November was a great income month. It was helped by having five paydays and a couple of bonuses posting during the month.
Dividend income came in at $35.31.
Interest income was $196.27.
I made $116.22 from eBay and $46.36 from other selling. I currently don’t spend much time on this since it is more profitable to spend that time working at my job.
I made $95.20 from cash back.
I made $3925.22 from job income.
I had a credit card bonus of $200 and two $300 bank bonuses. I try to always be working towards one bank/brokerage bonus and a credit card bonus.
This month will be a little lower, but should still be a solid month.
November’s expenses were a little higher than October’s but still very reasonable. This month’s expenses will probably be about the same.
Entertainment expense was for one month of Amazon Prime.
My transportation expense consisted of $92.96 for gas and $540 to replace my rear brakes.
My food expense was $322.97. That is divided between $173.19 for groceries and $149.78 for restaurants. That is much lower than last month. This was helped by starting the month with a lot of groceries in the pantry and a friend of my wife giving her a lot of food. This should be about the same this month. I still have gift cards that were accounted for in previous months to spend this month.
Travel expense was $0, and it will probably be $0 again this month. I won’t go to Thailand again until sometime next year and I don’t think we will have any domestic travel this year.
Utilities came in at $220.08 This was for electric and internet. This month should be about the same.
Household expense came in at $143.78.
I spent $15 for one month of phone service for my wife.
The $92.57 spent on health consisted of $61.46 for an insurance premium and $22.43 for medicine. This month might be a lot higher. We had and ER visit last month, that I’m not sure how much will be covered.
This month’s expenses will probably be about the same. How was your month?
I made three goals for this year and I intended to have a monthly post detailing my progress on these goals. Since it is now November and this is only my second post on my goal progress, you would be correct to assume that I haven’t done well on achieving my goals.
My first goal was to add $10,000 to my savings. I have actually met this goal. I fully funded my Roth IRA for $8000 and I have added more than $2000 to my cash savings. This was easy to achieve since I have had full-time employment since May. Now that my wife is here in the United States with me I can work on long-term projects. My income will be quite a bit higher this year than the past few years.
My second goal was to lose weight. I’ve made negative progress on that goal. I started losing six pounds in January, but since then I have only gained weight. I now weigh a few more pounds than when I started the year. Working full-time I feel like I don’t have time to exercise. I know millions of people manage to work full-time and exercise so I need to do something. A lack of time can’t be used as an excuse for eating too much. My original goal of weighing less than 188.2 pounds is no longer realistic. Instead I am aiming to get my weight under 200 pounds. I’m setting some exercise and eating rules for myself that will help me do that.
My third goal was to run a half-marathon, with a stretch goal of running a marathon. It is too late for me to meet this goal this year. I would still like to get back into running, but I never make it a priority. I’m not going to make a new running goal for this year. I’ll think about making a new running goal next year.
One out of three isn’t very good. Maybe I can get to two out of three before the year is over. If I can manage that I will feel okay about my progress.
Interest income was $289.59 This will decline this month since interest rates have gone down, and I don’t currently have any money in a CD or other instrument that earns higher interest than my savings accounts.
I made $94.41from eBay and $18.74 from other selling. I currently don’t spend much time on this since it is more profitable to spend that time working at my job.
I made $32.97 from cash back.
I made $2996.32 from job income.
I had a brokerage bonus of $100. I try to always be working towards one bank/brokerage bonus and a credit card bonus.
This month should be about the same. My job income might be a little smaller due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
October’s expenses were a little higher than September’s but still very reasonable. This month’s expenses will probably be quite a bit higher.
Entertainment expense was for one month of Amazon Prime, one month Netflix, a lottery ticket and some books.
My transportation expense consisted of $92.37 for gas. I’ll spend much more in this category this month.
My food expense was $411.68. That is divided between $288.11 for groceries and $123.57 for restaurants. That is slightly lower than last month. I thought I would be able to bring it down more. This month I should at least be able to get this expense under $400. I have a couple of gift cards that were counted in previous months, and I have decided I won’t buy any groceries for myself. I’ll just eat what we already have or part of what I buy for others.
Travel expense was $0, and it will probably be $0 again this month. I won’t go to Thailand again until sometime next year and I don’t think we will have any domestic travel this year.
Utilities came in at $320.16. This was for electric, internet and trash. This month I don’t have to pay for trash and the electric bill should be lower since we’re no longer using air conditioning. That should lead to a significantly lower total in this category.
Household expense came in at $170.45. The big expenses in this category were sending money to my wife’s family and buying a used laptop.
I spent $20 for one month of phone service for my wife.
The $333.23 spent on health consisted of $309.12 for a doctor visit and $24.11 for medicine. I had an unforced error here as I didn’t check to see whether the doctor was in network for our insurance. Since the doctor was out of network, I ended up having to pay the entire bill.
This month’s expenses will probably be a little higher. How was your month?
