Month: June 2010

Can Two Live As Cheaply As One?

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From my experience I would have to say no. Moving in with my fiancee isn’t going to save me any money. My half of the rent is only $25 less than what I was paying before and utilities will likely be quite a bit higher and erase that savings. I don’t think there will be any savings in any other areas but maybe there are some that haven’t come to mind. My monthly expenses will remain about the same.

The primary reason I won’t save any money is that our two bedroom apartment is about twice the cost of my studio apartment. The new apartment is a lot nicer but I’m not sure if it is really worth the extra money. I suppose this could be considered lifestyle inflation and I would guess lifestyle inflation is a major reason why many couples don’t realize much or any savings from combining their expenses. In our case we didn’t have a lot of time to find a new place so we couldn’t review all the lower cost options. Next time we will be able to get a better deal. I am not complaining, there are a lot of benefits from our combining our households but saving money isn’t one of them.

Online Income Report – May 2010

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When I share my monthly income totals people often ask for more details about my online income. To satisfy people’s curiosity I am now going to have a monthly report detailing how I made my online income. For the month of May I made $580.69 in online income. I am counting the money I actually received, not the money I earned but will be paid later. Most money I earn online is paid the next month so any efforts I make to increase my online income this month will not actually show up until the next month. Here is breakdown of my sources of income.

Google Adsense  –  $346.81

Text Links –              $42.26

Direct Ad Sales –    $71.47

Affiliate Sales –       $120.15

Since my Adsense is paid a month after I earn it I already know it is going to be down significantly this month.  My affiliate sales are going to be up significantly though and will more than offset the Adsense decline.  Going forward I plan to keep my affiliate sales up and build my Adsense back up as well.  I would like my other sources of income to be larger than Adsense in order to be less dependent on Adsense for income.  The Adsense income seems to fluctuate quite a bit and I usually can’t figure out what is causing the changes.  If there is any other information about my online income you would like to know, just ask.  I’m willing to hear any tips you have for increasing my online income too.


How Long Will It Take for a Washer and Dryer to Pay for Themselves?

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Our new apartment has washer/dryer connections and we bought a used washer and dryer for $150. Prior to that we were doing about five loads a week at the laundromat. It is pretty easy to figure out how much it cost us to do our laundry at the laundromat. The cost was $1.50 per load to wash and $1.25 per load to dry for a total cost per load of $2.75. Taking that total times 5 we were spending $13.75 a week at the laundromat.

Finding the cost of using our own washer and dryer is a little harder to figure. I found a website that has a laundry costs calculator. Using the calculator I determined that we have a total cost per load of $0.53 or $2.65 a week. Our laundry costs are low because we don’t have to pay water and we only use cold water.

We are saving $11.10 a week by having our own washer and dryer. A little math shows that in 14 weeks our washer and dryer will have paid for themselves. It actually is an even better deal than that because I place a high value on not having to spend several hours each week at the laundromat.

The next step is to be even more frugal and reduce the use of the dryer and the volume of laundry.

May Income – $1614.01

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Here is a breakdown of my income for May.

Online Income

$580.69

Interest

$29.61

Stock Dividends

$14.87

Mystery Shops

$39.86

Bank Bonuses

$10

Surveys/Cashback

$14.71

Job

$924.27

Total

$1614.01

It was a pretty good month for income but not as good as I had planned.  I had planned on working more for the Census but with my relocation that didn’t happen.  This month I will have very little job income so my income total will be way down.  My main sources of income this month will be alternative income and passive income.  I should make a little more from mystery shops and maybe a little more from online income.  There probably won’t be any other big changes to my income unless I get in the medical study.

May Expenses – $2218.61

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for May.

Household

$893.39

Entertainment

$66.57

Transportation

 $292.41

Food

$81.15
Medical/Dental

$57.44

Utilities

$51.91

Debt

 $30.00

Travel

 $745.74

Total

$2218.61

May’s  expenses were way higher than normal but my expenses should be back under control this month.  The household expense was high because I had to pay rent on two places for a while plus I had a couple of application fees.  The transportation expense was high because I made many three hours each-way trips from K.C. to Springfield and back.  The transportation expense isn’t quite as bad as it seems though because some of mileage I was reimbursed for by the Census Bureau and mileage for my mystery shopping will be deductible.  My transportation expense will go down this month since I shouldn’t have any long trips although I probably will be doing a fair amount of driving for my mystery shops.  The travel expense is for my honeymoon/wedding trip.  This isn’t too bad for two round-trip tickets, three nights hotel, and ground transportation to and from the airport.  There is a small possibility that I will get some of this comped back to me.  There shouldn’t be any travel expense this month although there might be a small bit of wedding expense.  My other expenses should remain roughly the same this month.  I’m hoping I will be able to get my expenses under $1000 this month.