Andy Hough

November Expenses – $1000.41

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for November.

Household

$404.25

Entertainment

$190.60

Transportation

 $187.56

Food

$49.39
Medical/Dental

$57.44

Utilities

$91.17
Debt $20

Total

$1000.41

My expenses for November were at a reasonable level.  I set a goal of keeping them under $1000 a month and I only went 41 cents over so I’m not going to feel bad about that.  Food and transportation were both down significantly this month.  This is because I ate out less often and didn’t drive as much.  Food costs only include when I eat out by myself and the few groceries that I buy for the household.

My transportation expense should be even lower this month unless I buy a couple more tires which I do need to do before too long.  The entertainment total included a couple nights hotel in Kansas City for a quick getaway my wife and I took after Thanksgiving.  There shouldn’t be any getaways this month so that expense should go down.

My household expense might go up a little since I will be including Christmas gifts in that but I have earned a few gift cards from SwagBucks and elsewhere that should keep that cost down. We still didn’t have to turn on our heat in November so utilities should be about the same. Other costs should be about the same as well.

December 2010 Goals

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I didn’t accomplish any of my November goals so I am rolling them all over to December. If I don’t get my goals accomplished this month then I am going to get a job in January. My December goals are as follows.

My first goal for December is to sell $200 worth of stuff. This will require a bit of work but since I don’t have a job I should be able to find the time to do this.

My second goal for December is to write at least 100 articles – for everywhere I write, not just for this blog – or write an ebook. If things go really well I will do both.

My third goal is to finish my niche site. Although I have done very little work on the site it is already ranking well for some keywords. I need to finish it and monetize it soon because I’m losing out on money I could potentially be making.

Turning on the Heat

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It has been an unusually warm fall so far here in southwest Missouri. We turned off our AC in September and haven’t had to turn on our heat yet. We didn’t have to use heat or AC in the month of October and it looks like we won’t have to use either one in November either. Although we have had days with the highs in the 40s it has stayed in the 70s in our apartment. I’m guessing that maybe our downstairs neighbor has her heat cranked up and we are getting the benefit of it. This is probably the longest I have gone in the year without having to turn on the heat.

What is the longest you have gone without turning on the heat?

Marathon Pictures

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marathon startMarathon finish

Here are a couple of pictures from the marathon I recently ran. The first picture is at the start when it was cold hence the ear band, gloves, and sleeves down. At the finish I was rather hot and had removed the ear band and gloves and pushed up my sleeves. That was about all I could do to acclimate to the weather. When you run as slow as me there can be pretty big changes in the weather from the start to the finish. Running a marathon isn’t as hard as most people believe but it ain’t easy either. It is more of a mental challenge than a physical one.

Do People Never Learn?

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Last week there was a news story stating that trucks outsold cars by the highest margin in five years in October. This is considered a sign that people are starting to spend again. If that is correct then I think it is an indication that people did not learn much from the recession.

Some people do actually need trucks for work or other reasons but my guess is that the vast majority of the people who own trucks do not actually need them. The fact that so many people are splurging on an unnecessary item might indicate that many people are going back to their free spending ways. It seems people have forgotten the high gas prices of just a few years ago. Gas prices will go up again but it seems that many people are in denial of that fact. Buying a new truck that you don’t actually need is not a financially or ecologically smart decision in my opinion.

The article states that personal savings rates decreased from a yearly high of 6.4 percent in June to 5.3 percent in September. Even at 6.4 percent personal savings rates were well below historical highs. I’m sure some people have learned to be more frugal due to the recession but my guess is that most people will ditch frugality as soon as they feel confident about the economy. What do you think?