Are there people who buy clothes every month?
Probably yes, but I think it’s more likely that the purchases are in lumps (like before school starts each year), and they’re just calculating a monthly average.
Clothing 500 6,000 School and summer clothes for four kids (40%), clothes for him (20%), clothes for her (40%)
But building on the earlier comments about vacations and restaurants, this seems actually quite low. The high-earning husband only spends $1,200 a year on clothes? That seems pretty low, particularly if he has any fitness hobbies that require any moderately specialized clothing. Like, even running would set you back several hundred a year on shoes.
My guess is that this family is pretty unhappy and would benefit from spending more on thoughtfully selected categories, rather than saving more.
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I mean, it all comes back to the insanity of $85k a year for religious indoctrination. Lol religion.
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Yeah I’m sorry but if you send your kids to private school you don’t get to complain about budgeting being hard.
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Also, this seems ridiculously low for 4 kids:
Kids Activities 200 2,400 Football, Hockey, Gymnastics, Chess
We have one daughter and spend about $200 a month on extracurriculars - gymnastics, volleyball, we just pulled her from violin lessons.
Also, 150 a month that they spend on “entertainment”. That would be way higher with 4 kids.
I think Spidercrab made the right read. This family is unhappy because they make a lot of money and have a miserable life because they aren’t spending it in the right places.
Spending 1,000 a month on vehicles you have to give back seems like a rather large leak.
Esp. when still spending 150/mo on public transportation. Like, even if they want to perpetually have a fancy new car, there’s very little utility in having two.
Unless dad doesn’t want to be seen at the golf course in a mini-van…
Pretty sure golf or other hobbies have had to be cut from their budget.
It looks like the adults get like $50 a month combined for just fun, which is crazy. I guess maybe all he does is work, gym, and then hang out with family doing free stuff (they listed zoos and the occasional concert).
This item does seem a problem with priorities:
Personal Care 400 4,800 Gym / haircuts / nails
This was kind of my initial reaction. But there are plenty of people for whom vacation is camping and such which costs very little.
Well, you know this family that is spending $70k/year to send their kids to religious school ain’t going to no woke-ass Disney World.
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My old boss and his wife made $400k+ between the two of them and were perpetually broke because their kids had to the most prestigious (rich) private school in the area.
Yes 
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That is at least arguably justifiable. Paying for an elite private school does help the kids quite a bit. Paying $20k for a mediocre/religious school that probably isn’t much better than the public schools is just wasting money.
It gives the kids a leg up if they go into some profession that requires local contacts (politics, stonks, business, Hollywood), and assuming they’re ambitious and gregarious.
But they’re anti-social, or move out of the city, or decide to major in art history, or a bunch of other things, you’ve just wasted a ton of money.
It’s not just the contacts - it helps a ton to get into college. I think probably even more-so now with how competitive it is and how hard it is to stand out at a public school. Also on a more cynical side - since many college admissions are technically need blind, they can use people from elite private schools as proxy for wealth and likelihood to get donations.
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Ok so make the elite college about contacts, and I guess it can be more national then. You’re still screwed if your kid majors in art history to spite you.
After taxes and maxing retirement?
Not sure those are necessarily synonymous.
In Phoenix the two best private schools by far are Catholic.
Before taxes. I know he made like $180k-$200k and I know his wife made more.