Gloria leaned on the chain-link fence Tuesday evening while I was letting Moose out, and asked me something nobody else ever has: "What does it cost you two to live, anyway? Everything's so high now." I told her I'd find out to the dollar, because I can. It's all in the sheet.
So on Saturday morning I filtered the sheet to the last 12 full months, October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026, and added up every category. Here it is.
What counts and what doesn't
This is everything that left our checking account or the credit card to keep two people and a big dog going in Macon for a year. It does not include money we saved, whether that's the house fund, the emergency fund or the sinking funds. When a sinking-fund bill got paid, like the county tax on our vehicles, that payment counts.
It also leaves out a few things that never touch our checking account. Health insurance and Tyler's 401(k) come out of our paychecks before we see them. And the costs of Tyler's mowing and my furniture flips, like gas for the mower, trimmer line and paint, come out of that money, not the household budget.
The year, category by category
| Category | 12 months | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | $8,980 | $748 |
| Electric | $1,752 | $146 |
| Water, sewer and trash | $816 | $68 |
| Internet and two phones | $1,620 | $135 |
| Groceries | $7,140 | $595 |
| Gas for the truck and CR-V | $3,060 | $255 |
| Car, renters and life insurance | $1,810 | $151 |
| Student loan | $1,344 | $112 |
| Vehicle taxes, plates and repairs | $2,332 | $194 |
| Moose | $790 | $66 |
| Household, clothes, haircuts, pharmacy | $2,220 | $185 |
| Fun, gifts, Christmas, subscriptions | $2,328 | $194 |
| Total | $34,192 | $2,849 |
That's $34,192 for the year, or about $2,849 a month.
A few notes
Rent is four months at $725 and eight at $760, after Mr. Dale's increase in February. Four times $725 is $2,900, and eight times $760 is $6,080.
Electric includes the $246 bill from February, the highest we've ever had. Since March we've been on our utility's average-billing plan at $142 a month, so the summer didn't show up as a spike this year. It's the same electricity, just spread out.
Groceries averaged $595 a month against a $600 budget. That includes the monthly Aldi runs to Columbia and the week of $5 dinners in September.
Insurance is the car insurance at $1,436, about $16 a month less since we raised our deductible in March, plus the renters policy at $168 and the term life we bought in April, $206 for six months.
Vehicle taxes, plates and repairs is $642 to the county in December, $310 for oil, wipers and a battery for the CR-V, and the big one: $1,380 in July for the truck's water pump and timing chain tensioner. That came out of the emergency fund, but it's still a cost of living out here, so it's in.
Fun, gifts, Christmas, subscriptions is $1,800 of fun money and eating out, $300 for Christmas and $228 for the two subscriptions we kept.
What stood out
Rent and groceries together are $16,120. That's almost half of everything.
The vehicles surprised me. Gas, car insurance and the taxes, plates and repairs add up to $6,828, almost as much as we spent on food. Small-town living means driving: to work, to Columbia, to my parents' place out in the county and up to Debbie's in Kirksville.
Some of it is lower than it used to be. Compared to our first real budget back in February 2025, the phones are $58 a month less and the subscriptions are $42 a month less. That's $100 a month, or $1,200 over these 12 months, from two phone calls and one evening with a highlighter. The rent went the other way by $35 a month, so we're still ahead.
And rent is the reason the rest of it works. My friend Kayla pays $1,150 a month for a one-bedroom in Columbia. That's $13,800 a year, which is $4,820 more than our rent for two bedrooms and a fenced yard.
When I gave Gloria the number, she said, "That's about what I figured," which was a little disappointing after all that adding. I'll run it again next October. If things go the way we hope, the rent line will have turned into a house payment by then, and I want to see what that does to the total.
