Here is a breakdown of my expenses for March.

Household	$15.40
Rent	$320.08
Entertainment	$34.69
Transportation	$258.54
Food	$93.16
Travel	$97.46
Phone	$28.50
Student Loan	$132.58
Health	$195.64
Total	$1176.05

My March expenses were up a bit from the previous months, but still pretty low. I didn’t quite manage to get my expenses under my target of $1000 for the month. For the year, I’m still averaging under $1000 a month. If I were able to keep my monthly average for the entire year under $1000 a month that would be great. That won’t be easy to do since I plan on getting over a $1000 of dental work done this year and there are always unplanned expenses sometime during the year. It will be a good goal to work towards.

Rent was low again because I’m paying my mom’s utility bill as rent while I’m staying with her. This month’s bill was almost the same as the previous month. This amount also includes the water and sewer. They all come on one bill from the city. This month I will be paying half a month rent for here and paying rent in Thailand which will probably result in a higher rent bill.

Transportation was for one tank of gas for my car and for six more months of car insurance. That is why this expense category is quite a bit higher for March. For April, this expense should go down quite a bit. I shouldn’t have to buy gas at all in the U.S. When traveling I will have to pay for some taxis or Grab to get me from airports to hotel and vice versa.

My food expense up a bit. I didn’t worry about trying to keep my food expense low at all. It is artificially low currently since my mom provides me with many meals and keeps the pantry stocked with snacks. This bill will go up a bit this month since I’ll be traveling and probably be buying a few meals for my girlfriend as well.

Travel expense was for one night hotel in Thailand, an airplane ticket from Bangkok to Phitsanulok, Thailand and travel insurance for the 2 1/2 months I will be out of the country. Last year, I didn’t have travel medical insurance when I went to Thailand. If I’d had a serious illness or injury that could have cost me a lot of money. Paying $57 for travel insurance that will cover a serious illness or injury seems like a great bargain. I hope I don’t have to use it.

Phone was for one month of Google Fi phone service and about $4 towards a new phone. I splurged and bought a new phone. My old phone had a dime size spot on the screen and the battery wasn’t lasting nearly as long as it used to last. Google had a Moto G6 on sale for just $99 with 24 months no interest financing. That made it just a little over $4 a month for the new phone. Making it even better they gave me a $50 trade-in for my old phone. After applying the trade-in I will just be paying a little over $2 a month for the new phone. So far the new phone has been working great and the battery lasts much longer. I’m very satisfied with this purchase from Google. If you sign up for Google Fi through my referral link we will each get $20 Fi credit after your account has been active for 30 days.

Health was for my March premium on my health insurance and for a dental visit. I managed to get some popcorn wedged way up under my gums and couldn’t get it back out. This was quite uncomfortable and paying $72 for the dentist to get it out was money well spent.

My entertainment expense was for two trip to the movies and popcorn. I also spent 99 cents for my monthly Hulu subscription. In Thailand I will be spending for me and my girlfriend so this expense will likely go up a bit.

The household expense was mostly for the taxes on my new phone purchase and a new phone case. If I have to buy supplies for a new apartment in Thailand this expense will go up this month.

March was a higher expense month for me and I did go over my monthly target of $1000 in expenses. Nevertheless, I’m satisfied with that level of expense considering what I received for my money. It was still a pretty low expense month by most people’s standards.   How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for February.

Household	$0
Rent	$321.68
Entertainment	$17.38
Transportation	$29.51
Food	$74.81
Travel	$0
Phone	$23.89
Student Loan	$132.58
Health	$123.39
Total	$723.24

My February expenses were extremely low. I easily managed to get my expenses under my target of $1000 for the month. This month I tried to be extra frugal and had very little unnecessary spending. Having a shorter month helped too.

Rent was low because I’m paying my mom’s utility bill as rent while I’m staying with her. Since January was pretty cold electric was about $100 higher than the previous month. This amount also includes the water and sewer. They all come on one bill from the city. I expect this month’s bill to be about the same.

Transportation was for one tank of gas for my car. I went to Springfield (which is about an hour away) twice during the month. Without those two drives I wouldn’t have needed to put any gas in my car. Since I’m working at home I don’t drive at all most days. Living in a small town, when I do drive everything is close. I might not need to buy gas at all this month. I’m probably going to pay for six more months of car insurance this month so that will make this expense category quite a bit higher this month.

My food expense went down a lot. I cut way back on my meals out. I also had three free meals due to gift cards. I actually spent more on groceries than on meals out. I think that is the first time I’ve done that since starting this blog. There are no free meals this month so this expense will likely increase a bit.

This was the rare month where I didn’t have any travel expense. I’m probably going to buy some travel medical insurance this month which will cost about $260. I’ll also buy a plane ticket from Bangkok to Chiang Mai or elsewhere in Thailand. The plane ticket should cost less than $30. Those two expenses will result in a significant increase in this expense category for the month. Last year, I didn’t have travel medical insurance when I went to Thailand. If I’d had a serious illness or injury that could have cost me a lot of money. I’m playing it safe this year and purchasing the travel insurance. I hope I don’t need it.

Phone was for one month of Google Fi phone service. This is about as cheap as it gets. If you sign up for Google Fi through my referral link we will each get $20 Fi credit after your account has been active for 30 days.

Health was for my March premium on my health insurance. This month I might have a dentist visit which would boost this expense quite a bit. If I’m unable to see a dentist, then this expense will remain exactly the same.

My entertainment expense was for one trip to the movies. Since it was the end of the month and I hadn’t yet spent anything on entertainment I splurged on a large popcorn to go with my matinee ticket.

February was a super low expense month. March will be a higher expense month and I will likely go over my monthly target of $1000 in expenses. It will probably still be a pretty low expense month by most people’s standards though.   How was your month?

Here is a breakdown of my income for January.

Interest	$2.64
Amazon FBA	$2.55
Job	$1784.05
Mystery Shops	$27.84
Cashback	$16.73
Dividends	$8.08
Online Income	$0
Total	$1841.89

January’s income was decent. The bulk of it came from one partial week of document review pay and my first full paycheck from my tax job.

Online income was actually seriously negative for the month since I paid for three years of web hosting. Rather than post a negative number in my income, I am going to keep putting zeroes for online income until my online income is positive for the year.

My dividend income dipped slightly for the month. This isn’t surprising since most of my stocks pay a dividend in December while only a few paid a dividends in January. I bought a little over $1000 of dividend stocks in January which should result in higher dividend income within the next few months.  I’m going to keep investing in dividend stocks to keep increasing my dividend income. My investments will be limited the next few months due to needing to bulk up my cash savings to fund my Spring Thailand trip.

I worked full-time at my tax job for all of January. I’ll get two full paychecks this month which will be enough to make this month’s income total higher than January’s. March will be my best income month of the year since I’ll have three paydays.

I have been doing some sourcing and shipping to Amazon FBA so that income will go up this month. I plan to send in a bunch of stuff before I leave for Thailand.  That way I’ll continue to have some income while I’m in Thailand as my FBA inventory sells through.

Saving Rate

When I remember I will also be adding my saving rate to my income posts. In January I made $1841.89 and I spent $975.67 for a savings rate of 52.9%.  I put about $250 into my work 401k and the rest went into dividend stocks. In future months I plan to base my saving rate on my income and what I actually put into savings. I only count my retirement accounts and my dividend stocks as savings. Money that I accumulate in my checking/savings account isn’t considered savings until it is invested in a retirement account or dividend stock. In January I actually saved about $1500 in my retirement accounts and dividend stocks which would be an even higher saving rate.  Since some of that was accomplished my drawing down the balance in my checking/savings account I felt it was more accurate to just consider the difference between my income and expenses for the month as savings.

How was your month?