Here is a breakdown of my expenses for April.

Expenses were way too high for April. My goal is to keep my expenses under $1000 not counting optional debt repayment. If my entertainment expenses wouldn’t have been ridiculously high I would have been on budget. Most of the entertainment expenses was in the first week of April and I’ve now gotten that back under control. I now have a girlfriend and my best friend is coming back to town this month after being gone for a month and a half so I’ll still have considerable entertainment expense for May but it should be much lower than April.

I plan to make significant cuts in my food and student loan expense also. I plan to cut back on the fast food and the junk food to lower my food expense. I’ve decided to not pay ahead on my student loan for now which will reduce that expense.

Household, Utilities, and Transportation expense should all remain roughly the same. April’s transportation expense included a payment for six months of liability insurance. My gas expense actually went down even though gas prices were higher because I drove less. This month I’m going to start working three hours away from my apartment and commuting back most weekends. That will cause my gas expense to rise but I hope the total transportation expense will not be more than in April.

Here is a breakdown of my income for April.

Since I can’t work during the semester all of my income is alternative income. I’m really pleased with my online income. I’ve already made this year than all of last year. May should be even better than April. Most of this online income is from my other blog. This blog hasn’t really been monetized yet and I’m debating whether I should. I’ll discuss that in a blog post sometime.

I’m also pleased that my alternative income total is almost as much as my rent of $375. I’ll have to set a goal of making enough to pay my rent with alternative income this month.

The interest amount is high because it includes ING Direct referrals. Since they will be reported as interest on my 1099 at the end of the year I just go ahead and count them as rent now.