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This is a first for me, sharing a report of our monthly expenses. At the end of the year I shared a recap of our 2017 spending, which showed graphs and percentages that we spent in each category. I decided to take the transparency up a notch and start sharing some monthly numbers.
Sharing our expenses involves vulnerability, but after contemplating it for quite some time it seemed important. The goal with these expenses reports will be to keep ourselves accountable as we continue on the road of being mindful with our spending. It’s also my hope that it will help spark conversations and encourage others to examine their own budgets.
We use Mint to budget and track our expenses. You can check out my writeup about how we use Mint for our budgeting here.
Without further ado, here’s where we spent our money this month:
March 2018 Expenses
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | $2335.40 | Includes rent + water/trash/sewage. The price of living in a high-cost of living area. |
| Renters Insurance | $14.00 | |
| Utilities | $15.32 | The benefit of living in an apartment. |
| Auto Payment | $274.89 | |
| Auto Insurance | $268.10 | |
| Car Maintenance | $224.00 | Smog test, yearly registration. |
| Gas | $161.07 | Includes two mini road trips to visit friends. |
| Mobile Phone | $168.74 | |
| Internet | $29.99 | |
| Entertainment | $320.99 | Much higher than normal, includes a birthday present for myself, SF Giants tickets, and concert tickets for summer. |
| Groceries | $250.26 | |
| Restaurants | $98.48 | Includes birthday dinner. |
| Pets | $485.97 | Life happens, the bulk of this was an unexpected vet bill, normally not nearly this high. |
| Shopping | $165.20 | Includes home supplies and clothing. |
| Student Loan | $59.84 | Last one ever!! |
| Misc Expenses | $95.00 | Fees for my rec basketball league season. |
| Fun Money | $99.34 | |
| Total | $5066.59 | Doesn't include extra debt payments, investments, and giving. |
- Dividend Income: $121.11
- Interest Income: $19.36
- Side Hustle Income: $19.95
This was a pretty weird month for us. Many of our expense categories were higher than normal due to one-time expenses, an unexpected vet bill, mini road trips we took, plus birthday celebrating. These past few years on our financial journey we’ve challenged everything and trimmed down our expenses, but our spending is still very much a work in progress.
A few of these expenses will continue to be trimmed in the coming months. Our car loan should be paid off in the next few months, which eliminates that line item. Once that happens we’ll also call to re-negotiate our car insurance bill and hopefully save some money there. Our cell phone bill will become cheaper in May as we’ll fully pay off our devices next month (18 month lease for iPhones at T-Mobile, once paid off we’ll own them free and clear).
We continue to look to cut back on the areas that don’t matter as much, so that we can put money towards the areas we truly value. Mindful spending is a big focus for us and we continue to improve at it.
Other Financial Updates
This month brought a huge milestone for us as we finished paying off our student loans! This was our biggest financial goal we were working towards, which means it’s now time to set some new goals to keep us on track (post on that coming soon). Even thought the markets had a down month, our net worth saw a nice jump due to some ESPP shares that I acquired. Unfortunately, our dog needed to be taken to the vet for a back injury. All is well now, but it came with a high vet bill that our emergency fund helped cover. My seasonal side hustle with a minor league baseball team begins next month, so we’ll be putting those extra funds towards our Roth IRA’s, padding our emergency fund, and paying down our car loan.
Thanks for tuning in to this months expense report, and I hope you’ll check back again for next month’s recap!
Related Reading: Reviewing Our 2017 Spending
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