Expense/Income Tracking

November Expenses – $1000.41

by

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for November.

Household

$404.25

Entertainment

$190.60

Transportation

 $187.56

Food

$49.39
Medical/Dental

$57.44

Utilities

$91.17
Debt $20

Total

$1000.41

My expenses for November were at a reasonable level.  I set a goal of keeping them under $1000 a month and I only went 41 cents over so I’m not going to feel bad about that.  Food and transportation were both down significantly this month.  This is because I ate out less often and didn’t drive as much.  Food costs only include when I eat out by myself and the few groceries that I buy for the household.

My transportation expense should be even lower this month unless I buy a couple more tires which I do need to do before too long.  The entertainment total included a couple nights hotel in Kansas City for a quick getaway my wife and I took after Thanksgiving.  There shouldn’t be any getaways this month so that expense should go down.

My household expense might go up a little since I will be including Christmas gifts in that but I have earned a few gift cards from SwagBucks and elsewhere that should keep that cost down. We still didn’t have to turn on our heat in November so utilities should be about the same. Other costs should be about the same as well.

Online Income Report – October 2010

by

Here is a breakdown of my online income for October 2010.

Google Adsense – $338.23

Affiliate Income – $750

Text Link Ads – $48.45

Direct Ads – $33.23

Ehow – $11.89

Total – $1181.80

My online income was over $1000 for the fourth month in a row.  This is great income, especially considering I haven’t done a lot of work on my sites the last couple of months.  My Adsense seems to have recovered from the summer doldrums.  It should remain strong through the winter.  The main source of my income in October was from affiliate income.  I prefer this to the direct ad sales since I think it is more sustainable.  However, the vast majority of this affiliate income was from one limited-time offer.  Whenever the affiliate ends the offer my income will likely nosedive.  This hasn’t happened yet so my November income should still be over $1000.   I’ve been turning down a lot of direct ad offers since I don’t think the money they are offering is worth the risk to my page rank.  My goal for the rest of the year is to diversify my affiliate income and develop my own product.

October Investment Income – $96.04

by

My October investment income rose to $96.04 from $93.78.  This was pretty nice since I didn’t add any money to my investment.  It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to add any money to my investments until at least next year so any increase will have to be from market gains.  I did take some of my accumulated dividends out and invest them in my Roth IRA.  I’m hoping I’ll be able to fully fund my Roth IRA by tax time next year.  Doing so should result in a nice tax credit.

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.

October Income – $2135.84

by

Here is a breakdown of my income for October.

Online Income

$1158.98

Interest

$15.57

Stock Dividends

$22.81

Mystery Shops

$222.17

Bank Bonuses

$10

Survey/Cashback

$26.31

Medical Study

$680

Total

$2135.84

It was a good month for income. My online income not only totaled more than $1000 for the fourth month in a row.  It was down a little from the month before but since I didn’t have any new text link sales I was pleased with it. I should have a good shot at making over $1000 online this month as well. If I continue to make over $2000 a month without a job I won’t be in any rush to get one. My mix of passive and alternative income is working well for me.

If I don’t do a medical study this month my overall income will be down but I’m not worried about it.  My income should still be more than my expenses.

My reported mystery shopping income does not include reimbursements but expenses such as mileage and printing have not been deducted from the total.  With my allowed mileage expense the amount of mystery shopping income I have to pay tax on will be much smaller.  Mystery shopping is like a part time job for me now.  I just do a few shops that I like when I feel like it and try to pick up a few heavily bonused shops at the end of the month.  I like this better than trying to maximize my income by doing every shop available.  I make a little less money but I get a much better hourly rate for the shops I do and have a much lower stress level.

If I continue to make over $2000 a month without a job I won’t be in any rush to get one. My mix of passive and alternative income is working well for me.

October Expenses – $1432.16

by

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for October.

Household

$378.33

Entertainment

$285.37

Transportation

 $468.93

Food

$100.25
Medical/Dental

$57.44

Utilities

$97.52
Debt $30
Bar Expenses $14.32

Total

$1432.16

My expenses for October were a little higher than I prefer.  This was due to my entertainment and transportation expenses being high.  The entertainment expense was high mainly due to out trip to Omaha and should be much smaller this month.  The transportation expenses was high due to the trip to Omaha and my trips to St. Louis for the medical study and I had to pay for six months of insurance.   I will be able to deduct the mileage to St. Louis and some driving I did for mystery shops so this expense isn’t as bad as it looks.  Transportation expense should be down substantially this month.

I came pretty close to hitting my target of $100 a month for food.  This amount is roughly half for groceries and half for eating out.  I plan to adjust this down to $75 a month with most of that amount going towards groceries.  Dinner dates with my wife are included in the entertainment category  and I get several opportunities a month to eat for free from mystery shopping so cutting back to $25 a month for eating out shouldn’t be hard.

I plan to pay more on my debt this month and the other expense categories should remain about the same.