Empty Pockets

Recently discussing the cost of health insurance I had to quantify how it compared to other budget expenditures. Listed below are our family expenses ranked from highest to lowest.

1. Health care insurance (our share, not including our employer contributions) is the largest expense we have above anything else.

2. Mortgage- We got a mortgage in 2003 and it costs less than our daughter's current one bedroom apartment which is one third the size of our home: 725 sq. ft. v. 2300+ sq ft. We have 5 acres. She has no land. 

3. Credit card debt which is only medical expenses not covered by the health insurance represented as a minimum payment due or a budgeted snowball payment. Currently I am on a 0% plan with a single 4% charge upfront for a specified timeframe.

4. Food. I put this on a separate credit card so I can get cash back. But it is paid in full every two weeks.* Oddly some of the charges on this card are Rx copays because of the terms and conditions of the repayment plan of the 0% medical plan listed in #3 above. So include some medical expenses here too! 

*My CC does not charge interest if paid within 25 days of the posting date so we pay it off every two weeks to correspond with payday, incurring no interest payments.

5. Automotive (Loan, Insurance, Gas & maintenance - in that order). Until 2023 we hadn't had a car loan in 20 years. We had always bought in cash and used. Post Covid, car prices skyrocketed, used cars became priced near new mid size car prices, and supply was greatly reduced. We were forced to buy new when our 2013 Prius died at 245K. The difference between a used car with 80-120K miles and a new car was less than 10,000$. Ours was $32K and we put down more than 20% to get a loan at 4 years and 3% interest.

6. Utilities: Electric Power, Landline + Internet, Water, Cell - pay as you go plans that average 8.50/month for emergency use.

7. Lawn Care- we can not do this anymore due to our health

8. Savings

9. Misc 

1+3 are more than all the rest combined.

Retirement (5% plus 5% matching) is deducted from the paycheck and not included.