Expense/Income Tracking

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for February.

My February expenses were about the same as my January expenses. My goal is to keep my monthly expenses under $1000.  Although I usually miss that goal I usually come close. The last time I made my expense goal was February of last year. That is a long streak of not meeting my expense goal that I need to break. If this month doesn’t have any unexpected expenses and I don’t go on my hiking I should be able to break the streak. Of course, most months do have unexpected expenses.

My medical expense was a little higher than normal due to a dentist appointment. I actually had a dentist appointment and a periodontist appointment. There was no charge for the periodontist appointment since it was a continuation of the dental implant process that I paid for last year.

My food expense was way too high due to eating fast food way too often. This month I’m aiming to cut the food expense in half.

The travel expense was the $95 annual fee for my Chase Ink credit card. I’ll be receiving a bonus worth about $725 towards travel from this card making it well worth paying the annual fee.

I’m hoping to take a week-long hiking trip on the Appalachian Trail this month. If I’m able to do that then my expenses will likely go up a bit. I worked at a document review all seven days of last week. The job is scheduled to restart on Thursday and continue through the 11th or possibly the 18th. Since I will probably also have follow-up dentist and doctor appointments later this month I might not have time to take the hiking trip.  I’m willing to delay the hike a little bit to bolster my financial situation, but I definitely want to hike in April. If the trip gets put off too long it might not happen.

Here is a breakdown of my income for January.

My income went down quite a bit in January. This wasn’t totally unexpected since I knew my Amazon FBA income would be down after the Christmas rush. On the plus side I did at least make more than my expenses. In order to get ahead financially I will need to make quite a bit more than this though.

One way I hope to increase my income this month is by driving more for Uber. I’ve already made more this month than I did last month. I won’t be going on my hiking trip since it appears  Shenandoah is going to get a lot of snow. Not going on the hike will give me more time to make money this month. Hopefully, I can get my February income at least to the $2000 mark.

In order to keep track of my financial progress or lack of progress I have decided to calculate my net worth each month.

My net worth as of today (2/2/2016) is as follows.

Assets
Cash – $2012.63
IRA – $20,651.40
Roth IRA – $9299.93
Loan – $900
Car/Stuff – $5000

Liabilities
Credit Card – $4400.00
Student Loan – $126,334.94

Net Worth = $-92,870.92

My net worth decreased $1101.34 in January. A big part of the decrease was due to the stock market reducing the value of my IRAs. The almost $600 monthly interest on my student loan didn’t help either.

On the bright side I was able to reduce my credit card balance by almost $2600. Once I have this credit card paid off I plan to take advantage of another 0% credit card balance transfer offer to pay down my student loan.

It will be difficult to make much progress this month.  The stock market will have to help me out in order for me to be able to increase my net worth since I don’t think I’ll increase my income this month.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for January.

My January expenses were pretty low. I would have easily kept my expenses under my target of $1000 if it weren’t for having to get four new tires at an expense of $350. Other than that there were not surprise expenditures during the month. I’m hoping for no surprise expenditures this month. This month’s expenses should be about the same. I’m considering on going on a one-week hike. If I do that then my travel and gas expenses will be higher than normal. Even if I do go on the trip I should be able to keep my expenses pretty low. There are only 29 days this month to spend money which should help a little bit.

My expenses in 2015 were over $1000 higher than in 2014. My expenses for 2015 went up to $16,999.41 compared to $15,775.65 in 2014.  The increased expenses was due to a significant increase in medical and dental bills. I also bought a car in 2015. The purchase price isn’t included in these expenses, but all the related expenses are. When I sell or otherwise dispose of the car the amount of the capital loss will be recorded as an expense. I also paid several thousand dollars extra towards my student loan which I am not including in these expenses. These expenses do include the amount of student loan payments I was required to make. I’ve decided to leave out the extra payments since they distort what my spending looks like.

My biggest expense for the year was medical and dental bills for a total of $5976.44. This included about $1000 in health insurance premiums, about $2700 in dental bills, and a little over $2000 for medical bills and medicine. In addition to that I spent quite a bit on medical bills due to my accident. That spending isn’t included since I was reimbursed by the driver’s insurance company. I think I spent more on medical bills and had more doctor appointments this year than I had in the last 10 years combined. I’m hoping this year will be much better. I do have to get my dental implants finished. Most of that expense has already been paid for so I’m hoping what is left isn’t too expensive.

My second biggest expense for the year was housing at $4800.  This is a pretty good deal for housing and I expect it to stay about the same this year.

The rest of my expenses are $401.03 for my cell phone, $1972.03 for my student loan, $44.67 for car maintenance, $51.52 for gifts, $400.21 for household expenses, $710.34 for groceries, $738.90 for dining out, $827.13 on gasoline, $525.80 for entertainment, $392.34 for travel, and $159 for the city bus.

Out of all those expenses I got the most value from the money spent on travel.  The $392.34 covered round trip airfare for 2 from KC to Buffalo, round trip airfare for 2 from KC to Las Vegas, and round trip airfare for 2 from KC to Portland. It also covered at least seven hotel nights, a rental car, and more.  A combination of credit card sign up bonuses, Southwest Rapid Rewards, and the Southwest Companion Pass allowed us to get exceptional value for our travel dollars.  There was also a second Las Vegas trip where I tagged along on my GF’s work trip resulting in an almost free trip. My only expense for that trip was my airfare (paid for with points, I only had to pay the $5.60 security fee) and a bus from the airport to the hotel.

The car maintenance bill will definitely go up this year since I just bought 4 new tires. The student loan expense will go down since my required payment will be going down in a couple of months when my IBR resets. I’ll still be paying extra on the loan though. I probably won’t have a city bus expense this year since I have a car. The other expenses will likely remain about the same. If I’m correct about my medical and dental bills going down this year than 2016 should be less expensive than 2015. I’m sure there will be some surprises this year, but I’m going to be optimistic and guess that they will all be happy surprises or at least not expensive surprises.