My Frugal Miser - April Expenses: $9,267

April showed some promise as far as reducing expenses, but some hefty unexpected repairs ran up my expenses.

Not So Good

My Birmingham rental properties all cost me money for repairs.  The A/C went out and had to replaced at one.  There was a plumbing leak at a second house and the third property's A/C went out and required a new condensation pump.

Our washing machine had been making funny noises for about a month, and the agitator stopped working.  Even though it was less than 2 years old (builder included it with the home purchase), I've learned over the years it's usually impractical to have a home appliance repaired.  Better to invest that money into a brand new appliance.  Unfortunately, Home Depot was on back order for over half their inventory, so I ended up paying more than I had intended.  We do a lot of the Airbnb laundry at our house, so it was important to pick a decent washer.

My cats got into a fight after they saw a stray in the backyard.  The vet calls this redirected aggression.  One of the cat's claws went into the other cat's eye.  That wasn't cheap.  The good news is she fully recovered.

Food was expensive.  We had a few restaurant meals:  Texas Roadhouse is doing a $6 lunch right now, plus we ordered delivery a few times.  But most of the spending was on groceries.  Early in the month I did some stocking up, so the pantry has more than it usually does.  I'm optimistic that this will offset my spending on food in May.

Better

After paying the $450 annual fee for my Marriott Bonvoy American Express, I decided it didn't make sense to pay this fee since I can't take advantage of the card's benefits.  I cancelled and was issued a refund.

The "fun" category was nearly zero.  It's difficult to spend money during a quarantine.  I bought a little alcohol, that's it.  I'm seriously considering booking a cruise or two though as prices are really cheap for some odd reason.

The phone bill went down after switching from Google Fi.

I also cancelled the commercial liability policy I have for my meeting work and received a $300 refund on that.


April Business Spending:  $4,926
April Personal Spending:  $4,341

April Expenses:  $9,267

$304 Auto (service, gas, insurance, AAA, etc.)

($450) Bank Fees income this month
$0 Clothing/ Personal Care
$10 Fun (vacations movies, gambling, alcohol, concert tickets)

$690 Food

$406 Health and Dental

$2,943 Household/Mortgage Payment/Home Repair

$0 Interest Expense

$253 Miscellaneous

$0 Taxes includes quarterly tax payments
$11 App Jobs Expenses (tolls, car washes, etc.)
$0 Unreimbursed Job Expenses
$0 Reimbursed Job Expenses

$184 Utilities
$4,650 Rental Property Expenses
$265 AirBNB Expenses