Expense/Income Tracking

Here is a breakdown of my income for August.

Interest	$0
Amazon FBA	$123.74
AZ Merch	$4.48
Cashback	$72.57
Bank/Other Bonus	$100
Tax Refund	$1179.15
Dividends	$53.88
Ebay/Other Selling	$859.92
Total	$2393.74

This was a pretty good income month. It is especially good considering I didn’t have any employment income during the month.

The big money this month was my tax refund. I filed my tax refund in February before the first $10,200 of unemployment income was made nontaxable. In August, I finally received a refund of the excess tax I paid on the unemployment income. I also had to pay back some of the advanced premium tax credit when I filed my taxes in February. Based on my new reduced income, I received a refund of the amount paid back plus a little more premium tax credit.

I made $4.48 from Amazon Merch. This is for a t-shirt design I uploaded a few years ago. I uploaded about 25 different designs, but this is the only one that makes me money. It isn’t much but it is passive income now.

My Amazon FBA side hustle brought in a decent amount of money considering I mostly focus on eBay and other marketplaces now.

Dividend income came in at $53.88. I’m adding a little every month to my stocks and slowly increasing the dividend total. 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 $594.38 selling stuff on eBay and elsewhere. I spent some time buying stuff from garage sales and flipping it online. I enjoy doing this and I’d like to eventually turn it into a full-time income.

I received a $100 bonus for opening a brokerage account. It was paid out $20 a month for 5 months. I just counted the bonus now that I withdrew all the bonus money from the account.

I received $72.57 in cash back income. If you sign up for Rakuten using my referral link you can start earning cash back too and I’ll get a small bonus for referring you. These little bits of referral income help me keep the blog going.

I received $0 in interest. I decided the interest from the rewards checking account that required me to make 15 debit card transactions wasn’t worth the bother. My Capital One account paid interest on September 1 rather than the last day of the month so I ended up with no interest income for August. I’ll have a small amount of interest income this month.

This month’s income will go down since I’ll be hiking the Camino de Santiago in Spain most of September. However, I do have a couple of deals that I did in August that will pay in September so I think I have a shot of my income still exceeding my expenses even though I won’t be working much during the month. How was your month?

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?

Here is a breakdown of my income for July.

Interest	$13.20
Amazon FBA	$200.62
Job	$356.95
Cashback	$88.58
Bank/Other Bonus	$0
Online Income	$0
Dividends	$46.18
Ebay/Other Selling	$594.38
Total	$1299.91

July’s income was modest once again. This was due to only having two days of employment during the month.

I made $356.95 from a short doc review job. The doc review jobs are coming less often and are shorter in duration. I might need to start looking for jobs in a different field.

My Amazon FBA side hustle brought in a decent amount of money.

Dividend income came in at $46.18. 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 $594.38 selling stuff on eBay and elsewhere. I spent some time buying stuff from garage sales and flipping it online. I enjoy doing this and I’d like to eventually turn it into a full-time income.

I received $88.58 in cash back income. If you sign up for Rakuten using my referral link you can start earning cash back too and I’ll get a small bonus for referring you. These little bits of referral income help me keep the blog going.

My online/blog income was $0. That is pretty much the norm now.

I received $13.20 in interest. I didn’t have any bank bonuses or other bonuses. I’ve already received a brokerage bonus this month so this category of income will increase.

This month’s income will probably be about the same. I’m unlikely to get a document review job since I can’t take any projects that go beyond the first of September since I’ll be hiking the Camino de Santiago in Spain most of September. How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for June.

Household	$62.96
Mortgage	$355
Entertainment	$19.53
Transportation	$100.79
Food	$118.75
Phone	$32.67
Health	$255.82
Travel	$129.10
Total	$1074.62

My July expenses were just a little bit over my stretch goal of keeping my expenses under $1000 for the month.

Entertainment expense was for a one month digital subscription to the New York Times, one month Amazon Prime and one month of Peacock. I’m cancelling my Prime membership for a few months starting this month so this expense should go down a little.

The mortgage payment was my regular mortgage payment.

Transportation was $100.79 all spent on gas. I had a trip to Kansas City and a couple of trips to Springfield that resulted in higher mileage than usual.

My food expense was a little under my target amount. I’m happy with that.

My phone bill went up a little since I bought a new phone. I’m now paying an extra $2.04 a month on my phone bill (with no interest added) until the $49 cost of the phone is paid off. I also got a $15.01 credit for trading in my old phone which will apply to this month’s phone bill.

Household expense was for a charitable contribution, reading glasses, a computer desk, hand soap, and a small gift.

Health expense was for my monthly gym dues, a dentist visit, a doctor visit, a CT scan and a 90 day refill on my blood pressure medications.

Travel expense was $5.60 for taxes on an award ticket, $95 for the annual fee on my Cap 1 Venture card which will get me a lot of “free” travel, and a train ticket from Madrid to Pamplona. I will have a few more travel expenses this month as I get ready for my walk on the Camino de Santiago in Spain next month.

Despite the health expenses I was still able to keep my expenses close to $1000 for the month. My expenses will probably be a little over $1000 again this month since I will have travel and health expenses to pay.

How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my income for June.

Interest	$36.06
Amazon FBA	$25.7
Job	$390.03
Cashback	$0
Bank/Other Bonus	$160
Online Income	$0
Dividends	$38.41
Ebay/Other Selling	$320.05
State Tax Refunds	$310
Total	$1280.25

This post was updated since I originally forgot to include my state tax returns.

June’s income was modest once again. This wasn’t surprising since I was out of town for half of the month. Income was still higher than expenses so I won’t complain.

I received $310 from amending my MO and KS state tax returns to reflect that the first $10,200 of unemployment income was not taxable. I’m still waiting on about a $1000 federal tax refund from the unemployment change.

I made $390.03 from a short doc review job.

My Amazon FBA side hustle made a teeny tiny bit of money. I’m doing most of my selling on eBay now.

Dividend income came in at $38.41. 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 $320.05 selling stuff on eBay and elsewhere. I spent some time buying stuff from garage sales and flipping it online. I enjoy doing this and plan to do a lot more of it this month.

I received $0 in cash back income. It is unusual for me to not make any cash back income. I’ve already got some cash back income coming this month. If you sign up for Rakuten using my referral link you can start earning cash back too and I’ll get a small bonus for referring you. These little bits of referral income help me keep the blog going.

My online/blog income was $0. That is pretty much the norm now.

I received $36.06 in interest. I received a $100 bonus from Fidelity for opening a brokerage account and $50 from BBVA for opening a checking account. I was probably one of the last people to not have a Venmo account. Venmo offered a $10 bonus for signing up so now I’ve finally got a Venmo account.

This month’s income is uncertain. I want to see if I can make a decent income from selling on eBay and elsewhere. How was your month?