1
|
thewh00sel   United States. Mar 27 2012 12:34. Posts 2734 | | |
SPOILER: Sorry no bird/spider tattoos in this post.
Ok, on to the excitement of expenses!
So all of my expenses for the month are paid and here is the breakdown (Items with asterisks next to them I talk about below):
Home 2,025.07
Auto & Transport* 1,656.43
Health & Fitness 1,142.87
Food & Dining* 807.30
Bills & Utilities 486.67
Shopping* 330.82
Personal Care 103.00
Taxes 74.95
Education 47.00
Business Services 35.00
Entertainment 4.99
Total: 6,714.10
Auto & Transport: I'm kind of excited about this category for next month because we are going to try living with just one vehicle which will remove a $300 payment and $100 insurance premium per month. I am also going to try to convince my wife to downsize her SUV to something cheaper and more fuel efficient without sacrificing any interior space and comfort by the end of April. She's currently getting around 22mpg and commuting about 20 miles to work and paying ~500 a month for the car payment. I think we can get a 10-12k vehicle that gets 23/30mpg and that will reduce the payment and make it easier to pay off if I have a good month or two. I'm thinking Suzuki SX4 or similar, let me know if you have any thoughts on what to get.
Food and Dining: This number is inflated because at the beginning of the month we purchased $250 worth of meat from one of those meat trucks that will last us at least through April and potentially longer. If it ends up being cheaper overall then it should automatically adjust by being a cheaper food and dining expense in April. Time will tell. We also spent probably like 80-100 on fast food and restaurants this month which didn't help either.
Shopping: Was about $100 more than it could have been, but like I said in a previous post, we bought a little electric Jeep for Allison and she really likes it. I don't think we will lose much money on it as they get snatched up pretty quickly whenever they pop up on craigslist. So if it still works in a year or two I assume we can get $80-100 for it and get our money back.
All things considered this was a successful month in lowering my expenses. Although the actual number increased by a few hundred dollars, I expect that next month will break into the 5,xxx range which would be a pretty big success considering the short amount of time I've been working on lowering expenses.
Coming in the months to follow:
-Try and get out of a $34 per month gym membership some how
-The "Health and Fitness" number will go down significantly in a few months because a few hospital bills will be paid off
-The "Personal Care" category will go down in a couple months as well when our 1 year membership to Massage Envy (Spa) will be up and we can cancel that.
Hopefully by the time the WSOP rolls around we will be holding steady at 5k /month or under. Let me know if you like this stuff, and sorry if it's over the top boring, I'll post poker results in a few days.
-wh00sel
|
|
A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. - Ayn Rand | Last edit: 27/03/2012 12:38 |
|
|
1
|
Raidern   Brasil. Mar 27 2012 12:55. Posts 4243 | | |
what's the $47 you pay for education?
edit- are you working out? considering you sit on a chair so many hours/day, exercising should also be on your routine imo |
|
im a regular at nl5 | Last edit: 27/03/2012 12:57 |
|
|
1
|
Ket   United Kingdom. Mar 27 2012 13:02. Posts 8665 | | |
lol sounds really boring being responsible for a family and careful with expenses.
btw.... car payment = bought car on finance? what sort of interest do u have to pay on car finance? |
|
|
1
|
dUUd_   Estonia. Mar 27 2012 13:07. Posts 1840 | | |
this is good stuff.
suzuki sx4 tho? this thing looks ugly as ****
i'd suggest something like Audi A6 (avant, wagon, sportwagon how ever you call it) with right engine it will have space and not expensive
also Honda accord, mazda 6, subaru ?
|
|
redsnuff: bets all in with bad preflop hand and tell me to learn poker redsnuff: senceless | |
|
|
1
| |
Yea I kind of like it. Will try to do something similar when I've moved. Before that it just seems really hard to get a handle on what I spend money on. |
|
|
1
|
thewh00sel   United States. Mar 27 2012 14:12. Posts 2734 | | |
| On March 27 2012 11:55 Raidern wrote:
what's the $47 you pay for education?
edit- are you working out? considering you sit on a chair so many hours/day, exercising should also be on your routine imo |
The education was just some books and supplies my wife needed for her classes. I'm not really working out right now, but we have a pool so in a few weeks I will be able to swim in the mornings. We also have a treadmill/elliptical but it doesn't get much use. I'm also considering using my Bicycle/attaching a baby seat to it and taking a few bike rides per week. The library is only a few miles from my house so it wouldn't be too hard of a ride to take a few times per week, and could be something to do with our daughter after we are down to one car. |
|
A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. - Ayn Rand | |
|
|
1
|
thewh00sel   United States. Mar 27 2012 14:16. Posts 2734 | | |
| On March 27 2012 12:02 Ket wrote:
lol sounds really boring being responsible for a family and careful with expenses.
btw.... car payment = bought car on finance? what sort of interest do u have to pay on car finance? |
Car interest is obviously rape, I think around 5%, but considering that the money is leveraged meaning I get to use the difference in my bankroll, I think I get a better than 5% return on the money not being used to pay it off. I'd like to be free of a car loan by the end of the year though, it's one of my top goals. |
|
A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. - Ayn Rand | |
|
|
1
|
1
|
longple   Sweden. Mar 27 2012 14:45. Posts 4472 | | |
| On March 27 2012 11:34 thewh00sel wrote:
SPOILER: Sorry no bird/spider tattoos in this post.
|
lol
sounds good to me, 6.7k is alot :o gl etc! |
|
| Last edit: 27/03/2012 14:49 |
|
|
1
|
Twisted   Netherlands. Mar 27 2012 14:56. Posts 10422 | | |
Hm.. how can you spend such an absurd amount of money ;o.
I think even $5XXX monthly is insane. |
|
|
1
|
SoC   United Kingdom. Mar 27 2012 15:59. Posts 999 | | |
I spend about $600 a month! Anything over $1.5k a month is insane |
|
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
dUUd_   Estonia. Mar 27 2012 16:46. Posts 1840 | | |
| On March 27 2012 15:38 casinocasino wrote:
WTF? Entertainment 4.99 |
rented a good movie if u know what i mean |
|
redsnuff: bets all in with bad preflop hand and tell me to learn poker redsnuff: senceless | |
|
|
1
|
2c0ntent   Egypt. Mar 27 2012 16:56. Posts 1387 | | |
Why is your mortgage payment so big? what are the terms? |
|
|
|
1
|
Joe   Czech Republic. Mar 27 2012 16:59. Posts 5987 | | |
| On March 27 2012 13:56 Twisted wrote:
Hm.. how can you spend such an absurd amount of money ;o.
I think even $5XXX monthly is insane. |
Given its family expenses and given they pay about $2k mortgage I dont think its absurd, just somewhat high. |
|
there is a light at the end of the tunnel... (but sometimes the tunnel is long and deep as hell) | |
|
|
1
|
Joe   Czech Republic. Mar 27 2012 17:02. Posts 5987 | | |
Btw Whoosel, what system do you use to track your expenses? |
|
there is a light at the end of the tunnel... (but sometimes the tunnel is long and deep as hell) | |
|
|
1
|
Smuft   Canada. Mar 27 2012 17:11. Posts 633 | | |
I'm surprised to see so many people think he's spending a lot. My average monthly alcohol expenses alone have his current total beat (although the average drops every month by a lot since black friday).
I like this blog a lot, seems like a fun and objective way to be smarter with your money. |
|
|
1
|
thewh00sel   United States. Mar 27 2012 17:20. Posts 2734 | | |
| On March 27 2012 16:02 Joe wrote:
Btw Whoosel, what system do you use to track your expenses? |
I use mint.com. Not sure if it's available for people not in the US but it's very nice free tool to give you a big-picture overview of your financial situation. Links up to your bank accounts/credit cards, etc. sidenote about it that's kind of cool: Some young kid invented it and then sold it to a company (chlorox I believe) for many millions. |
|
A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. - Ayn Rand | |
|
|
1
|
Joe   Czech Republic. Mar 27 2012 17:33. Posts 5987 | | |
Yea mint is sadly only working with US banks |
|
there is a light at the end of the tunnel... (but sometimes the tunnel is long and deep as hell) | |
|
|
|