Here is a breakdown of my expenses for September.
| Household | $25 |
| Mortgage | $355 |
| Entertainment | $30.97 |
| Transportation | $270.12 |
| Food | $122,65 |
| Bar Fees | $606.67 |
| Phone | $30.02 |
| Health | $0 |
| Total | $1440.43 |
My September expenses were a little higher than normal due to some unusual expenses.
I spent $606.67 for some continuing education and my annual attorney enrollment fee so that I could return to active status. I’m hoping the return to active status will lead to a job and I’ll be able to recoup this expense. Even though the year is 3/4 of the way over I had to pay the entire annual enrollment fee to return to active status. If I have any associated income I’ll write this off as a business expense, but I don’t expect that to happen.
Entertainment expense was for seeing a movie and buying a large popcorn, and buying lunch for a friend. There were only three other people in the theater so it wasn’t difficult to stay socially distanced.
I made my first mortgage payment in September.
Transportation was for gas and six months of insurance.
My food expense went up a tiny bit. This was due to eating a lot of meals out. I need to cut back on the fast food and junk food snacks.
My phone bill was normal. It will usually be within a couple dollars of this total.
Household expense was mainly for a replacement blade for my Oneblade razor.
This month should have much lower expenses.
How was your month?
You barely spent $800 absent the bar fees. That’s impressive! I was thinking your tax job utilized your legal knowledge. Am I wrong?
My tax job does utilize my legal knowledge, but I don’t need my bar license to do that job. A J.D. is all that is required.
Yeah, if you look back $8-900 seems to be Andy’s baseline now. Every couple of months there is a larger expense, but they are usually “one-off” type things that are predictable that they may happen (like a car repair), but not predictable when or exactly how they play out. Of course, the more you know, the moer you can minimize these things (like fixing the car yourself).
I think that’s a pretty impressive baseline, because that’s also about where I stand if I don’t spend extra on travel and entertainment. I really can’t get it much lower unless I would start to produce some of my own stuff or have “alternative” living arrangements. Like food from a garden and living in a Van conversion or something.
Compared to most of the US, it’s a very efficient lifestyle. Very eco-friendly too when you consume so little.
The baseline is about as low as I can get it for now. It will probably stay around this level for the next couple of years.