Expense/Income Tracking

2009 Expenses – $12,090.99

by

My total expenses for 2009 were $12,090.99.  That does not include the purchase price of my car although it does include all other car expenses associated with the car purchase such as the sales tax and registration.  It doesn’t include business expenses either as those are deducted from my business income.

I’m fairly satisfied with that total although I want to do better this year.  I had a goal of keeping my expenses under $10,000 last year which I obviously did not meet.  I did come close to my backup goal of keeping my expenses at $1000 a month.  Considering I spent over $1000 on travel and over $1500 on entertainment it is surprising I came as close to meeting my goal as I did.  I do plan to cut back on my entertainment expense this year but I will probably spend just as much on travel.  That means I am going to have to be extremely disciplined in all other areas of my budget. Considering I didn’t have a car most of last year it will be hard to keep my expenses in 2010 below the 2009 level but I am making that a goal.

November Investment Income – $89.13

by

My November investment income rose to $89.13 from $85.24 the month before. This was all from the value of my portfolio increasing as I didn’t add any money to my portfolio in November. I won’t be adding any money this month either so it will be up to the market to increase my income.

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.

November Income – $357.16

by

Here is a breakdown of my income for November.

Online Income

$219.37

Interest

$57.36

Stock Dividends

$14.83

Bonuses

$50

Mystery Shop

$8.00

Survey/Cashback

$7.60

Total

$357.16

My November income was pretty poor. It was mostly passive income at least.  It shouldn’t be any problem increasing my income this month. I already know my online income will increase due to scheduled Adsense and affiliate payouts. Dividend income will increase since many of my stocks pay dividends this month.  I will also have job income which should help although I probably won’t be working a lot of hours.

November Expenses – $1098.55

by

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for November.

Household

$440.61

Entertainment

$76.98

Transportation

 $118.99

Food

$160.25

Health

$90.66

Phone

$46.06

Debt

 $165.00

Total

$1098.55

I wasn’t too far off my goal of keeping my monthly expenses under $1000. Considering I moved into a new apartment this expense level is reasonable. My food category was pretty high which isn’t surprising since I had at least 30 restaurant meals during the month. That category should be much lower this month.  I might be able to shave a little off my entertainment budget.  My transportation expense will go up because I have to do a lot more driving now that I have a job.  Everything else should stay about the same.

If you are eligible for part of the $500 giveaway I would still like to hear your opinion on how to distribute the money.

October Expenses – $1446.44

by

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for September.

Household

$406.98

Entertainment

$54.61

Transportation

 $601.89

Food

$84.33

Medical/Dental

$61.66

Phone

$11.77

Education

 $52.20

Debt

 $173.00

Total

$1446.44

My expenses were a little high this month. That was mainly due to my car purchase. I left out the cost of the car purchase to keep my monthly figure from being skewed too much. I did count the expense of sales tax, registration, and insurance though which caused my transportation expense to be high. I should get my expenses back down to the $1000 level this month.

At the end of October my car had a cost per mile of $4.98. That isn’t too bad considering I had only had it a couple weeks. By the end of this month that figure should be way down. If I were to take out the purchase price from my total car cost I would obviously have a much cheaper cost per mile. Even though I could probably sell my car for close to what I bought it I am going to keep the purchase cost in my total cost since I plan to drive the car until it is near worthless.