Andy Hough

Here is a breakdown of my income for January.

Interest	$4.99
Amazon FBA	$9.75
Bank Bonus	$85.67
Cashback	$4.58
Online	$9.64
Dividends	$13.7
Job	$4219.57
Total	$4347.90

My income for January was up significantly due to having five paydays in the month. Three of the paydays I got paid from both jobs.

My Amazon FBA side hustle made a small profit for the month. I don’t plan on spending a lot of time on FBA this year. I do still have some inventory I need to send in which I plan to do sometime this month.

Dividend income was down a tiny bit. Right now I’m saving cash for my trip later this year. I hope I can start adding to my dividend stock portfolio towards the end of the year. 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 $9.64 in online income. Amazon kicked me out of their affiliate program due to not generating enough commissions and sent me a check for what I’d made so far. When I’m in Thailand this summer I need to spend some time working on increasing my affiliate income and online income. I used to make thousands of dollars every year online and last year I barely made over $100. I should be able to do a lot better than that.

The job income was fantastic. Working two jobs is starting to pay off. This month my job income will be down since I’ll have fewer paydays. It will still be a good amount though. I need to keep working a lot of hours the next couple of months so that I can enjoy my leisure time the rest of the year.

How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for January.

Household	$66.72
Rent	$450
Entertainment	$30.94
Transportation	$102.82
Food	$182.79
Travel	$152.70
Phone	$30.94
Health	$80.85
Total	$1087.76

My January expenses were about $500 lower than in December which was a significant improvement. I think I’ll have a good shot at getting my expenses below $1000 this month.

Entertainment was for movie concessions and my Regal Unlimited monthly membership fee. It was slightly lower than the previous month since I only went to the movies twice. I hope to see more movies this month. If I don’t buy popcorn this total will still be lower.

Transportation expense was for gas and parking at the dental clinic. This expense will probably be about the same this month.

My travel expense consisted of $99 for the annual fee on an American Airlines credit card, $42.45 in taxes and fees on an airline award ticket, and $11.25 in manufactured spend expense. The AA card will give me 60,000 miles which I plan to redeem for several hundred dollars of trips. The $42.45 was for taxes and fees on my premium economy award ticket on Virgin Airlines from Hong Kong to London. That ticket would have cost about $1500 if I was paying out of pocket. Getting it for 22,000 miles and $42.45 in taxes and fees was a great bargain.

My food expense was over $60 lower than the previous month. While this was a significant improvement I want to get it even lower. I need to have less junk food and fast food and more grocery store food.

My phone bill was normal. It will usually be in the $28-$35 range and I expect it be in that range this month.

My health expense was for one month’s dues for a fitness center membership and $70 for a dentist visit. I have another dentist visit this month. I’m not sure what it will cost. I’m hoping it won’t be too much more expensive than the previous visit.

Household expenses were down quite a bit from the previous month since I didn’t have any big purchases for the month. I did spend $50 for internet. This was my last installment for internet and I’ll have free internet from now on until I move out of my apartment.

This month I have a good chance of keeping my expenses under $1000. How was your month?

The last half of the month I got very lazy with keeping up to date on these spending reports. I also got very lazy about not eating junk food and fast food. This month was a significant improvement from December. That said, I know I can do a lot better and plan to do so in February.

Jan 22 – spent $5.46 on 2 sausage egg & cheese Mcmuffins and a large Dr Pepper at Mcd’s. This was a breakfast before work. I really need to stop having these since in addition to costing me money for the meal it also causes me to arrive at work about an hour later costing me an hour of wages.

Jan 23 – Spent $8.25 for a double steakburger w/ cheese combo at Freddy’s. I did limit myself to only having Freddy’s twice this month. Since Freddy’s is my favorite I should probably have it more often (maybe once a week) and cut out 2 or 3 other fast food meals a week instead.

Jan 24- Spent $2.08 at Savealot for BBQ Kettle chips. I gave in to my craving for chips. I spent $4.36 at Burger King for a 2 bacon cheeseburger combo.

Jan 25 – I spent $29.75 at Aldi for a 3 lbs of oranges, peanuts, soup, fries, frozen pizza, salsa, buffalo wings, cheese melt, tortilla chips, 8 pack burritos, 2 lbs grapes, oatmeal, and package of dried cranberries.

Jan 26 – I spent $2.75 on laundry. I spent $5.37 on 2 sausage egg & cheese Mcmuffins and a large Dr Pepper at Mcd’s. I need to eat or bring snacks when I do laundry so I won’t end up eating at Mcd’s while I’m waiting for my laundry to be done. I also spent $8.84 on a large popcorn at the movies. This is a very poor value and I need to stop buying it.

Jan 27 – I broke the string of bad spending days and didn’t spend any money today.

Jan 28- The string of no spending days was short lived. I spent $5.47 on a 2 jr breakfast burrito combo at Burger King. I spent $1 for a bag of Cheetos from the vending machine.

Jan 29 – I spent $3.27 at Burger King on a double cheeseburger combo.

Jan 30 – I spent $5.46 on 2 sausage egg & cheese Mcmuffins and a large Dr Pepper at Mcd’s. I’ve got to stop having this breakfast. I spent $6.27 at Dollar General for 2 bags of Doritos and a package of peanut clusters.

Jan 31 – I spent $5.46 at Jack in the Box for a Triple Cheeseburger combo. This was breakfast before work so it also cost me about an hour of wages. I’m going to stop having these meals in February. When you add in the hour of lost wages the pre-work meals ending up costing me over $25. That’s not a good deal for a fast food meal.

Well, I did stay with my commitment to track every bit of my spending for the month even though that spending included an embarrassing amount of junk food and fast food for the last half of the month. Looking back at what I ate over the month it is no wonder that I’m overweight and out of shape.

January 19- I spent $4.30 on a Wendy’s Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger, 4 piece chicken nuggets, fries, and a soda. I spent $11.22 on a 6 pack of socks and a pair of slippers at Walmart.

January 20 – I spent $4.30 on a Wendy’s Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger, 4 piece chicken nuggets, fries, and a soda. Yes, I had the same meal two days in a row. I spent $18.64 on gas.

January 21- I spent $3.18 on Lunchables and a bag of Taco Doritos at Hy-Vee.

January 12 – I spent $5.37 at McDonald’s for 2 sausage, egg, & cheese McMuffins and a large Dr Pepper. I spent $2.75 to do a load of laundry. Mcd’s is right across from the laundromat and I gave into temptation and had breakfast there while waiting on my wash. I do this almost every time I do laundry. I need to get out of this habit.

I spent $2.36 at Walmart for a dozen eggs and a half gallon of skim milk. I was wanting a smaller size of milk since I just needed a little to finish the cereal in my pantry, but the quarts and pints of milk were sold out. I also spent $10.50 at Sam’s Club for gas.

January 13 – I didn’t spent any money this day.

January 14 – I spent $4.54 on a two bacon cheeseburger combo from Burger King. This was just because I wanted fast food.

January 15 – I spent $3.41 at BK for a double cheeseburger combo. This was due to not bringing enough food with me to work. I greatly underestimated how hungry I would be.

I spent $4.18 at Walmart for cereal and a bag of Taco Doritos. Since I bought a half gallon of milk on Sunday, I now needed more cereal to finish the milk. When the milk runs out I’ll eat the rest of the cereal dry as a snack. The Doritos were an unplanned purchase. When I saw them I wanted them so I bought them and ate them. I need to do better at not giving in to my cravings.

I also spent $3.10 at Savalot for donut sticks, snack cakes, and a Lunchable. The snacks were to have for desserts with my work lunches.

January 16 – I spent $5.46 for at McDonald’s for 2 sausage, egg, & cheese McMuffins and a large Dr Pepper. I need to cut back on the fast food. I also need to switch back to diet soda or just have water with my meals.

January 17 – I spent $3.27 at BK for a double cheeseburger combo. The fast food consumption is still out of control. We were supposed to have a lunch at work. It was postponed to Monday since the roads were icy in the morning and most people didn’t come to work. I should have bought something from the grocery store to make up for the missed lunch rather than defaulting to fast food. I also spent $1.05 at Dollar General for a bag of cheese curls. I’d decided earlier in the week to not have any more chips for the rest of the month. I guess cheese curls aren’t actually chips, but still I shouldn’t have had them.

January 18 – I spent $50 for internet. This is my last internet bill. Now that I’ve finished paying the installation fee my internet will be free for as long as I live in my apartment. I spent $25 on gas. I spent $3.85 on a six-pack of Coke Zero and some snack packs of peanut butter M&Ms for my work lunches. I should now have enough sodas and snacks for the rest of the month.

I spent $99 for the annual fee on a new American Airlines credit card. I should get at least a $1000 worth of flights with the miles I’ll receive for getting the card so this is a good use of my money.

I ate too much junk food and fast food this last week. I’ll do better next week. I will make it through today without eating fast food and I don’t plan on having fast food tomorrow either. It’s a start.