Expense/Income Tracking

July Expenses – $1383.86

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Here are my expenses for July.

Household

$406.92

Entertainment

$70.75

Transportation

 $148.56

Food

$63.70

Medical/Dental

$112.55

Phone

$34.59

Travel

 $466.79

Debt

 $80.00

Total

$1383.86

These expenses were a little higher than I would like. This is mainly because of the travel expenses. Travel is now a separate category from entertainment to give a more accurate picture of where I am spending my money. I was hoping that my expenses for August would be very low but since I’ve returned early from my hike my expenses will probably not be too low. They should be lower than July though.

June Investment Income – $76.49

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My investment income for June was basically unchanged from the month before. It went from $76.53 in May to $76.49 this month. Apparently my stock portfolio must have gone down a small amount. I might add a little to my stocks this month. If not then my investment income will only go up if my stocks go up.

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.

June Income – $3221.68

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Here is a breakdown of my income for June.

Online Income

$232.83

Interest

$82.63

Survey/Bonuses

 $103.00

Stock Dividends

$62.32

Ebay/Craigslist

$65.77

Medical Study

$2425

Cash Back

$250.13

Total

$3221.68

This was a great month for income. Since I’ve started tracking my income this is the first time I’ve made over $3000 in a month. The bulk of that was the $2425 from the medical study but I also made a solid $796.68 from other sources. My online income was a measly $232.83. This might seem ok but I’m on pace to make less online this year than last. The main cause for that is a severe decline in credit card affiliate income this year. Combined with dropping adsense on this site I have a lot of income I need to replace. I am looking at different ways of making extra online income. My experiment for last month didn’t work but I’ll keep trying different things.

I received a $250 check from my credit card company for accumulated rewards. That was nice but since they changed the reward program it doesn’t look like I’ll be receiving a check that big again. It was also a good month for dividends due to how the quarterly payment schedule fell. This month’s income will likely be down since the medical study is ending and I need to pay some taxes out of this month’s check.

June Expenses – $1093.06

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for June.

Household

$410.75

Entertainment

$337.95

Transportation

 $122.79

Food

$20.04

Medical/Dental

$112.16

Phone

$34.59

Debt

 $80.00

Total

$1093.06

My expenses this month were higher than my goal of $1000. I also have a goal of having only $10,000 in expenses for the year and my pace so far this year is well in excess of that goal. Things should change in the second half of the year as I have some low cost months hiking and living in Guatemala.

The entertainment expense was high for June because it includes my round-trip ticket to Guatemala. I should probably create a new travel category rather than lumping my travel expenses in the entertainment category because they are inflating my entertainment expenses. I did great on food this month buying just three meals out and a couple of snacks. It helped being in-house for the study the last few days of the month and not having the option of buying any food. That will go up next month as I will be on my own for food the last half of the month.

Transportation expense should go down slightly next month as I won’t be driving half the month. I will have a bus fare though. Medical expense will be about the same since I have a doctor bill to pay. Household expense will go down since I won’t be home half the month. Overall I expect my expenses to go down by about a third this month and even more the next month.

May Expenses – $1092.06

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for May.

Household

$400

Entertainment

$396.13

Transportation

 $155.47

Food

$44.73

Medical/Dental

$61.66

Phone

$34.07

Debt

 $1

Total

$1093.06

These expenses were higher than I would prefer.  The transportation expense was up because I bought all the gas and got an oil change for my GF’s car since I’ve been using it daily to get to the medical study.  My entertainment expense was high because I bought my plane ticket for my hike and spent $80 gambling.  Even without that it would have been too high.  Both these categories should go down this month.  Food should go down a little also because it represents what I spend on lunches out and snacks  which are things I need to cut down on.  The debt category will go up.  Last month I somehow didn’t have a payment due.  I would have sent in a payment anyway if I had realized that.

My goal of having my yearly expenses under $10,000 is looking unlikely.  Once I start hiking my expenses will go down but I don’t think that will be enough.  I might be making a big purchase soon which will completely blow my expenses out of the water but will result in much lower expenses in the future.