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I was wondering after the end of the month, after paying all (and I mean everything) of your bills (mortgage, utilities, car, etc) even groceries, gas, misc. items (EVERTHING) should a person have left over at the end of the month.
Im asking this because I cant find this kind of info any where, I can find how much you should spend on a mortgage and other loans, but nothing on how much money you should have left over at the end of the month, so that way you are not working pay check to pay check and are able to afford emergencies, etc.
Before we went to our LO I went thru our expenses to see how much more we can afford for a mortgage. We are renting a house now, and have compared utilities to our friends and family to get an idea about how much more we would also be spending a month, so calculating everything we have taken the extra expenses into consideration. Our LO said we can afford $2000 a month total for mortgage and I was thinking more like $1500 total. After looking at houses in the $1500 price range I am wondering if I am being too cheap and should go a little higher. Im not crazy about the houses in that price range, but if we went up to $1700 we have more of a selection. But I also want to make sure we have enough money left over a month for what ever may come up.
So my question is: How much do you allow yourself to have left over a month from your paycheck?
This has been the stressful part of house hunting. And Im trying to get as much imput from this question as possible.
Anything would be helpful, everyone out there is always so great!
expect to spend at least an addittional 150 pre month in maintenance and upkeep (not renovations and decorating) to keep the place up and running. as far as left over cash, remember cash is king. The more you have saved for retirement and other unexpected expenses the better. Also, less fixed expenses allow you to keep debt paid down and avoid as much interest as possible. Now, with the tax credit that is available, if you were in a position to bank it (the 8K( and not spend it, I would be a little less concerned about stretching.
we're going to have about $1100 left over after every possible budgeted expense and it makes me very nervous. i don't know if this figure is high or low comparitively; our mortgage payments will be about $3100.
i'm hoping to bank 2 mortgage payments from the tax credit. also since i work for the city i'm more inclined to stretch our budget because i have job security and scheduled raises every year. but i'm going to be on edge until next august when my big raise comes through. i can just imagine the boiler or the roof going and wiping out our entire savings.
We'll have about $1k left with everything paid. We anticipate a our mortgage to be $1150 PITI.
I wish the amount left over was more, but DH anticipates getting a job with higher salary. We'll just have to be careful to not increase our expenses.