October Investment Income- $41.34

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Last month was not a good month for my retirement savings. I lost about $1000 in my Roth IRA which was a significant amount considering I only had $5500 in there.  I managed to increase my monthly income but only because I added $3000 to my savings last month.  Increasing my monthly investment income from $32.01 to $41.34 was good though.  Unfortunately I won’t be able to add a large amount to my retirement savings until sometime next year.  I’m rethinking my investment strategy for retirement and I’ll share that strategy in a post later today.

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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October Income- $709.64

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Here is a breakdown of my income for October.

Online Income $475.59
Bonuses $200
Interest $20.95
Surveys/Cashback $13.10
Total $709.64

My income was pretty good considering I didn’t work.  This is all alternative income. I’m going to have a tough time matching this in November.  I count my income when it is paid rather than when it is earned so I know that this month’s Adsense payment will be considerably less.  It is also unlikely that I’ll make anywhere near $200 in bonuses. I hope to make up some of that elsewhere but it will be difficult.  I’m going to have to come up with some new income ideas or put more work into the existing ideas.

October Expenses- $1157.51

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for October.

Household $418.29
Transportation $131.61
Food $73.85
Entertainment $152.87
Debt/

Education

 $115
Utilities $64.97
Health Insurance $200.92
Total $1157.51

My overall expense level was reasonable. I didn’t meet my goal of $1000 a month in expenses. That goal would have been met though if I didn’t have my quarterly health insurance payment of $200. I did spend way too much on food. I ate out almost every day which not only cost me money but caused me to gain weight and wasted a lot of time. I’ll have to do better on that this month. My entertainment expenses were a little high this month but I’m not concerned about that. My other expenses should remain about the same this month. One possible exception is if I do some Christmas shopping this month that will be reflected in my household expenses.

November Income Challenge

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I decided not to work while I’m in school this semester.  The idea was I’d increase my side income to make up some of the loss of job income.  I have managed to increase my side income some but I should be doing much better.  The combination of laziness and procrastination has led me to not dedicate nearly enough of my spare time to making money.

In order to reverse that trend I’ve created a November Income Challenge for myself.  I’m going to do something to make money every day of the month.  Blogging won’t count.  It has to be something that will definitely make money.  Some examples are surveys, mystery shopping, writing for Associated Content, and bank bonuses.

I’ll post a roundup once a week or so of what I’ve done to make money.  For Thanksgiving and other days where I know I’ll be too busy to do any money-making activities I’ll do an extra money maker the day before or after.  I’ve had mixed success with challenging myself recently but I think I can meet this challenge.  If anyone else wants to do their own income challenge let me know and I’ll link to your results.

Gas is Under $2 a Gallon

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It was only a couple weeks ago that I posted about gas being under $3 a gallon and now it is under $2 a gallon.  Most gas stations around here have it at $1.99 a gallon.  Since I don’t drive much now this doesn’t make much of a difference in my finances.  I thought I was going to be able to make it through this month with only one fill up.  I had to make a couple of extra drives though and had to get gas Monday.  Gas was just a smidgen over $2 a gallon then and it cost me under $20 to fill up my car.  It has been a while since I’ve been able to do that and it is a great improvement from the over $40 it was costing me this summer.  With my current driving habits the cheap gas is probably saving me $10-$20 a month.  That isn’t a lot but I’m still glad I have a fuel efficient car though.  These gas prices will eventually go back up.