u/deviation01

Savings with the 5% Roth contribution from employer I guess we are at 20% but I would like to save 20% outside of that. Wants are way under.

Needs is where the hurt is. Not sure what exactly we can adjust. Transportation we live South of Miami and the turnpike (toll road) is our main vein of transportation about $140 a month in tolls. Car insurance recently reduced by $60 a month. Pets is a bit elevated because they need special food but grooming + food and meds for them.

Pretty stuck on Needs I guess.

EDIT: Thank you browserz for doing the math on this. My Pie chart had an issue.

See updated numbers below. Its much closer.

Needs 68.1% (53.1%)*	Wants 16.9% (24.9%)*	Savings 15% (22.0)*
Housing $2814	Apparel $300	Savings $2,700
Utilities $300	Body Care and Meds $100
Groceries $912.5	Going out $1000
Transportation $500	Subscriptions $250 (gym membership is the bigger chunk)
Car Insurance $228	Self Care $1000
Home Insurance $230	Gifts $100
Pets (2 dogs) $450	House Items $100
Phones + Internet $226	Fun Money $200
Property Tax $750
HOA $90

My wife and I combine our income as one household, and it works great. I am more of a saver, while she is more of a spender (within reason). We have no debt other than our mortgage and bring home about $12,000 per month after taxes. We are also expecting a baby boy.

I currently contribute 5% to my Roth 401(k) to receive my employer's full match. My wife owns her own business but is not currently saving for retirement. With a newborn on the way, I want to increase our savings. At the moment, we have about one month of emergency expenses set aside, and I'd like to save an additional 10% of our income—about $1,200 per month.

Are we spending too much on dining out?

We live in Miami, where restaurants can be expensive, and my wife enjoys going to a nicer restaurant at least once a week. We don't eat much fast food. Our monthly dining-out budget is $1,300, and we spend about the same on groceries, for a total food budget of around $2,600 per month.

Personally, I feel like $1,300 on dining out is a lot, but my wife thinks it's reasonable. We recently had a disagreement because she wanted to treat her mom, dad, and brother to dinner. I was fine with treating them but we also had her moms birthday, and then another will come for Father's Day. I told her we couldn't really afford another one because things were getting tight. Her response was, "Well, it's in the budget."

I guess she has a point since she is staying within the budget, but it made me rethink how we should approach our finances going forward.

My thoughts are:

1. Prioritize savings and essential expenses first.
2. Reduce our dining-out budget (although I know she won't be happy about it).

Is this a reasonable approach? Are we spending too much on eating out?

Edit. Led me add more context for the people.

Eating out here plus alcohol and tip is 150 bucks easy even at an average restaurant. The going out budget also includes take out etc.

The rest of the budget goes toward car insurance, prop taxes, transportation, utilities, two doggies and some self care for the wife.

We have 160k towards retirement.

Just curious why majority of borrowers dont opt out of escrow. Is it because they they wont diligently save for their taxes and insurance?

You can look at your insurance and tax bill divi up by 12 and put the monthly amount in a high yield account to earn a few hundred bucks end of the year. Its not a lot but why give it to the bank?