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... We need to make a budget. We kind of fly by the seat of ours pants!

This is a rough estimate but:

Rent: 27% (Includes utilities)
Groceries: 12%
Household items/Toiletries: 2%
Cell phones: 4%
Internet: 2%
Car insurance: 2.5%
Gas: 7.5%
DH's insurance (grad school plan): 2.5%
Pet food: 1%
Pet care: 2%
Personal spending: 5%
Miscellaneous: 5%
Savings: ~ 25%

Of course, we don't always end up spending or saving according to the budget. We end up spending more on emergencies and miscellaneous than we end up putting into savings. For example, our dog had tons of health problems recently so we have already way exceeded our pet care budget and it's only March!

This is just what we strive for, and we're lucky not to have any debt right now.

Retirement: 20% of pretax
Then after taxes
Mortgage: 40%
Roth IRA: 13%
Long term Savings: 16%
Car payment: 7%
Gas: 4%
Utilities: 8%
Groceries: 6%
Short term savings/spending money: 6%

~ 18% Rent
~ 9% Groceries/Household
~ 5% Utilities
~ 9% Gas
~ 2% Car Maintenance and Insurance
~ 2% Cell Phones
~ 11% Child Support
~ 11% Car payments
~ 6.5% Debt

This is pretty rough, I need to pencil it out. We're going to be meeting with a personal finance advisor this month so this has been on my mind a lot. I think I'm going to split our main acct into sub accounts for bills and go to cash/envelopes for food, gas and personal. Our health insurance isn't included nor are my husbands union dues because they're taken out of his check before we see them.

Ok, so we are moving and I'm starting a new job in a couple weeks, so ours isn't totally finalized yet, but here it goes...It won't add up because I rounded.

Rent 25%
Daycare 15%
Groceries/HH Items 14.5% (Includes lo's diapers, wipes)
Travel 12%- This is a necessity for dh's job and just an odd situation that we are in...this has absolutely nothing to do with traveling for fun.
Savings 8% (plan to increase this)
Utilities (electric, cable, internet) 4%
Fuel/Car Maintenance 7%
Insurances (medical, dental, auto, payroll/disability, life) 4%
Cell phones 2%

Leftover we have about 8% but that will likely get eaten up by changes to the above when we actually move (very soon!) Then later this year dh will have a change in income, and we hope to have kid #2 by next year.

@sunny: exact same here!

My budget is very specific and detailed so I lumped things together and left a few things out. Overall it's very depressing

Rent 20%
Child Support 14.7%
Groceries and Household items 14.1%
Debt Payments (tax, credit, dental, student loans) 14.02%
Car Payment 6.3%
Cell Phones (for three people) 4.69%
Utilities (gas and electric) 4.36%
Entertainment (cable, internet, subscriptions) 4%
Gasoline 3.77%
Insurance (car, rental, and I threw car taxes in here too) 3.3%
Fun money (allowance for DH and I, eating out) 2.35%
Health/Beauty (makeup, haircuts, prescriptions, toiletries) 2.35%
Baby stuff (clothes, toys, diapers) 1.3%
Misc. 1.27% (renting a storage unit, and a lot of other little categories)
Gym Memberships 1.17%
Holidays and gifts 0.9%
Clothing (for DH and I) 0.6%
Savings 0.589%

Also, this is my budget on paper. Stuff happens month to month that changes everything. We may spend a ton on car repairs and $0 on fun money for example. Or utilities might come in a little low and we go out to eat, etc.

Rent- 32%
Savings- 20%
Groceries/diaper/household supplies- 15%
Gas- 8%
Utilities- 6%
Insurance- 4%
Lunches at work- 4%
Cell phones/internet- 2%

The remaining 12% is misc/discretionary spending, eating out, date nights, entertainment, and overage if another area goes over.

This is % of our take home pay:

Mortgage + utilities = 25%
Child Care= 15.45 % (this is a killer right now)
Food/home products= 4.2%
Commuting costs = 5%
College loan = 1%
Cable/phones= 2%
Savings = 15%
Baby care= 1%
Eating/drinking out= 2%

The remaining 25(ish)% going into savings, BUT will almost always be spent on things that come up--Like, we just had to buy a new washer AND dryer, because our old washer broke and it's a stackable, so we have to replace both. Goodbye $1200. The month before, my garage door opener in my Texas house broke and I had to replace it. Next month, we're traveling and will have to get a hotel, flights, rent a car (total probably $2000). It's basically always spent, but on a GOOD month it's extra savings.

Edit: I forgot car insurance! But we have no car payments. House insurance is included in mortgage payment.

Very simple percentages. and I make sure our totals for each fit within each category and we go from there!

Housing 35%
Transportation 15%
Life 25%
Debt 15%
Savings 10%

From http://www.gailvazoxlade.com/index.html

For us, we don't have enough debt to warrant 15%, and DH has a big commute, so we push percentages around a bit, biggest thing is not living beyond this/not spending more than we make. Also doesn't take into consideration the savings we do that is taken off our pay before it even goes into our main/working accounts!

Fun, I love numbers!

Our health insurance comes out pretax, so I am not including that, these numbers are all after tax based on take home pay.

17% Housing (Mort, Tax, Ins)
15% Debt (Auto, Student)
15% Retirement
4% Utilities
2% TV/Internet
2% Phone
1% Cleaning
1% Life Insurance
1% Car Insurance

42% Life's non-fixed expenses (spending money, groceries, gas, etc.)

So this is how I break down my budget. I've got my set bills that come out the checking account like housing, daycare, car payments. I also have several bills auto-paid to a credit card, and then we put everything else on another credit card. Both credit cards are paid off each month. We are working on getting our extraneous spending down.

Mortgage + Condo Fees = 21%
Daycare = 14%
Car payment = 6%
Grad school loan = 4%
Random Bills (utilities, dog walker, cleaning svc, cable etc) = 8%
Miscellaneous non-bills (groceries, gas for cars, spending money, etc.) = 25%

I can't answer this... We have separate accounts and pay separate bills. So I don't know how much dh brings home and he doesn't know what I bring home. As long as the bills are paid we're both happy.