Expense/Income Tracking

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?

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for June.

Household	$17.34
Mortgage	$355
Entertainment	$32.72
Transportation	$0
Food	$134.17
Phone	$28.74
Health	$39.92
Travel	$343.43
Total	$951.32

My June expenses were surprisingly low and I managed to hit 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, and a couple meals out with friends and/or family.

The mortgage payment was my regular mortgage payment.

Transportation was $0. I didn’t drive much the first half of the month and the second half of the month I was hiking. That resulted in not needing to fill up my gas tank at all during the month.

My food expense was a little over my target amount. That is okay considering I was traveling half the month. There were a few times while hiking I couldn’t eat at fast food restaurants due to them being drive-thru only so I ate at more expensive sit-down restaurants instead. If I’d been able to eat at the cheaper fast food places I’d probably have been right on budget for the month.

My phone bill should be about this much every month.

Household expense was for reading glasses, floss, deodorant, socks, laundry, and a shoe insert to help with foot pain.

Health expense was for my monthly gym dues.

Travel expense broke down as follows. $120.20 for a baggage fee on Delta, taxes on two award flights, early bird check-in for Southwest, and a flight from St. Louis to Fort Leonard Wood. The early bird check-in allowed me to snag an exit row seat with extra legroom. The flight from STL went to a tiny airport that’s only about a half hour from my home. My alternative was to take the bus for just $11 less. I think the flight was easily worth the extra $11.

$158.45 for 4 hotel nights plus a night at a hostel. Two of the hotel nights were free and another was discounted by $30 from a gift card. That is how I managed to get 5 nights for what I could have spent on only one night.

$64.78 for a Lyft ride, an Uber ride, an Amtrak, and several local buses. In the future I need to take consideration the cost of an Uber/Lyft ride when I’m booking flights that will be outside of public transportation hours.

Despite the travel expenses I was still able to keep my expenses under $1000 for the month. I think I can keep my expenses under the $1000 level this month.

How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my income for May.

Interest	$16.35
Amazon FBA	$2.25
Job	$28.27
Cashback	$203.1
Credit Card Bonus	$300
Online Income	($17.52)
Dividends	$27.24
Unemployment	$558
Ebay/Other Selling	$357.03
Total	$1474.72

May’s income was modest. This wasn’t surprising since I was unemployed most of the month. Income was still higher than expenses so I won’t complain.

I made $28.27 from my doc review job. I had a fraction of a day’s pay that carried over to May.

My Amazon FBA side hustle made a teeny tiny bit of money. I only had one sale for the month as I did most of my selling on eBay.

Dividend income came in at $27. 24. That is down from last month which my highest ever monthly amount of dividends. That was just due to not as many of my stocks paying dividends in May. This month is the end of Quarter 2 and I should have over $50 in dividend income for the month for the first time ever. 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 $357.03 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 it more when I get back from my hike.

I also received $203.10 in cash back income. This was helped by some referral bonuses from Rakuten that paid on a quarterly basis. Thanks to those of you who signed up for Rakuten using my referral link. These little bits of referral income help me keep the blog going.

My online/blog income was -$17.52. I paid to register my domain names at a new registrar and didn’t have any blog income. The new registrar is a little bit cheaper.

I received $16.35 in interest and $558 from unemployment.

Lastly, I received $300 for signing up for a new credit card.

This month’s income will probably be even lower since I’ll be traveling and not actively making money. How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for May.

Household	$16.34
Mortgage	$355
Entertainment	$101.60
Transportation	$151.45
Food	$154.3
Phone	$26.67
Health	$39.92
Travel	$258.2
Total	$1103.48

My May expenses were lower than my April Expenses. I didn’t quite hit 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, a couple meals out with friends, seeing a movie with popcorn and soda, and a new tent for backpacking. I returned the tent I bought last month since I was skeptical of its quality. I took the refund as an Amazon credit and bought the new tent elsewhere so the refund didn’t reduce the cost of the new tent.

The mortgage payment was my regular mortgage payment.

Transportation was $106.45 for gasoline and $45 to get my car unlocked when I locked my keys in the car while out of town. .

My food expense remained high. It was at least a little lower than the previous month. Even at what I consider a high level it is still fairly reasonable. I plan to spend less on food this month.

My phone bill should be about this much every month.

Household expense was for flip flops, ant poison, and a haircut.

Health expense was for my monthly gym dues.

Travel expense was for a one way flight from SGF to ALB that will get me back to the Appalachian Trail to hike later this month. .

I think I can get my expenses back down to close to the $1000 level this month. It will depend on how much I spend while hiking and whether any unexpected expenses pop up.

How was your month?