a short break as well.

-         What is missing from the budget are annual savings towards durable goods.  At the moment this is 7,000 a year.

For the next year, I expect to:

-         Educational cost to raise further by $8,000.

-         Spend more on clothes. We have been intentionally curtailing our demands but there will naturally need to buy some.

  This is the same information presented, per category:

 Family budget consumption categories (2007-2011 vs. 2011-2013), 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 five additional working days. This time cover the coming cold winter gas & electricity bills.