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.
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.
Here is a breakdown of my expenses for February.
|
Household |
$423.51 |
|
Entertainment |
$31.49 |
|
Transportation |
$138.72 |
|
Food |
$120.50 |
| Dental |
$96 |
|
Phone |
$35.03 |
|
Debt |
$30.00 |
|
Travel |
$328.67 |
|
Total |
$1203.92 |
February’s expenses were a little higher than I would prefer but within reason. If I were to deduct my gambling winnings from my travel costs my travel costs would have been lower and I might have made it under my target of $1000 in total expenses for the month.
My January investment income dropped slightly to $89.50 from $90.93 the month before. This was a result of the value of my IRA going down and no money being added to my investment portfolio.
It has been suggested that this is perhaps not the best way to measure my investments since it doesn’t completely reflect reality. After taking that into consideration I am going to come up with a new measurement based at least in part on my actual dividend and interest income received. I’ll still be calculating my investment income as I am now as well so that I will have a consistent measure for comparison purposes.
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.
Here is a breakdown of my income for January.
|
Online Income |
$407.62 |
|
Interest |
$51.83 |
|
Stock Dividends |
$20.33 |
|
Job |
$971.33 |
|
Survey/Cashback |
$6.67 |
|
Ebay/Selling stuff |
$108.14 |
|
Bank Bonuses |
$240 |
|
Total |
$1805.92 |
January was a pretty good month for income. It was nice to see that I made almost as much from my alternative income sources as I did from my job. It will be difficult to match my alternative income total this month although I already know my online income will be up. As long as my income is a few hundred dollars more than my expenses I will be content.