The Numbers: January 2009

January was a total blur.  Somewhere along the way I spent about $1,800.  Here’s the breakdown:

$806 – Housing expenses led the way again.  Now that I’m receiving rent, I don’t really have to pay the mortgage because they basically cancel each other out.  $650 of that $800 went towards paying the property taxes that I owed my co-owner.  The other $150 was to cover some final bills and the association fees that the rent doesn’t quite cover.

$233 – Eating out! I can’t believe I spent this much on eating out.  As always, eating out makes up a huge portion of my social life and I often end up paying for Bird and/or other friends.  So it’s not like I just dropped $200 eating out by myself, but as always, I’ll be looking to try to limit this category in February.

$105 – Entertainment.  This includes $32 for Bingo, $27 for tickets (3) to Slumdog Millionaire, $40 for concert tickets and a few other miscellaneous items.

$98 – Gas

And then there were a bunch of other little expenses in a few other categories that all added up.

Notable: I put an extra $25 towards my student loan.  Not an  earth-shattering amount, I know, but every little bit helps.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with my spending in January.  Again, I will make it a goal to limit my eating out expenses, but everything else I am okay with.  In general, I’m going to make it more of a goal to earn more rather than spend less.