When we bought our house, it was very important to me to find something within a pretty tight budget - so that we would be able to someday make it on one income (if one of us decided to stay home full-time once we have kids). Our house was more expensive than most "starter" homes, but given our income level it's significantly less house than most of our friends and coworkers bought. The house category includes only our mortgages (so principal, interest, taxes, and homeowners insurance).
Our auto expenses are pretty high. We have two car payments totaling about $792/mo. I also included auto insurance and gasoline in this category. On the plus side, our cars are in decent shape overall, since they are relatively new, and we don't incur much in terms of repairs.
The savings category only includes after-tax savings, so money going into our emergency fund & savings account. We use this money primarily to pay for tuition, vacations, and home repairs. Now that the emergency account is funded to nearly $5000, we will cut back on this and only put aside what we need for upcoming major expenses. Any extra money will be shifted to debt repayment.
I know we spend a lot in utilities. We have a family-plan for our cell phones, and we each have a full data plan with texting added on. We have high-speed internet and cable TV at home. And we always seem to spend more on the normal utilities than most other families. Our electric bill runs about $100 during the winter months, and up to $175 in the summer. Our gas bill varies between $50 in the summer and upwards of $300 in the winter. Our water/sewer bill is about the only thing that doesn't seem ridiculous.
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