What is your biggest expense?

[Zoo Keeper]

Mortgage

[Mimm]

Debt, if you combine credit card (which we're in the process of paying off rather aggressively and will be done probably in less than a year, knock on wood) and student loans. That's without even counting mortgage and car payment.

[Spryte]

Mortgage.

[Joanne]

1) transportation - includes insurance for 4 of us with 3 of us under 25. And car payments.

 

2) Rent.

 

This is the most expensive my life will be. No, really. Maybe next year when the last one goes to college. But I may have a car paid off by then.

[mommyoffive]

Amazing how many of you have your mortgage paid off!  Awesome.

 

 

I was looking at houses today and randomly thought of moving to a cheaper house that would slash our payments by a third.   That or even paying for a house in cash.    That would be so awesome over time to not have that expense.

[Kathryn]

Food. Mortgage/taxes/insurance is second. They would be about tied if *somebody* didn't eat out for lunch everyday and insist on dinner out 2 times a week.

[Greta]

I forgot about taxes!  I guess I wasn't counting it, since psychologically that money never feels like it was ours to begin with.  It never appears in our bank account, we never deal with it or "touch" it in any way, we usually just have a very small refund or sometimes a very small payment due each year.  So that's really the only part of it that I spend much time thinking about.

 

And speaking of how psychology affects what we count as an expense, I was surprised to see people counting retirement investments as expenses.  To me, it's the very opposite of an expense.  Expenses are money going out.  Investments are money staying in.  But I guess if you think of it as a "payment" that you're making to your future self, then it definitely can feel like an expense in the moment.  

[SKL]

Taxes, by far.

Kid stuff - intangible (education, activities....)

Insurance.

Travel.

Charity.

Kid stuff - tangible.

 

ETA taxes feel like an expense to me because I have to write the quarterly checks.  Plus seriously all or even more than 100% of my annual cash income goes out in taxes some years.  Kinda hard not to notice that.  It's depressing.  :P

Edited June 28, 2016 by SKL

[DawnM]

Mortgage

[againstthegrain]

Mortgage, taxes. 

[foxbridgeacademy]

1. Rent.... it's crazy expensive to live in a nice area with enough space

2. Taxes.... run about the same to slightly more than groceries, we live in a no tax state

3. Groceries which are less than 1/2 our rent (there are 6 of us currently)

 

..... We're thinking of taking on a 2nd car payment, that coupled with insurance for 2 teen boys will shoot Transportation firmly into the 2nd place position.  Luckily there will be some $$ help since the boys will have jobs and be expected to pay their share of the insurance. 

 

 

Our plan is to get the kids through College and out of the house then get a MUCH smaller house and cut our cost in half.  We'll put that $$ toward property somewhere rural.  When we get close to retirement we'll build a little (not tiny) house and be rent/mortgage free. 

 

 

*College-tuition is free first 2 years than because of state lottery funded scholarships and low tuition, next 2-3 years are cheap (plus we'll only be paying for 2 of the 4 kids)