Ignoring the very favorable net worth updates of late, and just concentrating on my spending, I can’t help but wonder if I’ve just been spinning my wheels lately…
I know that I can get by on as little as $2500 per month — I did it in April — so why have I been so far over every month since?
September and October will be different — I’ll calling it right now.
Here’s how August shaped up:
- $2170.00 : Mortage
- $897.20 : Allstate (Auto Insurance)
- $477.00 : College Hockey Season Tickets
- $347.99 : Hockey Jerseys
- $138.20 : Electricity
- $116.48 : Business Expenses
- $109.93 : Water/Sewer
- $109.26 : Cable/Internet
- $104.93 : Hilton Hotel
- $85.71 : Amazon
- $85.00 : DMV
- $60.00 : Cash
- $55.09 : Gas
- $49.36 : Phone
- $36.81 : Natural Gas
- $8.50 : ING Direct
The list doesn’t look very long but it adds up to a sobering $4851.46!?
So one month after spending nearly $8k, I “improved” and only spent almost $5k… I guess it’s progress but, well, it’s still crazy?!
To my credit, for the second consecutive time, I paid my entire auto insurance premium up front just to get it out of the way.
The $477 season ticket expenditure was less than we spent last year because we didn’t reserve seats for the women’s team this year. My wife just couldn’t get into the women’s hockey thing… Understandable.
I’ll still go with Duncan and buy tickets at the door though.
Eitherway, this is pretty much our entire winter entertainment budget paid for, again, up-front.
Business expenses are what they are. They seem a little high to me each and every month but I’m still making a hefty profit so I’m not going to dwell on them.
The water bill is quarterly. The DMV bill was for my car registration and I think that’s an every-other-year type of thing.
The Hilton Hotel is pre-payment for one of the rooms we’ll be staying in when we go to that family reunion that I mentioned a few weeks ago. I booked a few more hotels in advance but, for whatever reason, they haven’t hit my card yet.
The Amazon spree was for a bunch of random things I’ve been wanting to buy for a long time but never have — sort of an extension of my online shopping spree last month.
For $85.71 ($22 of which was shipping — I HATE Amazon for that…) I picked up a couple 4GB CF cards for my cameras, a Weezer t-shirt, a couple of Canadian flag stickers, and a DVD of “The Gods Must Be Crazy“.
I plan to torture Duncan with all of my favorite kid-friendly movies someday. Already made him watch “Batteries Not Included” and “Teen Wolf“.
The last purchase that needs a little explanation is that $8.50 charge from ING Direct. I bought a t-shirt from their online shop. It’s pretty nice too — and they didn’t charge anything for shipping!
And you used to think I spent too much 🙂
PS Torture him while you can. Soon he’ll be picking the movies and after the 427th viewing of something like “Elmo Loves Dora” you’ll be begging for some water-board relief.
Quick question-
Why would you want to buy a T-shirt from ING Direct or ANY bank? Don’t they give those away on every college campus in the world?
You seem to have an above average income, judging by the nice toys and your discretionary spending. It’s obviously your money to do with as you will, but there are some things that stand out to me as frivolous in your spending… Like ALL of your purchases from Amazon!
Are you really TRYING to save? Just curious.
@rxjohnk: Well, I’m a good decade+ removed from college so I’m not exactly in the know on what the banks give away. Back when I went to school, the only things they gave away were checking accounts — I would have loved a t-shirt.
For the stuff listed that you singled out at frivolous, they add up to $94.21 or less than 2% of my spending this month.
Half of that was sucked up by the memory cards (which allow me to earn income). Two of the items were t-shirts that I’ll wear on a weekly basis for years — I don’t care what anyone says, $8.50 for a t-shirt is a great deal — so, really, you’re harping on a $14 DVD and 2 bumper stickers.
I understand your point, though…
If you take a look back — say to one of my net worth updates from 2007 — you’ll see that I was over $30k in non-mortgage debt paying over $400 each month just to cover the finance charges.
I don’t have any of that debt anymore and, as a result, yeah, I don’t pinch my pennies quite as tightly as I used to. You’re right.
So now I’m even more motivated to make September something to behold…
🙂
I must admit that your spending on hockey jerseys amazes me. I can’t imagine spending $10 on it much less $500. But the main point is that you are able to purchase this without going into debt or shortchanging your savings goals, and that’s the only thing that really matters.
Besides, almost half of your “spending” comes from mortgage (of which I’m guessing most is going to the principal)….
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