Expense/Income Tracking

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for July.

Household	$144.12
Rent	$225.00
Entertainment	$43.08
Transportation	$273.35
Food	$260.39
Travel	$80.74
Phone	$32.25
Student Loan	$132.58
Health	$135.68
Total	$1327.19

My July expenses were much higher than I would have preferred. After returning home from Thailand I went a little crazy with my spending. I’ll rein my spending back in this month.

New shoes, shelving, and Internet made up most of the household expense. The remaining amount was for laundry, gifts, and various items I needed for my new apartment.

Rent was for half a month’s rent. This expense will be $450 a month until I move again. That is pretty cheap rent for where I live but it is more than I like to pay and it seems expensive compared to Thailand.

Entertainment was all for movies and concessions. I signed up for Regal Theatre’s Unlimited Movie Pass this month. It was just under $20 with tax. If I can keep from buying concessions I will get a lot of entertainment for my money

My transportation expense was high. I did a lot of driving for Uber and traveled between southern Missouri and KC a couple of times. That resulted in a lot of money spent on gas. I also had a $131.25 car repair. Hopefully, I won’t have a car repair this month. I’m also plan to cut back or stop driving for Uber which will save me gas money.

My food expense was ridiculous. I gave myself permission to indulge in all the foods I had been missing when I returned from Thailand which turned into bingeing on junk food and fast food the rest of the month. I’ve already gained back 10 of the 18 pounds I lost in Thailand. This month I will cut the food expense way down and eat much better. I’ll also start losing weight again.

My biggest travel expense was $52.85 for a Holiday Inn Express in Bangkok. I should have stayed at a cheaper hotel or used points to stay elsewhere. The rest of the expense was for buses and shuttles. I’m returning to Thailand the beginning of October and will spend a little this month preparing for that trip.

My phone bill had a little more data usage than I expect to have the next few months. My normal bill will be just a little bit lower.

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

I”m hoping that I do much better at keeping this month’s expenses under control. It will be difficult to keep my expenses under $1000 this month since I now have a $450 rent expense. I’m going to see how close I can get to that goal. How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my income for June.

Interest	$4.77
Amazon FBA	($5.48)
Job	$0
Capital Gains	$234.59
Cashback	$0
Dividends	$17.19
Online	$0
Total	$251.07

My income was quite low again this month . This was to be expected since I am unemployed while in Thailand and I don’t currently earn much from my alternative sources of income. At least June’s income was better than May’s income and even this meager income is almost enough to pay a month’s rent in Thailand. I hope to return to work this month and get at least one paycheck which will make this month a better income month.

Amazon FBA income was negative for the month. I had one sale which was later returned costing me a little over $5 in fees. This month I will send in more inventory to Amazon and should have at least a little bit of profit.

My online income was $0. I did earn a tiny bit of affiliate income from Amazon. That income won’t be counted until it is actually paid. I’m considering making a new wager with HealthyWage and blogging about the process which will hopefully lead to some affiliate commissions. 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.

My dividend income was about the same as the previous month. It will probably be about the same again this month.

Capital gain income was from selling some shares of Red Hat. I also got one free share of stock from Robinhood from a referral. That will be a capital gain for this month since I didn’t get around to selling the free share during June. 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.

How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for June.

Household	$107.91
Rent	$37.78
Entertainment	$59.61
Transportation	$0
Food	$230.31
Travel	$161.29
Phone	$39.58
Student Loan	$132.58
Health	$1078.51
Total	$1847.57

My June expenses were well over my target of $1000 for the month. That was due to having almost $1000 of dental work done in June. Without the dental bill my monthly expense total would have easily been under $1000.

An electric bill of just under $90 made up most of the household expense. The remaining amount was for laundry, a haircut, gifts, and personal hygiene items.

Rent was extremely low since most of June’s rent was paid in May. The reported rent expense amount was for three hotel nights.

Entertainment was for four movies, a Thai massage, and lunch with my girlfriend. That’s a pretty good amount of entertainment for less than $60.

There was no transportation expense in June. I did use local taxis in Pattaya a few times but I decided to include them in travel expenses. This month I will be returning to the States and driving my car so there will be at least a little bit of transportation expense.

My food expense was higher than I’d prefer. It might be my most expensive food month ever. That was expected since I knew I’d be eating at a lot of Western restaurants during the month. I ate out every day, sometimes twice a day. I also bought imported Cheetos and Pepperidge Farm cookies a couple of times during the month. These cost quite a bit more than the Thai versions. Even though I ate a lot of fast food and junk food I still managed to lose weight. This month I expect my food expense to decrease considerably since I’ll be home the second half of the month.

My biggest travel expense was $60 for a thirty day extension to my visa. The other travel expenses were a round-trip plane ticket, a one-way plane ticket, three regional bus tickets, and a few taxi fares.

My phone bill was higher than normal due to using data more often when I didn’t have access to wifi. I should have signed up for a Thai phone plan while I was here. Pausing my Google plan and using the Thai plan while here would have saved me at least $20 and would have only taken about ten minutes to sign up. My laziness cost me a bit of money here.

I got a dental implant during the month which cost me $931.13. I need to come back in 3-6 months to get a crown which will cost me an additional $250 or so. My remaining medical expense was $132.58 for medical insurance and $23.49 for a blood and urine test confirming I’m disease-free.

Considering I got a dental implant during June my monthly expense total was quite low. In the US just paying for the dental implant would have cost more than double what I spent for the implant plus all my normal monthly expenses. Getting dental work done in Thailand pretty much offsets the cost of traveling there for me.

July’s expenses will be lower since I won’t have a big dental bill. My guess is that my monthly expense total will be well under $1000 this month. How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my income for May.

Interest	$6.35
Amazon FBA	$14.20
Job	$0
Free Stock	$4.55
Cashback	$3.99
Dividends	$17.62
Online	$100
Total	$146.71

May was a terrible month for income. This was to be expected since I am unemployed while in Thailand and my non-job sources of income don’t add up to much.

Amazon FBA income consisted of reimbursement for an item that Amazon lost in their warehouse. I only have two items left in inventory. I’m going to lower my price and try to get them sold this month.  When I get back from Thailand I will restock my FBA inventory and try to build it up to where it can cover my monthly expenses.

My online income consisted of an affiliate commission from HealthyWage.  My links for Bluehost (aff link) and  (aff link) Hostgator for web hosting and Namecheap (aff link) for domain names didn’t result in any commissions. I’d like to increase my affiliate commissions. To do that I need to post more consistently and have longer, more helpful posts. So far I’ve been too lazy to do that.

My dividend income was slightly more than the previous month. I sold some of my stocks and invested the proceeds in a stock that doesn’t pay a dividend which will result in lower dividend income until I start buying more dividend stocks again.

I got one share of free stock worth $4.55 from Robinhood from someone signing up using my referral link. If you sign up using my Robinhood referral link we will both get one share of free stock. Thanks to the person who signed up using my link. Every little bit helps.

Due to the lack of job income, this month’s income will also be very small. It will probably be even less than May’s income. In July I should start making money again and will work on building my savings back up.

How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for May.

Household	$122.41
Rent	$298.47
Entertainment	$37.42
Transportation	$0
Food	$180.62
Travel	$132.04
Phone	$14.68
Student Loan	$132.58
Health	$175.59
Total	$1093.81

My May expenses were a little bit over my target of $1000 for the month. For the year, I’m still averaging under $1000 a month. If I were able to keep my monthly average for the entire year under $1000 a month that would be great. That won’t be easy to do since I plan on getting over a $1000 of dental work done this year and there are always unplanned expenses sometime during the year. It will be a good goal to work towards.

Rent was low although not quite as low as I thought it would be. I had to pay about $30 in cleaning fees when I moved out of my room in Uttaradit. I added that to my rent total. I also paid for one month’s rent in Pattaya for May 29th through June 29th. After my month is up I will travel back to Uttaradit and then Bangkok staying in hotel rooms. Thus, there won’t be any rent expense for June. Taking that into consideration my rent total for May looks great.

There was no transportation expense in May. I did purchase a bus ticket from Bangkok to Pattaya and took a taxi to my hotel in Pattaya. Those expenses are both included in my travel expenses. There are cheap buses here in Pattaya which can be taken for about 30 to 60 cents. I haven’t used one yet, but I plan to use them some this month. That will result in there being a few dollars of transportation expense this month.

My food expense was higher than I’d prefer. That is to be expected though since I ate out almost every meal and also bought some meals for my girlfriend. This month my food total will probably be even higher. Pattaya has a variety of Western restaurants which I will eat at often and they are expensive by Thai standards. The Thai food in Pattaya is much more expensive than the Thai food in Uttaradit as well.

The household expense was mainly about $90 for electricity for my room. That was pretty expensive considering my rent was only $140. The temperature was over 100 degrees almost every day which led to using the aircon a lot and the resulting high electric bill. I also bought my girlfriend a small present.

Entertainment was for two movies with concessions and a dinner out with my girlfriend. Most of our dinners I just included in food. The one meal I included in entertainment since it was a fair bit more than I would have spent if I was alone. I saw both of the movies after I arrived in Pattaya. The theater near me has all of their movies available in English so I’ll be spending a lot more at the movies this month.

Travel was for a private car from Uttaradit to Phitsanulok, a plane ticket from Phitsanulok to Bangkok, a bus from Bangkok to Pattaya, a taxi from the Pattaya bus station to my hotel, one night hotel in Pattaya, 3 nights hotel in Uttaradit and one night hotel in Shanghai, China. That is quite a bit of travel for my money. When you consider it is possible to pay $130 for one hotel night, getting 5 hotel nights, a plane ticket, a bus ticket, a private car ride, and a taxi for the same amount is a great deal.

My phone bill was low since I still had some trade-in credit to use up. This month it will be higher since I’ve used all the credit and I use more data on my phone here in Thailand. I expect it to still be a reasonable amount of $30 or so.

I paid about $50 for a dental visit. I’ll be getting a dental implant this month which will cost about $1000. That will obviously result in my medical expense being much higher this month.

May was a decent month for expenses. Even though the cost of living is cheap in Thailand my monthly expenses are still about the same as in the States since I keep my expenses so low.

This month’s expenses will be quite a bit higher due to the large dental bill. Excluding the dental bill, I expect this month’s expenses will be a little lower than May’s expenses.