Here is a breakdown of my expenses for August.
| Household | $18.13 |
| Mortgage | $355 |
| Entertainment | $96.32 |
| Transportation | $117.20 |
| Food | $195.14 |
| Phone | $15.79 |
| Health | $297.41 |
| Travel | $381.67 |
| Total | $1518.66 |
My July expenses were higher than normal. This was due to a trip to Vegas, pre-paying some of this month’s travel expenses, and some health care expenses.
Entertainment expense was for a one month digital subscription to the New York Times, one month of Peacock, gambling, and seeing two movies at the theater with concessions. This is higher than normal but I feel I got quite a bit of entertainment for my money. This expense should be way down this month.
The mortgage payment was my regular mortgage payment.
Transportation was $159.20. I spent $42 to renew my driver’s license and the rest was spent on gas. I once again had a trip to Kansas City and a couple of trips to Springfield that resulted in higher mileage than usual. My transportation expense will probably be $0 this month.
My food expense was way over budget. I ate out a lot during the month. When I was in Vegas I didn’t worry about trying to keep my food expense under budget. This month I’ll be in Spain walking the Camino de Santiago most of the month so I would expect my food expense to remain high.
My phone bill was only $15.79 because it was reduced by the trade-in of my old phone.
The household expense was for a pair of shoes, an emergency poncho, a computer mouse, and a cheap pair of earbuds.
Health expense was for my monthly gym dues, a dentist visit, 3 doctor visits, and a CT scan. I had already partially paid for one of the doctor visits and the CT scan, but more bills from the previous visits came in August.
Travel expense included $93.19 of airfare which consisted of 2 fees to choose my seat on my Allegiant Vegas flights, and the taxes for a ticket from Tokyo to Bangkok in January 2022. I hope I’m able to take that flight. Four hotel nights in Vegas cost me $99.55. That was reduced by $100 my friend paid me for his half of the rooms. The total would have been higher but the one night was added to my airfare which I paid with credit card points. Miscellaneous travel expense included the cost of 2 covid tests. I will have to take one before I can re-enter the US from Spain. This expense also included travel insurance, airport parking, bus passes, rideshare, and tolls.
Since I’ll be walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain most of the month my expenses will likely be even higher this month. The nightly lodging is fairly cheap at 10-20 euro a night but it will add up over the course of a month, and eating out every meal will add up too. We will see next month how much those expenses inflated my monthly total.
How was your month?