June Expenses – $1300.56

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for June.

Household

$35.68
Entertainment

$58.59

Transportation

 $847.53

Food

$135.19
Legal $93.60
Travel $47.03
Phone

$26.81
Health

$56.13

Total

 $1300.56

 

My expenses were still higher than I like in June. The biggest expense was for transportation.  It will likely be my biggest expense for quite a while but I’d like to get it down.  I spent almost $500 on gas in June. I’d like to reduce that this month.  I thought I’d reduce it in June, but I ended up taking another long trip at the end of the month.  I thought I could keep my expenses at about $700 for June, but that turned out to not be realistic.  I’m hoping I can at least get my expenses under $1000 this month.  That will be difficult because I’ve got to spend quite a bit of money in order to make a little money working as an extra.  I’ll get my expenses under control eventually.

 

Last Minute Road Trip Changes

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I was looking forward to going to the blogger meetup in St. Louis today to begin my latest road trip. My plans changed after receiving an email Thursday afternoon offering me a chance to be a movie extra for a couple weeks. The only catch was that I had to be in Atlanta by 11am the next day. It is a 12 hour drive to Atlanta from where I live. I decided it was doable, tied up a few loose ends, and hit the road.

I did manage to make it there on time. If everything goes right I should be working four days next week and another four days the week after that. The movie I’m going to be working in is “Devil’s Knot” and stars Reese Witherspoon. It is based on a true story and looks like it should be a good movie.

I was extremely tired by the time I was done with the 11am meeting. Since temperatures were over 100 degrees sleeping in the back of my van wasn’t much of an option. My brother lives just 2 1/2 hours away, but as tired as I was I didn’t think it was smart to drive even that far. I broke down and got a motel room for the night. I will be staying at my brother’s this weekend at least. I’m not sure where I’ll stay while doing the movie. If I have to add lodging expenses to my gas expense working on the movie won’t be a very profitable venture. It should be a fun experience at least.

Van Customization Progress

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van interior I haven’t had an update on my van customization for a while.  That is mainly because I haven’t done much to it due to a lack of funds.  From the picture you should be able to see that in addition to removing the back two captains chairs I have also removed the back bench seat.  Since I wasn’t using that seat it was just taking up room and adding weight.  Removing it  has opened up a lot more room in the van.  The Safari is a minivan so I need all the room I can get.

The other customization that I have finished is making panels for the windows.  I made some of the panels out of Reflectix insulation, which is basically bubble wrap covered in aluminum foil. Since I didn’t want the shiny surface showing I taped black plastic over the insulation. Then I just tucked the panels into the windows. It fits in snugly and is tucked into the crevices around the window.  From the outside it just looks like a darkly tinted window.  In certain lighting conditions you can see the wrinkles in the plastic since I didn’t do a great job of taping the plastic over the insulation. I have a picture below which makes my taping job look even worse than it is.  The insulation does fit the window tightly even though it looks loose.

I also used white foam board covered in black plastic for one of the windows.  It works well for blocking the sun, but it probably doesn’t insulate as well as the Reflectix.  After I had made all of the panels I found out that they make black foam board.  If I were to do it all over again I would probably make the panels from the black foam board so I could skip having to cover them in black plastic and I wouldn’t have to worry about any wrinkles in the plastic. It would be a much easier process although it would be more expensive.

van reflectix

I’m using a black tablecloth from the dollar store as a divider between the cab of the van and the back.  It works ok but it won’t hold up for too long.  I will eventually get some black fabric or possibly a tarp to hang up behind the seats, but that will have to wait until I have more money.  I also need to get something to hang over the window of the sliding door.  Since the window in the door opens I can’t put a panel in it.

I’d like to build a bed for the van.  It would be more comfortable than the cot and since it would be affixed to the van it wouldn’t slide around like the cot sometimes does.  The materials required to build the bed wouldn’t cost that much.  The bigger expense would be buying a mattress for the bed.  I’m planing to tackle this project sometime next month if I have the funds.

The only other thing I might do is buy a cooler for the van.  Since it would allow me to buy fresh foods it might save me some money compared to eating out all the time.  I’d also have to buy ice though so I’m not sure how much money it would actually save me.  Whether it saves me money or not I will eventually get a cooler just so I’ll have more food options.

Farther into the future I’d like to buy a Fan-Tastic Fan for the van. It is getting way too hot and I think a fan would make a lot of difference. I’d also like to add another battery to run 12v devices. Both of those things require more expertise and money than I currently have so they will have to wait a while.

 

May Income – $1650.63

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Here is a breakdown of my income for May.

Online Income

 $878.68

Interest

$0.90

Stock Dividends

$25.79

Cash Back

$153.11

Sell Stuff

$321.90

Mystery Shopping

$270.25

Total

$1650.63

My online income is still down but I’m hoping it has plateaued.  Luckily I have some passive and alternative streams of income to help make up for the reduced online income.  I was able to sell quite a bit of stuff in May.  I still have lots of stuff to sell but haven’t gotten around to trying to sell anything this month but I plan to get some stuff listed for sale later this week.  I was also able to make a little from mystery shopping.  I only include my fees as income.  I don’t count the reimbursements for food, gas, movie tickets, etc. , but getting those things for free does save me some money.  I also made quite a bit in cash back but that was just a fluke of hitting the redemption levels on a couple of my credit cards and receiving some promo bonuses from Ebates.   I also received some cash back from Mr. Rebates for referring other users.  So the cash back isn’t all from my spending.   I’m guessing my income for June will be about the same as long as I’m able to sell a few things the last couple weeks of the month.

May Expenses – $1566.35

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for May.

Household

$47.09
Entertainment

$89.98

Transportation

 $808.52

Food

$134.60
Gambling $350
Travel $53.22
Phone

$26.81
Health

$56.13

Total

 $1566.35

 

My monthly expense total will now reflect just my expenses, keep that in mind when comparing them to expenses for the last year or so.  My expenses were higher than I like in May.  There were several areas for improvement.  The easiest one to work on is gambling.  That should be zero for June.

My biggest expense was for transportation and that will be my biggest expense this month as well.  I spent about $475 on gas in May.  I’d like to significantly reduce that this month.  Part of that total was because of the road trip I took at the end of May that extended into June.  There will be no more road trips this month which should allow me to save on gas.  The transportation total also included my taxes and registration for buying the van.  This month the total will include my first van payment so those will pretty much offset.

Overall, I expect my expenses to be much lower in June although I haven’t gotten off to a great start.  Driving less and not gambling at all should allow me to keep my expenses under $700 for the month of June.