My Frugal Miser - January Expenses $2,215

Starting this month I am going to entirely exclude rental property expenses from this report.  I have a goal in 2014 of spending less than $20,000 and I want to make tracking it nice and easy.  I plan to provide details about my rental property business in a separate posting.

I need to average $1,667/mo. in spending to meet my 2014 goal of spending $20,000.  In January I spent $2,215.  I spent too much in the Vacation category.  A large part of the $991 here was to settle a dispute I had with Fox Rent-a-Car.  Last year I rented from them and the car broke down.  The company said there was water in the fuel line.  Since the car was in my possession, I was held responsible for the damages (even though I have no idea how this occurred).  The balance in the Vacation category was for the non-reimbursed portion of our flight to Hawaii.  I am shopping two timeshares there; about 2/3 of the airfare will be paid by the mystery shopping company and I am responsible for the balance.

My insurance will be higher after January.  Due to mistakes my insurance company made associated with Obamacare, my health insurance was retroactively canceled and I was forced to select a new plan, which did not take effect until February 1st.  I am not receiving a subsidized plan; it's simply a mistake the insurance company made.  January was a stressful month as I was so worried about being without insurance.

Moving forward, business expenses will be reported in a later post.

January Expenses:  $2,215

$141 Auto (all for fuel)

$0 Bank Fees
$17 Clothing
$0 Computer
$60 Entertainment (movies, gambling, alcohol)
$186 Food
$0 Gifts Given

$655 Household/Housing/Home Repair
$24 Health and Dental Insurance
$0 Investment Expenses

$65 Medical/Dental
$0 Miscellaneous
$2 Personal Care

$0 Subscriptions
$0 Taxes

$74 Utilities
$991 Vacation and Recreation