Lacking the Shopping Gene or Naturally Frugal

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It is pretty easy for me to be frugal because there is very little that I want to buy. There is actually very little I want even when it is free. There just are not many things that I think are worth the money they cost and a lot of things that I don’t think are even worth the hassle of owning even if they are free. This natural frugality does save me money but it does have drawbacks. Obviously, there are some things I need to spend money on whether I think they are worth it or not. Sometimes I find myself not wanting to spend money on things such as health care which could end up costing me a lot more money in the future. In instances like that I have to overcome my natural resistance to spending any money. I have gotten much better at doing that in the last few years but it has been a process and it is still ongoing.

An example is the shopping trip at Target my fiancee and I went on yesterday. It actually wasn’t a shopping trip but registering for wedding gifts but it still seemed like shopping to me. Although my fiancee knew I wasn’t enthused about registering for gifts she thought I would come around once we started the process. It may seem strange to most people but even in a big store like Target there just isn’t much I want even if someone else is buying. I don’t want to ask for anything that I wouldn’t purchase myself, it seems like a waste to me. My fiancee took my lack of interest in the wedding registry process to indicate a lack of interest in the wedding and marriage and was rather upset. The marriage is very important to me but I don’t much care about the wedding and reception. However, since they are important to my fiancee I should have made more of an effort to participate. That was another lesson learned and I have to continue to make sure that my natural frugality doesn’t negatively affect my relationships.

Proof of Low Expenses

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In one of my recent posts at U.S. News several comments expressed doubt that the budget I posted as an example used my real expenses.  A $1000 a month budget seems difficult for some to believe even though a little internet searching would show this is quite possible. Since I post my expenses every month my regular readers know what my expenses are but for the skeptics I am posting some proof of my low expenses.

First off is my high-speed internet for $15 a month.  I got this through Link City and you can see that is their basic rate.

Next is my phone bill of $35 a month. This is the SERO plan from Sprint which includes 500 anytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited texts, and unlimited data for $30 a month. You can’t get this deal anymore but I am grandfathered in. There are lots of discussions about SERO, the one at Slick Deals has a lot of information on this cheap phone plan.

My rent of $360 a month seemed to be the item people were most skeptical about. It is cheap rent, even for Kansas City but it isn’t hard to find a place for less than $400 a month. Kansas City apartments for less than $400 a month.

Last I have included a copy of one of my electric bills. It is very cheap because I didn’t have to use much A/C. That just left the fridge, lights, and my laptop which don’t add up to much.
electric bill

June Income- $873.35

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Here is a breakdown of my income for June.

Online Income

$362.10

Interest

$19.36

Stock Dividends

$95.02

Mystery Shops

$344.96

Bank Bonuses

$20

Cashback

$.68

Job

$31.23

Total

$873.35

It was not a good month for income.  My job ended and I just had one tiny paycheck.   My online income wasn’t as high as I had hoped because I didn’t receive about $300 in affiliate sales and direct link sales that was owed me.  I should receive most of that money but it looks like Mint.com is going to be a deadbeat.  My total income will probably be even worse this month since I won’t have any job income and I am cutting back on mystery shopping.  I plan to get a job in August and get my income back up above my expenses.

June Expenses- $1263.31

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for June.

Household

$575.70

Entertainment

$120.41

Transportation

 $292.72

Food

$117.11
Medical/Dental

$57.44

Utilities

$69.93

Debt

 $30.00

Total

$1263.31

June’s expenses were a big improvement from May but not quite down to the $1000 level that is my goal.   If I wouldn’t have spent $170 on a washer and dryer and another $130 on getting my brakes fixed my expenses would have been reasonable and I would have made my goal.

In July I should be able to make my $1000 goal if I don’t include wedding/honeymoon expenses.  The bulk of that has been paid for but there will be approximately another $300-$500 in expenses for the wedding and honeymoon.

I should be able to significantly reduce my transportation expense this month.  It has been too high because I’ve been making too many long drives.  I will be keeping the long drives to a minimum this month and will try to curb my driving around town as well.

The food expense may not look bad but it is.  Only $38 of that total is groceries I bought for the household.  The rest is fast-food I bought for myself.  Making that figure even worse is the fact that I received several free fast-food meals from mystery shops.  It is no surprise that I gained weight in June.  For July I won’t be having any fast food unless it is for a mystery shop.  I may have to make an exception for In-n-Out when I am in Vegas since I don’t get to eat it too often.

Utilities will probably go up since we will receive the first electric bill for our new apartment.  June’s utilities included my electric bill for my apartment in KC, my final internet bill, and my cell phone bill.   The July electric bill will probably be bigger than all those combined.  At least I won’t have to pay for internet any more since it is included in rent.

The other categories will probably be roughly the same.  We will not be sharing all expenses 50/50 so I will note that when I total July’s expenses.

July 2010 Goals

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As June draws to a close it seems like a good idea to set some goals for July. I have been especially unmotivated lately and perhaps some goals will motivate me. My first goal is to lose weight. I need to lose about 50 pounds. That is more weight than I can lose in a month. I’m going to set a goal of losing eight pounds. I weighed 218 pounds even this morning so that would get me down to 210 which is a nice round figure. In order to achieve this goal I intend to give up soda, exercise at least three times a week, and only eat out for mystery shops or dates with my girlfriend. If I do all of that I will definitely lose some weight.

My second goal is to cut back on my driving. I put about 2400 miles on my car this month. My goal for July is to cut that amount in half. I made several long drives for mystery shops this month that I don’t plan on doing in July. There were some other longer trips that I probably won’t make this month although I might still need to make one trip to KC. With a little planning a lot of the driving I do around town can be eliminated as well.

My third goal is to cut my spending for the month of July. Not eating out and reducing my driving will both help with this goal. I am getting married this month though and there will be some necessary expense associated with that although most of the wedding/honeymoon expense has already been paid. I’m not going to skimp on my wedding just to keep my expenses down so if necessary I won’t count the wedding expenses when considering whether I met my goal.

I think that should give me some things to improve on in the coming month. Now I just need to stop procrastinating and get things done.