August 2018 Expenses & Financial Update
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This is a new series I started a few months ago, 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. You can check out last month’s expenses here.
Sharing our expenses involves vulnerability, but after contemplating it for quite some time it seemed important. The goal with these expense 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:
August 2018 Expenses
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | $2331.03 | Includes rent + water/trash/sewage. The price of living in a high-cost of living area. |
| Renters Insurance | $14.00 | |
| Utilities | $16.81 | The benefit of living in an apartment! |
| Auto Insurance | $268.10 | |
| Gas | $119.62 | |
| Mobile Phone | $111.29 | |
| Internet | $29.99 | |
| Entertainment | $29.97 | |
| Groceries | $273.20 | |
| Restaurants | $137.38 | |
| Pets | $32.69 | |
| Shopping | $340.68 | Clothing, handheld carpet cleaner, various other home supplies |
| Travel | $33.60 | |
| Misc Expenses | $115 | Laundry, fantasy football dues |
| Fun Money | $242.17 | |
| Total | $4095.53 | Doesn't include savings, investments, and giving. |
- Dividend Income: $19.62
- Interest Income: $25.21
- Side Hustle Income: $513.27
These past few years on our financial journey we’ve challenged everything and trimmed down our expenses, but our spending is still a work in progress.
This was a very normal month for us, with no trips and no unexpected expenses. This let us keep our expenses a shade over $4,000. Considering how much of our monthly budget is allocated towards housing expenses, we’re proud of this figure.
The beauty of having a month with nothing out of the ordinary means that our investments and cash savings continue to grow, as we put the systems in place and now they just run in the background automatically. Once you get your money mapped out where you want it to go, it becomes a game of patience as your wealth grows.
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
If you missed it, we are now completely debt free after paying off our car loan in July and our student loans in March, a total of $55,000 combined. This was a huge accomplishment for us, and no longer having debt payments has been freeing. This has accelerated our net worth growth tremendously.
My side hustle with a minor league baseball team wrapped up on Labor Day, so the extra income will end after September’s update. After paying off our debt, we’ve been able to pad our cash savings and make additional contributions towards our Roth IRA’s.
We brought in $20 of dividend income. This is money that is being generated by our investments, and then gets reinvested right back into those investment accounts. As our investments grow, eventually we’ll reach the point where this dividend income will be used to pay for the majority our living expenses. It’s exciting to see it growing as our investments continue to grow.
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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