Author Topic: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019  (Read 56007 times)

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #300 on: May 31, 2019, 08:24:53 AM »
Piecing together spending for the month will be a shit show, since Mint is being awful and tanked my main bank account data. GODDAMMIT MINT. It's like it's on a yearly timer for self destruction. Biggest downside to banking with a small credit union.

middo

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #301 on: May 31, 2019, 04:09:16 PM »
I'm continuing to post to hold myself accountable.  But it was a bad month for us.

Lowlights:
  • Eating out took a hit when my wife went out with her work crowd.  $22 Margherita.  $100 meal. 
  • Kids were higher - but mainly due to expenses being fortnightly and getting hit 3 times for accommodation
  • Home Utilities were higher - as we copped two lots of strata levies.  Otherwise this would have been down a lot.
  • Transport - Ouch.  Repairs and maintenance was $1424.  Registration and insurance $1136.  Fuel costs were OK
  • Holiday expenses are high as we plan and spend in advance on our mid-year trip.  Kennels for pets and airfares.

Positives:
Food and non-food was OK.

Currently down about 8.5% from last year, but aiming for 10%.


zygote

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #302 on: June 02, 2019, 10:40:22 AM »
I'm on track to spend ~$44k this year, and I would love to get that down to ~$40k in 2019.

Final numbers are in for 2018, and I spent $42,874. Rent is by far my biggest expense (HCOL) and is pretty well optimized for where we are. However, there's plenty to cut elsewhere:

-2019 goal is to spend less on dining out than I do on ingredients from the grocery store. Yiiiiiikes. I spent almost $600 dining out this month. Mostly a big dinner I had promised as a treat for my wife, and then a bunch of different times going out with both local and visiting friends.

-I see a lot of theater, and that's also important to me, but I want to put in more effort making sure I get the lowest priced tickets possible through rushes and lotteries. Success-ish. I bought a few more expensive tickets to some shows I couldn't get for cheap and spent over $600 for the months. But I also got some really good deals in there and got a lot of tickets overall for events in the future.

-I spend too much on personal care items like skincare. I need to stick to my routine, use up what I've got, and stop trying new products. Sort of. My spending was high-ish this month ($200) due to running out of a bunch of stuff at once, but got replacements on sale. It really kills my budget that I care about getting cruelty-free products, because I often can't find any low cost options that work.

This month was a slow, painful bleeding of money. Total spending was $3700. No major issues, but a ton of little things kept coming up. My wife's cash flow has gotten tighter so I've paid for more things that we used to split, too. I don't regret any of the individual transactions. It's been a good, fun month. But it certainly adds up.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #303 on: June 03, 2019, 05:37:38 AM »
I like how my monthly spending becomes gradually smaller. May is very low. I had a look at the transactions, but there aren't any big thinks. Mostly food, some fuel, some insurance, but no big bills. I know my DH paid 2 bills for the private roads around our house, so that would have been a big one.

I have one "uncategorized" transaction. That was taking out some Swedish cash, to pay for a fishing license or our last trip. They only want to be paid in cash for that.

Our food is still quite big, despite eating from the freezer.
I did buy a lot of food while in Sweden, because stuff is cheaper there. We found good reindeer beef for a really low price. This is registered in the June transaction. As well as a grey area that stands for alcohol. We bought some wine and whiskey there, which is also cheaper than at home.

Numbers are shown in Norwegian Crowns. Divide by 10 to make Euros.
« Last Edit: June 03, 2019, 05:40:52 AM by Linea_Norway »

Hirondelle

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #304 on: June 03, 2019, 12:42:37 PM »
May expenses were right on my 'average' (around €950) ending up at €947.

Jan: €1175
Feb: €1110
Mar: €1060
Apr: €690

Facepunchable categories:
Groceries: €130. A bit better again but still more than I'd like. I don't seem able to get it down consistently to last year's average of €100. There IS still plenty of fat (both literally and metaphorically) in the budget so I may do a 'only whole foods' challenge or so over summer.

Food/drinks out: €75. One movie night and one proper night out. About €15 worth of fluff that could've been avoided.

Memberships: €50. This is an organization that paid my grant to study abroad. Their membership could result in more grants for conference travel etc, however I kind of shifted field and my current research is much less chemistry prone so less likely to be sponsored by them. I should look into canceling this one as I have two other scientific organization membership that are paid for by work. On the other hand, they paid me €4k to study abroad so I may also see it as a 'pay it forward' thingy.

Charity: €135. The gifting itself isn't facepunch worthy, but I included it because it is to offset air travel.

Gifts: €60. Mother's day + a birthday in one month adds up.


Slow&Steady

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #305 on: June 03, 2019, 01:00:06 PM »
Only tracking food for this challenge because it is our downfall.  I will be pretty excited if we can just stay in our budget, so even 100% of budget would be better than what it has been in the past!

Code: [Select]
Month End Groceries Eating out
Jan-19 94% 79%        
Feb-19 97% 99%          
Mar-19 110% 117%          
Apr-19 108% 102%
May-19 99% 90%
YTD-19 102% 102%

March and April were killers are are causing an overage for the YTD totals but hopefully we can get everything back in check. I am shocked that we stayed in budget in May, we had 3 graduations, 3 birthdays, family visiting, and the start of summer. 

Imma

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #306 on: June 03, 2019, 01:29:06 PM »
Total Jan: €    508
Total Feb: €  1105
Total March: €971
Total April: €  644
Total May:  €1276

May:
Food: €338
Transit: €260
Fun: €63
Shopping: €91
Tuition: €493
Healthcare: €31

Total: €1276

€100 of the food budget is eating out. Still 238 is too much for groceries. We had a few days off together and went out for dinner, treated ourselves to food from the Italian deli, did some shopping in Germany (which is way cheaper than NL) but still there's no excuse. We'll be doing an uber frugal grocery month this month and will try to eat all the food in the house.

Transit is high because we visited family nearly every week and will continue to do so over the next couple of months.

I paid tuition this month but even excluding that, this was an above average spendypants month.

Next month will also be expensive as we're renovating our garden, which will cost a lot. It's completely overgrown and full of rubble. We've been postponing this for a few years because it's so much work and so expensive, but we had to renovate it eventually. We'll hire some work out to a construction guy with a digger but we'll be putting in a lot of DIY as well. It's just so extremely expensive - we're expecting a 4-figure sum for just the removal of the rubble and we need fencing and some form of paving as well. We're just going to build a small patio and a path to the shed but that's another 4-figure sum right there.

use2betrix

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #307 on: June 03, 2019, 06:51:58 PM »
May spending/budgeting:
Total spending - $7,452 (Goal $6000)
Wife had wisdom teeth out ($1534)
Vehicle Registration ($350)

Total yearly spending - $35,118 (Should be at $30,000 at this point)
Total yearly savings - $83,374
Total yearly savings rate - 70.3%

Another not great month, but I did work an extra day which kept our savings high for the month (a bit over $15k).

Onward and Upward.. Time to keep on truckin’...

Trifle

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #308 on: June 05, 2019, 04:59:45 AM »
Monthly check in. 

Our goals are keeping our total spend under $2700 for our family of four (two adults + two teenagers) and keeping the total food cost under $600.   ($600 on food for a month is an aggressive target for us; last year we averaged $750.  Our "Food" category includes both groceries and eating out.) 

May food costs were high because a family emergency took me out of state (lots of unplanned eating out), and we had a kid birthday.  May's total spend was actually pretty good, since that includes plane tickets and other travel expenses.  Not bad.  Aiming to do better in June though.   


                Total spend           Food           Utilities

January       $3869                $656             $539
February       2223                  593               558
March           2877                  843               444
April             2803                  606               394
May              3242                  771               323

Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #309 on: June 05, 2019, 05:15:06 AM »
My spending in May was an all time low. But my spending in June (including the bills waiting to be paid on due date) is already now higher than May was. That was the frivolous spending on cheaper food and booze in Sweden. (embarrased emoticon)

middo

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #310 on: June 15, 2019, 05:25:34 PM »
June is looking like a disaster for us. Maily due to unexpected expenses to do with our youngest.  She needed a new laptop, which we paid half of, and then she got into a state sports team, to play in the nationals. $2000 was our contribution.  She paid the rest.

And I haven't even started my holiday to Broome.

Imma

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #311 on: June 16, 2019, 03:27:51 AM »
Total Jan: €    508
Total Feb: €  1105
Total March: €971
Total April: €  644
Total May:  €1276

June:
Food: €78
Transit: €128
Fun: €135
Shopping: €0
Tuition: €0
Healthcare: €9
DIY: €17

Renewed my rail discount card for another year (€52) and took some extra hobby classes that were a lot of fun. Otherwise doing pretty well this month so far.
« Last Edit: June 16, 2019, 03:17:38 PM by Imma »

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #312 on: June 16, 2019, 10:25:58 AM »

Category        2018 AVG | 2019 GOAL | 2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |   APR |    MAY |    JUN |
Cell Phone         $  75 |    $   10 |   $    7 | $   24 | $    3 | $    3 | $   3 | $    3 | $    0 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |    $   50 |   $   13 | $   32 | $    0 | $   33 | $   0 | $    0 | $   41 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |    $  300 |   $  120 | $   13 | $   84 | $   76 | $   0 | $  425 | $   45 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |    $  150 |   $  144 | $  426 | $  175 | $   65 | $   0 | $   54 | $    0 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |    $  100 |   $   11 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 | $   0 | $    0 | $    0 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |    $  610 |   $  295 | $  549 | $  262 | $  177 | $   3 | $  482 | $   86 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |    $ 2000 |   $ 1445 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1429 | $ 641 | $ 1657 | $ 1382 |


All in the green so far. Expensive month for me overall with $650 in professional dues, big trip to San Diego upcoming as well so month will end up being pretty expensive.

Eyes are already set on July, hoping to have a month similar to April

zygote

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #313 on: June 27, 2019, 09:41:03 AM »
I'm on track to spend ~$44k this year, and I would love to get that down to ~$40k in 2019.

Final numbers are in for 2018, and I spent $42,874. Rent is by far my biggest expense (HCOL) and is pretty well optimized for where we are. However, there's plenty to cut elsewhere:

-2019 goal is to spend less on dining out than I do on ingredients from the grocery store. Continuing to fail at this one. I'm still doing a good job cooking instead of buying fast casual food for daily meals, but a birthday meal and some meals out with friends turned this into a big number.

-I see a lot of theater, and that's also important to me, but I want to put in more effort making sure I get the lowest priced tickets possible through rushes and lotteries. Normal this month.

-I spend too much on personal care items like skincare. I need to stick to my routine, use up what I've got, and stop trying new products. Good here too. I stocked up on some empty products at a steep discount.

Total spending was $3300. This was a weird month. It was my birthday and I mostly got cash. My dad specifically said don't just put it in the bank.... I spent it on some useful wants, like a new Dyson stick vacuum and a purse to replace my current one that was ripped and peeling. I also got paid back all in one chunk for some past and future spending. So my spending looks both artificially high and artificially low for different reasons.

Halfway through the year I'm on pace to spend $41k. That's probably the more realistic goal, since I have some known expenses coming up later this year, including travel next week. It's a group trip so there's only so much I can do to keep the costs down; I don't have as much control as I'd like. While it's unlikely I'm going to hit my original $40k goal, $41k would still be a decrease of $2k from last year's spending. We'll see.

use2betrix

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #314 on: June 28, 2019, 02:28:47 PM »
Spent $18,500 on a new (to us) Casita camping trailer yesterday. This month end total is gonna get ugly lol.

Thank to the market well still be up around $15k this month I’m hoping.

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #315 on: June 29, 2019, 11:51:53 AM »

Category        2018 AVG | 2019 GOAL | 2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |   APR |    MAY |    JUN |
Cell Phone         $  75 |    $   10 |   $    7 | $   24 | $    3 | $    3 | $   3 | $    3 | $    3 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |    $   50 |   $   34 | $   32 | $    0 | $   33 | $   0 | $    0 | $  138 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |    $  300 |   $  198 | $   13 | $   84 | $   76 | $   0 | $  425 | $  598 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |    $  150 |   $  136 | $  426 | $  175 | $   65 | $   0 | $   54 | $   95 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |    $  100 |   $    9 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 | $   0 | $    0 | $    0 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |    $  610 |   $  383 | $  549 | $  262 | $  177 | $   3 | $  482 | $  825 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |    $ 2000 |   $ 1610 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1429 | $ 641 | $ 1657 | $ 2438 |


Brutal month. Worst expenses and savings rate YTD. First time this year spending over $2k. But so worth it. Basically got smacked with a bunch of professional dues, and my childhood best friend came to visit from out of country and we had a blast with no regards to spending. Long road trip with a lot of beer and food. Hurts, but lots of memories were made and lots of catching up was done.

Could definitely have had just as good a time and made just as many memories without spending as much, so I won't use it as an excuse. It was completely facepunch worthy, but at least it wasn't for nothing.

Eyes are now on July, should be a better month.
« Last Edit: June 30, 2019, 05:59:19 PM by philli14 »

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #316 on: June 29, 2019, 12:36:21 PM »
I'm not even gonna try to recite the accounts this month! Insanity. Vacation, husband switching jobs (so a weirdly large paycheck, but then only a tiny paycheck next month), paying off my student loans and our car loan (nealry $20k there), pup having a surgery, medical expenses (a couple ultrasounds, etc). On top of all that, Mint and my bank decided they don't like each other anymore, and so it's been endless syncing problems, first triplicate transactions then no transactions, on and on.

Time to burn it down and start over, haha. I'll do my usual end of the month accounts recording and net worth calculation and call it a day!

In the 'wins' category though, we've decided to sell our second car and go down to one car. This feels very much the opposite of what most people do when prepping for a baby! But we have a ton of car shares around, and we wouldn't be able to get a car seat into the truck anyway. Selling it to my brother at a good price- he desperately needs a new car, and I will retain rights to borrow it for camping/hunting/moving as needed. Win-win. And no insurance costs and me stressing about it sitting on the street getting damaged or stolen.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #317 on: July 02, 2019, 02:18:10 AM »
In June, I am back to normal spending, after May that was extremely cheap. (divide by 10 to make euros)

I had to pay upfront for the next 3 months of internet (grey).
We spent a lot on food (green) when we were on a trip to Sweden. Most of the meat is still in the freezer, so it is an investment.
Quite a few bills for the toll roads (light blue), caused by our trips to Sweden and to our cabin.
The yearly bill for the private road at our cabin (yellow/orange). DH paid the 2 much larger bills for the private roads around our home.
And I registered for an event (salmon colour) in autumn and had to pay now.

Otherwise nothing special.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2019, 07:36:52 AM by Linea_Norway »

Slow&Steady

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #318 on: July 02, 2019, 06:59:43 AM »
Only tracking food for this challenge because it is our downfall.  I will be pretty excited if we can just stay in our budget, so even 100% of budget would be better than what it has been in the past!

Code: [Select]
Month End Groceries Eating out
Jan-19 94% 79%        
Feb-19 97% 99%          
Mar-19 110% 117%          
Apr-19 108% 102%
May-19 99% 90%
Jun-19 93% 95%
YTD-19 100% 101%

Groceries spending was GREAT in June but this table also shows me that my goal of 85% for July is probably too aggressive :(

We have almost recovered the YTD totals from our crazy March and April.  We are planning a trip in July but food during the trip will be assigned to the vacation budget.

Trifle

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #319 on: July 05, 2019, 04:42:26 AM »
Posting to update, but it's not pretty.  Our goals are total spend under $2700, all-in food spend under $600 (family of 4, 2 teenagers), and utilities as low as possible.  We failed on all counts.  The major cause was we traveled to see family and got slaughtered with hotel costs and eating out.  Major face punch.  We should be able to do much better, and stay in campgrounds if we need to.  Well, we will try for a frugal July and get back on track.


               Total spend           Food           Utilities

January       $3869                $656             $539
February       2223                  593               558
March           2877                  843               444
April             2803                  606               394
May              3242                  771               323
June             4117                  822               337

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #320 on: July 10, 2019, 05:36:52 PM »

Category        2018 AVG | 2019 GOAL | 2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |   APR |    MAY |    JUN |
Cell Phone         $  75 |    $   10 |   $    7 | $   24 | $    3 | $    3 | $   3 | $    3 | $    3 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |    $   50 |   $   34 | $   32 | $    0 | $   33 | $   0 | $    0 | $  138 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |    $  300 |   $  198 | $   13 | $   84 | $   76 | $   0 | $  425 | $  598 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |    $  150 |   $  136 | $  426 | $  175 | $   65 | $   0 | $   54 | $   95 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |    $  100 |   $    9 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 | $   0 | $    0 | $    0 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |    $  610 |   $  383 | $  549 | $  262 | $  177 | $   3 | $  482 | $  825 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |    $ 2000 |   $ 1610 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1429 | $ 641 | $ 1657 | $ 2438 |

Category                                        |    JUL |
Cell Phone                                      | $    0 |
Gas/Fuel                                        | $    0 |
Restaurants                                     | $   61 |
"Shopping"                                      | $    0 |
Car Expenses                                    | $    0 |
----------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"                                   | $   61 |
Total Expenses                                  | $  570 |


First update. Hopefully most of my big 5 expenses are done for the month, I will have a couple of big (mandatory) expenses later in the month that'll pop up in my total expenses.

FIREstache

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #321 on: July 10, 2019, 06:15:53 PM »
I'm not tracking all these categories from month to month.  I just look over my bills to make sure everything looks like it's in line with my budget, and so far so good, but I have been tracking discretionary spending for any money spent on anything I don't need, entertainment, eating out, etc.

So far, I'm at $76 for the year on discretionary spending, from eating out and snagging ice cream or a doughnut on occasion in the drive-through.  That's about $12/mo on discretionary.  Funny, my planned FIRE budget allows for discretionary spending up to $2500/mo!

I had some car maintenance done early in the year and paid some large annual bills, so I'm probably closer to 70% savings rate at this point vs 80%+ that I had last year.

Edit:

I paid off my property taxes early for the year, paid for the year's homeowner's insurance earlier this month, and my car insurance is paid for the year, so my base expenses should only be about $700/mo for the rest of the year including health insurance, so I should get that savings rate up some more.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2019, 06:41:51 PM by FIREstache »

use2betrix

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #322 on: July 10, 2019, 08:11:10 PM »
June was ugly. Like I mentioned above. We paid cash for a Casita camping trailer that came out to be about $18.5k with TTL. I’m happy with the purchase, though. We will get good use out of it. We lived full time in a 42’ 5th wheel for 5 years, and spent 60 days straight camping in an off-road military trailer/roof top tent, so we’re all to familiar with it already. I’m dying for another layoff/sabbatical (I’m a contract worker) but it’s looking like I have 2+ years minimum left in my current contract. I did negotiate 2 weeks paid vacation last month and 9 paid holidays, so it’ll make my typical 6 day weeks more bearable. Hopefully the trailer will give me incentive to take more time off, we’re already planning a 2 week trip throughout the southwest US over Christmas. Also, we will be selling our off road camping trailer and should get about $4500, which should re-coup a chunk of those costs.

Total June Spending:
$28,069 (our spending sucked beyond just the trailer, we were preparing for a long 5 day vacation over 4th of July) Really, no good excuse beyond the trailer, work has been insane, I’m ready for a sabbatical but I’m making far too much to leave, and the extra spending is enjoyable not stressing about pinching pennies when we want to do things.

Total June Take Home:
$20,806

Yearly totals:
As of July 1st:
Total Yearly Income (post tax, plus 401k/vested match, incl tax return): $139,298
Total Spending: $62,787 (incl Casita)
Total Saved: $76,111
Total Savings Rate: 54.6%




Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #323 on: July 10, 2019, 11:40:20 PM »

So far, I'm at $76 for the year on discretionary spending, from eating out and snagging ice cream or a doughnut on occasion in the drive-through.  That's about $12/mo on discretionary.  Funny, my planned FIRE budget allows for discretionary spending up to $2500/mo!

Isn't that a zero too many? Or does it include a lot of things, like saving for remote vacations and buying a new car occasionally?

middo

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #324 on: July 15, 2019, 08:26:13 PM »
Our June was bad, as expected.  The spreadsheet is below.  Some of the factors in the numbers are:

  • Kids expenses - as said earlier my daughter got into a state sport team, so $2000 extra for us here.  Also she needed a new computer.
  • Transport expenses - a couple of unusual factors here.  $1150 in registrations, $680 in maintenance.  We have derigistered 2 vehicles recently, so this will be lower in future.  Also, a taxi fare for $118, as we live a looong way from the airport. 
  • Holidays - expected as we went to Broome.  I rode my motorbike 12,000 kms on this trip.  Accommodation (camping) kept the costs down.
  • Our utilities were down, and we are ahead on our electricity bill due to circumstances beyond our control.  Hopefully this will keep the utilities down for a while, but our rates are due in August...

We are now down only 4% for the year to date, and my target was 10%.  It is getting to be more of a challenge than I hoped it would be. 

FIREstache

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #325 on: July 15, 2019, 10:02:40 PM »

So far, I'm at $76 for the year on discretionary spending, from eating out and snagging ice cream or a doughnut on occasion in the drive-through.  That's about $12/mo on discretionary.  Funny, my planned FIRE budget allows for discretionary spending up to $2500/mo!

Isn't that a zero too many? Or does it include a lot of things, like saving for remote vacations and buying a new car occasionally?

I know it looks like it, but no, it's the correct 0's.  The  "up to" $2500/mo ($30K/yr) is not budgeted for anything specific, but it's what is left over after required expenses + taxes on a 3.7% drawdown (I may use a lower WR).  My required expense budget includes long term expenses averaged out and already includes a sinking fund for a future car replacement to avoid having to tap (or minimize using) discretionary dollars for a future car.

$2500/mo will just be the amount that I'm allowed to spend on traveling, entertainment, optional home improvement, things I want but don't need, etc.  I plan to start traveling some when I FIRE, but until I'm living it, I won't know how much I'll actually spend.  Maybe I won't enjoy it  that much and will end up spending far less on discretionary, effectively lowering my WR.  If my traveling is limited, I can't see spending that much elsewhere year after year.  Relocation is possibility, and that could shift some of my budget dollars out of discretionary to required expenses.  At least there's enough padding to give me options.
« Last Edit: July 15, 2019, 10:04:21 PM by FIREstache »

Peachtea

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #326 on: July 21, 2019, 07:40:24 AM »
I’m way behind and over budget because we went on vacation end of June/beginning of July and are traveling for family and weddings nonstop the next couple months. I realized I didn’t really calculate the expenses of being on vacation in my budget. The fairly minimal hotel/airfare was accounted for in the months we bought them, but not the projected daily local spending. We have a monthly auto deposit to a savings account for travel and didn’t really need to touch it when booking flights and hotel (used a lot of cc points), so there was plenty of money specifically allocated to cover the expense (and buying a couch in July...). I just now feel I should have lowered my monthly budget goal to account for the extra spending on vacation in order to make the meeting the annual budget goal easier. Hopefully I can recalibrate us for the rest of year to still make our 40k goal.

Monthly budget to meet 40k goal is $3,333 ($1658 after rent). Spent $4246 or $913 over budget in June.

Blue = last month| Green is this month

Rent: $1886| $1675
Groceries & Personal Care: $390| $436
Travel: $106| $1427 food, transit, sight seeing on vacation
Shopping: $183| $401 - $17.74 friend’s bachelorette shirt; $102.78 hiking shoes take 2; $104.16 walking sandals & gym shoes; $11.15 bloomers, $8.81 gym tank; $25 T-shirt & gym shirt; $131.04 cat food & litter
Eating & Drinking Out: $419| $119 - $38.95 dinner out; $17.53 coffees at work; $18.84 drinks w/friends; $43.80 dinner out
Internet, Phone, & Electric: $60| $84 - $30 internet; $31.89 electric; $22 international roaming
Other: $343| $104 - $14.99 HBO; $14.16 Netflix; $49 Classpass subscription; $11.2 shipping; $15 networking event

January: $2951 | February: $3549 | March: $3394 | April: $2944| May: $3278| June: $4246

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #327 on: July 21, 2019, 01:05:31 PM »

Category        2018 AVG | 2019 GOAL | 2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |   APR |    MAY |    JUN |
Cell Phone         $  75 |    $   10 |   $    7 | $   24 | $    3 | $    3 | $   3 | $    3 | $    3 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |    $   50 |   $   34 | $   32 | $    0 | $   33 | $   0 | $    0 | $  138 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |    $  300 |   $  198 | $   13 | $   84 | $   76 | $   0 | $  425 | $  598 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |    $  150 |   $  136 | $  426 | $  175 | $   65 | $   0 | $   54 | $   95 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |    $  100 |   $    9 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 | $   0 | $    0 | $    0 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |    $  610 |   $  383 | $  549 | $  262 | $  177 | $   3 | $  482 | $  825 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |    $ 2000 |   $ 1610 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1429 | $ 641 | $ 1657 | $ 2438 |

Category                                        |    JUL |
Cell Phone                                      | $    3 |
Gas/Fuel                                        | $   40 |
Restaurants                                     | $  117 |
"Shopping"                                      | $    0 |
Car Expenses                                    | $    0 |
----------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"                                   | $  160 |
Total Expenses                                  | $  771 |


2/3 update. Really failing in restaurants but otherwise looking like a good month. Will get hit with a big moving truck bill but otherwise shouldn't be too bad.

DeniseNJ

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #328 on: July 25, 2019, 02:29:16 PM »
I want to play too.  I just entered accounts into Mint and was blown away at being able to see everything in one place like that.  A little concerned about having all passwords in one place like that though.  And the ads are huge.  someone else said they like Personal Capital for this.  Which do you guys use?

Right now I'm getting everything organized in Mint and under the right headings.  So far though I seem to be saving about half, but that can't be.  And my NW is about half mil.  Sweet.

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #329 on: July 25, 2019, 04:33:23 PM »
I want to play too.  I just entered accounts into Mint and was blown away at being able to see everything in one place like that.  A little concerned about having all passwords in one place like that though.  And the ads are huge.  someone else said they like Personal Capital for this.  Which do you guys use?

Right now I'm getting everything organized in Mint and under the right headings.  So far though I seem to be saving about half, but that can't be.  And my NW is about half mil.  Sweet.

I use both Mint and Personal Capital. Mint for tracking all expenses and for my budgeting. Personal Capital for tracking investments, looking at AA, tracking net worth, etc. I'll check mint at the very least daily, personal capital once or twice a month.

DeniseNJ

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #330 on: July 26, 2019, 09:26:34 AM »
I want to play too.  I just entered accounts into Mint and was blown away at being able to see everything in one place like that.  A little concerned about having all passwords in one place like that though.  And the ads are huge.  someone else said they like Personal Capital for this.  Which do you guys use?

Right now I'm getting everything organized in Mint and under the right headings.  So far though I seem to be saving about half, but that can't be.  And my NW is about half mil.  Sweet.

I use both Mint and Personal Capital. Mint for tracking all expenses and for my budgeting. Personal Capital for tracking investments, looking at AA, tracking net worth, etc. I'll check mint at the very least daily, personal capital once or twice a month.
I'd like to somehow capture my payroll deductions.  I know that Mint only knows how much was deposited into my account but I thought I could change that amount and separate out the deuctions so the bottom line was still the same, but it only lets me put in positive numbers and they have to add up to the deposit amount.  So if I got paid 2K but I really got paid $3,500 and 1,500 were ddecuted, I can't seem to change the deposit to 3,500 and enter negative 1,500 to total 2K.  How can you track health ins, life ins, taxes, tsp/401k contributions, when they all come out of your paycheck?  I mean I know it's captured on the investment end, but it looks like I make pittance and am somehow saving thousands.  Like I didn't make 2K and save 1K for a savings rate of 50%.  I made 3K, saved 1K, and got paid 2K, for a total savings rate of 33%.  (numbers made up)

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #331 on: July 26, 2019, 09:55:33 AM »
I'd like to somehow capture my payroll deductions.  I know that Mint only knows how much was deposited into my account but I thought I could change that amount and separate out the deuctions so the bottom line was still the same, but it only lets me put in positive numbers and they have to add up to the deposit amount.  So if I got paid 2K but I really got paid $3,500 and 1,500 were ddecuted, I can't seem to change the deposit to 3,500 and enter negative 1,500 to total 2K.  How can you track health ins, life ins, taxes, tsp/401k contributions, when they all come out of your paycheck?  I mean I know it's captured on the investment end, but it looks like I make pittance and am somehow saving thousands.  Like I didn't make 2K and save 1K for a savings rate of 50%.  I made 3K, saved 1K, and got paid 2K, for a total savings rate of 33%.  (numbers made up)

I see what you're saying. If you don't like calculating your savings rate separately, you can always add extra transactions manually in mint:

1) Under the 'transactions' tab, click the box '+ transaction'
2) Enter 1500 in the amount, choose the category of income, make sure the option "income" is selected instead of "expense"
3) Now you have your 3500 total income
4) You can also make a separate transaction(s) to reflect the 1500 in pre-tax deductions (-300 health insurance, -50 health insurance, -700 taxes, -450 401k)

As I mentioned before, I don't use mint for tracking net worth, savings rate, etc. I primarily use it for tracking expenses, budgeting, etc. Personal capital for investments and net worth, and then I use a spreadsheet with very simple manual inputs for gross income/net income/expenses/retirement contributions in order for me to calculate monthly savings rates. The data for the spreadsheet is an easy pull from mint (takes 5-10min) at the end of each month.

DeniseNJ

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #332 on: July 26, 2019, 01:35:25 PM »
I put in my payroll deductions as recurring bills every two weeks paid automatically.  So I guess I will put in that amount as income under transactions.  Don't see how to make that recurring though.  Definitley a flaw in the program that you can't upload your pay stub without a huge workaround.  My take home is way less than half of my pay--not only do my 401k contributions come off the top but my 401K loan payments that I'm really hammering away at make my pay less than 1500 out of 5,000.  So my savings rate looks fantastic.  I assume everyone 401k comes out of their pay.

DeniseNJ

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #333 on: July 26, 2019, 01:45:06 PM »
So we've been spending a lot this month.  My daughter and I went away for a few days.  I've been buying tools I don't strictly need. Etc.  then we had a bat in our house and all had to get rabies shots (long story) and that ws really sobering.  I have the money to pay but it's hurting my feelings to do so.  So I'm taking the new table saw I just ordered back to the store.  I feel too guilty to keep it.  I'll be posint more monthly spending/savings as I get my Mint account organized.

SotI

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #334 on: July 29, 2019, 11:28:12 AM »
Hi,
I think I am going to join you here for the second half of this year.
I only found MMM about one year ago. So I have only tracked my expenses in detail since last July (I used to have a very high-level budget only, in the past).

So, this will be a YoY view on variable expenses (i.e. excluding the fixed cost I cannot really control, like property tax, TV/radio licences, waste disposal) to see if my new budgeting regime works.

July looks better this year, but I had big vet bills last summer, so it's not quite like for like.
Still, primary goal is to reduce overall spend, second goal is to meet my overall budget plan this year (= $2,800 per month on average).

 2018 baseline                 2019
 $    (5,571)                       (2,304)

zygote

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #335 on: July 30, 2019, 09:32:12 AM »
I'm on track to spend ~$44k this year, and I would love to get that down to ~$40k in 2019.

Final numbers are in for 2018, and I spent $42,874. Rent is by far my biggest expense (HCOL) and is pretty well optimized for where we are. However, there's plenty to cut elsewhere:

-2019 goal is to spend less on dining out than I do on ingredients from the grocery store. Continuing to fail at this. Spent my usual $250 on groceries, and almost $400 on eating out. I need to reexamine this goal, because I think it's unrealistic. If it were just me, I could manage to cut it down, but my wife loves eating out as much as I love theater and a lot of my social life happens in restaurants or bars. For example, $100 of that is in meals alone (fast casual food, desserts, coffee, other treats), $100 is on meals out with my wife (two different date nights, this is honestly low for what I usually spend going out with her), and $200 is on nights out with friends (several different bars and restaurants with different groups of people). I could probably cut down some in each category by reducing frequency and/or what I order, but it's never going to be as low as I feel like it should be. I value the time with my wife and the time with my friends. I know there are less expensive ways to spend time, and we do some of that too, but going out is baked into the culture of my city and my friend group. I need to think some more about how I want to readjust my budget here, because I end up overspending every month and pulling from other categories.

-I see a lot of theater, and that's also important to me, but I want to put in more effort making sure I get the lowest priced tickets possible through rushes and lotteries. Great here. I apparently was so busy with my friends this month that I only spent $12.50 on one ticket, haha.

-I spend too much on personal care items like skincare. I need to stick to my routine, use up what I've got, and stop trying new products. Whoops. I got suckered into Lady Gaga's new makeup line. I admit it!! I don't have very much makeup, though, and a lot of what I have is pretty old. I'm looking forward to playing around with what I ordered when it comes this fall, and getting rid of some other stuff that's probably expired.

Grand total for this month is $3200. I'm okay with that total. Hitting $40k will be a stretch, but I'm on pace to spend under $41k.

Bateaux

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #336 on: July 30, 2019, 10:46:01 AM »
I'm actually spening more now than in a long time.  With only 12 to 18 months left till FIRE, there are lots of expensive projects and things I need to pay for.  Once on the ACA we'll need to cut spending to get the subsidies.  So, with all the moeny we need for FIRE invested now, we can spend with abandon till we pull the plug and no longer are working.

Peachtea

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #337 on: July 30, 2019, 08:40:43 PM »
Monthly budget to meet 40k goal is $3,333 ($1658 after rent). Spent $4,322 or $989 over budget in July.

Buying a couch tanked us, but I’m pleased that despite all the travel this month we would not have gone over budget absent the new couch. I’m definitely justifying this purchase...but the new couch was a consolation prize to signing a three year renewal lease for our 600 sq Jr one bedroom rather than upgrading to a larger, more expensive space, where TBH we would also have bought a larger couch. This one is big enough to lie down without our feet hanging off the edge and the chaise means we both get to lounge and sprawl out. It’s amazing. I did stalk Craigslist for over a month before giving up and buying new. Same with bar stools, although those are still in the box in case a good used set becomes available before our old ones sell (hopefully, for something).

I’d still like to stay under 40k for entire year, which now means we need to stay under $3,063 a month or $1388 after rent for the remaining 5 months. Doable, but DH gave me an uh-huh when I told him this so we shall see...

Blue = last month| Green is this month

Rent: $1675| $1675
Groceries & Personal Care: $436| $428
Travel: $1427| $650 - $436.45 food, transit, sight seeing on vacation; $48.63 train, drinks, dinner visit to in-laws; $103.36 food, drink, misc for friend bachelorette weekend; $61 train & food visit to in-laws.
Shopping: $401| $1396 - $956.24 new couch; $45 disposal old couch; $94.75 DH gym shoes & casual shoes; $64.94 new vacuum cleaner; $196.89 new bar stools; $18.73 shorts; $18.96 ebooks
Eating & Drinking Out: $119| $33 - $8.47 lunch out; $2.1 coffees at work; $11.54 lunch w/friend; $7.81 ice cream w/family; $3.13 snacks at work
Internet, Phone, & Electric: $84| $58 - $30 internet; $27.94 electric
Other: $104| $82 - $14.99 HBO; $14.16 Netflix; $53 Classpass subscription(s)

January: $2951 | February: $3549 | March: $3394 | April: $2944| May: $3278| June: $4246 | July: $4322

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #338 on: July 31, 2019, 11:14:39 AM »

Category        2018 AVG | 2019 GOAL | 2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |   APR |    MAY |    JUN |
Cell Phone         $  75 |    $   10 |   $    6 | $   24 | $    3 | $    3 | $   3 | $    3 | $    3 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |    $   50 |   $   35 | $   32 | $    0 | $   33 | $   0 | $    0 | $  138 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |    $  300 |   $  193 | $   13 | $   84 | $   76 | $   0 | $  425 | $  598 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |    $  150 |   $  117 | $  426 | $  175 | $   65 | $   0 | $   54 | $   95 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |    $  100 |   $    8 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 | $   0 | $    0 | $    0 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |    $  610 |   $  359 | $  549 | $  262 | $  177 | $   3 | $  482 | $  825 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |    $ 2000 |   $ 1640 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1429 | $ 641 | $ 1657 | $ 2438 |

Category                                        |    JUL |
Cell Phone                                      | $    3 |
Gas/Fuel                                        | $   40 |
Restaurants                                     | $  166 |
"Shopping"                                      | $    4 |
Car Expenses                                    | $    0 |
----------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"                                   | $  213 |
Total Expenses                                  | $ 1821 |


Ended up not being too bad of a month. In the green for everything. Next month will be interesting as I drive across the country. No income, lots of expenses anticipated.

middo

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #339 on: July 31, 2019, 07:18:22 PM »
My July update:

  • Eating out was higher this month due to our holiday - One memorable lunch for $130 didn't help, but I have now been to Matsos in Broome and really enjoyed the lunch.  Well worth it.
  • We spent a bit more on non-food type purchases, replacing clothes that had work out.
  • Kids are always going to be around $2000 a month for uni living expenses.
  • Our utilities was up, and up compared to last year.  Some of that was timing of bills, as we had a $450 strata bill come in a few days earlier this year.  But I will have to investigate the rest
  • Transport was way up again, but our holiday was largely responsible for the bump, being over $1200 out of the $1786.  probably could have recorded it as holidays, but it was transport too.  I always fret over where to put some expenses.

Overall wasn't too bad for the month as we did have a great holiday.  We were down 12% from average for the month, but over the year we are 5% down, with a target of 10%.  Next month will be difficult as we have some large rates due.

Trifle

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #340 on: August 03, 2019, 07:25:43 AM »
Posting to update.  Pretty good month!  Our goals are total spend under $2700, and to keep our top two expenses (food and utilities) down.  We're trying to keep our total food spend -- groceries and eating out -- under $600 (family of 4, 2 teenagers), and our utilities as low as possible. 

If we hadn't gotten hit with $600 worth of unexpected vet bills this month we would have had close to our best month of the year so far.  We also did great on the food and utilities.   


               Total spend           Food           Utilities

January       $3869                $656             $539
February       2223                  593               558
March           2877                  843               444
April             2803                  606               394
May              3242                  771               323
June             4117                  822               337
July              2885                  521               324
« Last Edit: August 17, 2019, 02:56:48 AM by Trifele »

Linea_Norway

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #341 on: August 14, 2019, 01:02:37 AM »
A bit late, but I was on vacation. Here are my July numbers.

Transport (salmon pink) is huge, because we have been to the far north. Apart from the fuel costs, there are also a lot of tol roads and many ferries (we took the scenic route along the coast upwards).

Food (green) is pretty similar to normal, but we cook very differently on a camping stove compared to a normal meal at home. We often eat burger or sausage with potato salad and some vegetable. Or we eat self caught fish or clams.

DH paid for many of the campsites, so that doesn't show so much on my numbers (light blue).
« Last Edit: August 27, 2019, 06:44:11 AM by Linea_Norway »

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #342 on: August 15, 2019, 06:30:28 PM »

Category        2018 AVG | 2019 GOAL | 2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |   APR |    MAY |    JUN |
Cell Phone         $  75 |    $   10 |   $    6 | $   24 | $    3 | $    3 | $   3 | $    3 | $    3 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |    $   50 |   $   35 | $   32 | $    0 | $   33 | $   0 | $    0 | $  138 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |    $  300 |   $  193 | $   13 | $   84 | $   76 | $   0 | $  425 | $  598 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |    $  150 |   $  117 | $  426 | $  175 | $   65 | $   0 | $   54 | $   95 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |    $  100 |   $    8 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 | $   0 | $    0 | $    0 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |    $  610 |   $  359 | $  549 | $  262 | $  177 | $   3 | $  482 | $  825 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |    $ 2000 |   $ 1640 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1429 | $ 641 | $ 1657 | $ 2438 |

Category                                        |    JUL |    AUG |
Cell Phone                                      | $    3 | $    0 |
Gas/Fuel                                        | $   40 | $    0 |
Restaurants                                     | $  166 | $   97 |
"Shopping"                                      | $    4 | $    0 |
Car Expenses                                    | $    0 | $    0 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"                                   | $  213 | $   97 |
Total Expenses                                  | $ 1821 | $ 1044 |


Update. All expenses reflect the cross-country road trip I just finished. Have a while before I move into the house and get settled so expenses may get out of control a little. Should be settled in by September and will be excited to finish the year strong.

Hirondelle

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #343 on: August 27, 2019, 12:45:30 AM »
Let's get back on the accountability bandwagon. Haven't posted since May so here we go:

June: €1000
- Most of this month was spent on vacation. €500 of vacation-costs for a 3 week trip (total costs were round €900 but some things like flights had been paid earlier).
- Considering I was only in town a week that month my €50 for eating out was too high as well.

July: €1055
- Groceries were high again at €135. I really seem to have a hard time keeping grocery costs down this year even though I don't feel like I'm eating that much different compared to last year.
- Again a fairly high travel cost of €285 due to some expenses for June trip that I had to pay back to others. Included in the €900 trip total.

August: €970
- Groceries finally more reasonable at €100!! Still 4 days to go though but staying <120 should be no big deal.
- Eating out/bars was high this month as I had several social events/celebrations.
- Travel high again at €223 as I've made a car rental reservation for an October trip, but part of that will be paid back to me by my fellow travel buddies.

Jan: €1175
Feb: €1110
Mar: €1060
Apr: €690
May: €950




meerkat

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #344 on: August 27, 2019, 06:02:39 AM »
Posting to remind myself to come back to this later. (tonight? Some other day? Who knows when I'll get the time.)

philli14

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #345 on: August 31, 2019, 04:20:31 PM »

Category        2018 AVG | 2019 GOAL | 2019 AVG |    JAN |    FEB |    MAR |   APR |    MAY |    JUN |
Cell Phone         $  75 |    $   10 |   $    8 | $   24 | $    3 | $    3 | $   3 | $    3 | $    3 |
Gas/Fuel           $ 150 |    $   50 |   $   43 | $   32 | $    0 | $   33 | $   0 | $    0 | $  138 |
Restaurants        $ 540 |    $  300 |   $  198 | $   13 | $   84 | $   76 | $   0 | $  425 | $  598 |
"Shopping"         $ 420 |    $  150 |   $  105 | $  426 | $  175 | $   65 | $   0 | $   54 | $   95 |
Car Expenses       $ 445 |    $  100 |   $    7 | $   54 | $    0 | $    0 | $   0 | $    0 | $    0 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"      $1630 |    $  610 |   $  380 | $  549 | $  262 | $  177 | $   3 | $  482 | $  825 |
Total Expenses     $2902 |    $ 2000 |   $ 1645 | $ 1799 | $ 1697 | $ 1429 | $ 641 | $ 1657 | $ 2438 |

Category                                        |    JUL |    AUG |
Cell Phone                                      | $    3 | $   18 |
Gas/Fuel                                        | $   40 | $  100 |
Restaurants                                     | $  166 | $  233 |
"Shopping"                                      | $    4 | $  179 |
Car Expenses                                    | $    0 | $    0 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Total "Big 5"                                   | $  213 | $  530 |
Total Expenses                                  | $ 1821 | $ 1674 |


Rough, but mostly unexpected necessary without much unnecessary expenses. Big months coming up ahead.
« Last Edit: September 02, 2019, 05:49:32 PM by philli14 »

SotI

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #346 on: September 01, 2019, 07:04:26 AM »
So, this will be a YoY view on variable expenses
Primary goal is to reduce overall spend, second goal is to meet my overall budget plan this year (= $2,800 per month on average).

 2018 baseline                 2019
 $    (5,571)                       (2,304)
       (2,208)                       (1,954)




zygote

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #347 on: September 01, 2019, 10:18:03 AM »
I'm on track to spend ~$44k this year, and I would love to get that down to ~$40k in 2019.

Final numbers are in for 2018, and I spent $42,874. Rent is by far my biggest expense (HCOL) and is pretty well optimized for where we are. However, there's plenty to cut elsewhere:

-2019 goal is to spend less on dining out than I do on ingredients from the grocery store. Groceries were under $200 this month, but eating out was high due to my wife's birthday and some travel. But still a reasonable (for me) $250. I'll take it.

-I see a lot of theater, and that's also important to me, but I want to put in more effort making sure I get the lowest priced tickets possible through rushes and lotteries. Under $250, happy with all the tickets I got.

-I spend too much on personal care items like skincare. I need to stick to my routine, use up what I've got, and stop trying new products. Didn't buy anything from this category this month!

Just under $3400 for August, including some vacation expenses for a trip I just took and a trip I'm going to take next year. But I'm happy with what I paid for everything, so it's all good. Still on pace for $40-41k for the year.

Imma

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #348 on: September 01, 2019, 01:44:21 PM »
Total Jan: €    508
Total Feb: €  1105
Total March: €971
Total April: €  644
Total May:  €1276

June:
Food: €78
Transit: €128
Fun: €135
Shopping: €0
Tuition: €0
Healthcare: €9
DIY: €17

Renewed my rail discount card for another year (€52) and took some extra hobby classes that were a lot of fun. Otherwise doing pretty well this month so far.

Haven't been here for a while! @Hirondelle my grocery spending is up as well. Don't forget that VAT on food is now 9% instead of 6 and that inflation on food is almost 5% compared to last year. My oats were € 0,38 /pound last year and now they're €0,50/pound. Still cheap but a big increase.

Total June: €875 - bought some text books and bought a few take-away meals which I only rarely do. Had a very hectic time at work, was busy preparing for exams and we were doing work on the house.

Total July: €1215 -  a few weeks of the madness described above + our 10 day summer holiday. Not too bad actually.

Total August: €498 or €5500 - I wasn't at work for half of the month so it was pretty easy to not spend money. This figure even includes about €100 in text books. I did spend 5k from the savings account on a big project around the house: we dug out the whole garden and hired people to do it  (a full skip of rubble the previous owners buried) and then put in new fences, a new gravel path and some grass. Other than that big one off August was a good month.

middo

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Re: Hold yourself openly accountable for your spending in 2019
« Reply #349 on: September 01, 2019, 07:13:41 PM »
August was typically expensive.  Some of these numbers don't change much, others jump around.  Significant things in here:

  • Transport costs were high again.  We had car issues during the month, and I replaced some of my motorcycle gear with newer, safer gear.  $742 in maintenance as compared to $601 in fuel. 
  • We had an interstate trip to help our daughter move back home as she has deferred from uni for 6 months.  Extra fuel costs, and extra eating out costs due to this trip.
  • The hobbies/holidays group includes a trip to the football finals next weekend, and some fathers day presents.  The presents (to me) were appreciated and needed, rather than wasteful.
  • We have decided to space out the rates payments this year even though it will costs us slightly more.  The savings in paying up front is not enough to warrant the loss of cash now.  It will mean we have increased Utilities for the rest of the year.

We are currently running 6.2% below last year.  Aim is 10%, but it is heading in the right direction.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!