Andy Hough

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for October.

Household	$6.18
Mortgage	$355
Entertainment	$47.63
Transportation	$102.69
Food	$178.39
Phone	$35.88
Health	$762.69
Travel	$780.87
Total	$2269.33

My October Expenses were quite high. This was due to two large expenses in the health and travel categories.

Entertainment expense was for two months digital subscription to the New York Times, one month of Peacock, one month of Amazon Prime, one month of Paramount Plus, a visit to the movies, and some books. I’ll eventually cut out one or two of the online streaming services.

The mortgage payment was my regular mortgage payment.

Transportation was $102.69. This was all for gas.

My food expense was a little over budget. Food costs have gone up a bit this year so I might need to up this budget.

My phone bill was $35.88. It was a little higher this month since I used quite a bit of data while in Spain.

The household expense was for socks, deodorant, and cotton balls.

Health expense was for my monthly gym dues, a copay of $673.01 for ear surgery and $70 for a dentist visit. I’ve had significant hearing loss since I was a child. I decided to have a surgical procedure to see if some of my hearing can be restored. It is still too early to determine if the surgery was successful at restoring my hearing.

Travel expense was my other big expense for the month. I canceled my round trip ticket to Tokyo. I was going to fly from there on a separate ticket to Bangkok. I decided since I wouldn’t be able to enter Tokyo it was best to cancel that ticket and book one ticket all the way from the US to Bangkok. This reduces the chance that a travel restriction or something will keep me from being able to make my flight. The new ticket cost $780.87. I usually get better flight deals than that, but I didn’t want to wait for a deal this time. This is still an affordable ticket for me.

I’m going to have more travel expenses this month. I’ve got to buy special covid travel insurance, buy a covid PCR test before departure to Bangkok, and book a special hotel room with covid test upon arrival to Bangkok. There are also Thai visa fees and other small expenses. Due to that this month will also be an expensive month.

How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for September.

Household	$77.55
Mortgage	$355
Entertainment	$6.99
Transportation	$272.42
Food	$329.29
Phone	$31.20
Health	$39.92
Travel	$724.66
Total	$1837.03

My September expenses were higher than normal. This was due to spending three weeks in Spain walking the Camino de Santiago. Considering I was out of the country for three weeks I think my expenses were very reasonable.

Entertainment expense was for two months digital subscription to the New York Times and one month of Peacock,

The mortgage payment was my regular mortgage payment.

Transportation was $272.42. I spent $235 for six months of car insurance. The remaining amount was spent on shuttles, local buses, and the Madrid Metro.

My food expense was way over budget. This isn’t surprising since I was eating out for almost every meal in Spain. Food in Europe generally costs more than in the U.S. Some of the small towns I stayed in the only food option was the 10-12 Euro dinner at the hostel. I think I did pretty well to keep the expense at this level.

My phone bill was $31.20. It will be a little higher this month since I used quite a bit of data while in Spain.

The household expense was for a pair of shower shoes, a rain poncho, shampoo, razors, laundry, and a charitable contribution. Everything but the charitable contribution was spent in Spain and wouldn’t have been occurred if I was at home. Perhaps, those expenses should be considered travel expenses, but I’m going to leave them as household expenses.

Health expense was for my monthly gym dues. I didn’t get much use out of the gym since I was gone most of the month. Walking 15-25 kilometers a day on the Camino was plenty of exercise for me.

Travel expense was my big expense for the month. Even keeping things frugal a three-week stay in Spain isn’t going to be cheap. This expense included $57.26 of airfare which was $23.46 for choosing my seat on the flight home from Spain and the taxes for a ticket from Tokyo to Bangkok in January 2022. The flight I booked the previous month was canceled. I booked a new ticket in Business Class rather than economy and the new ticket had lower taxes and fees although I did have to spend more miles. I’ll use the voucher from the canceled ticket to book my return flight from Bangkok to Tokyo.

Travel expense also included $137.06 for long distance buses and trains in Spain. Lastly, the travel expense included $530.34 for hotels and hostels. That was for about 20 nights and the cost of the hotel in Chicago before my flight to Spain and a hotel in Miami before my flight home the next day were almost half of the cost.

The Camino de Santiago trip lasted from September 7 through September 28. I flew in Iberia business class from Chicago to Spain using miles. That was my first time flying biz class on a transatlantic flight. It was more comfortable being able to lay my seat down and sleep for a few hours. I’d probably never pay the cash price for that experience though. I flew a budget airline Air Europa from Madrid to Miami. The cash price for this ticket was only $180. Since it was a daytime flight there was no need to sleep. They gave us a meal and there was seatback entertainment with enough choices to get me through the flight. The flight was comfortable enough and was a great value for the price. I don’t think I’d pay much more for more comfort.

Overall, my three weeks in Spain probably cost me about $1000 since some of the expenses were paid in previous months. I think that is a fantastic deal. I also really enjoyed walking the Camino. If I’m not too lazy I’ll post about the Camino later this month.

I’m going to have surgery on my ear next week and I had to pay almost $700 for my share of the cost. Due to that this month will likely be as expensive as last month if not more.

How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my income for August.

Interest	$0
Amazon FBA	$123.74
AZ Merch	$4.48
Cashback	$72.57
Bank/Other Bonus	$100
Tax Refund	$1179.15
Dividends	$53.88
Ebay/Other Selling	$859.92
Total	$2393.74

This was a pretty good income month. It is especially good considering I didn’t have any employment income during the month.

The big money this month was my tax refund. I filed my tax refund in February before the first $10,200 of unemployment income was made nontaxable. In August, I finally received a refund of the excess tax I paid on the unemployment income. I also had to pay back some of the advanced premium tax credit when I filed my taxes in February. Based on my new reduced income, I received a refund of the amount paid back plus a little more premium tax credit.

I made $4.48 from Amazon Merch. This is for a t-shirt design I uploaded a few years ago. I uploaded about 25 different designs, but this is the only one that makes me money. It isn’t much but it is passive income now.

My Amazon FBA side hustle brought in a decent amount of money considering I mostly focus on eBay and other marketplaces now.

Dividend income came in at $53.88. I’m adding a little every month to my stocks and slowly increasing the dividend total. If you sign up using my Robinhood referral link we will both get one share of free stock. Thanks to anyone who signs up using my link. Every little bit helps.

I made $594.38 selling stuff on eBay and elsewhere. I spent some time buying stuff from garage sales and flipping it online. I enjoy doing this and I’d like to eventually turn it into a full-time income.

I received a $100 bonus for opening a brokerage account. It was paid out $20 a month for 5 months. I just counted the bonus now that I withdrew all the bonus money from the account.

I received $72.57 in cash back income. If you sign up for Rakuten using my referral link you can start earning cash back too and I’ll get a small bonus for referring you. These little bits of referral income help me keep the blog going.

I received $0 in interest. I decided the interest from the rewards checking account that required me to make 15 debit card transactions wasn’t worth the bother. My Capital One account paid interest on September 1 rather than the last day of the month so I ended up with no interest income for August. I’ll have a small amount of interest income this month.

This month’s income will go down since I’ll be hiking the Camino de Santiago in Spain most of September. However, I do have a couple of deals that I did in August that will pay in September so I think I have a shot of my income still exceeding my expenses even though I won’t be working much during the month. How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for August.

Household	$18.13
Mortgage	$355
Entertainment	$96.32
Transportation	$117.20
Food	$195.14
Phone	$15.79
Health	$297.41
Travel	$381.67
Total	$1518.66

My July expenses were higher than normal. This was due to a trip to Vegas, pre-paying some of this month’s travel expenses, and some health care expenses.

Entertainment expense was for a one month digital subscription to the New York Times, one month of Peacock, gambling, and seeing two movies at the theater with concessions. This is higher than normal but I feel I got quite a bit of entertainment for my money. This expense should be way down this month.

The mortgage payment was my regular mortgage payment.

Transportation was $159.20. I spent $42 to renew my driver’s license and the rest was spent on gas. I once again had a trip to Kansas City and a couple of trips to Springfield that resulted in higher mileage than usual. My transportation expense will probably be $0 this month.

My food expense was way over budget. I ate out a lot during the month. When I was in Vegas I didn’t worry about trying to keep my food expense under budget. This month I’ll be in Spain walking the Camino de Santiago most of the month so I would expect my food expense to remain high.

My phone bill was only $15.79 because it was reduced by the trade-in of my old phone.

The household expense was for a pair of shoes, an emergency poncho, a computer mouse, and a cheap pair of earbuds.

Health expense was for my monthly gym dues, a dentist visit, 3 doctor visits, and a CT scan. I had already partially paid for one of the doctor visits and the CT scan, but more bills from the previous visits came in August.

Travel expense included $93.19 of airfare which consisted of 2 fees to choose my seat on my Allegiant Vegas flights, and the taxes for a ticket from Tokyo to Bangkok in January 2022. I hope I’m able to take that flight. Four hotel nights in Vegas cost me $99.55. That was reduced by $100 my friend paid me for his half of the rooms. The total would have been higher but the one night was added to my airfare which I paid with credit card points. Miscellaneous travel expense included the cost of 2 covid tests. I will have to take one before I can re-enter the US from Spain. This expense also included travel insurance, airport parking, bus passes, rideshare, and tolls.

Since I’ll be walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain most of the month my expenses will likely be even higher this month. The nightly lodging is fairly cheap at 10-20 euro a night but it will add up over the course of a month, and eating out every meal will add up too. We will see next month how much those expenses inflated my monthly total.

How was your month?