Andy Hough

June Income – $1791.94

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Here is a breakdown of my income for June.

Interest $3.53
Amazon FBA $44.98
Unemployment $1280
Cash Back $5.25
Credit Card Cash Back $124
Uber $115.43
Investment Account Bonus $50
Online Income $63.75
Selling Stuff $105
Total $1791.94

June’s income was pretty good considering I did not have any job income.

The bulk of the month’s income came from unemployment which I will not receive this month since I’m working again. My job income this month will likely be a little less than my unemployment income in June.

I cashed out over $150 in credit card cash back last month. The $124 amount is my profit after expenses. Since both my Chase Freedom and Discover card were paying 5% back on grocery purchases I bought some gift cards to max out my cash back for the category. After paying the gift card fees and money order fees to cash out the cards I still made a decent profit.

My FBA income was pretty small this month. Since I had a loss last month even a small profit is an improvement.  I also made a slight amount of blog income. I’ll be getting an Adsense payout this month so I’ll have a little blog income this month as well.

I also made a little money from selling stuff in person rather than on Amazon and drove a little for Uber. I should make a little from both of those sources again this month.

Overall, I expect July’s income will be slightly less than what I made in June.

June Expenses – $2459.05

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for June.

Household $6
Rent $435
Entertainment $68.42
Transportation $568.11
Food $202.46
Travel $94.71
Phone $26.44
Health $2.91
Student Loan $1055
Total $2459.05

My June expenses were very high. This was due to a combination of having a couple of car repair bills and paying a lot on my student loan. Without those two expenses my monthly expenses would have been under the $1000 mark. Of course, there are almost always some kind of unusual expenses like these so it isn’t realistic to subtract them from the budget.

My monthly food expense was too high again. For the first time ever it went over the $200 mark. That is way too much for one person to be spending on food. I’d be okay with that total if it was for healthy food. Since it is mostly for junk food and fast food I can’t justify my food expense being this high. This month I am going to limit myself to eating out once a week. That will result in a much lower food expense and whatever I eat at home is likely to be healthier than fast food.

My transportation expense was high due to needing two car repairs and getting a parking ticket. I paid a repair shop to install the struts I bought online since I didn’t have full confidence in my ability to do so.  They also replaced my sway bar link which I wouldn’t have realized needing replacing and the entire cost was $140 so I feel like paying for the installation was a good deal. I still saved a lot compared to what the original repair shop wanted to charge me for struts and installation.

Unfortunately, about a week after my struts were installed my brakes started squealing. It turned out I needed new brake pads and new rotors since my rotors were warped. The last time I had my brakes repaired I was warned the rotors were warped and would need to be replaced soon so this repair wasn’t a total surprise.

My gas expense was also quite high due to traveling to southern Missouri and back, driving for Uber, and the commute to my job. I will continue to drive for Uber this month and will be commuting another week or two so this month’s gas expense will also be high. Hopefully, there won’t be any repair or ticket expense so the transportation expense should be much lower this month even with the higher gasoline bill.

The student loan expense was high because I was using my unemployment proceeds to pay on my student loan. Now that I’m working the unemployment checks will stop which will result in much less being paid on my student loan. I do also earmark all blog earnings for student loan payments and I will get paid by Adsense this month so there will be at least a little paid on my student loan.

I don’t anticipate any big expenses this month. I think I have a good chance at having less than $1000 in expenses this month.

I Now Have Only 2 Monthly Bills

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With the recent cancellation of my Moviepass account I now have only 2 monthly bills. My rent and my cell phone bill are the only monthly bills I have.  Of course, I still have other expenses every month such as food and gasoline, but rent and phone are the only monthly bills I have.

My rent includes utilities so that eliminates having an electric, gas, water or trash bill. The city I live in provides free internet so that is another bill I am able to avoid. I also don’t have a home phone, choosing to have just a cell phone. When I first opted to have only a cell phone and no landline about 15 years ago people thought that was weird. Now I think that having only a cell phone is pretty much the norm. My cell phone is only about $25 a month. It might be possible to save a few bucks on that bill. Since I’m happy with my service and it will work for me when I’m in SE Asia for 2 1/2 months, I don’t think it is worth the trouble of switching providers and possibly not liking the new service for a tiny savings. If you were to sign up for Project Fi cell phone service through my referral link we’d both get $20 Fi credit after you’ve had service for 20 days. That would make my cell phone bill even cheaper.

My car insurance could be paid monthly, but I choose to pay six months at a time to save a few bucks. Technically, I also have a monthly student loan bill and health insurance bill. These are both $0 right now, so I don’t count them as monthly bills. I have been making voluntary payments on my student loan since I will eventually have to pay it. Next year when my payments are based on my 2017 income rather than my low 2016 income I will have a required student loan payment. I’ve been considering not renewing the IBR plan and just letting my student loan go back to the 10-year payment plan. If I do that the student loan will be by far my biggest monthly bill. My health insurance is $0 since ACA subsidies are covering the premium. I’m hoping I will be able to resume my employer health plan once I return to my job. That would give me another monthly bill, but since it comes out of my paycheck it doesn’t really feel like another bill.

For a little while I might be able to cut down my monthly bills even more. Since my lease is up right before I leave for SE Asia I am planning on moving out of my apartment. Then my only monthly bill will be my phone and possibly a storage space for my stuff while I’m out of the country. I will have to pay to stay somewhere while I’m in SE Asia so the money I save by not having rent will be spent on that.

I’m pretty happy with my current level of expenses and won’t spend too much energy trying to get them even lower. What I need to concentrate on now is developing more sources of income.

 

Beating the Summer Doldrums

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I’ve been back from my hike for over three weeks now and the Summer Doldrums have started. I have been extremely lazy since coming back from my hike. First, I took a few days to relax and get settled. Then I went and visited a friend at his lake house for a couple of days and afterwards visited my mom for a few days. I returned home last Friday and I have not motivated myself to get much done since returning.

Some of the reasons I took a sabbatical from my job this year was to lose weight/get healthy and to work on my blog/develop other sources of income. I have managed to lose a few pounds, but that has stalled out the last couple of weeks and I know I should be doing much better. I haven’t done any work on this blog. Since returning from my hike the only posts I’ve published are my monthly income and expense posts that I publish every month. Now that I have time I should be publishing more  posts and trying to improve this blog.

Right now, since I don’t have to do anything it is very easy for me to do nothing. I have no problem filling a day with various wastes of time such as reading random articles on the internet, watching Netflix, going to the movies, reading books and magazines, watching random YouTube clips, etc. I don’t get bored with my random time wasters. However, my enjoyment of them does decrease as I spend more time doing them. These time wasters would be more fun if I did them after spending a few hours working.

There are a couple of things I’m going to try to start being reasonably productive. One is that I’m going to stop claiming unemployment. Having that steady supply of income gives me less incentive to try to develop other sources of income. I may have a temp job soon. If the temp job doesn’t happen, I will drive for Uber, do Amazon FBA, work on the blog, and work on other sources of self-employment income.

The other thing I need to do is to work as soon as I get up in the morning.  If I decide to relax in the morning with the plan of working later in the day the odds are very good that I won’t get anything done that day. If I start off the day working or otherwise being productive I usually continue working for most of the day. I need to remind myself of this every morning when I’m deciding whether I should go out for a leisurely breakfast or go for a run/drive for Uber/write a blog post. If I go out to breakfast the day is probably shot. If I do one of the other things I’ll get stuff done and still have time for a leisurely meal later in the day. This is going to be a continuing battle, but I do not want to let this summer get away from me. This time off is a great opportunity and I do not want to waste it.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.  If you’re not able to leave a comment please let me know via email/Twitter/Facebook. The comments appear to be working correctly on my end, but I’ve had a lot of problems keeping them working this year and I’d like to know for sure if they are working correctly or not.

May Income – $1997.89

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Here is a breakdown of my income for May.

Interest $4.26
Amazon FBA ($18.47)
Unemployment $640
Cash Back $13.27
Credit Card Bonus $500
Credit Card Other $100
Bank Bonus $200.00
Job $558.83
Total $1997.89

 

May’s income was decent considering I only had one week of pay during the month and it wasn’t even a full 40 hour week.

I cashed out $500 of credit card rewards to cover some of my hike expenses. I also received a $200 bank bonus during the month. Since I came back from my hike early I was able to get unemployment for the last two weeks of the month. I’ll probably only collect another week or two of unemployment before I start making some money from self-employment or find a temporary job.

My FBA income was negative this month and I didn’t have any online income or expenses. This month I should make a profit from FBA and I might make some online income as well.

I’m pretty happy that I made more money than I spent for the first month of my six month mini-retirement. I’ll have a large dental bill this month so I’m unlikely to repeat that feat this month. My income will likely be down this month as well since there won’t be any paycheck at all and I won’t have a large credit card bonus like I did in May. I will be trying to make money during the month so maybe I’ll make more than I think.  If I can come close to covering my expenses for the month I will be happy.