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The budget breakdown of 29-year-old Human Factors Researcher on $11K a month in Austin, TXFeatured

Posted in:Advice Compensation Lifestyle Money

The Budget Breakdown aims to broaden the conversation on money and offer insights into various approaches to spending, saving, and investing.

✨ Want to share your monthly budget breakdown with us? Please fill out this form here and we will get back to you (can be posted anonymously like this one 😉).

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💰 Income

Monthly Gross Income: $11,742.80

Monthly Net Income: $8,600

🏡 Monthly Fixed Expenses

Rent: $200 (living with family)

Internet: $140

Transportation (Car payments, fuel): $773

Insurance + HSA contribution: $427.16

Credit card payments: $616

Subscriptions (Spotify, Apple, spa): $212.96

🛒 Monthly Variable Expenses

Groceries: $300

Eating Out (Restaurants, Bars): $110

Entertainment (Movies, Events, Hobbies): $600

Clothing: $100

Personal Care: $100

Debt repayment: $1,500

💸 Monthly Savings and Investments

Emergency Fund Contributions: $1,000

Retirement Savings (401(k)/Pension, IRA/Roth IRA): $200

🎁 Monthly miscellaneous

Gifts and Donations: $100

Health and Wellness (Gym Membership, Therapy, Medical Expenses): $192

⚖️ Final balance

I can't give an exact number for the final number since it varies by month. Usually, I do have a little left over, which I use to pay extra on my credit cards. I'd say I usually have about $500 left over, except for rare cases where I go into the negatives.

💭 Money Reflections

1. How much does tracking your personal finances influence your spending, saving, and investing habits?

I’ve only recently started tracking my spending and finances, and so far, I’m just realizing I’m spending too much in different areas and trying to cut back.

2. Is there anything you wish you would spend less money on?

Entertainment: I enjoy spending money on music and artists I enjoy, but I realize that’s not sustainable and need to cut down.

3. What do you consider important to spend money on?

3 things: paying off my credit card debt, myself, and savings.

4. Do you have any short-term or long-term financial goals?

Short-term goal is to pay off my credit card, long-term goal is to have enough savings for a year of my typical (ideally reduced) spending.

5. What was your relationship with money like growing up? Did you talk about it with your parents/caregivers?

I'd say my relationship with money was fine, nothing special. It was definitely something I could talk about with my parents, but I don't think we ever had any extensive talks.

6. Do you feel well-versed in personal finance? If so, what resources have you used to educate yourself?

I wouldn't say well-versed, I'm still learning, there's always something. I think I know a decent amount, and most of my education is from blogs (some personal, others more finance-geared like NerdWallet), or family (I have an aunt who's a certified accountant) – so I have passing knowledge, but I'm working on getting better.

💡 Ask the community

I have a lot of credit card debt from two recent moves (both within the last 1.5 years), buying a car, and a recent layoff. From the layoff, I know it’s important to have plenty of savings, but I also have trouble prioritizing savings when I have about $30k of credit card debt to repay.

Do you have any advice on repaying credit card debt, especially on how to do so without neglecting savings? For further context, the debt is across 3 credit cards.

Rina86·Jul 01

This was interesting, thanks for sharing! This is how I’d probably tackle everything if I was you:1. Pay off ALL debt as soon as possible. Start with whatever has the highest interest (car/credit cards). Use the $600 on Entertainment each month towards debt and if you really want, just do free activities in the meantime. Since you’re living with family, I’d prioritize putting a majority of your spending towards paying off debt since you don’t have to worry about rent being a big chunk. If you already have a couple of thousand in your emergency fund, that’s enough. Use that money towards debt. 2. Once all your debt is paid, THEN save 3-6 months of living expenses as your emergency fund3. Once that is done, then you can invest (401k, Roth IRA, etc)

Becky68·Jul 01

Thanks for your input. I've been half playing around with some variation of this, questioning how much savings is enough before I just focus on the CC debt or if I should do that. The entertainment budget has definitely gone down significantly. I haven't been able to cut it to 0 yet, but I'm at $150 since I sent out my budget breakdown. Part of the reason I'm scared about postponing everything till I've paid off my CC debt is that since it'll take a while to pay everything off (a year even when I put every penny towards it), I don't want to not have savings or anything for that whole time. I'm not really saving for anything special, but especially since my lay-off it stresses me to not have anything saved at all since you never know what will happen.

Hettie·Jul 01

Did you try to run your debt repaying program through some calculator? If you continue to repay 1,5K a month, how long will it take you to be done? If you increase a repayment amount by $100, $200, or @500 a month, how soon will you be done? I would like to see these numbers before giving any advice.

Becky68·Jul 01

Hi, I'm happy to elaborate and provide this information. Currently, paying $1500/month, I'm expected to finish paying all my CC debts off in May 2026. But paying an additional $100 to that pay-off date is at April 2026, with $200 I'm at February 2026, and with $500 I'm at December 2025. These are estimates with my current interest rates. 2 of the 3 I need to pay off currently have 0% interest, so I've been focusing on paying them off before they start accruing interest next year (2025). So this math is assuming I do pay them all off at the rate I expect and therefore the other 2 are paid off before they'd start accruing interest. If not, the pay-off dates would be further out.

Hettie·Jul 02

The CC balance with 0% interest is not a CC debt in my books. I used such promotions often and sometimes still use them in order to be able to pay for something on my terms. When I used them, I took the amount I needed to pay off before the interest started to accrue and calculated how much I needed to pay each month to be done before the deadline. This contradicts most of the advice you received so far, but please hear me out :). You do not need to pay the 0% cards "as fast as possible," you need to pay them off BEFORE the promotion expires, and you just pay this fixed amount you came up with. For the card with non-zero interest, yes, try to pay it as fast as possible, but I would encourage you to still invest in your 401(K). Otherwise, you might end up losing more. For a 401(k), it is critical to start building it as early as possible. Plus, you get a tax deduction and possibly an employer match.

mikaelasanchez·Jul 02

From the UK, but I do the same thing. I sometimes have also used a 0% balance transfer offer, where I could move the debt to another 0% interest card for no fee.It's really helpful but only if you're comfortable with having to manage it.

Becky68·Jul 02

Fair point. I'll be sure to check the exact date when the promo ends and do the math from there. The contribution in this budget is for a Roth IRA, but I just signed up for the 401k matching offered by my employer so if it becomes hard to manage both, I'll switch to the 401k cause of the matching.

Hettie·Jul 02

You will have enough time to switch to a Roth IRA later, it does not have to be all 100% Roth.

Filomena21·Jul 01

Hi, thanks for sharing! I think something is missing though... the total of the expenses listed here is $6,571, and your income net of taxes is $8,600, so there should be an extra $2,029 per month that you could use towards paying down debt. Is there another big expense item you forgot to add? Also, is the credit card payment of $616 purely the minimum payment on your existing $30K balance, or is it including ongoing monthly charges and thus double-counting what you are spending on subscriptions, groceries, etc.? I'd suggest using a debit card for your day-to-day purchases until the credit card debt is paid down so you aren't incurring extra interest (maybe you are already doing this).That is great that you are able to live with family for a while, and it's also great that your income is strong right now so you can repay debt and build your savings. I agree with @Rina86 that you should pay down the debt before building savings. (Plus, if you are really worried about having NO savings and if you are allowed to live with your family indefinitely, then your monthly living expenses are basically $1,000 between the car and food, so perhaps you've already saved up $3,000 of living expenses and can start re-directing your emergency fund contribution toward paying down the credit card debt.)

Becky68·Jul 02

As I mentioned, I'm still fairly new to budgeting, only started a few months ago, so unfortunately the figures I provided aren't fully exact. Those were true for that month's budget, but some of the other months I'd spent more in different categories or had categories specific to the situation at the time. For that month, I did have a surplus and put some of it towards my debt and the other in savings (probably also overspent in a category or 2). That said, the $616 is purely my minimum payment, initially I did also have some recurring charges or other expenses still on my CC so even paying the minimum and some extra didn't necessarily lower my balance. As of last month, June, I've moved them all to my debit and now don't have any expenses being added to my current debt. Thank you for that piece of advice though, I only wish someone had told me that a few months back. I'll try to make sure I focus on my CC debt first, that's definitely my primary stress. And I'll have a conversation with my fam about extending my stay with them potentially. I think part of my worry about savings was that I'm only confirmed to stay with them till around the end of the year, so I felt the pressure to save as much as possible prior to moving. But it's not set in stone nor did they give me a deadline. They've kind of implied that I'm welcome to stay, but I'll have a conversation with them so I can actually plan and prioritize properly.

Filomena21·Jul 02

Awesome that you've switched to your debit card! Does your family know that you are dealing with this debt? Also, does it take a toll on your mental health to live with them? I can imagine it could be a pretty big difference if you are living with doting parents who hope you'll never leave vs. a sister and her husband and small children who you sometimes babysit in exchange for living there. Not sure what your situation is like.My main question is whether or not there is any amount of shame that has prevented you from telling them about the debt, because I could also imagine a family member might be willing to lend you some money interest-free to help you out and pay down some debt. I was going to lend a friend $10K when she was dealing with a difficult situation during her divorce because I knew she was responsible and would pay it back.Your friends and family can also help keep you on track if they know you are dealing with it. For example, friends might be willing to hang out at home drinking wine instead of going out if they know it's bad for your finances.And in terms of the missing spending, I'm just thinking about your aggregate earnings for the year. $8,600 x 12 months is $103,200, and if you basically aren't paying rent it seems highly possible to pay the $30K down within a year. You just want to make sure you know where all the money is going. Many people spend 20-40% of their GROSS income on rent, and you only need to pay down a balance representing 30% of your NET income. It may sound impossible in this moment, but the way the numbers are it really should work unless there's some crazy expense you forgot about.

Becky68·Jul 04

My parents don't know, they aren't in the US (I'm on a visa) and I know I can pay it off and even if it takes time, so that's part of why I haven't told them. There is some shame associated with that too, I know I'll get lectured and they'll be disappointed but I also know they'll help me however they can. The family I live with (aunt and uncle) are aware of the situation, I've talked to them about it and they've also given me advice. We never explicitly said anything about me moving out or anything like that or even staying till I've paid everything off, but they've implied I'm welcome to stay. I just don't want to feel like I'm imposing too much either.Thanks for the suggestion about borrowing from friend/family, for some reason it hadn't crossed my mind at all for whatever reason. I won't ask the ones I live with cause I feel that'd be asking too much, but I'll certainly reach out to a couple of friends.I do believe it can work in a year or less, I just also know I'm not yet consistent about tracking my expenses, so there shouldn't be anything big missing, but I know there's small things that compound that I'm missing and am working on tracking down so I can really know where all my money is going and cut that down. My plan is to pay my would be rent into savings and/or CC debt.

jwolcott·Jul 02

Have you considered using a budgeting tool to help you really get a handle on things? I think you would benefit from a system of budgeting called Envelope budgeting, which originally was done literally with envelopes of cash but now can be accomplished by at least one piece of software plus a tiny bit of self-discipline. I use YouNeedABudget aka YNAB and it is very easy once you get it set up. It’s not free, but I believe it’s under $200/year and it can really help you to understand where your money is going. It integrates with your bank accounts and credit cards so you can first budget incoming money, then assign that money to credit card transactions to cover your spending. The idea is that your paycheck comes in, you divide it up into categories (you can leave some unassigned if you don’t need it all to cover the basic categories), then you look at the balance of each category as you go to spend from it, ie “I only have $50 left in my grocery budget for the month, I guess I’ll buy lobster another time”. If you set your budget up as you wrote it today and then try to stick to it, you’ll notice when you spend more than you planned (and it might be that you should actually assign more to that category and if you have money left over you can do that, but it’ll draw your attention to that).If you’re stressed about your debt, you should really try to put every cent you can towards paying it off early. That might mean putting off buying other things, particularly impulse purchases (of goods or experiences) for a few months. You don’t have to put things off forever or even until the debt is fully paid, but even if you don’t switch to full envelope budgeting you’d be surprised by how much progress you can make if you just make a 3-day rule, i.e. if you add something to an online shopping cart, you have to wait three days before actually ordering it. A bunch of the time you’ll realize you don’t actually want or need whatever it was. And it makes you plan ahead instead of living impulsively. I don’t do this all the time but I do practice it when I notice my spending creeping up.Anyway, good luck, you can do this.

melaniecrissey·Jul 02

How much cash do you have in savings right now? Slightly different perspective than other commenters here, but I would make priority #1 being at least one month ahead with cash in a high yield savings account. A couple thousand dollars really isn't enough baseline emergency fund to cover things like car repairs, health issues, or a layoff surprise. I'd aim to have at least $10K tucked away, basically one full month's paycheck, before shifting gears to burn down debt aggressively. Otherwise, any little unexpected issue is going to put you back on credit cards to survive. And I wouldn't pause retirement contributions while saving or paying down CC debt. Put a small percentage into the 401K or Roth the same way you pay a small percentage to taxes and other deductions. Just don't even mentally consider that part of your income. As others have said, compounding is all about investing early! $30K seems like a big number but it's not insurmountable. Debt is a tool. It's morally neutral. Nobody is going to get sick or hurt or die if you don't pay it off. Worst case scenario you can file bankruptcy and that's a totally valid option. Your credit score doesn't really matter that much unless you want to buy a car (you already have one) or a house (maybe that's at least few years in the future??) Stack some cash and then chip away at the debt. You'll be out of this hole before you know it.

Becky68·Jul 03

Thanks for the advice. Right now I'm about half way to a full paycheck. I wasn't planning on stopping 401K and Roth IRA contributions, just maybe switching from one to the other. I just started the company matching so I might pause my Roth IRA contributions until I've tackled a bit more of my debt. But I'll keep in mind saving at least an entire month's paycheck before I switch gears. That would certainly give me peace of mind on that front. You're right, I'm not worried about my credit score currently, getting to that point was the first step to actually doing something productive about my debt.

elisegatsby·Jul 02

Thank you for sharing! Tracking your expenses will help give you insight into where you are overspending and where you can find extra dollars to pay down your debt. I am a huge proponent of expense tracking and simple budgeting. I recently started selling finance spreadsheets on Etsy if you or anyone else is interested, https://www.etsy.com/shop/aDataDrivenLife. Coupon code 'ELPHA' will give 75% off. This is not a sales pitch! I genuinely want to help people get a handle on their finances so if anyone wants to chat or wants help setting up a spreadsheet let me know!

Becky68·Jul 03

I'll look into it, I appreciate it. I just started tracking my expenses, so it's definitely something I'm working on getting consistent with.

beckyaldaz·Jul 03

Tracking is SO helpful and eye-opening!

beckyaldaz·Jul 02

Thank you so much for sharing your journey! Here are FREE budgeting spreadsheets you can use: https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/best-budgeting-spreadsheets-and-tools/These spreadsheets are being recommended by Ramit Sethi who is the author of "I Will Teach You To Be Rich." He is FABULOUS!!!

suerthjessica·Jul 03

Oooh, checking this out! Thank you!

Becky68·Jul 03

Thanks for this, I'll be sure to check it out.

Tereasa224·Jul 03

Thank you so much for sharing your budget breakdown. And I'm sorry that you had to go through the layoff that has put you into a hard financial position. I would say definitely focus on paying down your credit cards - they are notorious for having extremely high interest rates. You've mentioned cutting down on your entertainment budget. I would also see if you can cut down on the subscriptions section. Rent is usually the biggest expense, and fortunately you are able to live with family at the moment. I've had a similar amount of credit card debt before and paid it all of within 9 months - I was making more money than you are but also had to pay $2500/month in rent, so in the end, probably in a similar situation. I went really strong on living really minimal during that time - like no extra treats or expenses like eating out or taking taxis and literally bought nothing new for myself during this time. Once you pay off your debt, it feels so good. You can treat yourself then.

pax·Jul 21

One consideration I've found really helpful to keep in mind is the recommendation to pay debt before savings if the interest rate is higher on the debt than what you would earn by having it in savings. Because if you put $100 away in savings to make a 4% return but your credit card is costing you 22% interest, you're not actually saving anything because you're going more into debt each month. And if you were to be laid off again, you could hypothetically use that cash for living expenses for a few months but then you wouldn't have income to go towards that credit card debt, which just snowballs.I totally hear wanting to have cash in savings for some liquidity though.As basic as it is I've found the 50/30/20 a good guideline for this (not exact, but a good idea to get started on what you want those numbers to look like.)So I maxed out my 401k match (5%) then put the other 15% between stocks/Roth IRA/and a high yield savings account.This gets you to the 20% for savings/debt repayment and for me as long as I was in line with the recommended percentages from my paycheck that felt better to say okay I've got the minimum going away each month now everything else to the debt.A great first step I recommend is an app like Rocket Money where you connect all your accounts and get a good holistic view on your financial health at any given moment. I love seeing my Net Cash calculated and going more positive each month, it helps a lot to keep you motivated.You got this!!!

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