Expense/Income Tracking

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for May.

Household	$819.66
Rent	$304.66
Entertainment	$0
Transportation	$16.46
Food	$124.25
Travel	($11.20)
Phone	$42.57
Health	$50
Total	$1346.40

My May expenses were high compared to last month’s extremely low expenses. My necessary expenses were actually quite low. My expenses for the month were only high due to making cash gifts.

I didn’t have any entertainment expense at all again this month. With everything being closed there is nowhere for me to go to spend money on entertainment.

Transportation expense was for $20 of gas and $6.46 for a flat tire repair kit. My auto insurance company issued me a $10 refund reducing this small total even more. That is about as low as this expense can get as long as I still have a car.

My travel expense for the month was negative $11.20. I received a refund of taxes from cancelling a couple of flights. I’m waiting for a refund of taxes from a third cancelled flight. Since I don’t know when I’ll be allowed to travel to the countries I want to visit I’m not yet making any travel plans. I doubt I’ll spend any money on travel this month.

My food expense went up quite a bit. I had way too many takeout meals and I wasn’t as good at only buying bargains as I was in April. This expense is still pretty low compared to my average spending over the last couple of years. I think I’ll be able to reduce this expense a little this month.

My phone bill was higher than normal. This was due to having to use my phone as a hotspot. We had a big storm earlier in the month which left us with no power and no internet for three days. Since I needed internet to work my doc review job, I used my phone as a hotspot for a few hours. The rest of the time I went to my aunt’s house and worked from there. Spending a bit more on my phone bill made sense since it allowed me to earn a lot more than the extra data cost.

My health expense was $50 for a doctor visit. I probably won’t have any health expense this month.

Household expense was the big expense category for the month. I donated $300 to various charities as a way of giving back some of the stimulus money I received. This will also allow me to take a $300 charitable deduction on next year’s taxes. I also paid about $500 to buy new siding for my mom’s house. A couple of walls as well as the roof were damaged in the storm. Since the roof was nineteen years old, insurance didn’t cover the full cost of replacing the roof. I’m paying some of the expense of replacing the siding to help offset what she has to pay out of pocket.

Without the $800 of money I gave to others, my expenses would have been under $600. I will be paying more home repair expenses for my mom this month so my expense level will be even higher this month. Otherwise, I would expect to have a low expense month.

How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my income for April.

Interest	$13.28
Amazon FBA	($0.33)
Stimulus	$1200
Cashback	$6.03
Online	$102.97
Dividends	$15.01
Job	$2658.77
Amazon Merch	$4.42
Mystery Shop	$7.00
Class Action	$22
Total	$4029.15

My income for April was down a bit compared to the previous month, but still quite solid. Considering my expenses were only $616 for the month, my income to expense ratio was great.

My Amazon FBA side hustle again made negative income for the month. Amazon isn’t allowing non -essential items to be sent in right now, and the few items I do have in stock aren’t selling. Once things open up again I’ll send in my remaining items.

Dividend income was down a bit. I sold some of my dividend stocks in my taxable account so that I could max out my Roth IRA account for 2019. That also allowed me to harvest some capital losses. Due to the sale my dividend income will go down more until I can buy some more stocks again. 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 $102.97 in online income from hitting the payout threshold for Adsense. That might be my only online income for the year. The domain name for Investorzblog.com is up for renewal this month. I’m considering letting it expire. If anyone is interested in purchasing the domain let me know.

Job income was down quite a bit since my tax job ended on April 16th. Although the tax filing deadline was extended my company didn’t extend the end date of my seasonal position. I was also out of work for a couple of weeks at my full-time job due to the general economic slowdown. I’m back at work now and my current project should last almost all this month. Hopefully, there will be another project after that.

The stimulus check added $1200 to my income. I got paid $7 for one mystery shop, $4.42 from Amazon Merch and I received $22 from a random class action settlement. None of those sources of income should repeat this month.

Income for this month will likely be down a little since I will only have one job. Income should still greatly exceed expenses so I can’t complain.

How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for April.

Household	$3.00
Rent	$450
Entertainment	$0
Transportation	$38.25
Food	$77.33
Travel	$8.80
Phone	$27.72
Health	$10.99
Total	$616.09

My April expenses were extremely low. This might be the lowest expense month I’ve had in the over 10 years I’ve tracked my expenses here on the blog. I was easily able to keep my total expenses under my $1000 a month target. Working at home and sheltering in place made it easy to not spend money.

I didn’t have any entertainment expense at all this month. My usual form of entertainment is going to the movies and that wasn’t possible in April leading to zero spending on entertainment. They might open movie theaters back up this month. I’m not sure if I will go if they do open. If not, there is a good chance I’ll have no entertainment expense again this month.

Transportation expense was for $37.25 of gas and $1 for a car wash. This month will probably be about the same. It might be even lower since I’m doing so little driving now.

My travel expense for the month was $8.80. This was the annual fee on my IHG credit card minus a refund of taxes and fees from a canceled plane ticket. Paying the annual fee on my IHG card entitles me to a free hotel night. I have a year to use the free night so I’ll surely be able to find a good use of it in that time.

My food expense was ridiculously low. I had a good stock of groceries to start the month. That combined with not being able to go out to eat saved me a lot of money. This expense will probably be a little bit higher this month. The current situation has allowed me to finally get my food spending under control.

My phone bill was a tiny bit lower than normal. Working from home allowed me to use wifi all the time rather than my phone’s data lowering my phone bill a little bit. My phone bill will usually be in the $28-$35 range and I expect it be in that range this month.

My health expense was $10.99 for two refills of my blood pressure medicine. I had a doctor visit during the month. I think it qualified as my free annual checkup. If I get a bill for that this month, then this expense will be higher. If not, this expense will probably be $0 this month.

Household expense was $3 for laundry.

This month I expect my expenses will go up slightly, but I should easily keep my expenses under $1000. How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my income for March.

Interest	$8.85
Amazon FBA	($0.32)
Federal Tax Refund	$3219
Bank Bonus	$100
Online	($8.76)
Dividends	$22.52
Jobs	$2530.90
Total	$5872.19

My March income was higher than normal due to receiving my federal tax refund.

My Amazon FBA side hustle once again made negative income for the month. I didn’t make any sales and had to pay a small storage fee. Now isn’t a good time to be selling non-essential items.

Dividend income was up a little bit. Some of my stocks will probably cut or suspend their dividend over the next few months, but that hasn’t happened yet. 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 had negative online income for the month. I paid to renew a domain name. I will be getting an Adsense payout this month so I’ll have my first profitable month of the year.

Job income was down a bit since I was off a couple of weeks from my full-time job as they transitioned everyone from working at the office to being remote workers.

March was a pretty good month financially. I had almost $6000 in income and less than $1000 in expenses. This month income will be down quite a bit since my tax job is still ending April 17th even though the tax filing season has been extended. I’m not sure if my full-time job will last all month either.

How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for March.

Household	$15.28
Rent	$450
Entertainment	$19.89
Transportation	$301.26
Food	$139.60
Travel	$0
Phone	$30.07
Health	$16
Total	$972.10

My March expenses were quite low. I was easily able to keep my total expenses under my $1000 a month target. Working at home and sheltering in place made it easy to not spend money.

My only entertainment expense was my Regal Unlimited monthly membership fee. I was able to see several movies the first part of the month before they closed the theaters. My membership is suspended while the theaters are closed so I won’t have this expense this month. I probably won’t have any entertainment expense at all this month.

Transportation expense was for $77 of gas, $1 for a car wash and $223 for six months of liability insurance. The insurance bill wasn’t due until later this month, but I decided to go ahead and pay it since my expenses were so low.

My travel expense was $0 for the month since I can’t be sure when I’ll be able to travel again in the current situation. I’ll be canceling a couple of plane tickets this month so I might have travel income rather than travel expense this month.

My food expense was about $20 lower than the previous month and the lowest it has been in a long time. Not being able to go out to eat saved me a lot of money. I’m also well stocked with groceries so this month’s food expense should be even lower.

My phone bill was normal. It will usually be in the $28-$35 range and I expect it be in that range this month.

My health expense was $16 for a dentist visit. I was supposed to have another visit which was canceled due to the pandemic. I’m not sure when I’ll be back to the dentist. I do have a doctor’s appointment this month since I have to physically see the doctor before they will give me a refill on my blood pressure medicines.

Household expense was $9 for laundry and $6.28 for a pair of pants, safety pins, and a pill splitter.

This month I should easily keep my expenses under $1000. Assuming I don’t have any big, unexpected expenses like a medical problem or car repair. How was your month?