expense tracking

September Expenses – $1864.21

by

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for September.

Household

$345.58

Entertainment

$170.05

Transportation

 $141.83

Food

$99
Medical/Dental

$57.44

Utilities

$86.63
Debt $30
Bar App Fees $933.68

Total

$1864.21

My expenses were reasonable last month.  I made my goal of keeping my expenses under $1000 not counting bar application fees.  Most of the reduction in expenses was in the transportation category because I cut back on long drives for mystery shopping and didn’t have to drive to St. Louis for a clinical trial like the month before.  Transportation will be expensive again this month because I’ll likely be doing a study in St. Louis and have a trip to Omaha scheduled.

I was also happy that I kept my food expense below $100 for the month.  That will be difficult to do this month with all the traveling but it is achievable.

Entertainment expenses were too high.  Much of it was for a birthday dinner for my stepdaughter.  That won’t happen again this month but we have a trip planned so this expense will probably still be high.

Other expenses, except for the bar application fees, should remain about the same.

May Expenses – $2218.61

by

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.

April Expenses – $982.73

by

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for April.

Household

$385.35

Entertainment

$67.30

Transportation

 $320.77

Food

$86.84
Medical/Dental

$57.44

Phone

$35.03

Debt

 $30.00

Total

$982.73

April’s expenses were not too bad.  They did total less than $1000 which is a goal I always shoot for.   My expenses could have been much lower but I spent a lot in the transportation category this month.  This is because I paid for six months of car insurance and I spent a lot on gas visiting my GF who lives three hours away from me.  I consider that money well spent.  Tracking all my expenses does help with my budgeting but I doubt I will be able to get my expenses any lower this month.  I will be visiting my GF every weekend and driving my car for my job.  I will be getting reimbursed for my mileage for my job.  I’m not sure how I will account for that on my expenses.  I will probably just count the mileage reimbursement as income and my car expenses as expenses.  I did manage to keep my food expenses under $100 last month and until the end of the month when I went on a fast-food binge I was well under.  I think I should be able to match or beat that this month as long as I can keep my fast-food cravings under control.   My other expenses should be about the same this month.

June Expenses – $1093.06

by

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for June.

Household

$410.75

Entertainment

$337.95

Transportation

 $122.79

Food

$20.04

Medical/Dental

$112.16

Phone

$34.59

Debt

 $80.00

Total

$1093.06

My expenses this month were higher than my goal of $1000. I also have a goal of having only $10,000 in expenses for the year and my pace so far this year is well in excess of that goal. Things should change in the second half of the year as I have some low cost months hiking and living in Guatemala.

The entertainment expense was high for June because it includes my round-trip ticket to Guatemala. I should probably create a new travel category rather than lumping my travel expenses in the entertainment category because they are inflating my entertainment expenses. I did great on food this month buying just three meals out and a couple of snacks. It helped being in-house for the study the last few days of the month and not having the option of buying any food. That will go up next month as I will be on my own for food the last half of the month.

Transportation expense should go down slightly next month as I won’t be driving half the month. I will have a bus fare though. Medical expense will be about the same since I have a doctor bill to pay. Household expense will go down since I won’t be home half the month. Overall I expect my expenses to go down by about a third this month and even more the next month.

May Expenses – $1092.06

by

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for May.

Household

$400

Entertainment

$396.13

Transportation

 $155.47

Food

$44.73

Medical/Dental

$61.66

Phone

$34.07

Debt

 $1

Total

$1093.06

These expenses were higher than I would prefer.  The transportation expense was up because I bought all the gas and got an oil change for my GF’s car since I’ve been using it daily to get to the medical study.  My entertainment expense was high because I bought my plane ticket for my hike and spent $80 gambling.  Even without that it would have been too high.  Both these categories should go down this month.  Food should go down a little also because it represents what I spend on lunches out and snacks  which are things I need to cut down on.  The debt category will go up.  Last month I somehow didn’t have a payment due.  I would have sent in a payment anyway if I had realized that.

My goal of having my yearly expenses under $10,000 is looking unlikely.  Once I start hiking my expenses will go down but I don’t think that will be enough.  I might be making a big purchase soon which will completely blow my expenses out of the water but will result in much lower expenses in the future.