re: Here's a budget breakdown of a couple that makes $200,000 a year and yet is scraping by

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What are postmates?

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Man I have been wondering the same damn thing.

I googled it and it appears to be a service like Instacart, but I don't know why he keeps using that word.

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an I don't feel like sitting here and breaking down everything we spend money on at the store. All I can tell you is that we typically spend roughly $150/week when we do our stereotypical white couple grocery shopping on Sunday mornings. And I suck at math but I'm pretty sure $150 x 4 = $600, so there's where the number comes from. And we don't really waste food. Occasionally a few things need to be thrown out, but it's not egregious

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Sounds about right. I think the thing that gets us is the spices, salad dressings, etc. that are “necessary” to cook an enjoyable meal. I think too what people aren’t factoring is other household items like tp, medicines, cleaners, tin foil, etc. all that shite adds up.

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What do you spend $600 on? Lets assume $30 postmates 12x a month that's $360. What are you spending the left over $240 on? Pancakes($10) coffee($25), snacks($50), fresh produce($15), beverages($15), meat from a butcher ($75). I still can't get to $600

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postmates? Just stop, bro. You're embarrassing yourself.

I was never clear if that number included restaurants

Agreed. 10 is more like the lowest you can pay. If you get out under 15 we consider it a win.

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$1,000 a month on food??

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I have a family of 4, nd spend about 1300/mo

Two vacations a year: $8k
Cut it to one: Save $4k

Clothes: $3k
Set a $2500 budget
Save $5oo

Charity $2k
Cut in half to $1k
Save $1k

That would save them $5500

$5500 + $5700 = $11200.

This would eliminate their consumer debt.. Not our fault they are bad at money management.

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Do people really spend 3 grand on clothes a year? I am way behind the curve on that one.

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It's 3 people, one of which is a child that would constantly be outgrowing clothes. I'm guessing that would include all clothing, with shoes, belts and other accessories. For 2 professionals that wear professional clothing every day, 1-2K a year seems really reasonable. I'm sure a good suit set would run that alone. Same for a woman a nice dress combo.

The grocery bill doesn't shock me at all. That would include all the HBA type of stuff (toilet paper, toiletries, household cleaners, etc). Plus I'm sure they might eat out once or twice a week. I think 1K is actually a bit on the light side. I'm a single guy and I'm pretty close to that myself..

The only issue I have with the chart is 8k in vacations and 2k charity. That extra 10k realistically should be added to the $5700, leaving them with $15,700 disposable cash each year. I don’t know who the frick factors in 2k in donations to their annual budget; most people just donate here or there as they deem necessary. Vacationing is absolutely an important part of life, but it’s not fair to add that to a budget, to strengthen an argument of “just scraping by”.

Looks about right to me. Hell if you've done all that shite and still have $5,700 left over I'd say that's $5,700 more than most people.