Expense/Income Tracking

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for October.

My October expenses were pretty low considering I went on a cruise at the end of the month.  My expenses were over my stretch goal of $1000, but only because I had $153 of travel expense due to the cruise vacation.  It looks like I should meet my goal of keeping my expenses for the year under the sum of a minimum wage income even with the additional cost of the cruise.

The rest of the cost of the cruise vacation will be spread out over the next two months.  Since my travel rewards card has a 0% interest rate for the next few months it won’t cost me anything to delay paying off the cruise.  During that time I will earn a bit more in points on my credit card that will help reduce the cost of the vacation.

Food cost was very low during October.  This was helped by the fact that I did a lot of fast food mystery shops and the fact that I was on a cruise for the last four days of the month.  I should be contributing more toward the grocery bill which will increase my food cost.

Other than the travel expense and food I expect the other expenses to remain very similar in November.

Here is a breakdown of my income for October.

October was not a great month for income.  I knew it wouldn’t be great since I didn’t have any income from a job.  I’m hoping I can find a decent job in November to get my income back up.  Online income was higher than I expected which was a nice surprise.  It would be nice if it stayed at that level this month, but I doubt it will.  October was the first month in a long time that I didn’t make even a penny in affiliate income.  The affiliate income I was paid in October was earned in previous month.

Cash back is a nice extra source of income that mainly comes from Mr. Rebates.  The cash back income should go up a little as more people are doing their Christmas shopping.  I need to get my comics listed for sale this month.  That is my best chance at making decent money other than getting a new job.

My tax job should start back up again in January.  I can easily live off my alternative and passive income and savings until then, but I would prefer to build up my savings rather than draw them down.

September was a good month for saving.  I made $2304.71 and saved $1000 for 43.3% of my income saved.  This was below my goal of saving 50% of my income, but I am still on track for the year.  I lowered my SWR to 49.28% from 52.2% the month before.  I’ve finally gotten my SWR back below the 50% mark.  Although it is still a long way from my goal of a 4% SWR it is good to see progress.

The 4% SWR translates into having 25x your annual expenses in savings or 300 months of expenses in savings. Once I reach that point I will consider myself financially independent.  I have 24.34 months of living expenses saved now.  It is nice to have two years of living expenses in savings.  I’m now basically at the same point I was at the end of April.  I hope I’ll be able to make more progress the rest of the year.  October will probably see me go backwards again since I won’t be making much money and will be spending quite a bit for our cruise.  I’ll have to really step up my earnings and decrease my expenses in November and December to make up for October and end the year on a good note.

Here is a breakdown of my income for September.

September was a decent month for income.  Although my job ended in early September I still received two paychecks for the month, although one was only for a week.  My alternative sources of income didn’t contribute as much as usual.  Online income seems to be stuck at a low level and I’m not currently doing anything to change that so it will probably remain there.  I didn’t do any mystery shopping in August since I was busy working and had overtime available.  I will have mystery shopping income for October and I’ll probably get around to selling some stuff too.  Cash back is a nice extra source of income that mainly comes from Mr. Rebates.  October won’t be a great month for income since I don’t plan on getting a job during October and my alternative income and passive income doesn’t come close to the income I make from jobs.  I’ll look for a job in November.  My tax job starts in January, but I need to make money before that if I am to continue my 50% savings rate.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for September.

My September expenses were just slightly higher than I’d prefer.  My expenses were over my stretch goal of $1000, but under my main goal of keeping them under $1274 a month.

I spent $125.39 to replace my automatic window motor and regulator in my car.  Without that I would have been very close to having my expenses under $1000.  I did do the repair myself which kept it from being even more expensive.  I also had to transport my brother almost 200 miles after he was stranded in KC, which increased my gas expenditure a bit.

I was gone about half the month on my hike.  It didn’t really increase my expenses since I slept for free in my car except for two hotel stays that were free with my travel rewards card.  Food was about the same because I eat out a lot whether I’m at home or traveling.  I did keep the cost of food down a little by doing some mystery shops and taking advantage of specials and the dollar menu.

My expenses for October should be about the same.  I do plan on hiking and/or biking some more.  I’ll also be attending the Financial Bloggers Conference.  Those two things will make my expenses a little higher than normal, but since I’ll be doing both on the cheap they won’t make a big difference.

I’m okay with my current level of expenses considering the traveling I’m doing.  I’m hoping I can reduce the expenses some later in the year.