Andy Hough

September Expenses – $1127.59

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for September.

Household $436.08
Entertainment

$141.71

Transportation

 $292.38

Food

$109.64
Phone

$26.81
Health

$120.97

Total

 $1127.59

My September expenses were just slightly higher than I’d prefer.  My expenses were over my stretch goal of $1000, but under my main goal of keeping them under $1274 a month.

I spent $125.39 to replace my automatic window motor and regulator in my car.  Without that I would have been very close to having my expenses under $1000.  I did do the repair myself which kept it from being even more expensive.  I also had to transport my brother almost 200 miles after he was stranded in KC, which increased my gas expenditure a bit.

I was gone about half the month on my hike.  It didn’t really increase my expenses since I slept for free in my car except for two hotel stays that were free with my travel rewards card.  Food was about the same because I eat out a lot whether I’m at home or traveling.  I did keep the cost of food down a little by doing some mystery shops and taking advantage of specials and the dollar menu.

My expenses for October should be about the same.  I do plan on hiking and/or biking some more.  I’ll also be attending the Financial Bloggers Conference.  Those two things will make my expenses a little higher than normal, but since I’ll be doing both on the cheap they won’t make a big difference.

I’m okay with my current level of expenses considering the traveling I’m doing.  I’m hoping I can reduce the expenses some later in the year.

September 2013 Month in Review

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It has been a while since I’ve posted and I have a few things I want to write about so I’m putting them all in this post. Looking back at what I did during the month should help me see how the month went and help me plan for the coming month.

The main focus of September was hiking the Katy Trail. The entire hike would have taken about a month, but my plan was always to hike just as long as I felt like hiking. It should come as no surprise that I got bored with hiking and returned home last week. I did manage to hike 105 miles of the trail. If I had been traveling in only one direction I would have completed almost half of the trail. I’ll likely return to the trail and finish it by bike or do more hiking at some point. Despite hiking over 100 miles I did not lose any weight. It appears that I can’t exercise enough to overcome my eating. My cardio condition hasn’t improved too much either. It is at least better than when I started and I have figured out my footwear so I no longer get blisters like the one pictured below.

blister

September was a good month for me in regards to sports. I went to a Royals game for the first time in about 20 years which is about how long it has been since they had a decent team. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the game since I’m generally not a fan of being in big crowds. The Chiefs, which are the only sports team I’m a big fan of, have managed to start the season 4-0. The competition has been kinda weak, but this is already double the wins they had all of last season so I’m pretty happy.

I did not do a good job of writing blog posts in September. I went the last couple of weeks without writing anything. Since more practice writing should lead to better writing I need to get into the habit of writing more often. Therefore, I am setting a goal of writing a post for both Tight Fisted Miser and Bank Bonuses every day this month. That will be a total of 62 posts. I also plan to do some writing for my other blogs and perhaps even work on my book. Since I’m not working at a job right now I want to do something productive with at least some of my time.

Ways I’m Saving Money on My Katy Trail Hike

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Hiking the Katy Trail is a pretty cheap activity on a daily basis. However, since I’m hiking the trail both ways it will likely take over a month to finish the hike. Over that long of a time period even small daily amounts add up to a fairly substantial amount. There are several things I’m doing to try to keep the cost of the hike down while still enjoying the hike. These tips are specific to my hike, but some of the tips can also be applied to biking and other forms of travel.

The biggest potential expense for the hike is accommodations. This should actually be a rather small expense for me. The main way I’m saving money here is by sleeping in my car. I have converted my Ford Focus hatchback to a sleeper car in the back. This would be easier if I would have gotten a station wagon instead of a hatchback or if I were about half a foot shorter. There is barely enough room for me to lay down. The sleeping area still needs to be improved, but I have been getting full nights of sleep in the car. I’ll post a picture if I improve the sleeping area as planned this weekend.

Not everyone is willing to sleep in their car. Camping is another cheap option. The city I started from offered free camping in back of the city community center which included free use of the showers in the community center. That was a good deal. You can’t beat free. The city I’m in now has camping available for just $10 a night, but it doesn’t include showers so I’ve just been opting to sleep in my car.

The main two things I want from an accommodation is somewhere to sleep and somewhere to shower. The sleeping part is supplied by my car so I don’t need to worry about that. Showers are all I really have to worry about. After hiking all day in the sun a shower feels great. I’ve tried cleaning up with wet wipes and baby powder; they help but aren’t anywhere close to having a shower. A cheap place to get a shower besides at a campground is a local gym. The gym where I’m currently at only charges $5 for a day pass. That is a bargain when you’re dirty and grimy and really need a shower. I’m also a member of a national fitness center chain. The chain doesn’t have any gyms where I’m currently at but they do have some at towns I’ll be going through later in the hike. That will allow me to have a few free showers.

Sleeping in the car and taking showers at the gym save a lot of money, but sometimes one does want the privacy and luxury of a hotel room. I’m trying to keep the hotel room stays to once a week. After sleeping in my car for a week a mid-range hotel seems luxurious. I’m keeping the cost of the hotel stays down by using my free travel redemption from my Barclay Arrival Card. I should have enough points available to redeem for travel to make all of my hotel stays on this hike free.

The other major cost of the hike is food. Since I have to eat whether I’m hiking or not I don’t consider all of the cost of food to be a hike-related cost. I’m trying to keep the cost of food down by eating food from the grocery store and not eating in restaurants all the time. I haven’t done great on this so far as I’ve been eating fast food twice a day most days. I do at least usually get dollar menu items or specials. As a plus, I get free internet access while eating which does influence where I eat.

There are actually more ways I save money that I was planning on including, but this post is already long enough. How do you save money when traveling?

You Can Spend Less and Earn More

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There are two parts to getting ahead financially – spending less and earning more.  Some bloggers seem to think that you can either spend less or earn more.  This isn’t an either/or situation though.  It is entirely possible to be frugal and also be rich.   A couple of well known examples of very rich and frugal people are Warren Buffet and the late Sam Walton.  The book “The Millionaire Next Door” noted that frugality was a common trait among the profiled millionaires.    I’m not sure why some people think you can’t be both frugal and rich.  The definition of frugality is the practice of economy in the use of resources or the lack of wastefulness.  Even if you’re rich you shouldn’t want to be wasteful. Every year you hear tales of famous athletes who earned millions during their career and are now broke. This shows that even if you earn more you still need to pay attention to spending less.

Many blogs do focus more on one side of the equation.  This blog definitely focuses more on the spend less side of the equation than the earn more side.  Frugality is the area I have more experience with and expertise in so that is the main focus of my writing.  I think many focus on spending less because it is easier to do and quicker to put into practice.  Earning more usually takes some time to develop and many people aren’t sure how to earn more.

I would like to point out that I don’t entirely ignore the earn more side of the equation.  I have wrote about making passive income from sources such as dividend investing or Mr. Rebates.  I’ve also written about making money with alternative income sources such mystery shopping, medical studies, and blogging.

Both spending less and earning more are important. Neither side of the equation should be ignored.

Hiking the Katy Trail on the Cheap

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I’m currently hiking the Katy Trail.  It is primarily known as a bicycle path, but it can be hiked also. The trail is about 240 miles long.  I’m hiking out and back to my car each day which means I’ll have hiked about 480 miles if I complete the whole thing.

Since I’m hiking back to my car each night I can drive to get food or to find somewhere to sleep.  I plan on camping or sleeping in my car most nights to keep the cost of the hike down.  I will have an occasional hotel stay so that I’m not always roughing it.  My travel rewards credit card will reimburse me for the hotel stays up to about $350 so that shouldn’t add to the cost of the hike. I also plan on coming back to KC at least once to break up the trip.  My meals should be pretty cheap too.  I don’t plan on spending more for food on this trip than I spend when I’m at home.  I’m also doing some restaurant mystery shops to help keep that cost down.

Yesterday was the first day of my hike.  I hiked 18.2 miles which was definitely too far for my current fitness and fatness level.  It was cool and intermittently sprinkling when I hiked out and I felt good.  When I started back the sun came out and my energy level was quickly depleted.  When you’re doing an out and back hike though once you’ve hiked out you have no choice but to hike back.  The town I started from offers free showers and free camping to those using the Katy Trail.  I felt a lot better after taking a shower and getting some food and beverage.  The free campground was too brightly lit and too close to the highway noise for me to be able to get to sleep.  I gave up on sleeping in the campground and went to my car to sleep.  It wasn’t the most comfortable sleep, but I was tired enough to fall asleep anyway.  Now I know that I can in fact sleep in my Ford Focus.  With the back seats down I can just barely stretch all the way out if I lay diagonally.  I might spend a little money to improve the car sleeping situation.  Since sleeping in the car is a lot cheaper than a hotel I can justify the expense.

That is my plan for hiking the Katy Trail.  The hike shouldn’t cost me any more than what my usual daily expenses are and it might be even cheaper.