Expense/Income Tracking

September Expenses – $1864.21

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for September.

Household

$345.58

Entertainment

$170.05

Transportation

 $141.83

Food

$99
Medical/Dental

$57.44

Utilities

$86.63
Debt $30
Bar App Fees $933.68

Total

$1864.21

My expenses were reasonable last month.  I made my goal of keeping my expenses under $1000 not counting bar application fees.  Most of the reduction in expenses was in the transportation category because I cut back on long drives for mystery shopping and didn’t have to drive to St. Louis for a clinical trial like the month before.  Transportation will be expensive again this month because I’ll likely be doing a study in St. Louis and have a trip to Omaha scheduled.

I was also happy that I kept my food expense below $100 for the month.  That will be difficult to do this month with all the traveling but it is achievable.

Entertainment expenses were too high.  Much of it was for a birthday dinner for my stepdaughter.  That won’t happen again this month but we have a trip planned so this expense will probably still be high.

Other expenses, except for the bar application fees, should remain about the same.

Online Income Report – August 2010

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It was another great month for online income.  I made over $1000 for the second month in a row.  There is a good chance I will make over $1000 this month as well.  It just depends on whether one of my affiliate companies pays me on time.  I’m reporting the money I actually received rather than the money I earned.  Since I generally don’t receive money until the month after I earn it my online income reports are more reflective of my earnings for the prior month.

Here are my income sources for August.

Google Adsense – $265.99

Text Links – $43.12

Affiliate Sales – $91

Direct Ad Sales – $727.97

Total   $1128.08

I’m not sure how long I can continue selling the ads without killing my page rank but I’m probably going to find out.  I’ve already made almost as much in direct ad sales this month as last month.  My Google Adsense revenue will be way up this month because I had an article featured on Yahoo Finance that brought a lot of very clicky traffic to one of my other sites.  I’m trying to build up my affiliate income so my revenue streams will be more diversified.  I have made some progress but I am still in the process of trying to improve it further.  My goal of making a full-time living from my web sites no longer seems too far-fetched.

August Investment Income – $91.96

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My August investment income rose slightly to $91.96 from 90.62 the month before.  I did add $150 to my IRA which accounted for most of the gain.  My stocks have not gone up much this year but the S&P 500 is down for the year so I guess I should be happy that I have a gain at all.

Disclaimer: This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement savings, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings. What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income. My goal is to get this amount to $1000 a month. If I have $1000 in monthly passive investment income I will be able to retire early.  You can see what my actual investment income for the month was by looking at my monthly income report and adding the interest and dividend amounts.

August Income – $1445.82

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Here is a breakdown of my income for August.

Online Income

$1101.00

Interest

$22.50

Stock Dividends

$12.90

Mystery Shops

$192.23

Bank Bonuses

$7.76

Survey/Cashback

$9.23

Job

$100.20

Total

$1445.82

It was a good month for income.  My income was higher than my expenses which is one of my goals.  I need to get my income up to about $2000 a month or more though to make progress on building up my savings.

I was pleased that my online income was its highest ever and once again was over $1000.  It won’t likely be that high this month but it should still be pretty good if I receive the affiliate checks that are due me.

Mystery shop income will be up a little this month.  Since most of the payments lag about a month behind I already have a good idea of what I will make this month.  The mystery shop total is my the actual income I receive before expenses.  It does not include reimbursements which were about $100 in August.

Job income will be up a lot for this month.  Although  I have already quit the job I still have a couple of paychecks coming.

August Expenses – $1326.82

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for August.

Household

$374.48

Entertainment

$211.33

Transportation

 $454.13

Food

$121.24
Medical/Dental

$57.44

Utilities

$68.20
Debt $40

Total

$1326.82

My expenses for August were about the same as they were in July.  There were a couple of things that inflated my expenses for August.  I bought two new tires for my car and I registered for a marathon.  Even without the new tires my transportation expenses for August were too high.  I have been trying to cut back on that but I drive a lot to make money.  I put the marathon under entertainment expense.  My entertainment expense also needs to be seriously reduced.  Food also can be reduced a little.  Everything else will remain about the same. I’m hoping to get my expenses under $1000 this month not counting my bar exam registration fee.