My Frugal Miser - January Expenses: $9,627

I started off 2020 spending about the same as I brought in.  This is about to change.  I'm going to push myself to earn more income this year.  Hopefully expenses will go down since I will be distracted by work.

One of the larger expenses in January was an expected business expense.  I paid the insurance on my three most expensive rental properties.  I normally pay these in February but I am working on earning a Southwest Airlines Companion Pass so I'm pulling forward any expenses I can pay early.  I also prepaid the annual termite bonds for two properties.

In December I averaged $19/day for food.  In January this declined to $15/day (this is for two people) Last January I spent $583 on food, so there was some progress here.  I know it's early, but I'm pleased to have lowered our spending on food last month.  We only implemented two small changes:
First, we bought some frozen entrees at the grocery store that make it easier to prepare a meal at home (versus making a meal totally from scratch).  This is still less expensive than eating out.  Second, we mindfully let the pantry and freezer dwindle down to use some food that we've been ignoring.  This will help us prevent waste.  We also were more careful to use up our leftovers.  There's still plenty I can do to keep our spending down, and I'm hoping we can make this a trend all year.

We spent a few nights in Las Vegas for my birthday.  Several months ago I purchased a 3 night hotel deal for $150 that required us to attend a timeshare presentation.  After not booking it, Hilton offered me an extra 50,000 Hilton Honors points if I would book in January.  In all, for $150 we got a 3 night hotel stay, a $200 rebate towards a future stay at any Hilton-branded property, and 65,000 Hilton Honors points.  It was an incredible deal.  This helped us keep to a very reasonable budget - flights, hotels, rental car, entertainment (a show, gambling, movies) and food averaged less than $200/day for the two of us.



January Business Spending:  $4,297
January Personal Spending:  $5,330

January Expenses:  $9,627

$402 Auto (service, gas, insurance, AAA, etc.)

$149 Bank Fees
$91 Clothing/ Personal Care
$1,312 Fun (vacations movies, gambling, alcohol, concert tickets)

$468 Food

$541 Health and Dental

$1,673 Household/Mortgage Payment/Home Repair

$0 Interest Expense

$0 Miscellaneous

$289 Taxes includes quarterly tax payments
$25 App Jobs Expenses (tolls, car washes, etc.)
$0 Unreimbursed Job Expenses
$15 Reimbursed Job Expenses

$404 Utilities
$3,192 Rental Property Expenses
$1,064 AirBNB Expenses