Here is a breakdown of my expenses for December.
| Household | $286.36 |
| Rent | $450 |
| Entertainment | $48.62 |
| Transportation | $211.64 |
| Food | $245.35 |
| Travel | $100.60 |
| Phone | $33.37 |
| Student Loan | $132.58 |
| Health | $61.47 |
| Total | $1569.99 |
My December expenses were slightly lower than in November, but still a little higher than I prefer.
Entertainment was for movie concessions and my Regal Unlimited monthly membership fee. This expense should be lower this month since I won’t be purchasing popcorn and won’t be able to see many movies this month.
Transportation expense was for gas, an oil change, an air filter, a car wash and a couple of other small expenditures. This expense should be lower this month since I won’t need to spend any money on maintenance.
My travel expense was the annual fee on a my Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card. This card allows me to transfer my points to different airline and hotel loyalty programs. It also allows me to redeem my points for 1.25 cents each for travel. These two perks will more than offset the annual fee since I will be traveling quite a bit this year.
My food expense was once again way too high. I’m on track to spend $150 this month on food which would be a significant improvement. I’d like to get that total even lower.
My phone bill was normal. It will usually be in the $28-$35 range and I expect it be in that range this month.
My health expense was for one month’s dues for a fitness center membership, some medicine, and a $43 for a dentist visit. This expense was much lower than the previous month due to not having a health insurance bill. I switched to a cheaper plan that doesn’t cost me anything out of pocket. This expense will be slightly higher this month since I had a more expensive dentist already this month.
Household expenses were quite a bit higher than normal. This was partially due to spending about $140 on a new memory foam mattress. The new mattress is much more comfortable than the air mattress that I was using and I think it was money well spent. Trying to get by the next few months sleeping on an air mattress was being too cheap. It is worth spending more money to get a good night’s sleep. I also had to spend $100 on my annual bar fee. That is for an inactive license. An active license would have cost $410. I don’t like spending $100 a year for nothing, but it keeps my options open in case I want to practice law in the future or obtain a job that requires an active license.
This month I have a good chance of keeping my expenses under $1000. How was your month?
I’ve been thinking about how much I spend on phone service. I like my Google Fi plan but with all the data I use (Amazon routes and, lately, rideshare driving), it’s expensive. What are you using for phone service?
I use Google Fi too. I’m able to use wifi most of the time so my data doesn’t get too expensive. I’m not sure what the best phone service is if you need a lot of data.