Posted by Forest on November 6, 2008
I love the Fall and I had a lot of fun in October. Fortunately, all that fun cost me less than all the fun I had in September. Let’s take a look at the breakdown of my October spending in a few major categories:
- $897 - That’s what I spent on housing-related expenses in October. This includes the mortgage, association dues and all the utilities. This is a fairly static amount every month.
- $209 - The cost for gas in October. This was up more than $70 from last month. However, please remember that October included the hunting trip up north which is like a 6 hour drive one way and the trip to the North Shore which also used up a bunch of gas. Hopefully gas prices will continue to fall (under $2 now) and my gas expenses will continue to drop. Another factor will be the coming winter when we tend to hole up inside and try to stay warm. That should help limit my driving.
- Food! This was the big expense of September (over $400) and I’m really happy to report that food spending was down big time in October. I spent $192 eating out (still too much!) and another $50 on groceries.
- $300 - I donated this amount to charitable causes in October which included a $20 Christmas gift for Sergio, my Compassion child from Bolivia.
- I don’t have super specific categories when recording my spending throughout the month, so $250 worth of October expenses ended up be recorded as Miscellaneous. $95 of that was spent on party supplies for the big bonfire party. The rest was really just miscellaneous stuff here and there, though I did also include my $45 cell phone bill in this category.
All in all, I’m fairly pleased with my spending in October. I still need to work on limiting my eating out, but also need to be careful not to limit my social life in the process. There were also several miscellaneous expenses that I could have done without. I will try to limit these types of purchases in November and so far I’m doing pretty well!
Posted by Forest on October 7, 2008
I’ve finally had a chance to look back at my expenses for the month of September. Here is a brief recap:
1. My food spending was out of control! I spent $137 on groceries, $30 eating out by myself and $247 (!) eating out with friends!
Ouch! I’ve written before about how most of my social life involves going out to eat with friends, but September was crazy. Granted, two nights made up almost half of that $247. I spent $60 on dinner when Bird’s college roommate was in town and I treated the whole group. I also spent $75 for Bird’s romantic birthday dinner. I don’t regret either of those nights, but now I’m wishing I could have cut back on some of my other food expenses for the month.
2. I spent $130 on gas in September which is a little bit more than usual. Hopefully, I can also cut this back in October and gas prices are currently heading lower so that should help.
3. I spent $144 on travel. I know I said my trip to the Boundary Waters was only $78 but I forgot to add the tank of gas I paid for, which brings the total trip costs to $144 - still totally worth it!
4. Another major category that was unusually high was the gift category. I spent $128 on gifts in September and most of that was for Bird’s birthday. I don’t regret it but it’s an outlier because it was a special occasion and my gift giving expenses shouldn’t be anywhere near that amount in October.
5. September was also the first month that I didn’t collect rent from a roommate. T moved out at the end of August and so my housing expenses increased a bit. Luckily, the weather cooled off and we have been able to turn off the a/c for the year which should considerably cut our electric bill.
There were a bunch of other miscellaneous expenses for the month but those listed above are the major ones. October shouldn’t be as expensive and my main goal for the month is to not spend as much on eating out. We’re only about a week in, but so far so good.
Posted by Forest on September 2, 2008
It turns out I never spend as much as money as I think I have in any given month. After running all the numbers for August, I’m pleasantly surprised to find that I managed to save 16 percent of my income. Even though that’s my lowest savings rate of the year, I’m still happy because I thought I had spent so much more.
I also managed to add a tiny bit to my net worth. It now stands at $32,539 which is an increase of 3.5% (I think…math was never my strong suit! ha.)
As usual, gas and eating out cost me a bunch of money. I’ve decided I’m going to start tracking which eating out is social in nature, as I’m sure that is a large percentage of it and I will try to cut back on the eating out that is merely a convenience. Also a random expense for August was $250 for six months worth of car insurance. If I hadn’t had to pay that, I would have been able to save even more money. Oh well.
I would love to increase my savings rate in September back up into the 20-something percent range, but that’s going to be difficult. I have a trip to the Boundary Waters coming up next weekend and the girlfriend’s birthday (fyi - I’m going to start calling her Bird) is in the middle of the month. Towards the end of the month my brothers have their birthday (they’re twins). So September might be expensive, but I’m really looking forward to it! Bring it on!
Plus, I already had a no spend day on the 1st! But then I spent $5.33 on dinner tonight and then renewed a magazine subscription for $25. So the spending has begun! However, that $25 covers 3 years of the magazine which is a savings of over 70% off the cover price and it’s a magazine I actually read, so I’m quite pleased with that purchase.
Tomorrow will not be a no-spend day as I’m heading into Uptown after work to have delicious thai food. Bird’s college roommate and her boyfriend are in town to visit and it’s their first time in Minneapolis so a big group of friends is getting together to hang out and show them a good time. It shouldn’t be too expensive though because we’re only doing dinner out and then heading back to Bird’s new place for cake and ice cream. It should be really fun!
Posted by Forest on August 13, 2008
As July ended, I knew I had spent much more money than usual. But once I ran the numbers, I was pleasantly surprised.
I managed to save 23 percent of my income and my net worth actually increased by 8 percent!
With the exception of my housing expenses, my largest expense categories were once again gas and eating out. I spent $128 on gas in July and $110 on eating out. Since almost all of my eating out has a social aspect to it, I’m happy with that number.
Other July tidbits:
- Donated 10 percent of my income to charitable causes
- Paid $50 extra to student loan
- Added $150 to emergency fund
- Added $150 to Vanguard Investment fund
- Added $25 to Prosper account
- Added $350 to Roth IRA
Posted by Forest on July 17, 2008
I feel like it’s too late in July to do a June update. That, and I’m too lazy. You can see in my sidebar that my net worth took quite a hit last month. I think it dropped about 5%, mostly due to the really terrible performance of the stock market. Oh well, what are you gonna do?
I managed to save something like 20% of my income in June, which isn’t as much as I did the month before but I’m still happy with it. I spent about $120 in gas and about $110 eating out with friends. Those are my two largest expense categories except housing.
And here we are halfway through July. So far I think I’ve managed to keep my spending under control, but I’ve started to hang out with this girl quite a bit lately and my expenses are beginning to add up - but I’m not complaining!
Posted by Forest on June 6, 2008
Digging a little deeper into the major May expenditures:
Mortgage - $745
Property Tax - $661
Car Repair - $277
Gas - $138
Student Loan - $120
Groceries - $95
Utilities - $80
Eating Out - $73
Cell Phone - $42
Overall, I’m really pleased with my May spending. The car repair and property taxes were one-time deals that accounted for a big chunk. Gas expenses were high, but perhaps not as high as I thought they might be considering the rise in prices and my longer commute. I’m even happy with my grocery and eating out spending. The others I have listed are are all pretty much fixed. All my other spending for the month was really negligible.
Since this is basically my first month tracking my expenses, I don’t have much to compare to, but it will be interesting to compare next month.
Posted by Forest on May 31, 2008
There were a few one-time situations that made May stand out as a unique month financially.
The Good:
- 3 Paycheck Month
- Economic Stimulus
- Birthday Money
- Random Income
The Bad:
- Car Repairs
- Property Taxes
- Gas Prices
After all was said and done, I ended up saving 53% of my net income in May! As I’ve never really calculated this before, it’s hard to compare that to anything, but I believe it’s setting the bar incredibly high and I probably won’t be able to match that in the coming months…but one never knows.
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