February was a solid month: income easily exceeded expenses. However, there's still plenty of room for cutting costs.Not So Good
I spent $950 on bank fees. This isn't something I will try to cut back. My self-directed IRA charges $500 in custodial fees each year. I also paid the $450 annual fee on my Chase Sapphire Reserve card. It's totally worth it with the benefits I receive from the card.I spent $461 on utilities, which includes $210 for our Google Fi phone plan. I might start shopping for unlimited data plans since we've been maxing out our data charges lately. A lot of the data is from using my phone during Amazon routes or meeting jobs.
I spent $650 on car repairs. I needed a new tire and new front brakes and rotors. My car is paid for but has 210,000 miles on it.
Better
Spending on food was down for the third month in a row. Most of the meeting jobs provide meals. In December I averaged $19/day for food. In January this declined to $15/day (this is for two people). I brought this down to $6/day last month. I'm really happy with this!The "fun" budget was under $100. We spend $48/month for unlimited movies at AMC. Movies are our top entertainment choice so this is money well-spent.
February Business Spending: $2,233
February Personal Spending: $5,271
February Expenses: $7,504
$829 Auto (service, gas, insurance, AAA, etc.)
$950 Bank Fees$7 Clothing/ Personal Care
$95 Fun (vacations movies, gambling, alcohol, concert tickets)
$169 Food
$406 Health and Dental
$1,903 Household/Mortgage Payment/Home Repair
$0 Interest Expense
$0 Miscellaneous
$450 Taxes includes quarterly tax payments
$0 App Jobs Expenses (tolls, car washes, etc.)
$149 Unreimbursed Job Expenses
($15) Reimbursed Job Expenses
$0 App Jobs Expenses (tolls, car washes, etc.)
$149 Unreimbursed Job Expenses
($15) Reimbursed Job Expenses
$461 Utilities
$1,098 Rental Property Expenses
$1,002 AirBNB Expenses
$1,098 Rental Property Expenses
$1,002 AirBNB Expenses
Your car repair expense was very similar to mine this month. I paid $632 for 2 front tires, rotors, and back brakes.
ReplyDeleteThe Chase Sapphire Reserve annual fee has gone up to $550. You must have renewed yours just before the fee increase hit. I downgraded mine to the Sapphire Preferred a couple of years ago since I don't travel enough to justify the annual fee. I do miss being able to visit the Priority Pass lounges though.
Google Fi has a $60 cap on data. You shouldn't have to be paying $210 a month due to data use. If you're not on a plan with the $60 data cap, I'd switch as soon as you can.
We have two phones, so the data cap is $100. Plus there are monthly payments on the phones themselves. I'm about to pay off the phones and look at different providers. Yes, I did renew just in time to pay only $450. Nice too because I still get the new Lyft and Doordash benefit right away.
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