Spending Report for August 2010

Oh boy… Here we go…

Do I have to?

I mean, I’m just warning you, you know, before you read on, that this month was off the charts. I mean, totally out of control…

Here goes:

• $6000.00 : Contractor
• $600.26 : Alamo Car Rental
• $498.72 : Mortgage
• $448.84 : Cash
• $400.00 : Punch-Out!! Arcade Game
• $340.43 : Black Knight Inn
• $327.66 : Ramada
• $285.50 : Hockey Jersey
• $222.03 : Gas
• $217.36 : Radisson
• $205.86 : Hand Truck
• $191.26 : Pocahontas Bungalows
• $186.05 : Delta Hotels
• $183.60 : Best Western
• $168.95 : PODs
• $156.20 : Super 8 Motel
• $138.00 : Airport Parking
• $116.20 : Water/Sewer
• $116.15 : Cable/Internet
• $106.48 : Business Expenses
• $105.99 : Waffle Maker
• $97.77 : Clothes for Duncan
• $85.00 : Dentist
• $83.27 : Credit Card Foreign Transaction Fee
• $79.64 : Electricity
• $74.18: IKEA
• $69.86 : Home Depot
• $20.00 : Corporate Filing Fee
• $31.89 : Natural Gas
• $28.54 : Lowe’s
• $21.49 : Green Electrical Supply
• $19.61 : Chicken Wings

Added up all together, that’s $11,626.79.

Eleven freakin’ thousand dollars?! Can you believe that?

I started doing these reports, following frequent commentor DD’s lead over on Happy Rock, over a year ago now and I have never ever even come close to the five-figure sum I’m reporting this month.

I mean, I’m glad that I’m sitting down as I type this…

It’s almost comical that I’m going to do my regular breakdown and then try an justify the expenses line-by-line as if spending this much is “okay” but here goes…

I wrote a $6000 check to our contractor. So far, we’ve paid him $24000 total. I wrote a $3000 check back in May and my wife’s credit card offer took care of the other $15000. We still have around $10k to go but, hey, it’s looking great!

Up next are the vacation expenditures which I’ll group together. Quickly, and in order:

• Alamo Car Rental ($600.26) — What a freaking ripoff. Sure, the Nissan Sentra was nice and all, but holy crap?!
• Cash ($448.84) — 99% of this was just money taken out for “stuff” while on vacation.
• Black Knight Inn ($340.43) — Do not stay here. Do not *ever* stay here. What a freakin’ dump. An expensive dump.
• Ramada ($327.66) — Just north of Calgary, this was the same Ramada mentioned in last month’s spending report. We liked it so much, we stayed there again!
• Gas ($222.03) — It is what it is. Two years later, I still don’t think gas is overpriced.
• Radisson ($217.36) — I don’t even remember staying in a Radisson. Yep, it left that much of an impression. You’d think a nightly rate exceeding $200 would leave an impression, no?
• Pocahontas Bungalows ($191.26) — A last minute destination, this was for a night in a rustic cabin in the Rocky Mountains. Let’s just call it an “experience” and leave it at that.
• Delta Hotels ($186.05) — This was the hotel connected to the Calgary Airport. It wasn’t exactly where we wanted to say but with an early morning flight out, well, it was definitely convenient and it saved us an extra day’s worth of car rental.
• Best Western ($183.60) — I’m not usually a big fan of the Best Western chain as they’re mostly dumps on the east coast but this one just west of Edmonton was beautiful. When I checked in I thought it was overpriced but now comparing it to the other rooms we stayed in, it was definitely one of the best values.
• Super 8 ($156.20) — I broke one of my own rules on this one. See, I’ve often stated that I will never stay in a hotel with a number in the name. I would have stuck to that rule too had it not been 10 o’clock at night without another reputable hotel within a 4-hour radius. Let’s just say that the northern interior of British Columbia isn’t a hot bed of nice hotel rooms.
• Airport Parking ($138.00) — It’s funny how when you pull into the long term parking lot, the sign reads “$75 Maximum” but when you insert your ticket, the attendantless machine demands $138. Funny how that works.
• Credit Card Foreign Transaction Fee ($83.27) — I freakin’ hate these. You could have a TD credit card and you’d still get hit with these. For the record, TD stands for Toronto Dominion. Yep, they’re Canadian. And you’ll still get hit with Foreign Transaction Fees if you buy stuff in Canada. My card issuer isn’t TD, but I’m just sayin…

So, all together, the August portion of vacation cost $2563.27. More than we’d have liked but not too bad.

Now to fill in the gaps (while ignoring the regular utility bills), again, in order:

• Mortgage ($498.72) — This was the first mortgage payment since the refinance went through all the way back in June. I still can’t believe my mortgage is less than $500 per month.
• Punch-Out!! Arcade Game ($400.00) — I don’t care what anyone says, this purchase was so awesome that it warranted its own post. I don’t regret it for a second.
• Hockey Jersey ($285.50) — This addiction just won’t die. It’s getting there, though…
• Hand Truck ($205.86) — So now that I’ve got two arcade games along with a ton of heavy furniture in the POD, it only seemed like a good idea to go out and buy my very own hand truck. I can’t tell you how many times in the past we’ve said, “It’s too bad that we don’t have a hand truck” as we huff and puff some piece of furniture up the stairs. I didn’t skimp on this purchase either cause there’s nothing worse than an inadequate tool. This puppy is rated up to 1200 pounds and will make moving everything back into the house so much easier. Safer too.
• PODs ($168.95) — Yep, that portable storage unit is still in the driveway and full of stuff that used to be in the rooms being renovated. It’s looking like this could be the last month we have it but if things get tight, we’ll keep it around another month.
• Waffle Maker ($105.99) — Now my sister will probably think that we bought this because she got one as a wedding gift (while we were up there on vacation) and felt the need to rightfully gush about it. But the truth is, that Best Western that I referenced above had one of these and that sold us. It’s a nice one that makes two belgian waffles at once. Yep, I’ve had waffles for dinner at least 10 times this month.
• Clothes for Duncan ($97.77) — While looking at some of the pictures we took of Duncan when we were on vacation, I realized that he needed a more trendy wardrobe. Mission accomplished. He’s the coolest looking kid in the Toddler 2 room.
• Densist ($85.00) — I don’t think I mentioned here on PIAC but back in June I dropped our dental insurance. This $85 cleaning charge would have cost me double if it’d come directly out of my paycheck as an insurance premium…
• IKEA ($74.18) — This was for a few light fixtures for our renovation. They’re not great but they look neat.
• Home Depot ($69.86) — More light fixtures. These things can get expensive but obviously we didn’t buy anything too pricey.
• Corporate Filing Fee ($20.00) — Sure, it’s only $20 but it’s one of the reasons that small businesses avoid the State of Connecticut. I gave the state $20 for nothing. In April, I’ll give them another $250. Again, for nothing…
• Lowe’s ($28.54) — This was for a pair of work gloves. And one of the light fixtures that we bought at Home Depot had a broken globe. I bought a replacement at Lowe’s and it didn’t fit. Go figure. I’ll return it one of these weekends.
• Green Electrical Supply ($21.49) — But wait, there’s more. In addition to having a broken globe, the fixtures that we picked up at Home Deport are über green. I mean, they don’t accept Edison-mount light bulbs cause they’re too darn inefficient or some such nonsense so… it’s darn near impossible to find lightbulbs that are more powerful than a lightning bug in any store. Thankfully they’re available online though, so that’s what these are. I bought 4 bulbs that should be brighter than the sun itself. I only needed two but figured that ordering lightbulbs online was a wee bit risky. I all but expect two of them to be broken during the shipping process.
• Chicken Wings ($19.61) — You almost never see food expenditures here on PIAC because my wife usually buys all of it and her finances aren’t reported here. She would have bought this too, you know, had she remembered her purse.

So, in an attempt to make it seem as though I didn’t spend as much as I did, I’m gonna pretend that we didn’t go on vacation or have our house worked on.

Adjusted spending for the month of August now comes in at $3063.02.

Yep. That sounds good to me.

Posted on August 31st, 2010 at 9:32 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report | 1 Comment »

Spending Report for July 2010

I did a pretty good job last month.

Most of our vacation expenses will fall into my August report, which lessens the damage, and besides a big tax bill, well, I think I kept my spending in check.

• $2371.24 : Property Taxes
• $275.97 : Ramada
• $232.98 : Sears
• $168.95 : PODS Storage Unit
• $120.00 : Cash
• $116.15 : Cable/Internet
• $116.00 : Gas
• $112.18 : Electricity
• $110.12 : UPS
• $97.78 : Home Depot
• $94.95 : RunningShoes.com
• $80.37 : Clothing
• $74.19 : Luggage
• $47.31 : Natural Gas
• $40.17 : Lowes
• $49.98 : Business Expenses
• $8.00 : Car Wash

That all adds up to $4116.34.

Not that taxes don’t count as spending, but without them, the total is only $1745.10. That’s even less than June!

Granted, there wasn’t a mortgage payment in July and I didn’t write any of the checks to the contractor working on the house, but still…

Here’s the line item breakdown of the anomalies…

Property Taxes – I hate ‘em. Always have. Connecticut is one of those states where we need to pay local property tax on our vehicles.

This year it’s so high because it also includes the property tax on my house. When we re-financed a couple of months ago, I stepped up to the plate and deciced to pay them myself.

Reason being — I’d rather have a super low mortgage bill each month and a huge tax bill twice a year rather than have a high mortgage bill *every* month.

Ramada – I have rule when it comes to hotels. I won’t stay in one that has a number in the name. Ramada passes that test and this specific hotel — which I might mention if I do a vacation specific post — was top notch.

Sears – Of course, as luck would have it, the lawnmower died just before we went on vacation.

Combined with the fact that we’ve got some major sums to pay the contractor and had a vacation looming, well, I didn’t want to have to buy a lawnmower.

I settled on one of their returned/refurbished models. Hey, it was 50% off and it’s still new to me!

PODs – Things are progressing on the remodel (pictures soon, I promise) so it’s possible that we might need it for one more month.

On the other hand, we’re not sure we want to move any of our crappy old furniture back into the house. We’ll see…

UPS – Holy shipping charges Batman! This was the charge to ship a high-end baby carrier (one of the external frame backpack kind) to Florida so my parents could drive it up to Alberta (it’s complicated) where we could pick it up to use in the mountains.

It cost so much because it’s a pretty big and it’s not supposed to be disassembled — so it stays pretty big. That’s the main reason that we couldn’t check it as baggage on an airplance.

Well, upon arrival in Florida, my dad took it apart anyway so when we picked it up in Alberta, the confidence that we’d had in the sound and sturdy product (that cost a fortune to ship) was totally lost.

Major bummer — so we didn’t use it nearly much as we wanted to cause we didn’t want Duncan to slip out and fall off a cliff.

The good news is that he didn’t fall off a cliff. The bad news is that we didn’t venture near any cliffs, or even off of an over touristed well-beaten — borderline handicapped accessible — trail because of it. Sigh…

This one ended up being another expensive vacation expenditure that wasn’t worth the expense.

Home Depot – Related to the renovation, we decided to replace our old thermostat (remember that thing?) with one of those new programmable touchscreen ones. It even lights up!

RunningShoes.com – Back in 2008, I got a super bargain on a pair of sneakers from these guys. Back then, the shoes were for vacation.

So I thought I’d treat myself again — but this time, pay full price. So worth it.

Clothing – I bought myself a few pairs of shorts. Exciting, huh?

Luggage – No, this wasn’t a luggage handling fee from the airline. We actually didn’t own any luggage. I’ve always been the if-it-can-fit-into-this-backpack type of packer until now. Now we have real (el-cheapo)luggage.

Lowes – More renovation stuff. This was for a new doorbell. It’s not fancy but it sounds nice and it’s better than the wireless hunk of junk we’ve been using.

Car Wash – I’m not one of those that believes that a clean car runs better (one of my friends from high school seriously washes and hand waxes his car weekly cause he believes that — and it’s a Honda Civic?!) but I can’t stand it when a bird poops on the door handle.

Posted on August 15th, 2010 at 7:51 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report | 1 Comment »

Spending Report for June 2010

Well, you can throw consistency out the window…

Since the refinance went through, I’ve had money to burn. Seriously, when you manage to cut your mortgage bill by 60%, well, suddenly it’s as if there aren’t any big bills anymore. It’s a strange feeling.

But with the renovation still not paid for, well, I’ve chosen not to spend like crazy so as not to dig myself into a huge deep well of debt.

Either way, my spending pattern can hardly be called a pattern any more…

• $786.51 : Hockey Jerseys
• $414.56 : Clothing
• $245.01 : Business Expenses
• $168.95 : PODS Storage Unit
• $116.15 : Cable/Internet
• $101.65 : Gas
• $88.68 : Electricity
• $80.00 : Cash
• $57.22 : Baby Gates
• $57.06 : Natural Gas
• $25.00 : Mortgage
• $21.20 : Cell Phone
• $10.00 : Zombie Keychain
• $9.53 : Home Depot
• $8.00 : Car Wash

All together, that’s $2189.52.

One year ago, I spent more than that on the mortgage alone. Crazy.

At the top of the list are the hockey jerseys. It’s a hobby that’s tough to explain — and I won’t try to explain it.

I added two jerseys to my collection this month — both pretty difficult to come by and both that I consider worthwhile purchases.

One was a white New York Rangers Liberty jersey which was a style that they only wore for one season. Stuff like that adds to the collectability — kinda like limited edition beanie babies or whatever.

The other was a Swiss National Team jersey worn in the 2010 IIHF World Championships that I purchased direct from the Swiss Ice Hockey Association — an experience on its own.

First off — I’ve dealt with monetary transactions from Switzerland a few times but it’s always been money coming in. Sending money to Switzerland, on the other hand, is a royal hassle.

In short, Switzerland doesn’t do the whole euro thing — they want their payments in Swiss Francs. Not a problem, conversion is simple, but they also don’t accept checks.

You’ve gotta wire the money into their account which, obviously, is a Swiss bank account which, in turn, makes you look like you’re financing some sort of Al-Quaida operative when you’re trying to wire money from an American bank.

Would you like a DNA sample with that? Sheesh…

Yeah, the bank on this end of the bargain made it feel criminal. To say the least, it was a learning experience. And I’m probably on some sort of watch list as a result.

Up next, and somewhat out of the ordinary, is the clothing expenditure. I’d worn myself down to one pair of shorts last month. I *had* three pairs at the start but some poorly situated holes developed and put me in a position where, well, I needed a new line-up of shorts. I threw in a few shirts too.

I also found myself sucked into watching the World Cup in June and ended up purchasing a few soccer jerseys for me and my son. Sadly our team, Germany, didn’t make the finals but we’ll still wear our cool new jerseys regularly.

Business expenses were high this month as I finally jumped on the wireless bandwagon. We purchased one of those NetBooks last month (my wife bought it so it’s purchase not accounted for here) so it was time to make our home network wireless too.

The hardware wasn’t really that expensive but it did bump me over the $200 mark with all of the regular expenses thrown in too. The worst part about it was that I had to venture into Best Buy… Ugh.

The Baby Gates purchase was for a couple of those gates that you put in doorways to keep toddlers from, well, escaping. Duncan is walking around now so we kinda need to keep him outta the construction zones — not that they’re any more dangerous than the house was a couple of weeks ago, but still…

A ten dollar Zombie key chain? What is wrong with you? Actually, a friend has been getting into the whole arts and crafts thing and I was feeling generous. Besides, it’s awesome.

And the last non-regular purchase was that $9.53 purchase at Home Depot. It was for a HUGE screwdriver (that I’ll probably never see use again — much like that mandrill back in 2007) that helped me take apart (or destroy) the piano so we could get it out of the dining room. I’m just glad the stupid thing didn’t cost more.

Posted on July 10th, 2010 at 6:40 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report | 1 Comment »

Spending Report for May 2010

With so many things up in the air (mortgage re-fi, mega pay cut), my spending this past month was far from ordinary.

• $3000.00 : Contractor
• $1346.10 : Mortgage
• $445.00 : LenderVend Appraisal
• $241.81 : PODS Storage Unit
• $200.00 : Cash
• $114.14 : Cable/Internet
• $112.19 : Gas
• $106.96 : Water/Sewer
• $102.37 : Target
• $100.00 : Capital One Bank
• $99.28 : Electricity
• $93.76 : Natural Gas
• $92.84 : Business Expenses
• $52.95 : Flowers
• $15.66 : Walmart

All together, that’s $6123.06.

Okay, so the total isn’t so out of the ordinary but the breakdown certainly is. If you took all of the renovation and re-finance related expenses out of the equation, I actually had a pretty thrifty month as they alone made up for over 60% of my spending.

Cash was as high as it was because I took a bunch out for the day we took Duncan to the zoo. Sure, it was supposed to be FREE but it wasn’t.

The Target trip also related to Duncan‘s big day. We bought him a leather easy chair, a pool, and some clothes.

I made a $100 payment to my wife’s Capital One account to ensure that her balance was $0 (or less) for when we wrote that $17k check to ourselves. While the card is in her name, I’ll be adding it’s balance to my net worth updates this coming month.

The flower purchase was for a girl that asked Duncan to go to the prom with her. He couldn’t make it but we ordered her flowers on Prom day anyway.

And I can’t believe I stepped foot in a Walmart but that purchase was for a wrist brace after I totally messed it up at the zoo wrestling a hippo…

June’s spending should be even wackier, I’m thinking…

Posted on June 6th, 2010 at 8:53 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report | 2 Comments »

Spending Report for April 2010

Well, I thought this month would be one for the records books but I seem to have come up just a bit short.

That’s good news… but I still spent too much.

• $1850.00 : Mortgage
• $1823.22 : Hockey Jersey
• $1769.56 : Air Canada
• $240.00 : Cash
• $146.04 : Natural Gas
• $138.13 : Electricity
• $111.33 : Cable/Internet
• $252.40 : Business Expenses
• $90.00 : Gas
• $60.00 : U.S. Department of State
• $56.05 : Phone (Last One!!!)
• $40.00 : U.S. Postal Service
• $36.99 : GAP Online
• $12.53 : BoA Transaction Fee
• $5.16 : Lowe’s
• $5.00 : New Alliance Bank ATM Fee
• $2.50 : Vending Machine
• $1.00 : Hartford Parking Authority

Total for the month is… $6639.91.

An improvement over last month (barely) but still far too much.

I mean, last year, I only spent $2500 total for the month of April…

Making matters worse, unlike last month when most of the spending was on stuff like insurance, auto repairs, and debt payments, most of the spending this month was for non-essentials like, um, hockey jerseys and plane tickets.

Breaking it down a bit, err, explaining the irregularities, well, the hockey jersey number probably looks absolutely ridiculous to most people and makes it seem as though my priorities are way out of whack.

I can understand that.

One of my financial goals for 2010 was to curb my hobby expenditures and for the most part this year, I’ve done that.

Sure, I blew it this month, but I’ve been a lot more reluctant on purchases than in years past and, this time, I’m certain that I got my money’s worth. That probably doesn’t make sense to most readers either…

The Air Canada expense was for plane tickets to my sister’s upcoming wedding — unfortunately not on Easter Island which would be cool though, right?

It hurts to see that number as high as it is as there are definitely more pertinent things that we *should* be spending the money on (no, not hockey jerseys — the HOUSE!) but it is what it is.

Best of all, the trip isn’t for a few months so by the time we’re handing over our boarding passes this purchase will seem so ancient that it’ll feel free…

That is, until the charges for the rental car and hotels come though… Ugh.

Seriously, I booked a few more things, they’ve put a hold on my credit card but nothing has gone through…

The last few lines on this spending report, while small, are all irregular too and are worthy of a little explanation.

The GAP online charge stems from that jacket purchase and then return/credit and then exchange. I bought a couple of t-shirts and a onesie as well which is why the numbers between the two posts don’t all add up (for those keeping score at home).

The Bank of America transaction fee is a foreign transaction fee that they hit me up for on the Air Canada tickets. The upsetting part is that Air Canada (when purchased in the United States) bills out of Atlanta, Georgia which happens to be in the United States.

Yeah, explain that “foreign” transaction fee to me again? Whatever — I’m learning not to sweat the small stuff.

The purchase at Lowe’s was for a plumbing emergency. The trap under our kitchen sink “fell” off. Not sure how it happened, or why, and it doesn’t relate to that time I fixed the leaky faucet but I’m just glad it only took $5.16 to fix.

ATM fees really piss me off. Thankfully I didn’t get bookended with a fee from my own bank too. This was one of those moments where you get caught with your pants down (not in a can) at a place takes cash only.

What type of place only takes cash these days?

Anyway, it was one of those situations so I had to bite the bullet and use another bank’s ATM. Yep, took out $20 and paid a $5 fee to do it. Think about it — that’s 25 percent. Outrageuous.

At our last hockey game of the season, we used the neat vending machine that takes credit cards for two sodas.

I’m sorry — even vending machines take plastic. No, really, I’ve seen lemonade stands run by 5 year olds that take plastic… What type of place is cash only these days. Okay, I’m done now.

No… wait.

That last one…. The Hartford Parking Authority. Yep, that was a parking meter and guess what? It took plastic too.

Posted on May 9th, 2010 at 10:00 am by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report | No Comments »

Spending Report for March 2010

Deep breaths…

So just one day into the month of March I joked about how I’d already spent more on that one day than I did for the entire month of February.

It made for a rought start and I can’t say that I every really recovered…

Here’s the breakdown:

• $2000.00 : Mortgage
• $907.20 : Auto Insurance
• $846.16 : Capital One Bank
• $767.99 : Used Vacuum Cleaner
• $527.63 : Toyota (auto repairs)
• $325.00 : Boy Scouts of America
• $250.00 : Commissioner of Revenue Services
• $233.54 : Natural Gas
• $220.00 : Cash
• $161.86 : Electricity
• $111.50 : Cable/Internet
• $105.70 : Business Expenses
• $92.96 : Gas
• $69.91 : Phone
• $52.96 : Toys

That totals $6673.65.

The last time I spent anywhere near that was back in July of 2009 when I paid $2915 to have some trees taken down (cool video of the project here).

We didn’t do any home improvement projects this month, though we surely need to…

So, here I go trying to justify the numbers line-by-line anyway…

The mortgage is what it is. For simplicity sake, my monthly mortgage payment is around $1250. The $750 unaccounted for is “extra” principle that I pay on a weekly basis.

Auto insurance, well, what can you do? I suppose I could spread it out and pay it monthly but, if I have the money available, I prefer to pay the full 6-month premium right out of the gate.

The $846.16 payment to Capital One was a payment that I made from my account to pay off my wife’s credit card. Her finances aren’t detailed here on PIAC so this is one of those few crossover moments where our money is “pooled”. The reasoning here is that last month’s tax refund went directly into my checking account so I used part of it to pay her credit card balance.

The used vacuum cleaner — well, that expense got it’s own post the minute I made the purchase. And it was worth every penny.

Ahhhh, poor Toyota. They’re getting dragged through the mud these days but we’re perfectly happy owners of two Toyotas. My Scion and my wife’s Toyota both went in for service this month and I picked up the tab for both — again, using the tax refund money.

Boy Scouts of America? Huh? Well, it was a charitable donation but there’s also a dark side to it. I got a hockey jersey in return so the streak is over…

Commissioner of Revenue Services — plain and simple, it sucks being a small business in the State of Connecticut. This is the Business Entity Tax that I get hit with each year. There’s always talk of it disappearing but it never seems to happen.

The weather has begun to turn so the natural gas bill has begun to fall.

Holy cash, Batman?! Yeah, I don’t know what happened. To my credit, I’ve still got $60 in my wallet so I didn’t actually spend all of this.

Electricity, Cable/Internet, Business Expenses, and Gas are what they usually are. The phone bill, however, will be different in the months to come. We switched to MagicJack in March so the phone company is a thing of the past. I’ll post more about that later.

The last entry was from a trip we made to Amato’s Toy Store. It’s an old fashioned toy store (no Barbie’s, Bratz, or video games) and I bought Duncan his first Lego set, his first Playmobil set, and a cool wooden puzzle. Again, totally worth it.

So, yeah, all together I spent a ton of money but nothing seems overly extravagant — besides, maybe, the vacuum.

But give me a little credit… I bought it used!

Posted on April 14th, 2010 at 8:12 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report | 3 Comments »

Spending Report for February 2010

Sure, February’s the shortest month of the year but I’m still inconspicuously patting myself on the back for a job well done.

This isn’t the smallest sum that I’ve ever reported but it’s pretty close.

In short, I think that this is about the best I can do without pinching pennies to the point that our standard of living takes a dip *and* still overpay on the mortgage by such a large amount.

This also marks the 12th month that I’ve been reporting my spending. I’m not so sure that it’s opened my eyes to anything new but I do think it’s helping me keep my free-spending a bit more under control as I don’t want to shame myself online at the end of each month…

Anyway, here’s where the money went:

• $1850.00 : Mortgage
• $274.13 : Natural Gas
• $177.34 : Electricity
• $175.82 : Business Expenses
• $113.02 : Taxes
• $111.50 : Cable/Internet
• $101.32 : Water/Sewer
• $76.95 : Gas
• $49.33 : Phone
• $40.00 : Cash
• $20.45 : Cough/Cold Medicine
• $8.61 : Humidifier Filter
• $1.25 : Vending Machine

That adds up to $2999.72.

Pretty good — but we’ve got some big ticket purchases on the horizon for March…

Posted on February 28th, 2010 at 9:35 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report | 2 Comments »

Spending Report for January 2010

Well, I fared better than I did in December but I didn’t exactly keep my spending in check as closely as I’d wanted or even expected to.

That said, there were a few budget busters at fault for my breakdown — most notably that unplanned but definitely necessary fileserver that I purchased along with all of it’s related accessories.

The high utility bills certainly didn’t help either…

Anyway, here’s where all of the money went:

• $1850.00 : Mortgage
• $1134.51 : Business Expenses
• $335.24 : Natural Gas
• $233.67 : Electricity
• $120.00 : Cash
• $111.50 : Cable/Internet
• $66.93 : Gas
• $57.77 : Phone
• $34.20 : Clothing
• $8.00 : Car Wash
• $3.75 : Vending Machine

All together, that adds up to $3955.57.

I suppose I could pat myself on the back for keeping the sum under $4k even while dropping over a grand on the previously mentioned business expenses… but I’m not going to go that route.

I still spend far more than I *need* to.

Sure, I guess I could make the argument (to myself and with myself) that I can *afford* to spend this much, I mean, my net worth still went up, but, really, I think my true expenses (minimum payments across the board) only add up to around $2000 per month.

I routinely spend double that?!

On the success front, though, you might notice something absent in this month’s spending report — or you might not… The hockey jerseys.

Usually a staple in these reports and, more often than not, they’re in the second or third spot too. Not this month.

So far, that’s the only goal for 2010 that I’ve adhered to.

It’s still early though… ;0)

Posted on February 6th, 2010 at 9:28 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report | 3 Comments »

Spending Report for December 2009

Well, it’s a new year now so I’m not going to apologize for *any* of my ridiculous expenditures last month.

Really, though, I didn’t go drastically overboard in any category and I even got a jump on some of my financial goals for 2010 — specifically the mortgage goal.

So, here’s a listing of the damage:

• $1850.00 : Mortgage
• $1147.23 : Hockey Jerseys
• $226.54 : Christmas Related Stuff
• $200.00 : Lawn Service
• $152.32 : Electricity
• $136.59 : Natural Gas
• $111.50 : Cable/Internet
• $81.42 : Gas
• $69.50 : Business Expenses
• $68.48 : Phone

That’s $4043.58 — a lot of money.

Explaining it all…

I stepped up my mortgage payments this month to the tune of $175 towards the principle per week. This puts me back on pace to finish off the mortgage in a timely fashion.

The hockey jerseys… Well, history shows that I splurge at the end of November each year and I did it again this year except, for once, it didn’t hit the books until December rolled around. Yeah, it’s a number I should feel shame over but I said up at the top that I wasn’t going to apologoze for anything.

Christmas only cost $226.54 this year. Definitely a thrifty holiday compared to years past. We figured that Duncan isn’t going to remember this one so we didn’t bother to go all out.

The lawn service expendure was also a hold over from November. I’ve mentioned a few times on the site that I’d never be raking my own leaves again because, in my eyes, it’s definitely worth the money to have someone else come and get rid of them for me. They sucked every last leaf up back during the first week of November but the bill arrived in mid-December.

The bills this month were a pleasant surprise. It’s gotten super cold so I expected the electricity and natural gas bills to skyrocket. They both went up but not by much.

The gas total indicates that I only filled up 3 times in December — a combination of getting great gas milelage and not making a single lengthly car trip.

Lastly, the phone… This one is starting to irk me. See, if I recall correctly, I only used the phone a total of 4 times this month. If you were one of the lucky fortunate to have spoken with me on the phone this month I’m sure that you’d agree that none of the calls were worth the roughly $17 I ended up having to pay for them.

Bring on 2010…

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PIAC Post Extension:
Though I didn’t start doing these spending reports until the end of March, I have the data for the entire year nice and handy so, for the record, I “spent” $48665.80 in 2009.

That works out to an average of $4055.48 per month so, really, I had nothing to apologize for this month — I came in under “budget” in a wacky sort of way.

Here are the totals for all years past where I’m 100% confident that the numbers are complete and accurate:

2004: $55,594.06
2005: $66,791.22
2006: $78,530.31
2007: $81,046.25
2008: $49,342.55
2009: $48,665.80

Keep in mind that 2006 and 2007′s numbers are skewed by the home improvement projects we took on back then.

No matter how you read the numbers, whether you think they’re insanely high or welfare level low, I’m on the right track having kept my expenses over the past two years lower than they’ve ever been.

What exactly occured roughly two years ago that allowed me to turn the table?

Yep, I wiped out the last of my credit card debt.

Coincidence?

I think not.

If you’re carrying some credit card debt, I can’t stress it enough — wipe it out before anything else because once you do all of the other stuff will suddenly fall into place.

Posted on January 1st, 2010 at 12:26 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report | 1 Comment »

Spending Report for November 2009

A few days later than usual but that’s because I’m always reluctant to report less-than-inspiring news…

Without sugar coating it, I spent $3581.74 in November. That’s a lot of money — far more than I can afford to spend each month.

Here’s how it all breaks down:

• $1500.00 : Mortgage
• $653.00 : Homeowners Insurance
• $297.33 : Hockey Jerseys
• $166.52 : Business Expenses
• $161.99 : Baby Stuff
• $131.95 : Electricity
• $116.08 : Water/Sewer
• $111.50 : Cable/Internet
• $105.15 : Gas
• $102.31 : Natural Gas
• $95.40 : Lowe’s & Home Depot (the faucet project)
• $64.51 : Phone
• $60.00 : Cash
• $16.00 : College Hockey Tickets

For $3500, you’d think the list would be longer…

Anyway, the biggie this month came in the form of the homeowners insurance. You’d think that I’d be upset by this but I’m actually elated.

See, this means that it’s been an entire year with a conventional insurance policy — after 5+ years without on something inapproriately named the FAIR plan.

The hockey jerseys are what they are. Yes, I spend too much on them month after month after month but I’m not putting myself in debt doing it like I was in the past. For once in my life, I can afford it.

I’m working on it. Honest.

The “baby stuff” was a new car seat for Duncan. We did the single car seat thing — swapping it from one car to the other — for six months and that was enough. For those having kids in the near future, two car seats are the way to go. Sooooo much easier.

Everything else is just kinda routine stuff. And — since we’re so far into December already I can tell you that this month isn’t going real well either…

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PIAC Post Extenstion:
Yeah, so see that horrible picture of Duncan and Santa up there?

Well, though we usually shop at Target, this past weekend we wandered into Walmart and this ghetto Santa talked us into having a picture taken.

You can tell than Duncan is thrilled — he *was* looking pretty enthusiastic as I dug through that $5 DVD bin moments earlier. No so much in the arms of, um, Santa.

Hey, to this Walmart Santa’s credit, his beard was real but my wife got that icky alcoholic drug addict vibe from him. I wanted to disagree but really couldn’t. He was a dirty Santa in a dirty Santa suit — about what you’d expect from Walmart.

At least it was complimentary…

Posted on December 8th, 2009 at 8:30 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report | 3 Comments »

Spending Report for October 2009

Another month passes and I’ve again managed to lower my spending. That’s the good news.

Unfortunately, though, it’s also that time of the year where the utility bills tend to increase by measures of nearly 100% each and every month so I don’t really feel like I took full advantage of the summer time weather that’s now in the rear view mirror…

I think I feel that way every year…

Anyway, here are the numbers:

• $1450.00 : Mortgage
• $439.51 : Business Expenses
• $245.86 : Baby Stuff
• $109.26 : Cable/Internet
• $105.23 : Gas
• $104.07 : Electricity
• $89.97 : Clothing
• $76.00 : Hockey Jerseys
• $71.19 : Natural Gas
• $68.95 : Phone
• $40.00 : Cash

All together, that’s $2800.04.

The mortage expenses were the same as last month. I haven’t been overpaying it like I did earlier in the year because I’m trying to boost my savings balance.

The business expenses were definitely a little out of control but I’m proud to announce that I’ve added a pretty substantial client in the meantime as well. Of course, this means nothing in a spending report post but it should pad my income quite nicely for the next six months or so.

My wife usually pays for most of the “baby” related stuff but the high chair purchase a bouncy-chair exersaucer thing (the high chair was actually last month) and his school pictures went on my credit card.

Why, you ask, would a professional photographer buy his kid’s school photos and not just take his own?

Yeah, don’t ask.

I’m not real happy with them — weird facial expression and some horrible colouring — and it makes me sad that I paid so much ($112) for such poor work but whatever…

(On a whole separate rant — since when is it customary to have school photos taken of 5-month olds? Perhaps this is a market I should look into…)

As I mentioned earlier, the utility bills are starting to creep up. It’s unlikely that my natural gas bill will be under $100 (or even $300) again until at least April. That makes me sad.

I spent a bit of money on clothing this month — a rare occurance — but I think I got a pretty good deal.

The hockey jersey collection was kept under control too. Last month, I spent over $750 in this frivolous category. This month, I spent less than $75.

Still frivolous, but hardly budget breaking…

Posted on October 31st, 2009 at 4:01 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report | No Comments »

Spending Report for September 2009

Is it just me or did September come and go in the blink of an eye?

I can’t believe that we’re just hours away from October — and all of the things that go along with it like hockey season (woo-hoo!) and raking leaves (boo!).

So after two months of grossly overspending, I tried a different approach this past month. Basically, I stopped my extra weekly mortgage payments and trimmed my transfers into savings.

For some reason, I thought this would be a step in the right direction, and while it did keep my spending down, it didn’t really help me at all when it comes to the big picture.

More specifically, my mortgage balance didn’t go down as much as it usually does, my savings balance didn’t go up as much as it usually does, and my checking account, well, it didn’t seem to sway one way or the other.

In short, I think this financial strategy failed. You’ll see what I mean in tomorrow’s net worth update.

On to the numbers:

• $1450.00 : Mortgage
• $758.28 : Hockey Jerseys
• $271.51 : Hilton Hotel
• $160.00 : Cash
• $155.23 : Gas
• $125.35 : Electricity
• $109.26 : Cable/Internet
• $82.69 : Business Expenses
• $52.42 : Phone
• $36.07 : Natural Gas
• $20.94 : T-Shirt
• $8.99 : Diapers
• $8.16 : International Transaction Fees
• $2.00 : Hartford Parking Authority

All together, that’s $3275.99.

Still a lot of money but A HUGE improvement over August and July…

The most obvious problem with my spending is the hockey jersey hobby. I had a pretty good run earlier in the year where I kept it under control but $750+ in the span of 30 days is far too much to be spending on a hobby.

It’s one of those things where every now and then a great deal comes along — and then 5 more come right at the same time.

Now that I’m not carrying any consumer debt, when a flurry of deals come along, I have the flexibility to take advantage of *all* of them. Hopefully, though, for my wallet’s sake, there aren’t too many more deals to be had for the rest of the year.

Irregular expenses this month are the Hilton stay (a result of the family reunion that we attended), the $160 cash withdrawal (for spending money while on the road), the $155 in gas for the car (to keep us on the road), the international transaction fees (also a result of the reunion), and the Hartford Parking Authority charge.

That last one is because Hartford, CT recently installed new parking meters that take credit cards. I’d never had the opportunity to swipe my card at a meter before so I gave it a try.

My conclusion?

Definitely more convenient than making sure the ashtray is full of quarters.

Posted on September 30th, 2009 at 8:51 pm by Brainy Smurf
Finance, Spending Report | 1 Comment »