In addition to being a great month for income, I managed to keep my expenses low in October as well.
October Expenses
$490 Auto ($100 cash to a driver I bumped into, $103 for fuel, $272 Depreciation, $15 for service)
$14 Clothing
$111 Food (both groceries and eating out)
$44 Entertainment (movies, gambling, alcohol)
$13 Gifts Given
$11 Household (supplies, etc.)
$107 Health Insurance
$0 Medical
$274 Interest on Debt (not including Mortgage Interest)
$0 Miscellaneous
$433 Mortgage Interest (primary residence)
$816 Mortgage Interest (rental properties)
$0 Personal Care
$0 Taxes
$216 Utilities
$271 Vacation
Total October Expenses : $2,801
Notes
- Due to poor planning I spent more on fuel than I had to. My gas station shops are scheduled out - by me - over time and I miscalculated when I would need gas.
- I gave $100 to someone who's car I bumped into. Since he was in front of me, it was automatically my fault, even though he did something totally illogical and then blamed it on "that's the way we do it in my country." I started to explain to him the laws of the road in the United States but figured it was faster and cheaper to give him some cash for the inconvenience.
- The vacation expense is from the Miami trip.
- I separate my mortgage interest by personal residence versus rental properties. I think this is an important distinction: the personal residence interest is an expense I should exercise control over moving forward when looking at ways to be frugal; the other is an expense that generates income.
- Spending on food was lower than my $5 daily goal at just $3.60 per day.
If you have spreadsheets that make this sort of data collection easier, I'd love to see them. If you're unwilling to share what you've spent time to create, I'd pay a reasonable price for a copy.
ReplyDeleteGordon,
ReplyDeleteI use Quicken to track my income and expenses. Everything syncs up online automatically and I categorize each expense as well as income. No need to spreadsheets.