Back to getting my regular financial updates in, starting with income and expenses before updating my net worth. This update contains the past two months separately as I did not do an update in October for September. Overall I feel that the months went well and I am very happy with our overall spending while maintaining a great lifestyle.
September
Income
- Paychecks: $4,451
- Interest & Dividends: $28
- Credit Card Rewards: $24
- Other: $0
Total Income: $4,503
Expenses
- Health Insurance: $124
- Health costs: $10
- Mortgage Interest and Escrow: $632
- Car Loan Interest: $13
- Student Loan Interest: $51
- Water & Sewer: $45
- Electric: $33
- Natural Gas: $20
- Internet: $60
- Cell Phone: $0*
- Life Insurance: $44
- Trash: $60 (this is paid every 3 months)
- Dining Out: $65
- Entertainment / Hobbies: $15
- Personal / Household: $57
- Gas: $198
- Clothing: $11
- Meals: $124
- Snacks & Beverages: $24
- Car Repairs and Maintenance: $0
- Home Repairs and Maintenance: $137
- Car Insurance and Registration: $0 (6 month insurance for 2 vehicles)
- Vacation $0
- Gifts: $0
- Misc: $0
Total Expenses: $1,723
Savings Rate 61.7%
October
Income
- Paychecks: $5,324
- Interest & Dividends: $13
- Credit Card Rewards: $24
- Other: $0
Total Income: $5,361
- Health Insurance: $124
- Health costs: $10
- Mortgage Interest and Escrow: $630
- Car Loan Interest: $24
- Student Loan Interest: $44
- Water & Sewer: $37
- Electric: $35
- Natural Gas: $38
- Internet: $30
- Cell Phone: $0*
- Life Insurance: $44
- Trash: $0 (this is paid every 3 months)
- Dining Out: $85
- Entertainment / Hobbies: $0
- Personal / Household: $18
- Gas: $200
- Clothing: $0
- Meals: $85
- Snacks & Beverages: $38
- Car Repairs and Maintenance: $24
- Home Repairs and Maintenance: $2,500**
- Car Insurance and Registration: $0 (6 month insurance for 2 vehicles)
- Vacation $0
- Gifts: $0
- Misc: $129***
Total Expenses: $4,095
Savings Rate 23.6%
September was excellent and October more than likely would have been as well if we hadn’t paid the other half of our deductible for the insurance repairs. In fact, excluding that one time expense of $2,500 I would have achieved a 70% savings rate for the month. Dining expenses are a bit higher than usual. I went over to the other side of the state in October to visit some family while my wife hung out with a friend that same weekend. So a bit more dining out expenses occurred in October due to that, September I think it was because we did the extra trip to buffalo wild wings later in the month. On another note, food expenses in general are down as I am watching this area more closely. Canadian Budget Binder has an excellent reoccurring series on grocery budget challenges. I suggest you check it out if you are interested in combating this area of your budget, his most recent post can be found here. Per usual, there are a couple of items I would like to mention in detail.
*Currently free because of a referral from Dividend Mantra.
**The remaining amount that was due to storm damage on the house. I have a high deductible insurance plan, I should do the math to see if this is the wisest idea long term, but it is not likely another event will occur in which I would reach the deductible. In fact growing up in this area, this is the first major storm I can remember where there was wide spread damage. So I think I am safe maintaining this high deductible for the future.
***Misc expenses include Amazon Prime membership and some cash my wife got out while spending time with her friend.
Well that wraps up my most recent months, how did your past two months go?
Photo Credit: adamr/freedigitalphotos.net
Looking good Kipp. Out of curiosity, why the difference is paychecks month to month? Did you change jobs to something that paid commission? Has winter set in on you yet? I hear it’s coming!
-Bryan
Hey Bryan,
Difference is for a few reasons. First, my wife receives weekly pay checks and there was 5 Friday’s in October. Second, she will occasionally have over time, but it is not a significant amount. Maybe $50 a month. Third, I receive cash in lieu of health insurance, but that is paid out between October through June, so that had kicked in during October.
It is getting cold, that is for sure! No snow sticking yet, but our neighbors across the street have migrated to Florida already!
Glad to see that you’re posting regularly again. Those savings rates are really great considering you have a mortgage and everything. Amazing! Keep at it!
Thank you Henry! You have some interesting buys I see, not much that I know about those companies, but great analysis! Mortgage isn’t that bad, just don’t get a 200k plus house (which I think is the median?). Our mortgage payment isn’t that much higher then rent in the area, and cheaper than renting a 3 bedroom apartment or house by a couple of hundred. Granted we don’t need three bedrooms until we have kids, but it is nice to have the space and not need to move again when that happens.
Nice Job Kipp. I need to add my savings rate to my monthly net worth updates. A good item to track.
Thanks Brian! I like tracking this more so than net worth to be honest. Net Worth is really the result of how you do monthly plus or minus changes in value.
Great job on your awesome savings rate! Our past few months have been good overall – some big expenses but some high earnings have balanced each other out.
High earnings are always nice! I am guessing you over-replaces that freelancing gig you lost? I need to start looking into freelancing a bit, but my blog could probably use a visual makeover first.
Well done Kipp!! It’s always nice to see others numbers. We post our budget update every month as well and it wasn’t until we designed the budget that we realized just how much we were spending on groceries. It was large coin so now with the grocery game challenge we have been able to get our grocery budget for two down to a reasonable amount in accordance to our budget breakdown. Thanks for sharing the GGC!!
Mr.CBB
Thanks Mr CBB!
I do enjoy those grocery challenges, I have a couple of receipts on my desk waiting for me to put up over there, I have just been combating snow, ugh.