[0mar]

rental place. 865 a month

electricity - 12-20 bucks a month
water - 40 dollars or so
gas (heating) - taken care by rental company
phone bill - 22.95
cable - 54 something (includes internet)

That's my monthly expense hehehehe. I don't like paying taxes.

[Ludi]

McHell McNo! 1500 sq foot house from a catalog (Jim Walter), $383.00 month mortgage. Oh, should mention all neighbors have 10-20-100+ acres (we have 20).

[smallpoxgirl]

Two bedroom single wide in a trailer park. Backs up to a big horse pasture and some trees, which makes it tolerable.

Rent is $475.
Last month's bill for electric and gas was $26 ($16 worth of usage plus $10 for just having service.)
Water & sewer are free.
Don't have a home phone, cable, or home internet.
Cell phone $40 per month.

[pip]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pip', 'I') live 5 miles from the nearest gas station and 20 miles to the nearest store. My closest neighbor is 1/2 mile away, which is too close in my opinion. I'm not a big fan of the city life. My current location feels more like independence than isolation to me. Gasoline runs me about $350/month.

[strider3700]

1/2 acre just out of town with a 1.5 bedroom singlewide mobile. It's 16km to work.

Mortgage: $184/week Only 1023 more payments to go I hope to do it in 300 more.

Water: $0 but the electricity for the pumping/ozone is about $30/month (soon to be about $5 with the new pumps)

Electricity:$75 a month thats 30% reduced from when I first moved in and was heating with electric. I hope to get that down to $50/month soon and then see what I can do to cut back more.

Gas: $0 it's not available and I don't want it anyways

property tax: $350/year it turns out that is the minumum, I get a homeowners grant that would take the $430 I'm supposed to pay down to $100 or so but there is a minimum amount.

Gasoline: $160-200/month this is mostly because my girlfriend is 100 km away and I go see her every weekend. When that wasn't happening I was at $80-100/month

Cable/Internet: $95/month I like my highspeed but the TV is a waste, it will probably be cancelled until the dark parts of winter soon. That will put it at $45/month.

Cell phone: $60/month I don't have a land line so this isn't that bad.

House Insurance: $520/year and going to increase as I'm adding wood heat. Frigging rip off since in the event of a big emergency they won't pay out for sure.

Car insurance: $1000/year for a bike worth $8000
$800/year for a small suv worth $4000
This is with my 40% discount total frigging rip-off

Groceries are the hard one. I'd say $40-50 per week and climbing lately, not sure If I'm eating more expensive things or if things are getting more expensive lately. Dairy is definitely more money in the past couple of weeks but not sure if that has to do with oil or not.

[pea-jay]

Since we are publicizing living expenses:

House size ~1100 Square feet
Yard only slightly larger +5 to 8 feet on the sides and back, 15 in front.

Gas for heating cooking and water...$200 in the winter, $40-50 in the summer. Old house, poor insulation. Installed me a pellet stove and that took some sting off the price.

Electricity - same as gas but reversed months. New fridge will help

Water - flat $50 a month no matter how much I waste. Golly, I could leave the water on alllll month and wouldn't pay a dime more than 50. Shocking, considering what state I live in, but my city along with handful of other ones in the valley were statutorily exempt from metering (1800's era law). Feds finally cracked down on us miscreants so somewhere between 2009 and 2015 we will on the meter system. I am not holding my breath. By the way, Jato's water flows past my neck of the woods.

Rent: 550 a month for a 2br 2 bath. Hasnt budged in 3 yrs. (keeping fingers crossed here) Rents for this area havent appreciated much in general. Housing values have doubled though.

Diesel - $40 or so month. I have a TDI and it isn't driven much (outside of the semester my wife drove it 140mile round trips for a college class, once a week)

Food - Dont keep close tabs on that one.

[novaz04]

Since Australia is so americanized, we do have mcmansions as well, but tend not to be as isolated spread out as american mcmansion suburbian sprawl luckily. I don't live in one though (thank goodness). We also get Mcmansions in not-so-isolated middle class areas when they knock down the preexisiting homes. My house I live in is about 1 km from a gas station, a 2 minute walk from a bus stop and a 30 minute walk to a train station and shops. I also hate isolation, and I would dread living on a farm.

If you need a definition of a mcmansion, a picture paints a thousand words:
http://cyncity.typepad.com/cyn_city/eas ... ansion.jpg

[MD]

I suppose I do...sort of...4000 sq ft built in 1950, no debt. NG, Electric, and Oil heat(yes, all three). Biodiesel generator and PV alternate power. Functioning machine shop(almost). Hand water pump backup. No guns(but I am thinking about it) Accummulating freeze dried supply. Party at Mike's house post Peak!

[JoeW]

i think the concept of suburbia has been slightly distorted.
i live in a small town about 15-20 miles outside of a small city. i would consider my town suburban, but within walking distance, there is a kmart, a supermarket, blockbuster video, mcdonald's/burger king/wendy's, a diner, a steakhouse, about five gas stations, the town park, a lumber yard, and plenty of other amenities that you would find in a city. we really don't have to go out of town for just about anything.

as far as monthly expenses go in our 1800 ft^2 house/4-person family:
mortgage: $875
prop. taxes: $200
groceries: $600
gasoline: $200 (~100 gals/mo for both of us to work in nearby small city)
fuel oil: $100 to $150/mo avg for the year
car ins.: $150 (two cars, two drivers)
daycare: $1100
water: $30
electric: $50 (was $40, put up motion sensor lights, whole different story)
phone/cable/internet: $150

[Kingcoal]

McMansion explained

Most of what you guys are describing doesn't fit the criteria.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')cMansion noun. A large, opulent house, especially a new house that has a size and style that doesn't fit in with the surrounding houses.

[hull3551]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kingcoal', '
')Most of what you guys are describing doesn't fit the criteria.

[Free]

Small (room, bath, kitchen) but beautiful flat in an old building, located very centrally in a great district of the city, everything important within walking distance, great public transport system.

City was voted number 1 in living quality in Europe this year, and number 3 internationally. It's the OPEC headquarter city.

Rental: 212 Euro per month (includes water, the best water from the world, directly from the mountains).
Electricity + gas (including heating and hot water): ca. 50 Euro per month.
cell phone: between 10-40 Euro per month.
motorbike: 250 Euro taxes + insurance per year. One tank filling costs me about 10 Euro and lasts over 300 kilometres.

Can't moan about that, can you?

Actually I spend most of my money on food and useless crap made in China...

[joewp]

Well, I have to admit, I live in a McMansion. 3000 sqft of space, a dining room and living room that are rarely used. We do have 2/3 of an acre, which is what qualifies for a lot in this area. I have seen 4000 sqft houses on tiny lots in Staten Island and Queens, though.

Back to my neighbothood; 84 houses put up in less than a year, with cul-de-sacs and everything. 3.5 miles to the nearest store, surrounded by farmland that's already being eyed by more developers. 1997 Ford Explorer in the garage, too. The only good thing is gas is $1.91. I could probably get close to $700,000 for the house, and I'm ferverently trying to convince the wife to sell before the prices crash. I would like to sell and move further south, like VA or the Carolinas, and pick up a 10-12 acre spread for $150,000-200,000 and grow some corn and raise cows and chickens. She said $60 a barrel will get her attention. I hope the housing market holds out!

The other alternative is convincing the people around here of the threat and the need for community. That's pretty hopeless, IMHO. They're all high tech types who think the "market" will solve the problem, or just can't believe "they" won't think of something.

And the Yankees just got swept by the Royals... someone shoot me!

[ECM]

I live in a furnished apartment that is less than 600 sq. ft.

Rent = $476/month (includes utilities) Dirt cheap for Mesa, AZ
Car Payment = $307/month (10 more payments)
Car insurance = $70/month
Gas = $40-$60/month (I drive about 6K miles/year)
Food, laundry, minor stuff $50/week
Cell Phone $45/month
Internet $50/month
Other $100/month
Federal and State Piracy $825/month currently

Mad Money = $600-$1000 month (Currently going to debt. Hoping to be debt free by late September)

[jmacdaddio]

I live in a McApartment in New Brunswick, NJ. It's a new 4 story "luxury" building. I live 4 miles from work. I drive a Subaru WRX which has been getting 25 mpg lately (used to get less ... won't question why it's improved). I live in a very congested area but I can walk to restaurants, theaters, Starbucks, and trains to NYC and Newark airport. There is a large university nearby. The city and local business interests are working together to rid downtown of dollar stores and fried food shacks -- at least two other apartment towers are going up along with some new retail and office space. Most of my driving is for activites, visting family and friends, and errands as opposed to schlepping to work. I might drive 700 miles in a typical month. I'm contemplating getting a bicycle so I can bike to work on nice days and my next car will be in the 30+ mpg range.

rent: $1400(!) but sadly it's not far off the area average, and it includes cable tv, internet, and a garage parking space.
car: $445(!) but it's only for another 5 months and I opted for a 3 yr loan to save on interest expenses.
credit cards: paid off every month
student loans: long gone
gas: $60 (2 tanks of premium in most months)
electric / water / heat: $120 combined
cell phone: $40
voip phone: $45 ($30 plus avg toll charges to Europe)
car insurance: $90 each month
food: $200 in most months
beer: $100 (trying to cut back!)
which still leaves me with about $750 in mad money

I'm waiting for a. my salary to improve or b. real estate to deflate before buying a home or condo.

[JMR]

mortgage: $660 mo for 1850 sq ft house on 42 acres in southern Tennessee
electricity/heat/water: $130 mo
taxes: $600 per year for house and property

I'm 12 miles from the nearest town but I commute 32 miles to the nearby military base. 39-40mpg 05 Corolla. No technology based industry in the immediate area, just factory jobs.

[cammo2004]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kingcoal', '[')url=http://www.wordspy.com/words/McMansion.asp]McMansion explained[/url]

Most of what you guys are describing doesn't fit the criteria.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')cMansion noun. A large, opulent house, especially a new house that has a size and style that doesn't fit in with the surrounding houses.

[pup55]

I will play this game. As I have said before, I am the guy that is causing all of the problems.

My 3800 square foot house is exactly the same floor plan as the two houses on either side of it. I live in the heart of the so-called non-sustainable suburbia, about 3 miles from a huge mall, 4 miles from an “outlet” mall, and two super-wal-marts are 2 and 4 miles away. The nearest strip shop is about a mile, jogging distance.

I own 14 devices/vehicles which have gas-powered motors. Work commute: 14 miles, average speed, 14 mph.

Expenses:

House payment $975 (Principle, interest, taxes, and insurance)
(note: I am frugal and the last time I refinanced, rather than refinance to capture the equity, I decided to lower my payment. The excess was not spent on frivolity, I kept paying the same monthly payment to the mortgage company, therefore am now 50% paid off.)
Homeowner’s association $34
Phone/cable/cell: $250 (female-driven)
Auto Insurance $100
(note: We have cut all our insurance down to liability only and self-insure the potential crashing of any of our paid-off vehicles)
Vehicle fuel: $250 (a van, an older pickup, a junky Kia and an old Mustang, hence no major loss if there is a crash, except for the Mustang)
Vehicle depletion: $100
(note: This is miles per month, times 20 cents per mile, which is the amount it would cost me to replace the vehicles as they wear out. This also includes some maintenance. I try to buy vehicles cheap, never finance a vehicle, and do 90% of the work on them myself).
Utilities gas: $100 (I have a lot of windows. This gets up to $200 in winter but near zero in summer)
Electric: $150 (I have two big air conditioners. This gets up to $300 in summer but only $50 in winter)
Water $35
Home maintenance (termites, roof, painting, fertilizer.) $100
Food: $500 (one restaurant meal per week average)

Total: Only about $2600 a month, which means, I could probably make it on $42,000 per year before taxes. When TSHTF the first things to go will be a few of the cars, and the phones.

Now, if I were “normal”, like the other people in the neighborhood, I would also be paying the following:

Incremental house payment: $900
(note: the payment on my house would be about $1800 if it were 100% financed at the current interest rate).
Lawn service $200 (I mow my own lawn).
Cleaning service: $300 (we clean our own house)
Dry cleaning $25 (we wear cheap clothes and throw them away when they can’t be worn into the cubicle).
Day care $1280 ($160 per week times two kids is the local going rate.We don’t have kids this age anymore)
Nails/Hair $100 (nope)
Extra water $50 (I pump free water from a nearby pond to water the lawn. Costs me some electricity but worth it)
Vehicle payments $500 (typically a lexus and an SUV. This goes up as soon as you have a teenager, as does the insurance, but day care goes down.)
Credit cards $192 (minimum payment on a $9600 balance, which is the national average)
Premium cable $50
Broadband: $30
Total: an additional $3600 per month., which means that if I was “normal”, I would be hard pressed to survive in exactly the same house for less than $100,000 per year, before taxes, and that’s before the first trip to Florida or taking the kids to a ball game once a month, and not including restaurant meals, which for many people are about 4 nights per week.


So, we are to learn from this several things:
a. You can see how people get into trouble.
b. You can see how the issue of refinancing really affects your stress level. Since only about 5% of the wage-earners make more than $100K per year in the US, this means the neighbors need 2 incomes, and would have a real problem if one of the spouses got laid off, and this is largely based on living in the McMansion rather than a smaller house, and financing 100% of it. This also affects day care costs, transportation, and other costs that people have.
c. More than 50% of the living cost out here in suburbia is “lifestyle driven.” No one is forcing you to drive a Lexus or get premium cable. I did not include private schools in here, but the local private schools are about $25K per year. My kids went to public schools. They are smart enough.
d. The above does not include a dime for “retirement savings”. It also only pays off the minimum balance on the credit cards, which does not allow for any actual repayment of the $9600 in consumer debt.
e. There are no student loans in here. It’s pretty typical for young people nowadays to be carrying $50,000 or more in student loan debt, so as to have the professional job to be able to live in the McMansion and have all of the stress.
f. No Harley. There are at least 6 Harleys in the neighborhood, at $25K, monthly payment about $250/mo.
g. In addition, I estimate that I will get about 20 pounds of tomatoes and 10 pounds of squash out of the 100 square feet of garden I planted this year. If I expand this to the 30,000 square feet in my back yard (thus inflaming the homeowner’s association, but I don’t care) this would give me approximately 9000 lbs of food per year if I replace the current lawn with edible vegetables.
h. Yes, the neighbors look at me funny.

[strider3700]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pup55', '
')g. In addition, I estimate that I will get about 20 pounds of tomatoes and 10 pounds of squash out of the 100 square feet of garden I planted this year. If I expand this to the 30,000 square feet in my back yard (thus inflaming the homeowner’s association, but I don’t care) this would give me approximately 9000 lbs of food per year if I replace the current lawn with edible vegetables.

[Kez]

I'm north of Dallas, Texas in an area that is booming with big subdivisions.

My monthly bills, not including the mortgage, are right at $700. This covers water, sewer, trash, phone, internet, satelite, taxes, HOA, electric, and homeowner's insurance. Property tax is the big killer, at $300 a month on a $125,000 house (Texas has no state tax, but higher sales and property taxes instead).

It was kinda dissapointing when I did all the math, to find out that if I ever pay my house off, which isn't really a McMansion but kinda close to one, that I'll still have $700 in monthly bills. And of course in the future this will be closer to $1,000 a month for the same stuff.

My next house I will first look at the property taxes first and go from there. $300 a month is just ridiculous. What I have noticed is that the cities with nice farm land type lots have decent property tax rates since they're not so close to the big cities.