February Expenses – $885.91

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for February.

My February Expenses were up slightly from my January expenses but I’m still quite happy with the total.

The slight increase was mainly due to having a trip to southern Missouri which increased my gas expense and paying a $50 installation fee for internet. Yes, I have succumbed to lifestyle inflation and gotten internet in my home and will be paying $15.96 a month for that luxury.  Valentine’s Day and my girlfriend’s birthday were both in February too.  Even though my girlfriend knows I’m frugal, it seemed smart to spend at least a little money for those occasions. 🙂

I did manage to bring my food budget under $100.  That probably sounds good to most people, but there is actually room for improvement there.  I barely made a dent in the food in my refrigerator.  Most of my food expense was for fast food, sodas and sweet tea, and junk food.  There were only four days during the month that I didn’t spend any money on fast food/junk food/sodas, sweet tea.  I’m going to start making my own sweet tea and make more of an effort to eat the food I already have rather than buy junk food and fast food.  If I do that I should be able to get my food expenditure down to $50 for the month.

My health category was a little lower in February because I switched health insurance providers and didn’t have any insurance coverage for eight days.  I got away with that but it would have really sucked if I had gotten injured or ill that week. I probably won’t do that again.

I expect the rest of my expenses will be roughly the same in March. Keeping my expenses below the level of a minimum wage income, which is about $1274 a month has been pretty easy so far.  It looks like I should be able to keep my annual expenses below $12,000.  There will be some traveling before the year is over though which could increase my spending a bit. I’m off to a good start for the year and hope to keep it going.