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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. If you’re struggling with starting a budget, be sure to join my email list at the bottom of this post to receive my brand new PDF, “A Beginner’s Guide to Overhauling Your Budget.”
Without further ado, here’s where we spent our money this month:
October 2018 Expenses
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | $2420.57 | Includes rent + water/trash/sewage. The price of living in a high-cost of living area. |
| Utilities | $19.23 | The benefit of living in an apartment! |
| Service & Parts | $220.33 | Minor repair on one of our cars. |
| Gas | $181.32 | |
| Mobile Phone | $85.50 | A bit lower since we dropped the insurance on both our phones because we got a new credit card offers cell phone protection. |
| Internet | $39.99 | |
| Entertainment | $0 | |
| Groceries | $155.21 | |
| Restaurants | $66.65 | |
| Pets | $0 | |
| Shopping | $222.29 | Home supplies, makeup, clothing. |
| Travel | $670.33 | Expenses for our trip to Dallas this month. |
| Misc Expenses | $44.54 | |
| Fun Money | $307.92 | |
| Gifts | $70.92 | |
| Total | $4504.80 | Doesn't include savings, investments, and giving. |
- Dividend Income: $89.43
- Interest Income: $28.54
- Side Hustle Income: $10
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.
Nothing too crazy for us this month, other than a minor car repair and our trip to Dallas! We had a great trip exploring a new city.
With each paycheck that comes in, 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
Another month in the books! We continue to love the freedom of having no debt, and less monthly payments. It’s much easier to save and invest more when less of our money is allocated towards payments and subscriptions.
This is the first month where our rent increase started to take effect, which is a drawback of living in such a high cost of living area.
Our cell phone spending went down by a little over $20 per month, which will continue going forward, because we dropped the monthly insurance we were paying. I got a new Chase Ink Business Preferred credit card, which includes cell phone protection as one of the perks.
We brought in $89 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 some of our living expenses. Even though the market had a rough month in October, our net worth still saw an increase. When you’re early on in your journey, savings rate matters much more than your investment returns. It’s all about making a plan and sticking to it for the long-term.
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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