Andy Hough

Here is a breakdown of my income for December.

Interest	$3.41
Amazon FBA	$16.27
Bank Bonus	$100
Cashback	$10.38
Dividends	$19.10
Job	$2283.63
Total	$2432.79

My income for December down a bit since I had four paydays compared to five in November. This month I’ll have five paydays again so my income will be higher.

My Amazon FBA side hustle made a small profit for the month. 2019 was my worst FBA year since I started selling with FBA. This year I’ll spend less time on FBA and concentrate on just a few profitable deals.

Dividend income was up a tiny bit. Since I don’t plan on adding to my dividend stock portfolio until after I achieve some other savings goals this income will stay roughly the same. I do my dividend investing with Robinhood. 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.

There was once again no online income or expense for the month. I’m still considering making a new wager with HealthyWage and blogging about the process which will hopefully lead to some affiliate commissions. I need to lose some weight before I can make another wager though. My links for Bluehost (aff link) web hosting didn’t result in any commissions. I’ll keep trying. I need to do some review posts or something different to create interest. Next year once I’m not working two jobs I will concentrate more on trying to increase affiliate income.

The job income provided almost all of my income for the month and that will be true again this month. Once tax season starts later this month I should be consistently getting 50 hours or so a week which will increase my job income. I need to work extra hours now since I plan on doing a lot of traveling later this year.

How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for December.

Household	$286.36
Rent	$450
Entertainment	$48.62
Transportation	$211.64
Food	$245.35
Travel	$100.60
Phone	$33.37
Student Loan	$132.58
Health	$61.47
Total	$1569.99

My December expenses were slightly lower than in November, but still a little higher than I prefer.

Entertainment was for movie concessions and my Regal Unlimited monthly membership fee. This expense should be lower this month since I won’t be purchasing popcorn and won’t be able to see many movies this month.

Transportation expense was for gas, an oil change, an air filter, a car wash and a couple of other small expenditures. This expense should be lower this month since I won’t need to spend any money on maintenance.

My travel expense was the annual fee on a my Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card. This card allows me to transfer my points to different airline and hotel loyalty programs. It also allows me to redeem my points for 1.25 cents each for travel. These two perks will more than offset the annual fee since I will be traveling quite a bit this year.

My food expense was once again way too high. I’m on track to spend $150 this month on food which would be a significant improvement. I’d like to get that total even lower.

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, some medicine, and a $43 for a dentist visit. This expense was much lower than the previous month due to not having a health insurance bill. I switched to a cheaper plan that doesn’t cost me anything out of pocket. This expense will be slightly higher this month since I had a more expensive dentist already this month.

Household expenses were quite a bit higher than normal. This was partially due to spending about $140 on a new memory foam mattress. The new mattress is much more comfortable than the air mattress that I was using and I think it was money well spent. Trying to get by the next few months sleeping on an air mattress was being too cheap. It is worth spending more money to get a good night’s sleep. I also had to spend $100 on my annual bar fee. That is for an inactive license. An active license would have cost $410. I don’t like spending $100 a year for nothing, but it keeps my options open in case I want to practice law in the future or obtain a job that requires an active license.

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

January 8 – I spent $2.18 at Dollar Tree for a package of BBQ Kettle chips and a package of nutty bars for snacks. I spent $5.51 at Save-a-Lot for pack of peanut butter & cheese crackers, a bag of cheese curls, a Totino’s frozen pizza, and a Lunchable. I spent too much on junky snacks. I need to start buying healthier snacks.

I spent $42.45 for taxes and fees for a Premium Economy flight on Virgin Atlantic from Hong Kong to London. This also cost 22,500 VA miles which I got from signing up for the VA credit card. I think this is a fantastic value for my miles since this flight would cost about $1500 paying cash. This is about a 13 hour flight. It will be my first time flying a long-haul flight in anything other than economy. The increased comfort flying in PE should be well worth the extra miles spent.

January 9 – I spent 95 cents for on street parking for my dentist appointment and spent $70 for a cleaning at the dentist. I also spent $3.41 for a double cheeseburger combo at Burger King. Although I brought my lunch I still wanted more food and ended up getting fast food.

January 10 – I spent $8.25 for a double steakburger with cheese combo at Freddy’s. This is my favorite fast food place, but it is a bit more expensive. That is why I’ll be eating there less frequently and figuring out how to reduce the cost when I do eat there. This expense was unplanned. I thought my job was providing lunch, but I misread my schedule and it was actually the next Friday they will be providing lunch. I was planning on having Freddy’s on the weekend and moved it up to Friday instead.

I spent $14.13 at Save-a-Lot on 2 cans of vegetable soup, potato chips, French onion dip, break and bake chocolate chip cookies, a package of 40 pizza rolls, and a six pack of microwave popcorn. I really need to stop buying so much junk food and start buying healthier food. I’m not going to buy any more chips this month since they are unhealthy and I tend to binge eat them. The rest of the month I need to buy primarily fruits, vegetables and natural foods.

January 11 – Since I’ve spent too much on junk food and fast food the past few days I won’t be spending any money on food or anything else today.

January 6 – I spent $2.35 at a gas station for a large soda and package of mini donuts. It was predictable that I would want a snack and soda when driving back to KC. I should have purchased something from the grocery store the previous day to save a little bit of money and perhaps have something a little bit healthier.

January 7 – I spent $3.41 at Burger King for a 10 piece chicken nugget and large fry. I had intended to redeem a coupon for a free Whopper I had in the BK app, but it had disappeared from the app when I was ready to redeem it. I made this slightly more expensive purchase instead. My plan for this month was to limit fast food to 3x a week. I had fast food 3x in the first 7 days of this month so I’m on track so far.

I spent $27.72 to fill up my tank with gas at Sam’s Club. The tank was almost empty from the drive back to KC. There won’t be any more long trips this month. I fill up my tank every Sunday to make sure I have enough gas for my weekly commute.

As I stated in my previous post I’m going to share here on the blog everything I spend money on this month. My January 1st expenses were included in the previous post. Below are my January 2-5 expenses.

January 2 – I didn’t spend any money this day.

January 3 – I spent $4.54 on a two bacon cheeseburger combo at Burger King. This purchase was planned ahead of time. The BK restaurant is right at the bottom of the steps to my tax job. Purchasing my lunch at the BK and eating it as I was commuting to my doc review job saved me some time compared to going elsewhere for lunch.

I spent $1 on peanut M&Ms from the vending machine. I was craving some kind of dessert and bought the M&Ms to satisfy that craving. I should probably buy some sort of small dessert to take with me to work to save a little money and a few calories.

I also spent $3.14 for a bag of Taco Doritos (the best flavor of Doritos.) This purchase should have been avoided. I had a three hour drive from KC to southern Missouri and I like to snack while I’m on a long drive. This desire could have been foreseen and a cheaper snack could have been purchased ahead of time. I don’t feel too bad about the purchase though since I did really enjoy the Doritos and I still have half the bag left to enjoy with tomorrow’s lunch.

January 4 – I didn’t spend any money this day.

January 5 – I spent $4.30 on a 4 for $4 meal at Wendy’s. This consisted of a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger, 4-piece chicken nuggets, French fries, and a Coke Zero. This purchase was also planned ahead of time. One of my simple pleasure in life is leisurely eating a meal while reading a newspaper or magazine. Since I knew I wouldn’t have time during the upcoming week to have a leisurely meal like this I went ahead and had it today.

I spent $20.01 on gasoline. Since my car was almost empty and I will need gas to return to KC tomorrow I went ahead and purchased gas today. I didn’t fill it all the way up since gas is about twenty cents a gallon more expensive here than in KC.

So far I think I’m doing pretty good with my spending with 2 out of 5 days having no spending. The fast food meals should become less frequent. I’m going to try to post these spending reports daily on days that have spending.