Here is a breakdown of my expenses for May.
| Household | $4.12 |
| Rent | $435 |
| Entertainment | $84.49 |
| Transportation | $159.33 |
| Food | $199.59 |
| Travel | $536.22 |
| Phone | $25.28 |
| Health | $1.08 |
| Student Loan | $106 |
| Total | $1551.11 |
My May expenses were pretty high. This wasn’t entirely unexpected since I knew I’d be traveling during the month.
The travel expense was a bit higher than I would have preferred. The total includes 5 hotel nights, a bus ticket from Bennington, Vermont to Albany, NY, a one-way car rental from Albany, NY to Kansas City, MO, gasoline, and other miscellaneous expenses such as local public transportation and Uber. Travel hacking allowed me to receive quite a bit of value for my travel dollars spent. Still I need to keep these expenses even lower since I am six figures in debt and I’ll be taking a 2 1/2 month overseas trip later this year.
My monthly food expense was too high again. This time it was the highest it has ever been. It almost went over the $200 mark. That is way too much for one person to be spending on food. I know this sounds like a broken record, but I have got to get my food expenses under control. I’m spending way too much on fast food and junk food. This month I would like my grocery bill to be higher than my dining out bill. That seems like a reasonable goal. It will save me a little money and the food should be at least a little bit healthier.
My transportation expense was for 1 tank of gas, an oil change, and new struts. I still need to install the struts on my car. The repair place was wanting $600 to put new struts on my car. I was able to buy struts for just over $100. If I’m able to install them without any further expense I’ll save almost $500 by doing the installation myself. I’ve watched a Youtube video on the installation process and it doesn’t seem too complicated. Nevertheless, I’m waiting to see if a friend will be available soon to help me install them since I don’t have much confidence in my own car repair and maintenance abilities.
This month the travel expense should go to $0. I’m traveling to visit my mother in southern Missouri so that will increase my gas expense. My overall transportation expense might still be down for the month if I don’t have to pay someone to install my struts. Other than that this month’s expenses should be pretty close to last months. I’m going to try to get them back under the $1000 mark again.