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“Monthly Spending” Archive
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Without further ado, here’s how things panned out for May (please see this post for a FAQ).
Income for May was awesome. Our economic stimulus payment is in there and it gave us a welcome boost in income. Unfortunately, we didn’t use it like the government wanted us to use it. It went towards our debt 
For clothing in May, I went on a little shopping spree. I hit Walmart (by myself) and bought some new T-shirts for summer. I don’t have many T-shirts and the ones I did have were pretty old. It was time to retire them. I scoured the clearance racks and found five shirts at $3/each. I also picked up a new pair of shoes for our son for less than $10 on clearance.
Entertainment was high in May. We splurged again and purchased another video game. We are done with purchasing new video games for quite a while.
Food is way too high! Gosh it all adds up. We did have to replenish some things once our fridge was back up and running. But the spending is still too high here. Now that we have to purchase healthier foods, it will be interesting to see how our spending is affected. The more I think about it, buying healthier foods may not be as expensive as I once thought. It all depends on how you do it. More on that later, as I figure it out 
Household spending for May was quite a bit less than April’s spending. Here’s how it breaks down:
We spent some money to get our garden ready for the summer. It’s time to start planting and I’m debating on whether we should get some plants that are already started or plant directly from seed. It’s tough where we live because we do have a short growing season. My dream is to have an indoor greenhouse in our future house.
Recreation included our spending for fishing this year. I don’t anticipate any more spending for fishing this season unless we keep losing bobbers at record speed. During our last fishing trip, we lost three of them. Thank goodness bobbers are fairly inexpensive (around $2 for a package of them).
May’s gas bill almost made me faint. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit. But it did surprise me. I knew we had a cold spring, but I didn’t think it was that bad. Thank goodness the weather has warmed up for June.
Overall, May wasn’t too bad. Like April, there is room for improvement. We have been somewhat consistent, though. If you look at April, our total expenses were $1,900. For May, they were $2,301. The big difference was our health insurance paid in May ($400).
We’ll see how June pans out. So far, our spending has been fairly low (not including the health spending due to problems with our health insurance). Income has been lower too. I feel like we should be contributing to our savings account but we haven’t been able to yet. Hopefully we can soon. After this past weekend, I could use a little “boost.”
After an absence, I have decided to bring back our monthly spending reports. I am still trying to find our January - March receipts so I can post those reports. I’ve checked every known “receipt stash” in our house and they are no where to be found. I probably put them somewhere safe, but forgot where I put them.
Anyways, here’s how much we made and here’s where it went. Before you go too much further, you may want to check out a little FAQ that I did about these reports since I switched things up a bit.
First things first. It was an awesome income month for April (note - this is net income). I received a new advertiser on here and my husband sold a $900 piece of equipment. I also worked some overtime. That’s why we were able to pay off $2,300 of our credit card debt last month.
Now onto the spending…
Our automobile costs are pretty steady. During the summer I expect our gas spending go to up since we will be going out more for drives and such. Our insurance cost should go down because I plan on removing the full insurance coverage from our car sometime soon.
Cigarettes. There isn’t much I can say here except that it is higher than normal this month (which seems to be the case when I work overtime). But the spending should be zero!
Entertainment was high for April. It includes a trip to a gaming place with my son as well as the purchase of a video game and a few DVD rentals. I did splurge here.
April was a horrible month for groceries. When our fridge broke, we ended up using the freezer filled with ice and then a cooler for things that needed to be kept cold. You can only fit so much in there. We ended up making way too many trips to the grocery store. We also spent a bit with going out to eat.
There was a bit of spending in our household category. Here’s the breakdown:
I bought a little cycler for using under my desk while working. I have been having horrible knee problems from sitting most of the day and I thought it might help. My desk doesn’t have enough clearance to use it which is a bummer. I sometimes use it while watching TV.
Our office spending included a new chair for my husband’s desk. After a few Walmart cheap versions that broke, I finally talked my husband into getting a new chair (he was using a broken chair for a few months). We headed out to Office Max and bought a nice chair on clearance. Don’t buy office chairs from Walmart.
The interest paid category includes the interest for our non-credit card debt (mortgage and student loans). I don’t like that number, but there isn’t much we can do about it at this point. I’ve tried refinancing our home mortgage through our current mortgage holder but my request was denied.
Our internet bill recently went up. It was at $25/month but AT&T decided to raise it. I have to have high speed and that’s the lowest price available. The same thing goes for telephone. I have to have a certain plan for work so I have to live with the price. On a personal level, we rarely ever use the phone. I checked, and we made less than 10 local calls. Long distance is a different story since our families live far away. I’m a chatty Cathy when I get on the phone with my mom. If we ever don’t need our current plan, I will definitely check out something like Skype.
I am looking forward to summer utilities. That gas bill will go way down and so will our electric. We have also been talking about canceling cable, but I’m not sure if I can do that yet. Without cable, we do not get any channels. I would miss the local news and the major networks.
Overall, April was an awesome month. There is definitely some fat that can be cut so it’s a good thing I’m back to posting these. It forces me to take a look. For a while there, as long as we were paying extra toward debt, we were doing fine. The numbers don’t lie. We need to slash some of our spending.
About a month ago, Mark B. asked a question in the comments:
…Also, you used to post your monthly Quicken spending and income reports, did you stop posting those? I found those to be very interesting and revealing for a person trying to escape debt myself.
Ever since my mention in the New York Times, I started shying away from revealing specifics on here and I phased out those monthly spending reports. They took me a while to do and do I want my boss (or future employers) to read how I spend my money? Seems a bit too personal and I was worried it could affect my employment. While I don’t readily attach my name to this blog, people who know me could put two and two together. My brother did, and I pleaded the fifth
I’ve been thinking about Mark’s comment for over a month now. I need to bring those reports back. They prompted some great discussions in the comments and they kept me very focused. I was able to find all of the receipts for April and May. I’m still looking for some receipts for Jan - Mar and if I can’t find them all I may skip those months or perhaps create a miscellaneous category for them so I can still post them. I already revised my Quicken file so my reports would be easier for me to do.
Expect to see some reports shortly!
I’ve had the report ready for some time now. I just never got around to writing a post and really looking at the numbers and discussing them. Prepare yourself, there was some major spending in June. But we still spent less than we earned.
Ok, here’s the report. My comments are below.
Automobile - We had a one, two punch with car troubles in June. First was the oil filter being clogged. The second was a flat tire, so we bought two new tires. The tires needed to be replaced anyways.
Entertainment and Recreation - Both of these categories were zero. We knew it would be a pretty expensive month so we decided to cut everything out here.
Finance Charges - These are starting to creep up since my balance transfer offers expired. Now that all of our credit card debt is at 9.9%, this will really be going up.
Dining - Very high in June due to my in-laws visiting. We treated them to two meals total. It was the least we could do for them bringing doors to us and helping us to put them in. They saved us so much money over having to hire someone.
Groceries - There was some money that was spent to purchase more groceries for when my in-laws were here. We ate sandwiches quite a few times. But it still doesn’t make up for the rest of the spending…it’s still too high. I know exactly what is killing us with grocery costs…we are not planning before we go to the store. My excuse is that I lack the time. But, I’m working on changing that as you will see shortly. I am going to become one lean, mean, productive working machine.
Household - I saw that number and my mouth dropped. Then I remembered that it was $500 alone for our new doors. Quite a bit of the rest was for some new trim and some supplies related to the repairs.
Pets - The spending here is still higher than normal due to the increased members of the family (the pregnant stray that had four kittens). So far, we have found a home for one kitten and the momma. So there are three kittens left.
Utilities - These were super low in June compared to May. I enjoy the lower overall utilitiy costs in the summer!
Final Thoughts - Not too bad. We ended up having a surplus of over $700 and I am pleased. I love seeing that. It is helping a lot that my husband has work for his temp jobs. One of them is now over, but the other one looks like he will have work for a while.
Like I mentioned briefly above, I’ve found myself saying way too often, “If I only had time.” I know the time is there…I’m just not very effective at using my time. I had some credit at Amazon.com from an gift certificates I won with Blingo and one that I won through a contest. What I ended up doing was purchasing three personal productivity books to learn some better skills. Of course, I’ll review them as I go through them and pass on some interesting tidbits to you.
Oh my…it’s the 15th and I have my income and expense report ready! Yay! I’m getting better with this
Without further ado, here’s how May turned out for us. My comments are after the report.
Entertainment: $15 of this was for a carnival for my son to go to. He was so happy and it was worth every penny. I also bought a DVD to work-out to and we rented some movies to watch while I was nursing an injury.
Groceries: We ended up spending less in May for groceries and it was very close to $400. It could be that we stocked our pantry and freezer less. We’ll have to see how June turns out.
Household: Again, this category is a little higher in May due to shipping some items out. Sometimes it’s costly to live away from family. We also purchased some tools to be able to save on doing some needed home repair ourself.
Insurance: The amount here is for my life insurance. That is due every three months unless I decide to change the frequency.
Health Insurance: Our payment is too high for health insurance. I originally got the plan we did because it had maternity coverage. I think I will be shopping for coverage without maternity. Even though I would like another child, I need some time to take care of my weight issues beforehand. Why pay the high price in the meantime? I can always go back when the time is right.
Pets: Oh my. We “adopted” a stray that took refuge in our garage during a late winter storm. We fed it and called the shelter. They said we had to put an ad in the paper and wait two weeks before they would take the cat. We were able to catch it a little while later and we brought it into the porch. Hmm…it is a she and she looks pretty plump. We never called the shelter back because we thought she was pregnant. She sure was. Right now we have her and 4 kittens to take care of. Litter and food costs are jacking up our pet costs big time. In a few weeks we can start trying to find them homes.
Recreation: One big cost here was for equipment for my son to practice sports at home so we could play with him. We did find one piece of equipment used, but it was in horrible shape so we decided to buy it new. The other big cost was for fishing licenses for my husband and I since we enjoy going fishing and I love to eat perch.
Taxes: It’s pretty high again in May because of a payment we made for what we owed.
OVERALL: By golly, even though we had major expenses in May, we managed to still have some money left over to have a positive month. Thank goodness for some extra income.
I definitely want to cut more costs and I’m going to start with the health insurance. It’s time to find a cheaper plan. I am also seriously considering stopping my 401(k) contribution. But, we’ll see.
I’m still missing one receipt for April and I’ve officially declared it missing. So, I guessed where a receipt went (more on that below). I’m trying to get our income and expense reports posted earlier in the month but what can I say? Keeping tabs on receipts is still something we are working on.
So, here is April’s spending. As always, my comments are below.
Income: The hardest part for me with looking at this income and expense report is the income. It decreased almost $1,500 from March. We were spoiled with March…that’s for sure. Our income will probably hover around this mark for a while. For those curious, the income here includes all income (blog income, employer match for 401(k), even finding money on the street).
Food: Lots of money going out for groceries in April, but it might not be as bad as it seems. The missing receipt I alluded to earlier was a Walmart purchase for $138. When we spend that much, it usually means we bought groceries. Chances are good we purchased something else as well, but since I can’t remember and the receipt is missing, I put it all under groceries.
Overall, our grocery spending will be going up. Since starting on my weight loss journey, I’ve been spending a lot buying fresh fruits and healthier foods. It is dipping into our pocketbook. May should give us a pretty good idea of how much the impact will be.
Holiday: I still love the holidays and Easter is no exception. Everyone in the household received a nice Easter basket. My son’s was filled with goodies like a Magic set and coloring books. He also hunted for eggs and some were filled with money. Of course, there was lots of candy and I splurged and bought some good chocolate bunnies. This is not my proudest category, and I still am dealing with spoiling my husband and son with surprises. It has always been a weak spot for me.
Household: The household category holds many things related to house and home. Here’s this month’s breakdown (I usually link to it, but I decided to include it right here this month since there is significant spending here).
The biggest spending here was for our bathroom. I spent over $30 on a good scale for keeping track of my weight and body fat for Blogging Away Fat. The scale I had was old and the glass was broken. Turns out it was underweighing me by quite a bit. The other spending for bathroom was for doing a little redecorating. I haven’t started it yet, but I bought a medicine cabinet, shower curtain, border and paint.
The other big spending was for stamps! Yikes! Much of that was to ship my husband’s camera under warranty to be repaired. It was so expensive due to insuring the package. The warranty place also required $20 to ship it back. Add in a few packages to relatives and sending our tax forms via certified mail and it all added up.
Interest Expense: This is the cost of interest for our mortgage and school loans.
Medical: The medical insurance here is for two months. I have another bill due at the end of the month. I’ve been paying it a little late to buy more time, but I’m going to try to pay it on time this month.
Recreation: This is for my son to play a sport. So, those types of expenses are starting up now, but the smiles on his face show how much it’s worth it.
School Supplies: This includes school pictures and my son’s lunches.
Taxes: Big huge jump here for our taxes. That’s because we owed money for the Federal and State for our 2006 taxes. I really don’t like underwithholding so I will be increasing my withholding at work shortly once my husband’s side jobs start kicking in.
Utilities: Now that the weather is getting warmer, our electric and gas bills will be shrinking. I am so happy about that! Time for a little relief and hopefully some extra money to pay towards our debt!
FINAL THOUGHTS
April was a rough month. It was the first month since starting this blog that our net worth decreased. By looking at the bottom line of this report, you can see why. We spent more than we made.
Some of it is due to paying our medical insurance that is due every two months. Another chunk was for the money we owed for 2006 taxes. I can’t deny that there is spending that was more of the “want” nature than a “need.” I wanted to have nice Easter baskets for the family. We didn’t need that stuff and I do feel remorse for that spending. It didn’t make the day any more joyous or enjoyable for us. In fact, the previous year we had a really nice Easter that was very inexpensive. I’m not sure why I lost my focus here and ended up making a big dinner this year.
Just goes to show that even after a year I’m still trying to figure myself out.
It took me a little while to get all of the information to complete March’s income and expense report. I was able to find all of the receipts I needed, but I couldn’t find the last paystub my husband received for his temporary job. The net effect is basically the same because the income in my report is gross income and I have an expense for the taxes withheld. I will revise the numbers once he receives another paystub which should be Friday. Yay!
So, here is March’s spending. As always, my comments are below.
Auto:Insurance: I have been thinking about possibly taking off the collision and comprehensive coverage on our car. That would save us quite a bit of money per month. Seeing as our car is still worth around $5,000 - I’ll hold off for a little while longer and keep the extra coverage.
Cigarettes: The spending for cigarettes is down. It is still the monkey on my back to get rid of!! But, that’s something I am going to tackle over at Blogging Away Fat.
Donations: I’ll be the first to admit that we do not give all that much monetarily. Slowly, I am trying to give more to causes that I believe in. A reader’s debt story reminded me that I should make another contribution to Modest Needs so I did.
Finance Charges: Finance charges are still under $100, which is great. In June I lose the 0% offer on one of my cards and who knows what my rate will be after that (probably around 16%). Nothing real promising has come my way in terms of transfering that balance to a new card. We’ll see.
Food: Lots of money going out for groceries in March. I can’t help but think it’s because we spent so little (compared to previous months) in February. Perhaps we normalize at around $400/month. We’ll have to see. I am planning to get some coupons for the products we normally use (so far, I’m batting 100% for writing and getting coupons!). Dining is going down, though, and that is awesome.
Gifts Given: March is a month of birthdays for us, mine as well as my mom’s. Giving gifts has always been a spot for overspending for me.
Household: The household category holds many things related to house and home. To see this month’s breakdown, please click here
The biggest spending here was for furniture. My husband’s computer chair broke and he had been using the rocking chair from our living room. That broke as well after a few months so we went to Walmart and bought a new chair and guess what? You guess it…it broke too. He’s being stubborn and living with the broken chair for a while. No more chairs from Walmart.
Interest Expense: This is the cost of interest for our mortgage and school loans. Not pretty. Once our credit cards are paid off we will definitely be paying off some of our student loans.
Medical: Here’s the new big expense. Our health insurance policy that we pay out-of-pocket. I do have the next bill, and it raised to $800 every two months because my husband and I are both 30 now. Yuk. The Medical:Other category is for everything else like over the counter medicines, bandaids and the like.
Taxes: This category takes into consideration all taxes paid from income, as well as sales taxes and property taxes. There’s not too much that can be done here.
Utlities: No, I didn’t go crazy and get a mega cellphone plan LOL. I decided to get a yearly plan for our Tracfone instead of paying every other month for a recharge card. So, the $106 is for the entire year. Breaking it down, it is a savings of approximately $21/year.
Electric isn’t the greatest but our Gas wasn’t too bad. The water bill actually went up due to a rate increase. Month and month again, we have never went over the minimum water usage level. So, we cannot decrease that bill any more than it is.
FINAL THOUGHTS
March wasn’t that bad of a month. My husband still had income from his temporary job which was nice (by the way, just this week he did receive a few more hours after weeks of nothing). I hope he continues to get some hours for a little while at least.
I think what I am going to do when I have time is look at the first quarter of this year and compare to last year. If I do, and I see anything interesting I will post it on here.
Oh, and I receive this question often…Where is my mortgage? My mortgage payment is $323/month and it includes a payment towards principal on my mortgage as well as interest and the amount that goes to escrow to pay taxes and insurance. I track my finances like a business so the only thing you will see on these expense reports is the interest expense. Since my mortgage is young, we pay a lot in interest right now. The rest of the payment goes towards the asset account (escrow) and the liability account (mortgage). If you use Quicken and are wondering how to do that, I wrote a tutorial on I’m a Quicken Head. Changes in the escrow and mortgage show up in my Net Worth Report.
As always, I welcome questions/comments.
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