Ours are pretty much on target or below -- except our debt (which is our credit card bill and my student loan) but we are on target to pay off that credit card within 1 1/2 years, so that will help.

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We are pretty much okay on all - debt is only car(s) and house.

My sister tithes 10% and says that if she doesn't something breaks in her house and she has to spend the money on some unexpected expense.

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And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Phil:4:7

Who can seriously stick by that? With the housing market the way it is, most people are way over in that one, us included. Our mortgage is almost 1/2 hour pay. To rent, we would be throwing away money, at the same amount we are paying now. We don't have much in cc debt, which is good, and only one car payment. I think the guidelines are pretty strick and there is just no way people now can stick to that. With the price of gas going up, meaning everything else is going up, food, etc, yet our pay isn't going up, we can't stick to those guidelines.

We are well below most of those categories, fall right in the middle of a couple, and the only one that exceeds the "recommended" value is transportation which takes up about 22% of our take home pay. We will be saving much more than we currently do next year, when all of our credit card debt is gone. As far as the "biggies" go, our house is 12%, utilities are a little more than 5%, med insurance is taken out pretax so that percentage (if taken after tax) comes to about 9%. Other than that, we hardly spend any on clothing, recreation, debts, or personal. We are looking pretty good according to that plan.