I am most grateful to a reader who shared his monthly expense figures. I'm not even sure if I should say "he" or "she"? But for convenience, I'm going to just call him Adam (A).

[To: 'Adam' - Give me a shout out if prefer to be called by another name?]

It looks like Adam's household is made up of a couple, an elderly and a maid.  Not sure if there are any children? In contrast, my situation (B) is that of a couple and two children.  While the specifics are not the same, there are high similarities - i.e. four persons in the household, close to retirement.

I took the liberty of regrouping Adam's data so that I could make reasonable comparisons.

Expenditure Item  A   B  Condo maintenance   $      330  $      295 Car/transport related  $      670  $      594 Property tax  $      280  $        33 A's is for 2 condos Utility,...