Expense/Income Tracking

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for September.

Household	$339.25
Rent	$450
Entertainment	$25.52
Transportation	$486.41
Food	$241.49
Travel	$188.02
Phone	$31.69
Student Loan	$132.58
Health	$178.72
Total	$2073.68

My September expenses were crazy high. During the month I purchased a new laptop, paid a speeding ticket, and paid for six months of auto insurance. That trifecta plus travel expenses for my current Thailand trip added up to make my monthly expenses double what I’d like them to be. It might be a while before I’m able to get my monthly expenses back to the $1000 level again.

Buying a new laptop made up most of the household expense. My old one died only a little over two years after I purchased it. It was out of warranty and my diagnosis after consulting YouTube and Google was that I had a fried motherboard which would not be cost effective to fix. My other big household expense was internet. I have to pay $50 a month for three more months and after that my internet will be free as long as I stay in my apartment. This expense should go way down this month.

Entertainment was for movies concessions and one month of Hulu. This expense will probably go up this month since I am traveling for two weeks.

A speeding ticket of almost $120 and $279 for six months of liability insurance combined to make a very expensive month for transportation expenses. The insurance was unavoidable and expected – although it did go up about $50 due to my move to KC – so I don’t feel bad about that. The speeding ticket was avoidable and was just a stupid expense since I had no reason to be speeding. This expense category should go way down this month.

My food expense continues to be ridiculously high. It was about $40 less than the prior month so there was a little improvement at least. I’m eating out way too much and buying too much expensive junk food. Even though I’m traveling the first two weeks of this month and will thus be eating out almost every meal I think I can reduce this expense quite a bit. Food is a lot cheaper in Thailand. Combining that savings with making smarter choices and eating less should result in a lower food bill this month.

My travel expense was mainly for three intra-Thailand flights and travel insurance. My dentist in Thailand changed my appointment dates at the last minute which is going to cause me to not be able to use the flights. They are non-refundable fares on a low-cost carrier and the change fee is more than the cost of the fare so the flights will end up being wasted money. I’m not too happy about that. This expense will probably be about the same this month.

My phone bill returned to a normal level. My data use will likely go up this month and I already made an international call so this expense will go up at least a little.

My health expense was for one month of health insurance, one month’s dues for a fitness center membership and the $40 annual fee for my fitness center membership. The fitness center membership wasn’t a good value in September since I only worked out once the entire month. This expense will go down this month.

Even though I’m traveling in Thailand the first two weeks of this month I expect my overall expenses to be much lower this month. Most of my trip expenses were paid before this month so the travel won’t inflate my total expenses much. Having much lower household and transportation expenses this month should result in a more reasonable level of expenses this month. How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my income for August.

Interest	$3.29
Amazon FBA	(4.59)
Uber	$208.02
Ebay/Other Selling	$25.31
Cashback	$56.07
Dividends	$13.29
Focus Group	$100
Unemployment	$640
Mystery Shop	$19
Amazon Merch	$2.21
Job	$433.49
Total	$1496.09

My income improved in August after a few poor months. I collected a couple weeks of unemployment and then started a new job the last week of the month which helped increase my income quite a bit.

Amazon FBA income was negative for the month. I sold one item and it was returned before the month was over. Whenever an item is returned I have to eat some fees which is what caused the loss this month. I have had terrible luck with items getting returned this year. I haven’t been selling much on FBA and with my results so far this year I don’t plan to sell much more there.

I’m going to do more selling on eBay and Facebook Marketplace. I had a couple of small sales on those platforms giving me a profit of $25.31 for the month.

My online income was negative. I had to pay to renew a domain name and I did not have any income during the month. That isn’t too surprising since I haven’t been posting or doing much else online. I’m still considering making a new wager with HealthyWage and blogging about the process which will hopefully lead to some affiliate commissions. I need to lose some weight before I can make another wager though. My links for Bluehost (aff link) and  (aff link) Hostgator for web hosting didn’t result in any commissions. I’ll keep trying. I need to do some review posts or something different to create interest.

Dividend income was up some since more of my stocks pay quarterly dividends in August. I do my dividend investing with Robinhood. 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 $100 from participating in a focus group. They send me emails about focus groups every month but I usually don’t qualify. For this focus group they invited more participants than they needed. They ended up not choosing me for this group after I showed up but I still got paid the same $100 I would have received for participating. That was a pretty good deal.

I made a tiny bit from shirt sales on Amazon Merch. I paid $30 last year to have a couple of designs made and I haven’t recouped that money yet. I think I’ll get it back eventually. I need to research how to promote my designs. I might write more about my efforts to make money with Amazon Merch later this year.

I drove some for Uber to make some extra money. Now that I have a job I won’t be driving for Uber any more.

The big change to my income was getting rehired to the document review job. That will give me the opportunity to significantly increase my income over what it has been the past few months. I’m allowed to work 60 hours per week at the doc review job. There is no overtime pay for hours over 40 though. I plant to work over 40 hours every week to get my savings back to the level they were earlier this year. Since I can work more hours at my job and make a guaranteed return it doesn’t make much sense to invest a lot of time in alternative ways to make income. There will be fewer sources of income this month.

Although I had several sources of income, none of them add up to very much. The job is what provides me with a decent amount of income. I already have a two-week vacation scheduled for October, but after that I plan to work straight through next summer and work two jobs during tax season in order to build up a significant cushion of savings.

How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for August.

Household	$60.58
Rent	$450
Entertainment	$76.34
Transportation	$147.75
Food	$295.22
Travel	$4.96
Phone	$39.49
Student Loan	$132.58
Health	$134.24
Total	$1341.16

My August expenses were once again much higher than I would have preferred. My spending has been a little out of control since returning from Thailand. I’ve had more self-control the past few days so I think I can make this month a better spending month.

Internet made up most of the household expense. I have to pay $50 a month for four months and after that my internet will be free as long as I stay in my apartment.

Entertainment was all for movies and concessions. I signed up for Regal Theatre’s Unlimited Movie Pass and they charged both the August and September charges in August. October’s payment isn’t scheduled until October 2. If I can keep from buying concessions I should be able to see several movies this month and still have no entertainment expense for the month.

The transportation expense was all for gas. I visited my Mom a couple of times and drove for Uber which inflated this expense a bit. Although I won’t be driving for Uber my gas expense will probably be about the same this month. The commute for my document review job will keep my gas expense high.

My food expense was even more ridiculous than last month. My eating was out of control. I was buying junk food and fast food all of the time. I’ve now gained back 17 of the 18 pounds I lost while in Thailand. This month I will eat much less and start losing weight again. I should be able to cut this expense in half.

My travel expense was for the taxes for redeeming a free hotel night. My round trip air from Kansas City to Bangkok and 5 other hotel nights cost me nothing out of pocket since I used credit card rewards. This month I need to book some intra-Thailand flights which will cost me some money so this expense will go up quite a bit this month.

My phone bill had a little more data usage than normal since I drove for Uber several days. This month it should return to a normal level.

My health expense was for one month of health insurance and one month’s dues for a fitness center membership. This expense should be about the same this month.

Now that I’m back to work I think I’ll be able to get my expenses under control. The overall expense level this month might not go down much since I need to pay some travel expenses for next month’s Thailand trip. However, the wasteful spending on entertainment and food should be much less. How was your month?

This morning I went to the fitness center and had a short workout. After that I once again had a craving for breakfast sandwiches. I ended up going to Mcdonald’s and having two breakfast sandwiches and a large Diet Coke. That cost me a total of $5.40. I’m going to have to start having breakfast before I leave in the morning or just not take any money with me so I won’t have the option of going out for breakfast.

I stayed at the Mcd’s for a long time, reading a magazine and getting refills on my soda. I prefer Coke Zero to Diet Coke. This location didn’t have Coke Zero, but that didn’t seem to cause me to drink any less soda.

After returning home I laid down and read a book for a while. As I was sipping on my last refill of Diet Coke that I took home, I decided some Doritos would go really well with the remaining Diet Coke. I was craving Taco Doritos, but I knew the stores closest to me didn’t carry that variety. I was too lazy to go to the store three miles away that has Taco Doritos and settled for purchasing Nacho Cheese Doritos at the store that is less than a mile from me. The store close to me also has a lower regular price for Doritos. The bag of Doritos cost $2.61 with tax.

After getting home I proceeded to eat the entire bag of Doritos while reading and drinking the rest of my Diet Coke. I might have a little problem with binge eating. Although I enjoyed the first few bites of chips, by the time I was at the bottom of the bag I was just mindlessly shoveling them in. Once I start eating a bag of chips I have a hard time stopping before they are all gone. I need to stop buying chips or only buy very small bags.

I read all afternoon. Late afternoon, I decided to have a potato. Although I wasn’t hungry I thought it would be good to have something in my stomach besides the Doritos to help calm my stomach. I stuck a potato in the microwave for five minutes. It wasn’t quite done so I put it back in for three more minutes. That was way too long. I probably should have only put it back in for one more minute. I tried to eat the potato but it was too overcooked to be edible. That concluded my eating for the day. Not having the potato after I was anticipating having one has me wanting to eat a potato now. Maybe I will have one for breakfast tomorrow.

In addition to the fast food meal and chips, I also bought a scale from Amazon. My thought is that weighing myself more frequently might lead me to take action to lose weight. The scale was bought with a free gift card I got from Swagbucks so I’m not adding the purchase to my daily spending.

After the potato fiasco, I walked to the library and returned the book I had finished reading during the afternoon. From the library I walked to the park and walked the one mile trail around the park. I live in a very walkable area and should walk more than I do.

Today wasn’t a great day for eating. Although I didn’t spend much, the spending I did do was unnecessary. Today might have been a tiny bit better than yesterday. Tomorrow will be better.

Here is a breakdown of my income for July.

Interest	$4.07
Amazon FBA	$1.78
Uber	$221.12
Ebay/Other Selling	$75.06
Cashback	$17.50
Dividends	$7.06
Coin Deal	$45.30
Amazon Merch	$5.11
Online	($9.06)
Total	$367.94

My income for July was very disappointing. I hoped to be able to quickly find a job and start making money once I returned from Thailand. So far I haven’t had any luck landing a job. I’m hopeful I will get a job this month.

Amazon FBA income was tiny. I haven’t been finding a lot of stuff to sell and haven’t been doing great with the stuff I have found. I did have some luck selling in July. I found an old Commodore monitor at a garage sale for $1 and was able to turn around and sell it on Facebook Marketplace for $75.

My online income was negative. I had to pay to renew a domain name and I did not have any income during the month. That isn’t too surprising since I haven’t been posting or doing much else online. I’m still considering making a new wager with HealthyWage and blogging about the process which will hopefully lead to some affiliate commissions. I need to lose some weight before I can make another wager though. My links for Bluehost (aff link) and  (aff link) Hostgator for web hosting didn’t result in any commissions. I’ll keep trying. I need to do some review posts or something different to create interest.

Dividend income was down a little since July is an off month. It should be a little higher this month. I do my dividend investing with Robinhood. 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 also made a little money with a coin flip deal and from shirt sales on Amazon Merch. The coin flip deals are easy money but they don’t happen very often. I might write more about my efforts to make money with Amazon Merch although I haven’t been very successful so far.

I drove some for Uber to make some extra money. Although it appears to be decent money, once you subtract gas and maintenance expenses the hourly rate is rather poor. I also had a near accident which has caused me to stop driving for Uber for now.

Although I had several sources of income, none of them add up to very much. I really need to find a job to start making decent money again now.

How was your month?