May Income – $1462.34

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Here is a breakdown of my income for May.

Online Income

 $223.74

Interest

$2.00

Dividends

$18.86

Cash Back

$38.43

Sell Stuff

$2.40

Jobs

$1176.91

Total

$1462.34

My May income was not good. Since my tax job ended in April I knew my income would be going down but I was hoping it would be a little better than this.  My income was actually less than my expenses which is not sustainable for long.  The job income was about what I figured it would be.  Even though I got full time hours at my part time job for a couple weeks the job pays so little that the additional hours didn’t help much.  That job is ending this month.  I do like that job but since it pays so little it shouldn’t be hard to find another job that pays more when I get back from hiking.

My online income was a little better than it appears.  The total was reduced quite a bit to pay for moving Bank Bonuses to the BankBonuses.com site.  I’m hoping that move will make me money in the long run but it is costing me money right now.  Overall, my sources of passive and/or alternative income didn’t amount to much.

My income prospects for this month are not very good. I need to sell a lot of stuff before I move out of my apartment.  That should result in me making quite a bit more in the selling stuff category.  Unfortunately, the job income will be down and the other categories will be about the same.  When I get back from hiking increasing my income will be my first priority.

 

May Expenses – $1658.21

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for May.

 Household $392.05
Entertainment

$62.21

Transportation

 $743.46

Food

$112.31
Debt $5.00
Phone

$26.81
Health

$120.97
Electric

$19.64
Internet

$15.96
Travel

$159.80

Total

 $1658.21

My May expenses were much higher than I’d prefer. I missed my goal of keeping my monthly expenses under the minimum wage level of $1274 a month  for the first time this year.

My food bill was almost down to my $100 goal. Since I’m moving at the end of this month I plan to eat all of the food in my apartment. I’m also planning on doing quite a few restaurant mystery shops so my food total should be below $100 for this month.

My transportation expense were the budget buster. I spent a little over $600 in repairs.  The bad news is that my catalytic converter is going out so I will have another big repair bill soon. My usual repair shop quoted just over $1000 to replace the catalytic converter. I’m going to shop around to see if I can’t get a better price.  The replacement of the catalytic converter probably won’t be done until after I’m back from my hike. The good news is that my gas bill was under $100 even with a trip to SW Missouri. I’ve done pretty well on cutting back on the unnecessary driving.

I also spent $159 on a plane ticket to Harrisburg, PA to start my hike. Even with that expense I would have been close to my $1000 goal if I hadn’t had all the car repairs.  All other expenses should be about the same this month. If I don’t go ahead an replace the catalytic converter I should get back under the $1000 mark again.

How to Stretch your 5% cash back

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These days it is possible to get 5% cash back on a lot of your purchases. One of the ways I get 5% cashback on my purchases is by buying things in the rotating 5% cash back categories offered by my Chase Freedom and Discover it® card. Right now the Discover it® card is offering 5% cashback on home improvement purchases and the Chase Freedom card is offering 5% cash on restaurants, movies, and Lowes until the end of June. Both of them have a $1500 limit on purchases that will earn the cash back but since I’m not a big spender that is more than I would normally spend. It is still possible to get the full advantage of the 5% cash back offered though.

The methods to stretch your available cash back are fairly obvious but they didn’t actually occur to me until I read about them in a forum. The first method to stretch your cash back is to buy a gift card at a store in the current 5% cash back category. For example, since restaurants are in the 5% cash back category I could buy some $50 gift cards at McDonalds, Burger King, etc. for however much I think I’d spend at restaurants in the next few months. I’d want to make sure I didn’t spend over $1500 so I’d get the 5% on all my purchases. I don’t spend nearly that much at restaurants in a year so I wouldn’t have a problem with staying under the $1500 amount. I do use this strategy, but I usually just pick up a couple of gift cards before the end of the quarter and don’t worry about getting the absolute maximum amount of cash back.

Another method also involves buying gift cards. The difference here is that you are buying gift cards for stores that are outside the current category. For example, the Discover it® card is currently offering 5% cashback at home improvement stores. This isn’t beneficial to me since I don’t own a home and don’t really need anything from a home improvement store. To still earn a little cash back I’ve been buying $50 gas cards at Lowes. Even though I’m buying a gas card the purchase is still categorized as a home improvement purchase I still earn the bonus cash back. I’m only saving $2.50 with each purchase but it only takes 5 minutes and Lowes is on my way home from work so I think it is a good use of my time.

If you are shopping online you should go through a online cash back shopping portal like Mr. Rebates. Depending on the merchant you can earn even more than 5% cash back.

These are only some of the strategies to stretch your 5% cash back. These are the simplest strategies but if people are interested in reading about more strategies I will write about them.

 

I’m Still in the 46%

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It seemed like I paid taxes since I had to debit $1500 for taxes from my checking account. I’m actually still in the approximately 46% of Americans that did not pay federal income tax last year though. My tax bill was $1300 for self-employment tax and $200 for state income tax but $0 for federal income tax so I’m still in the 46%.

I would have owed federal income tax but I contributed over $4000 to a deductible traditional IRA, took the student loan interest deduction, and the saver’s credit. I plan to take similar deductions and credits on my federal income taxes next year. I don’t feel bad about taking deductions and credits to reduce my federal income tax owed to $0. The following Learned Hand quote pretty much sums up my feelings on the subject.

“Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands.”

Car Repairs and Hike Plans

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Although I’ve had plenty of time, I have hardly written at all the past couple of weeks. I just haven’t felt like writing. I do have some stuff I want to share though so I’m just going to put everything in this post.

I had been having pretty good luck with my cars for the past year. I never needed a major repair on my van while I owned it and hadn’t needed a repair on my Focus since I bought it in November. My luck didn’t last. My car broke down last Saturday. Luckily, it was near home and right by a car repair shop so we were able to push it into the repair shop parking lot. The repair bill came to $443 for a new ignition coil and spark plugs. That seems high to me but I don’t really know what it should cost. The car had been running rough every once in a while for the past month or so and I had been planning to have it looked at but hadn’t done so. Procrastination might have cost me a little extra money on this repair.

My car cost me even more money the next day. I renewed my tags online and had received my tags in the mail. When I went to put the tags on though I noticed they did not match my license plate. After calling the license bureau and being told I was number 55 in line, I went to visit the local fee license office. The people there were very helpful and determined that the office that had issued my plates prior had screwed up. Apparently, I have been driving around for the last six months with plates that don’t match my registration. In order to get this fixed I had to buy new license plates at a cost of $25. I will be applying for a refund since the license office screwed up and I don’t believe I should have been stuck with the cost of new plates. I will admit I was partially at fault since I never checked to see that my registration paperwork actually matched my plates.

There was one final repair to cap the car costs for the week. The fan in my car has never worked properly. It only worked on the highest setting and when I tried to use the A/C the fan wouldn’t work at all. I decided I might as well get that fixed too since the A/C would be nice to have during the summer. It cost $122 to get the fan fixed. Unfortunately, now that the fan is fixed I find out my A/C doesn’t actually work. It has been cool this week and I’m going hiking the beginning of July so I’m not going to fix the A/C. I feel like I’ve spent more than enough on the car this week. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get the cost of this car down to 17 cents a mile like I had with my Camry. At least my cars costs are a lot less than what a new car would cost.

I’m not sure if I have announced this before but I will be going on a long hike on the Appalachian Trail starting on July 1. My job hours are being cut way back next month so I’m taking that as a sign to go hiking. I’m taking a plane to Harrisburg, PA, taking a city bus to the trail from there and then hiking north. I will hike until I don’t feel like hiking any more. That is usually only 2 or 3 weeks but I’m hoping I’ll hike further this time. I need to lose weight and a long hike will help with that. Also, since I’ll be giving up my apartment and quitting my job it would seem kinda silly to have all that upheaval and only hike a couple weeks. We will see.

The next month will be spent getting ready for the trail. I don’t need to do much planning for the actual hike. I already have all the equipment I need and since I have done several other hikes I am pretty comfortable with just showing up and hiking. Most of my preparation will be getting rid of stuff in my apartment and getting my finances in order. I plan to sell some stuff, donate some stuff, throw away some stuff, and store the rest. I’ll be paying my bills ahead of time, canceling what can be canceled, and trying to spend as little money as possible. There will be more updates as the hike date draws closer.