Comparing budgets to other families is really a very difficult thing to do because there are so many variables in life. Just the numbers themselves can be misleading, like for instance: I keep track of every penny we spend, but also put everything I want to track into categories (and even sub categories not listed) so that i can keep an eye on budgets very precisely. Others may find that just keeping up with a few basic categories is
enough, and I am sure that it is.
One of the key things I noted really needs some explanation, and that is it was averaged over 4 years. On certain categories this is really important, like budgeting for food! This is pretty constant for us; month to month and year to year, but home construction is not. My home is paid for, so the $307 cited is for renovations, additions or improvements. Some years we have bigger projects than others, but averaged out over 4 years, that is what we average per month. On the farm side, Depreciation is the same way; we use cash-only here so big purchases like bulldozers and fencing means lots of depreciation. Depending on how I do that, it might be big for a year, and smaller the next year. The same applies to Rental, repairs and Vet bills; some years are worse than others.
The real key to budgeting is not budget based on these averages per say, nor what other
people are spending. That is just silly and does not do the individual or particular family any good. That only ends up trying to justifying a persons reasoning for those particular numbers. Instead look back upon the numbers...over years if you can, and really deduce what is a real world number for the upcoming year, and then try and be aggressive on a budgeting goal.
To put that in practice, it would be like Katie and I looking at say our food bill. $925 seems kind of high until you realize that that includes everyday meals at home, fast food, family nights at restaurants and date nights for her and I. We went for a 10% reduction for food expenses for 2018. However, we could still spend $925 a month, but increase our quality of life by reducing our fast food meals to almost $0, and instead fortifying our marriage by going on more date nights. Or, we could invest that money into going out as a family to better restaurants then McDonald's. That is the key to tracking a person's money; knowing that, they can make changes with where it goes. Not spending less, just having a better quality of life...though spending less is a lofty goal.
Katie and I took some time last week to really look hard at our budget, and we found we could trim $200 a month on personal expenses, and $500 a month on the farm expenses; or at least that is the goal, spelled out in each category. In total that is $700 a month, or $8,400 a year in savings. But should anyone
think Katie and I have it altogether money wise, please consider this; if we had done this in 2014, we would have had $33,600 in expense savings to date!!
Tracking every penny spent is difficult
Creating a budget is easy
Sticking to an aggressive budget is the hardest of all; yet is what reaps the most benefits.