{{ Carpian, But even if you back out those "frills" (income tax is required, but I could have used my Roth to manipulate taxable income even more than I already did to get the ACA subsidies, and property tax is obviously required but I'm in a high tax region), I spent in the neighborhood of $45-50K. }}

I think that's reasonable. I lived near the beach in DelMar, North of San Diego for a couple of years in the late 1980's. If I had a paid for condo and automobile in San Diego, I suspect that $50k/year would be the best I could do.

I actually did add up my food spending for a month about 5 years ago and I got $120. (I'm mostly eating cheeseburgers, pizza, steak fajitas, etc. and buy in bulk when stuff is on sale. The most expensive 80/20 ground beef I have in my freezer cost $4/lb.

intercst