<prompt> Human: I am somewhat fascinated by how people spend their money.. just as a means to compare how I spend my money against other people. I posted this last year in response to another thread.. but here is my data inclusive of 2017.We have two young kids 2y, 5y the oldest is finishing preschool, youngest will start in the twos class for a few hrs every other day next yr. Wife is a SAHM probably atleast until the youngest has started school. Although we have a comfortable income, I feel like we live a very frugal lifestyle relative to our peersneighbors. Most of our extra and nonessential expenses go to our kids activities. The first time I did this, I was kind of shocked at our annual expenses. After I got over the shock, I kept it up just to see how things changed year to year.We are fortunate to not really have to stick to a budget, so do the reverse - we spend money only on things we need and try not to on things we dont really need with some exceptions of course... and see how it rolls up at the end of the year.I use Quicken to aggregate all of my accounts and then categorize my expenditures as best as I can. Our grocery bill is very high because it includes all purchases made from AmazonCostcoTargetWalmart, including non grocery items... still it is going up significantly year over year and probably bears investigatingIf other people have expense reports, i would be curious to see them for comparison!Edit: These figures do not include transfers ie: component paid towards mortgage since that is neutral in reducing a liability and increasing an asset nor savings ie: 401k, HSA, for which we max out all of which we are eligible for. I took out large one time expenses like buyingselling cars. Large expenses for home maintrepairappliances are included.  <response>: For a point of comparison from a family with multiple young kids in a LCOL area in the Midwest with 3 kids 2,4,6 and a SAHM:Things that are less than half: 0 in tolls parking fees, car registration is 50 every couple years, license registration is 25 every 6 years and there are no other fees. Car Insurance is about half. Property taxes on a 4,000 sq ft home are 14 of what your paying for a house less than half the size. Grocery bills are half, Preschool costs are 13rd as muchfree for PreK kid; 1800 for 2 year old in a 3 day a week program, and childcare is way lower with a SAHM; maybe a couple hundred for date night babysitting at most. Mobile Phone bills are less than half too.Things that are about the same for a family in HCOL LCOL areas: Shopping, Home, Misc, Rec, Health insurance Medical, Car fuel maintenance, our Amazon Restaurant budgets are about the same too; although Id bet we eat out more. GasElectricWater costs are roughly equal; although Im heating and cooling 4,000 sq feet instead of 1,400.Things that are higher: Home insurance is about a third higher Vacation budget is 40-50 higher. 