How much do you budget or spend

[ElizabethBennet]

on household/personal items a month?

I'm talking things like TP, razor blades, body wash, cleaning supplies, etc.

I'm making up a budget and was gonna do $50, but I'm worried it's too low.

[angelaa73]

It's kind of tricky because you can go to Costco once and stock up for a year. But I think we go through $20 in toilet paper per month. No joke!

[Deleted]

Oct 19, 2013 11:10:56 GMT -5 angelaa73 said:

It's kind of tricky because you can go to Costco once and stock up for a year. But I think we go through $20 in toilet paper per month. No joke!

This. I spend like $150 every couple
Of months at Costco

[lola]

I am budgeting for two households, but I budget $100 per household per month for personal care including make-up, hair product, TP, paper towel, laundry soap, dish soap, etc.


ETA : Two HCOL areas - one in NYC and one in Chicago.

[rosiedozie]

We just bundle all if that into our grocery budget since we guy it at our grocery store or Costco along with food.

[cleo29]

We budget $400 a week, $200 for food and the other $200 for everything else.

[pierogigirl]

$100, but this is for a family of 4. It also includes things like diaper cream, toddler toothpaste, kid shampoo/wash. We go through a ridiculous amount of toilet paper. It does not include diapers or wipes (separate line in the budget).

[kirra]

Do you have any idea how much you spend now?

I'm not sure how much we spend, because it's bundled into our grocery budget. Here's a rough estimate (there are two of us):
About $20 a month for toilet paper
About $6 a month paper towels (we use them as napkins, but use rags for cleaning most of the time)
Shampoo: if I didn't buy it on sale, probably about $10 a month, but I always buy it on sale
Body wash: $3 a month for H's, but I buy most of mine at BBW semiannual sale, so I don't have a real number
Razor blades get expensive, but I usually buy them on sale
Makeup: I budget $10 a month, but only buy every three or four months
Cleaning supplies: maybe $10 a month? Again, I usually only buy them on sale. And vinegar and baking soda do clean a lot of things.
Pads and tampons are out of control expensive, but I'm going to assume you don't need a many as I do

For one person, if you buy some of that stuff on sale, $50 should be fine. If you buy it all full price, it may be a little low.

[ElizabethBennet]

This is helpful, thanks

This would be for two adults and a toddler. Diapers and wipes are going to be in a separate budget. I'm wanting to separate household stuff from groceries to get a better idea of what we are actually spending.

Hopefully we'll only have to buy diapers and wipes for another couple of weeks.

[anodyne]

Give mint.com a try. It is free. It tracks your spending and you can set your budgets. It has help us so much to be able to see where every penny is going.