Who wants to know how much money I spent last month? I do, I do!!! October was all sorts of interesting because I was on a business trip from Sept 18th to Oct 31st. The trip definitely altered my spending habits, but I think as you read through, things should make sense.
My Income:
Salary: My take home pay from the day job. I’ve been waiting for October to come for a long time. It’s one of the two months I get an extra paycheck! It’s like an early X-mas present and it makes my heart happy every time I get it. I choose to budget myself on a two paycheck month, so this extra cash can be used for whatever the heck I decide.
Interest Inc: This measly $14.34 gain was from the pathetic interest my online savings account earns. Just this last weekend I switched to INGdirect. The interest rate is marginally better, but I’m glad to rid myself of Bank Of America….take that mega bank!
My Expenses:
Auto: My business trip was on an island no larger than the size of Barbara Streisand’s nose. I didn’t have a car so my total gas expenses for the month were an incredible $0. Booya!
Dining/Groceries: You’ll notice I didn’t include a dining or groceries related category this last month. Instead, I decided to add these expenses in my “travel” category. All of my meals and incidentals will be reimbursed, so like my gas, my food expense for October was a big fat ZERO!
Interest expense: You are all probably very familiar with my Sallie Mae loan by now. I only reduced it by $236.29 last month. This is my minimum obligation and since I was out of the country, I didn’t make the effort to throw down an extra payment. Don’t worry though, I’ve thrown another $1,500 at it this month.
Travel: All food and travel related expenses. I was forced to eat a lot of Burger King, Subway, and Pizza while on island. That is the bulk of the $308 expense. My stomach hates me for it, but I didn’t have a choice.
The other categories were too unimportant or self explanatory so that is why I didn’t cover them. The overall total at the bottom is the cash I had leftover after all my expenses. I had $3,610 left over. ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! I put a good chunk of that towards my student loan and plumped up my savings account a good deal as well. October was one of my highest income producing months, and one of my lowest cost months. That, my friends, is a recipe for financial success!
* Are you wondering why I post the previous month’s expenses a couple weeks late? I use quicken to track my spending and I have to wait until the end of the billing cycle before I can download these transactions. I know I could manually add each expense as it comes, but I am entirely too lazy for that. Thanks for checking in and if you got any comments, tips, or advice I’d be more than happy to hear it. *
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Do this every month and you will be a millionaire by 40!
Looking Good!!
(Duddes…he only gets 3 paycheques twice a year – like the rest of us on a bi-weekly pay schedule)
Nice work! I really need to attack debt like that!
That's a sweet amount of money to have left over. I'm looking forward to December since I get an extra paycheck AND my bonus comes in December. I'm planning to use a little bit of the money for holiday shopping and the rest is going to savings.
What great pics you have! LOL. I wish I could have that amount of money left over. Great job getting sent to an island the length of Streisand's nose.