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We do close to the following. I do a budget, but it's more for tracking purposes. We buy what we need when we want, but also do it smartly and try to plan major expenses spaced through the year. We live frugally but do what we want, taking road trips when we want to get out of town and a few trips a year around the country. Best way to live frugally is to buy a house you can comfortably afford and buy nice used cars and keep them a long time.
Have a decent chunk in retirement account already for our age/income and 9 month emergency fund in cash.
13% income to 401k, Roth IRA and Brokerage account
10-15% into liquid savings account. Once this gets high enough, more will be shuttled to our Brokerage accounts.
19% of our net income is our mortgage.
We have no car payments
$500 a month goes to student loan debt that should be paid off in next 4-5 years.
Our grocery bill always seems quite high to me for the two of us. If you've never kept track on your food bill for a month, do it, you'll be shocked.
Rest goes to all the little things we need like TV, internet, cell phones, insurance and clothing/housewares.
I think one of the best feelings you can have is being relatively worry free about money.
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