Expense/Income Tracking

April Expenses – $982.73

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for April.

Household

$385.35

Entertainment

$67.30

Transportation

 $320.77

Food

$86.84
Medical/Dental

$57.44

Phone

$35.03

Debt

 $30.00

Total

$982.73

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.

March Investment Income – $98.43

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My investment income rose from $89.50 in January to $98.43 in March. That is a great increase and it is almost entirely due to gains in my stock portfolio and Roth IRA. I did add $100 to my Roth but otherwise haven’t made any contributions to my investment portfolio this year. If the stock market doesn’t decline I should be able to pass the $100 mark in the next couple of months. There is also a possibility that I will be making a large contribution to my portfolio which would speed things up a bit.

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

March Income – $1218.21

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Here is a breakdown of my income for March.

Online Income

$602.19

Interest

$34.60

Stock Dividends

$92.79

Job

$378

Bank Bonuses

$110

Cashback

$0.63

Total

$1218.21

It was a decent month for income considering I was hiking and without computer access for half the time. It was less than my expenses though which isn’t good. It will be a challenge to make $1000 this month since I won’t have any job income.  My job starts at the end of the month and I won’t receive a paycheck until sometime in March.  If I can make $500 in alternative income as is my goal then I should make at least $1000 total with my online income, dividends, and interest added to the extra income total.

March Expenses – $1730.96

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March’s expenses got a little out of control. I spent quite a bit more than I had planned. Since I was hiking most of the month I don’t have expenses divided up by category. Even the total of $1730.96 is a rough estimate that I came up with by adding up my debit and credit card charges and my ATM withdrawals.

April should have a much lower level of expenses. Expenses should be under $1000 and I hope to have them well under that amount.

February Income – $1631.23

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Here is a breakdown of my income for January.

Online Income

$734.08

Interest

$29.75

Stock Dividends

$14.85

Job

$800

Survey/Cashback

$7.55

Ebay/Selling stuff

$5

Bank Bonuses

$40

Total

$1631.23

It was a pretty good month for income, especially online income. I neglected to keep my check stubs or write down the amount of my paychecks from my job so I went with a conservative estimate for job income.