I won't tell you my budget (family of 5) but I promise that it's gone up over the years after years and years of having to scrimp along! I still have to be careful and we have a budget but it is better than when we first decided to start paying down debt.
The best way for you to figure out what you spend on the things you need every month is to simply track your spending for a month. Note the things that aren't purchased monthly. So be reasonable when you are purchasing because stuff comes up that you need to buy but you aren't purchasing month. Like cleaning supplies and batteries, etc. (ok, weird example, but batteries are expensive!). Anyway, the second month try to stay within that spending amount or even attempt to reduce it by 10%. But put the 10% in savings. Don't spend it because you might find you need it. Budgets have too many variables.
And the 3rd month review how the 2nd month went. Was it too tight? Can you reduce it another 10%? What did you forget about that came up? Add that in.
And do the same on the 4th month but you should be closer to a reasonable budget.
We still do this. Only DH and I review about every 3-4 months. We talk about what's not working for our budget and then try to make changes accordingly. I found that when we first started and said, "This is all we can spend on groceries." It didn't work. You have to eat! Although you don't have to eat steak every night. And I was being reasonable about what I was purchasing and did a lot of meal planning. It just wasn't enough when I included diapers and other essentials. But we also found other places that we could cut back. I often took out of entertainment and eating out to help my grocery budget. We turned off the cable. I shopped at garage sales for kids clothes. Stuff like that.
I hope I'm making sense here. The idea being that you set a budget that you can live with so you don't go overboard from being too strict. And keep reviewing to make sure you aren't being too lax as well.
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