{"items": [{"author": "Jenny", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/how-much-does-it-cost-to-live/10150137145481213/?comment_id=10150137184346213", "anchor": "fb-10150137184346213", "service": "fb", "text": "how does health insurance and health care factor in? And are dance fees \"allowance\" or \"essentials\"?", "timestamp": "1301886387"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/how-much-does-it-cost-to-live/10150137145481213/?comment_id=10150137454576213", "anchor": "fb-10150137454576213", "service": "fb", "text": "Healthcare was a single category for them. For us healthcare was split between our \"medical\" category and paycheck deductions. I was lazy and didn't want to go find a pay stub. Their calculations are assuming you can get benefits through work, so if I did find the numbers they'd likely be comparable.
Dance spending is in the allowance category, along with other vaguely discretionary spending like clothes. We do a decent amount of volunteering at dances, though, so it's not as high as it might be.", "timestamp": "1301916844"}, {"author": "Julia", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/how-much-does-it-cost-to-live/10150137145481213/?comment_id=10150137823956213", "anchor": "fb-10150137823956213", "service": "fb", "text": "Where is the $76 for personal and household items coming from? We spend more than that. Even if you don't want to count things like dances or craft supplies, I think clothes definitely count in the basic living needs.", "timestamp": "1301947868"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/how-much-does-it-cost-to-live/10150137145481213/?comment_id=10150137868211213", "anchor": "fb-10150137868211213", "service": "fb", "text": "@Julia: shoot; I mixed up a weekly number with a monthly number. That's allowance, and should really be $330/month. It does include a lot of things that their category wouldn't include, though. Looking over my spending for the past three months, I don't actually see any money on clothes, personal care products, etc. The correspondence between those two categories is not too good.", "timestamp": "1301951626"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/how-much-does-it-cost-to-live/10150137145481213/?comment_id=10150137872986213", "anchor": "fb-10150137872986213", "service": "fb", "text": "Probably the right thing to count for \"personal and household items\", ignoring that some we counted under housing, would be the sum of our allowance categories for clothes, shoes, sundries, and tech. This comes to $106/month for the both of us for 2010. It no longer includes eating out, contra dances, etc.", "timestamp": "1301952075"}, {"author": "dianeruth", "source_link": "http://www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/comments/gi0ht#c1nt5rj", "anchor": "r-c1nt5rj", "service": "r", "text": "I spend 710/month, not counting savings.\n\n
Clearly, I am not living.\n", "timestamp": 1301952089}, {"author": "cbr", "source_link": "http://www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/comments/gi0ht#c1nug2p", "anchor": "r-c1nug2p", "service": "r", "text": "→ Good for you; which of their categories are you most under in?\n", "timestamp": 1301968144}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/how-much-does-it-cost-to-live/10150137145481213/?comment_id=10150137877511213", "anchor": "fb-10150137877511213", "service": "fb", "text": "Clothes especially we don't spend that much on. In 2010 I spent $3/month on clothes and shoes combined. Julia spent more, but less than $50.", "timestamp": "1301952494"}, {"author": "Julia", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/how-much-does-it-cost-to-live/10150137145481213/?comment_id=10150137896316213", "anchor": "fb-10150137896316213", "service": "fb", "text": "I think most of your clothing bought in the last two years has come from my allowance.", "timestamp": "1301953954"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/notes/jeff-kaufman/how-much-does-it-cost-to-live/10150137145481213/?comment_id=10150138028566213", "anchor": "fb-10150138028566213", "service": "fb", "text": "The shoes and hat you bought me were in 2009, and I thought more recent clothes were going under my allowance? Looking now, I see most of the clothes I recall gaining showing up under my allowance.", "timestamp": "1301967801"}]}