Here is a breakdown of my expenses for February.
| Household | $16.95 |
| Mortgage | $355 |
| Gifts/Charity | $110.29 |
| Entertainment | $12.03 |
| Transportation | $183.38 |
| Food | $129.86 |
| Phone | $31.33 |
| Health | $57.89 |
| Travel | $18.40 |
| Total | $915.13 |
My February Expenses were quite low. They were under my old target of $1000 per month.
Entertainment expense was for a New York Times digital subscription, one month of Hulu at 99 cents, a couple of books from eBay, and a visit to the movies. I had some free gift cards that made the books and the movie super cheap.
The mortgage payment was my regular mortgage payment.
Transportation was for gas and an oil change. The increased cost of gas plus a trip to Council Bluffs, IA made this expense larger than usual. I don’t have any long trips planned this month so this expense should decrease.
My food expense was cheaper than it has been for quite some time. I used a free gift card, fast food rewards, app deals, and coupons to get lots of food for just a little money. This expense will probably go up a little this month, but I’m going to try to keep it close to this level.
My phone bill was $31.33. That is about normal. It will be a little higher this month due to failed attempt to reduce this expense.
The household expense was for some ice cube trays, a razor, and a photo pillow. I got quite a bit of stuff for what I spent.
I also spent $110.29 on gifts and charity. This was mostly for paying rent on my girlfriend’s apartment.
Health expense was for a used treadmill and blood pressure medication. Last year I was paying about $40 a month for a gym membership where I mostly just ran on the treadmill. Compared to that the used treadmill will pay for itself in just the second month of use.
Travel expense was for a flight from the small city near me to Chicago where I will later get a flight to Thailand. I had a voucher that covered most of this expense. It wasn’t an optimal use of the voucher, but the voucher was going to expire soon, and a suboptimal use was better than letting it expire.
This month’s expense will be higher since it is hard to keep expenses that low two months in a row. I’ll have some more travel expenses to pay for my trip to Thailand in April which will inflate this total somewhat.
How was your month?