May’s expenses were a little higher than I’d prefer. I’m hoping I can reduce expenses about $200 this month. .
Entertainment expense was $18 for an annual subscription to NYT Games. I probably shouldn’t have spent that since I have a lot of free entertainment options, but I do play them daily, so it isn’t a bad value. Amazon Prime and Hulu were covered by credit card rewards and a free gift card.
My transportation expense consisted of $144.06 for gas and $120.13 for maintenance. We should travel a little less this month, and gas is starting to get cheaper, so I hope this expense will be lower this month.
Food expense was $512.42. That is divided between $437.56 for groceries and $74.86 for restaurants. We’re well stocked on groceries, and I got another free McDonald’s gift card so this expense should be lower this month.
Travel expense came in at $0. I hope that will be the same this month.
Utilities came in at $195.20. Internet was $40 and electric/water was $155.20. This expense will be higher this month since we will be using the A/C more.
Household expense came in at $319.69. The big bill was $110 for my CLE. The rest was for miscellaneous household items and flowers, plants and other items for the yard.
I spent $20 for phone service. That was the usual monthly amount plus $5 for extra data.
The $24.41 spent on health was for OTC medicine, my blood pressure medicine, and a supplement.
This month’s expenses will probably be about the same. How was your month?
April income was good. It was much higher than I expected since I only had one paycheck.
Dividend income came in at $8.33.
Interest income was $111.14.
I made $836.66 from eBay and $90 from other selling.
I made $182.19 from cash back.
I made $672.87 from job income. I’ve been having a difficult time getting placed on projects this year so I’ve ramped up my side hustle income.
I made $532 from social casinos.
I made $19.14 from surveys.
I made $125.87 from sportsbooks. The promos are beginning to dry up. This source of income will go down unless I can figure out another way to profit from the sportsbooks.
I made $96.56 from class actions, $4.15 from Amazon Merch, and $1148.97 from capital gains. I sold all stocks in my Robinhood and Webull accounts and used the proceeds to contribute to my Roth IRA. This will result in my dividend income being lower the rest of the year. Next year, I’ll turn 59.5 and will be able to take income from my Roth IRA tax-free. When that happens, I’ll count the dividend income from my Roth as income.
April’s expenses were about what I expect will be normal, now that I have the monthly rent payment.
Entertainment expense was $0 since credit card rewards covered the Peacock and Hulu expense and a free gift card covered the Amazon Prime expense.
My transportation expense consisted of $124.88 for gas. That was helped a bit by a discounted gas gift card. We’re traveling more this month, and gas has gotten even more expensive, so I expect this expense to be higher this month.
Food expense was $369.51. That is divided between $352.65 for groceries and $16.86 for restaurants. The restaurant expense was much lower than normal due to using a free $100 McDonald’s gift card. The gift card is almost used up so food expense will probably be higher this month.
Travel expense came in at $49. That is for my IHG gift card which gives me one free night a year. Ideally, I use the free night when I would otherwise have to pay a lot for a hotel night. I messed up on this last year. I delayed using the free night trying to get the most value out of it and then almost forgot about it all together. I ended up using it for a hotel night on a trip where we would otherwise have just gone and come back the same day.
Utilities came in at $257.57. Internet was $40 and electric/water was $149.59. There was also a quarterly charge of $67.98 for trash. This expense should be slightly lower this month since there won’t be a trash bill.
Household expense came in at $585.93. The big bills were $251 for A/C repair and $100 prepay for my dad’s cremation. This was for miscellaneous household items and flowers, plants and other items for the yard.
I spent $20 for phone service. That was the usual monthly amount plus $5 for extra data.
The $10.43spent on health was for some over the counter medicine. This expense will be higher this month.
This month’s expenses will probably be about the same. How was your month?
I made two goals for this year. One was to lose weight, with a goal weight of 188 pounds. The other was to fully fund my Roth IRA from bonuses.
I’m doing very poorly on my weight loss goal. Based on past experience, this isn’t much of a surprise. I started off the year well. I lost 5 pounds in January. I spent most of that month in Thailand and I find it easier to lose weight there.
Since January, I have gained weight. I’m only down a couple pounds for the year. I’m not sure how to do better on this goal. I have occasionally tracked my food. I need to increase my protein and fiber intake. Knowing what I need to do and actually doing it are two very different things. I’m still hoping I will figure out a way to eat better and stick to eating better.
I’m doing ok on my second goal. I’m at $2195 in bonuses so far this year. That is behind where I should be at this point to be on track for meeting the $8600 goal. I can make quick progress on this by doing some credit card and bank bonuses so I’m not too worried about making this goal. I’ve actually made most of my Roth IRA contribution for the year since I wanted to take advantage of the stock market dip earlier this year. The money from the bonuses will be used to reimburse for the contributions rather than being used to directly make the contributions
I’ll check in again on these goals at the end of Q2 and I hope I will be able to share better progress then.
