Time for the September expenses. I can’t believe I haven’t always kept track of our spending like this – it makes everything so much more clear! Anyway, here it is:
After-Tax Income: $4793
Expenses:
- mortgage = $1266
- groceries = 451
- health insurance = 329
- household = 148
- gasoline = 101
- dermatologist = 100
- electricity = 89
- gifts = 71
- HOA = 67
- life insurance = 66
- water/sewer = 54
- dining out = 47
- phone = 31
- healthcare = 30
- petcare = 31
- car maintenance = 24
- personal care = 22
- tv = 16
- entertainment = 15
- clothes = 10
- clothes to resell = 9
Total Expenses = $2977
Savings:
- HSA contribution = $600
- IRA contribution = 200
- emergency fund = 100
- 457 retirement plan = 297
- additional mortgage payment = 90
Total Savings = $1287
Our income minus total expenses minus savings left $529 this month, which we put into our HELOC. We keep our money in the HELOC on a day-to-day basis, and pay our credit card bill and mortgage from the HELOC. So padding it with extra money serves a couple purposes. It lowers the principle amount (the end goal is to pay it off), and it also serves as a cushion against a possible future month when money is tight – we’ll still be able to pay the mortgage and credit card from the HELOC. But we’d prefer to keep on keeping on the way we are now, living well below our means every month, and just work down the balance on the HELOC.
Let’s see, what needs further explanation this month… Our grocery bill was lower than August, because we didn’t go to Costco in September. But we’ll be going this month, so October’s grocery bill will be higher. Our gasoline expenses were higher than usual in September, because I went to stay with my friend after she had a baby, and we made a couple trips to see my family. I’m pretty proud of our dining out expenses. I think that’s the lowest we’ve had in quite a while. There were several Friday or Saturday evenings during the month when we were tempted to go over to Baja Fresh (which we usually justify by saying ‘it’s only $15’) but stayed home instead and cooked. $47 for two people is not a bad monthly total for dining out. The household expenses are higher than normal because of the backyard renovation that my husband did.
I made $23 this month from the consignment store where I’ve been taking clothes. I only spent $9 on stuff to take over there, but I still haven’t come out ahead yet, since I also spent money in August. We’ll have to see where that little venture gets me, but I have made back most of the money I’ve spent.
Overall, a pretty good month. Our expenses were well below our income, and we put more than $1000 into various savings spots, which is the goal every month. And we even had money left over to put into the HELOC. Tracking expenses is absolutely helping our finances – don’t know how we ever got by without it for all those years!
Mrs. Micah says
Isn’t it great when income covers expenses with something left over? Putting it into the HELOC sounds like a great idea.
I got mine done up today and while we didn’t save anything as impressive as $529, we still came out ahead! :-)
Grace says
Thanks for this – it gives me ideas and motivation to do better tracking on our expenses. I have really not done well with having a separate food and household grocery budget, but that would certainly help.
Now how is your electric bill only $89? Do you have natural gas heat or something in the winter? That’s a really good price if you are total electric.
FrugalBabe says
Grace,
Our electric bill is split 85/15 between us and our home-based business, so the total bill for the house was $104. But that includes a windsource charge – we pay extra to have all our power come from wind turbines. So our actual usage was about $95 for the month, and it includes electricity and natural gas together on the same bill. We do work to keep our bill as low as possible – we’ve replaced almost all of our incandescent lightbulbs, we almost never use our dryer (we hang clothes to dry on clotheshorses), and spring and fall are easy because we open windows or put on extra clothes and try to go as long as possible without turning on the heat or AC (we haven’t used either for about 5 weeks now).
Escape Brooklyn says
Great work! Tracking expenses is definitely key to saving money, IMHO. Otherwise it’s too easy to just get cash out of the ATM and blow it. But I never have money leftover at the end of the month, so congrats!