As we swing into fall, I thought what better way to welcome a new season than to get the old blog going and do something vulnerable like publish my spending before I had the chance to clean it up and make it worthy of a finance blogger. BUT I would say that that is also part of the reason I’m starting now: I want to track myself from embarassing trash (because let’s be honest, I’ve been reading frugality and personal finance blogs since I was 24 and I’m now 31 and still my spending is not where it needs to be) to great to show that it can be done and to make sure I capture all the ways in which I do it.
My hope is that this blog will accomplish 1 of the following 2 options:
- Be a success and create a community of like-minded people who will engage with me on one of the most taboo of topics: MONEY
- Make me accountable to reducing my spending so that I can retire early regardless of this blogs success and function as a journal to being really frugal
So here goes my monthly spending!
Notes about spending:
- This is my entire household spending (e.g. me and my husband, who is along for the FI train and just starting to really work frugality like me)
- I buy everything on a credit card (which is how I track my spending) and pay off in full every month
| Spending Category | Amount ($) | Notes |
| Rental Property Mortgage & HOA | $1040 | Townhome purchased as a personal property but now functioning as a rental to a family member (paying under-market rent at $1200 to avoid dealing with tenants and for help managing previous renovations) |
| Personal Property Mortgage | $2365 | PI – ~$1700 TI – ~$650 |
| Phone | $66 | US Mobile |
| Medical + Health Insurance | $356 | Our health insurance is mostly covered by work so this is typically way lower but had to re-up on vitamins this month |
| Utilities (Gas, Electric, Water, Trash) | $430 | We live in a split level in the SE and had an old AC we just replaced (hoping this significantly reduces our electricity bill in the future cause it’s driving our spend here at ~$330) |
| Car Insurance | $78 | Evenly spread across 12 months but we pay in twice yearly lump sums – about to increase by ~$15/month because we just added our ’86 4Runner to it – worth it’s own post on whether this is the stupidest/coolest thing we own |
| Other bills (mostly internet subscriptions) | $49 | Netflix, WSJ, some other stuff I should probably look into and get rid of… |
| Student Loans | $691 | |
| 0% interest loans | $699 | For our AC replacement and a rug for baby’s room – really this is an experiment because logically my mind knows that a 0% interest loan for something which I could buy in cash is a good idea due to the inflation we are dealing with /// at the same time I hate having out an unnecessary loan and it is living rent free in my mind which makes me want to kill it |
| Gas | $62 | We have a Prius! And both WFH so are able to keep this pretty low, even lower without my incessant shopping |
| Events (out to eat, alcohol, stuff to do) | $1043 | Ughhhh this is a bane…I think a real frugal person has many more free things to do. This is a bit higher than normal right now because we started trying bulk buying and therefore this is really more like Sept and Oct spending on alcohol + going out to things (more on that in a future article too), plus I’ve been on maternity leave for the last 6 months so have maybe been enjoying my free time a little too much, that’s a general theme because when I work crazy hours it’s hard to spend in the same way cause I have no time to go out and get stuff! |
| Car repairs | $1267 | Soft top for our ’86 4Runner ($1255) and a car wash for the Prius ($10) |
| Miscellaneous | $166 | Actually really proud that at the very least I have been able to categorize well enough to get this spending down significantly (used to be like $500/month) |
| Travel | $0 | I’m only going to have money in this category when we actually go so I can categorize spend here for each vacation |
| Baby | $0 | Currently this gets mostly spread into the Amazon and Misc. category but as her expenses become clearer I will pull out here |
| Home Repairs | $268 | Attacked the roaches at our house and our rental — they are terrible in the SE! And this was long overdue – and done ourselves to very good results |
| Groceries | $797 | Similar to the events category, I’ve started bulk buying so really this is a combo of Sept/Oct spending, should average out next month |
| Dog Expenses | $339 | Two dogs – very big! But one is about to go home to our in-laws after living with us for 2 years so looking forward to this expense decreasing |
| Amazon / Household | $422 | Ripe for decrease! Also a category going to bulk buying |
| Hobby | $1,775 | Husband’s hobby – it is not fully an expense because it’s a hobby where the objects retain value, but it’s also not an investment so I think it’s best left here. Plus my husband has a goal to reduce spend here so let’s track it! |
| Total | $11,978 | Jesus it is crazy how quickly this shit adds up! MMM has a great article that illustrates the difference between a frugal spender and a regular spender and it’s crazy how minimal changes here and there reduce spending by thousands a month! Like to the point where you wouldn’t believe it, it shocked me. Obviously I am in the spendypants category right now, but I’m ready to change that and start seeing the benefits come in! |
| Minus rental | $10,938 | Since the rental is income-producing, it’s a little bit unfair to count this as an expense, at the same time, it’s money going out and YMYL says to count it all! To be fair – it could be less for many reasons (e.g. refinancing, having put down more in the first place, etc.) |
So clearly we’ve got a lot of work to do. I would say the top categories I can save money in:
- Random buying of “stuff we need for the house” (aka Amazon)
- Reduce events spend or frequency of events
Some things I’ve already done to reduce spending:
- MVNO for the cell phones
- Remove PMI for both properties
- Replace AC
- Do repairs at home ourselves when possible (fixed fridge leak and did roach eradication most recently)
- Called about insurance, but was unable to find a better deal (didn’t dig too deep here because of a recent claim…probably stupid)
- Aligned with husband (after years of talking about this) on frugality in order to achieve a happier, more skill-free, less distracted, and financially independent lifestyle
- Begun BULK BUYING, which I am very excited to share about in an upcoming post
Home Ec 
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