Where do you go for dinners that cost you just HK$150 for a family of 3?
Less than $30k
$30k - $40k
$40k - $50k
$50k - $70k
$70k - $80k
$80k+
Fair enough my apologies. However, I do feel missing out housing, schooling and several holidays per year it is not really a frugal budget. Most people in HK would love your total budget.
My budget would not be appropriate because I live in the Philippines. My total budget for a household of seven including three kids at private school is the same as your items excluded frugal budget.
My mobile, TV and internet is dearer than yours. Utilities a bit cheaper though we run three aircons for an average of 12 hours per day. The big saving is on groceries and eating out and clothes. We buy as much as possible from the market and eating out here is stupidly cheap. Also no health insurance.
I think the private versus local school topic deserves its own thread so trying to cram it in here isn't going to be productive. Have you seen the thread on hours of tutoring for example? That was a huge debate on just one small aspect of education.Original Post Deleted
Also for housing does it really make sense to compare this? I bought long ago and have a very low mortgage, but I don't think that information is particularly helpful for anyone. If you are interested the market rent of where I live is probably around $24,500.
Similarly for vacations, some people will choose to travel back to the UK to see family once a year, for me its much cheaper to fly back to Australia, plus I have a lot of miles. For trips that don't involve returning home (which varies so much from person to person) perhaps it is interesting to discuss costs. If you care to know because of miles I average around $1300 a month on vacations.
So if you find it interesting or helpful my own budget with market housing, education costs and vacations included, and with all the caveats listed above is:
Market rent $24,500
Groceries $3800
Vacations $1300
Mobile (2 lines 5 GB LTE) $192
Internet + TV (100 Mbps) $198
Transport (Trams and buses) $320
Clothes $1000
Restaurants $3200
Health insurance (12M annual limit per person) $930
Utilities $2000
Hobbies $1000
School Books $225
Total $38,665
Why not share a portion of your budget and show us the correct 'GAAP' way to do it?
Yeah, lets throw it in. Its going to vary a lot with people having different size families and so on, but it'll be interesting nonetheless.Original Post Deleted
Housing: 13000 (w management fees inc)
Groceries 7500 (3 adults + 1 kid)
Mobile (2 lines) 700
Internet + TV 250
Transport (bus-taxis) 7000 (2 people)
Clothes 1000
Restaurants 5000
Health insurance 2500
Utilities 3000 (Water, Electricity and Gas)
Hobbies 1500
School 7500
School bus 1500
Studies (wife) 5000
Trips 10000 (once to Europe - 2/3 in Asia ~120000/150000 a year)
Car - Petrol 800
Car - Parking 1500
Car - Maintenance 1200 (insurance + Road Worthiness test + repairs - 12k to 15k a year)
Medical 1500
Kids Activity 1500
Helper 6000 (salary and associated cost
Other emergencies 5000 (home repair, donations etc etc)
Entertainment 2000 (cinema, Happy Hours, etc)
Total: ~ 85,000
+ Taxes.