Expense/Income Tracking

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for May.

May’s  expenses were way higher than normal but my expenses should be back under control this month.  The household expense was high because I had to pay rent on two places for a while plus I had a couple of application fees.  The transportation expense was high because I made many three hours each-way trips from K.C. to Springfield and back.  The transportation expense isn’t quite as bad as it seems though because some of mileage I was reimbursed for by the Census Bureau and mileage for my mystery shopping will be deductible.  My transportation expense will go down this month since I shouldn’t have any long trips although I probably will be doing a fair amount of driving for my mystery shops.  The travel expense is for my honeymoon/wedding trip.  This isn’t too bad for two round-trip tickets, three nights hotel, and ground transportation to and from the airport.  There is a small possibility that I will get some of this comped back to me.  There shouldn’t be any travel expense this month although there might be a small bit of wedding expense.  My other expenses should remain roughly the same this month.  I’m hoping I will be able to get my expenses under $1000 this month.

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for April.

April’s expenses were not too bad.  They did total less than $1000 which is a goal I always shoot for.   My expenses could have been much lower but I spent a lot in the transportation category this month.  This is because I paid for six months of car insurance and I spent a lot on gas visiting my GF who lives three hours away from me.  I consider that money well spent.  Tracking all my expenses does help with my budgeting but I doubt I will be able to get my expenses any lower this month.  I will be visiting my GF every weekend and driving my car for my job.  I will be getting reimbursed for my mileage for my job.  I’m not sure how I will account for that on my expenses.  I will probably just count the mileage reimbursement as income and my car expenses as expenses.  I did manage to keep my food expenses under $100 last month and until the end of the month when I went on a fast-food binge I was well under.  I think I should be able to match or beat that this month as long as I can keep my fast-food cravings under control.   My other expenses should be about the same this month.