I’m back baby!!! So I decided because people kept reading my blog and because I love to read other people’s blogs that MAYBE, just MAYBE it is not worth giving up on my blog. MAYBE people would be interested in my particular story. MAYBE I don’t have to worry so much about the far between and just need to get back to writing. I am trying to be introspective about WHY I stopped writing so I can know when it will happen again, and realizing that it was mainly because I went back to work and I was no longer feeling inspired to write/just busy enough to validate putting it off. Which is okay, it’s not me to stick to a schedule that doesn’t serve me in the moment which I would actually consider a skill not an issue. So, like I said, I’m back baby!! And starting with some easy posts to make my life easier 🙂
As a reminder, my hope is that this blog will accomplish 1 of the following 3 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
- Be a creative outlet through which I explore some of the things I would like to do in my retirement, including sharing in this format
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 | $2237 | PI – ~$1700 TI – ~$540 Reduced by $120 this month due to getting my home re-appraised and mortgage insurance removed! |
| Phone | $40 | US Mobile OKAY! I checked our app to see if there had been any plan updates and was able to get the same service for nearly half the price!! So worth it to look into these things 🙂 |
| Medical + Health Insurance | $59 | More vitamins plus insurance |
| Utilities (Gas, Electric, Water, Trash) | $237 | Will write about this in a future post but in Jan ’23 we had an energy audit and learned A LOT about why this bill is always so high – November must have been pretty mild for this to be so relatively low |
| Car Insurance | $135 | Evenly spread across 12 months but we pay in twice yearly lump sums – increased by ~$55/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 +Very good chance we will sell this thing in the Spring – it’s just a much more fun summer car so better prices by waiting we think 🙂 |
| Other bills (mostly insurance through work) | $201 | Netflix, WSJ, some other stuff I should probably look into and get rid of…PLUS I’ve now added my ~$180 of insurance here (accidental, additional life, etc.) |
| Student Loans | $1205 | Paying off student loans, but not too quickly because it’s also been a 0% interest loan like since COVID started. Hoping for that forgiveness to get decided on soon so we can either get it or pay off. I’m trying very hard not to get below that $10k amount before they decide but pay right up to it for my husband’s loans |
| 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 | $44 | 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) | $617 | Continuing to chip away here! Really hard not to give up the ghost on all these things I have already made updates on…but I will wait 🙂 |
| Car repairs | $0 | |
| Miscellaneous | $1076 | Holy snikeys! Honestly I don’t even remember what this way, must have been Christmas shopping |
| 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 | $450 | I went back to work so now there is a $150/week payment to my MIL to watch the baby for a few days, but we had Thanksgiving week off so didn’t have to pay her then |
| Home Repairs | $503 | Can’t remember… |
| Groceries | $318 | Bulk buying has already taken a chunk out here and next month should be even cheaper |
| Dog Expenses | $157 | In-laws dog went home to be with his family 🙂 |
| Amazon / Household | $331 | Higher than last month but somehow still below last year’s average |
| Hobby | $187 | Husband’s hobby – starting to get it under control! |
| Total | $9,587 | Jesus it is crazy how quickly this shit adds up! I am not in anyway sneering at a $1500 reduction, but like WHAT???? I feel very un-relatable publishing spending like this. Like never in my life did I think that I would be spending this much money in a month. To be fair ~50% of it is going toward debt payoff (mortgage, student loans, 0% loans), but still!! |
| Minus rental | $10,177 | 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:
- Husband’s hobby (this month ~$2600)
- Still a lot of juice in events, groceries, dog expenses, utilities and all the other little shit categories (Amazon, Misc., Memberships) that can be gotten rid of (currently $2400)
Some things I’ve already done to reduce spending:
- MVNO for the cell phones
- Remove PMI for both properties (will reduce home mortgage by ~$120 next month!)
- 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
Home Ec 
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