Andy Hough

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for November.

Household	$37.44
Mortgage	$355
Entertainment	$20.95
Transportation	$61.13
Food	$136.64
Phone	$28.38
Health	$50.92
Travel	$527.85
Total	$1218.31

My November Expenses were back to a reasonable level despite quite a bit of travel expense.

Entertainment expense was for one month of Paramount Plus, six months of Peacock purchased as a Black Friday special, and one month of Hulu at .99 which will be at that rate for a year as part of another Black Friday special.

The mortgage payment was my regular mortgage payment.

Transportation was for one tank of gas, a quart of oil, and my yearly personal property taxes on the car. One advantage of owning an old beater is the low personal property taxes.

My food expense was a little over budget. I’m almost always over budget in this category. I need to increase this budget amount but haven’t gotten around to it yet.

My phone bill was $28.38. That is about the normal amount when I’m not traveling.

The household expense was for a haircut, a birthday gift, and a birthday card.

Health expense was for my monthly gym dues and some vitamins.

Travel expense was my big expense for the month. I paid $5.60 in taxes for an award trip from a tiny, local airport to Chicago. This was a great deal for Thanksgiving weekend. I paid $176.98 for two hotel nights. The Bangkok hotel night was a mandatory quarantine package that included transportation from the airport to a hotel for a PCR Covid test, the hotel room, and a couple of meals. The rest was for travel insurance required for the Thailand Pass, a pre-departure RT-PCR test required for the Thailand Pass, my Thai visa, and an Uber, train, and bus in Chicago. The Thailand Pass requirements cost me about $400 more than I would normally spend. I was willing to pay it so I wouldn’t have to wait any longer to return to Thailand.

There will be more travel expenses this month as I’ll be in Thailand all of this month and most of the next. I’m in northern Thailand and might visit the beach later this month. My Thai girlfriend is staying with me which will result in some increased expenses since I will paying her expenses. This should still be a pretty reasonable expense month depending on whether I travel domestically in Thailand.

How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my income for October.

Interest	$3.34
Amazon FBA	$55.27
Job	$922.54
Cashback	$81.10
Dividends	$48.72
Ebay/Other Selling	$782.08
Class Action	$13.99
Total	$1907.04

October’s income rebounded nicely from the low amount the month before.

I made $13.99 from a random class action.

My Amazon FBA side hustle made a profit of $55.27.

Dividend income came in at $48.72. 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 $782.08 selling stuff on eBay and elsewhere. I was pretty lucky at flipping some hard to find items and had some U.S. Mint coin sales as well.

I received $81.10 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 $3.34 in interest.

I received $922.54 for working a doc review job for a little over a week. I’ll have at least a little bit more job income this month too.

I’ll be leaving for Thailand at the end of this month and will be staying there for December and January. That will keep me from earning much in those months so I’m hoping I have a good income month this month. How was your month?

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?