Expense/Income Tracking

December Expenses- $707.55

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for December 2008.

Household $414.69
Transportation $27.18
Food $38.73
Entertainment $103.19
Debt/Education $90
Phone $33.76
Total $707.55

I’m quite happy with my expenses for December. This is the level I’d like my expenses to be at every month. They will be somewhat higher this month because I have to pay for my health insurance. My new health insurance is payable every six months rather than quarterly as my previous health insurance was. I’ve decided I’m going to list my pro-rated monthly expense for health insurance rather than list it as a lump sum expense every six months to give a more accurate view of my average monthly expenses. The food expense is for lunches out and snacks only, the rest of my food expense is included in either the entertainment or household expenses.

I’m also considering paying $600 to sign up for my school’s bar prep course. That will obviously cause a serious increase in my monthly expenses for this month. Bar registration fees and bar prep fees will raise my average monthly expenses for the first part of the year but the last part of the year I should have very low expenses. Hopefully those will offset each other and I’ll meet my goal of having less than $10,000 in expenses for the year.

Reviewing My Income and Expenses

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Jacob at Early Retirement Extreme is having a 30 Day Early Retirement Extreme Makeover.   One of the goals of this makeover is cut your expense level to $10,000 or less a year.  I thought I was close to this goal already since I try to keep my monthly expenses at $1000 a month or less and I knew I was below that level a few months this year.  After reviewing my expenses for the year I realize I’m farther away from the $10,000 goal than I thought.  Although I did have some months below the $1000 level I had more months above the $1000 level.  I’m estimating that my total expenses will be about $15,000 for this year and  my total income at about $12,000.  This is not as good as I thought but that is part of the reason why I track my income and expenses; so I can review them and tell how I’m doing.

Looking at my expenses my budget busters are transportation and entertainment.  The transportation category is somewhat misleading because I drove my car delivering pizza most of the year.  Some of that expense should really be a deduction from income.  Still there is plenty of room for improvement in the transportation category and I will be making some major changes there.  Some of the increase in my entertainment expenditure is from having a GF but most of it was just the result of stupid decisions on my part.  This expenditure can easily be reduced just by choosing more free or low-cost options for entertainment.

Since the new year is almost here I’ll go ahead and set a couple goals now.  The first is to have my expenses under $10,000 next year.  The next is to have my income higher than my expenses.  These are reasonable goals and I will be planning specific measures to achieve them.

November Investment Income- $39.17

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November was another bad month for my retirement savings.  My monthly investment income went down from $41.34 last month to $39.17 this month.  I actually made more money in interest and dividends last month than what I’m projecting as my income.  This is because I received a quarterly dividend payment and I earned interest on accounts that I don’t consider part of my retirement savings.

Disclaimer:This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement accounts, 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.

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November Expenses- $1027.14

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for November.

Household $530.00
Transportation $127.09
Food $33.31
Entertainment $212.47
Debt/Education $90
Phone $34.27
Total $1027.14

I just missed my target of $1000 for monthly expenses.  My household expenses were high because they include Christmas shopping.  I have very little shopping left to do this month so my household expenses will decrease.  Entertainment was way too high for the month.  Now that I have the gambling bug out of my system this expense will be significantly reduced.  I did manage to get my food expense lower and plan to maintain this expense at the same level this month.  My food expense only includes lunches out or snacks that I buy.  I plan to get rid of my car this month so my transportation expense will decrease.  The total for November is artificially high because it includes payment of my auto insurance.  I will get back most of that when I cancel my insurance after I get rid of my car.  I expect to get my expenses well under $1000 this month, I just have to make sure Christmas or other unexpected expenses don’t get out of hand.

November Income- $630.09

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Here is a breakdown of my income for November.

Online Income $369.03
Cash Back $22.40
Interest $12.77
Dividends $35.89
Medical Study $175.00
Surveys/Mystery shopping $15.00
Total $630.09

My income was down quite a bit from the previous month but that was mostly expected.  I did do some things to try to increase my income but any results will not be seen until this month. I count my income when I receive it, not when I make it.

I do have a new category this month for stock dividends.  I will be receiving dividends every month but the total will be lower this month since I won’t be receiving any quarterly or semi-annual dividends. Overall, my income will probably stay the same this month but I will try to increase it.