Thursday, January 2, 2014

December Dollars

As promised, I continued to track all my finances through the month of December, since it was going to be a more "typical" month of spending.

Household Bills (Mortgage, Electricity & Water) - $856.70 (My half)
Car (Loan, Insurance) - $434.50
Netflix - $8.27
Credit Card Payments - $160.00
Savings, Investments - $85.00
Insurance (Life, A's Health) - $129.40
Dad (Money I owe him and cell phone) - $150.00
Gym Membership & Childcare - $41.90 (My half)
Race Registration - $240.00 (Only one, NYC marathon!)
Groceries - $173.00
Beer (Store & Bar) - $108.31(about $50 higher than normal between excessive delay at the airport and beer I bought for Christmas dinner)
Dining Out - $105.44
Parking - $112.00
Gas - $80.36
Gifts - $16.96
Other (Roller Skating, non-food items) - $51.74

I didn't get as much money from my ex this month (he recently quit his job), so I wasn't able to chip away at the credit cards as much as I would like. This is definitely a better example of where my money actually goes. Other than registering for the NYC marathon and the beer this month, there really isn't anywhere I can/will cut. We didn't do any extra-curricular spending this month and I had no one but a work friend to buy Christmas presents for, which saved a lot of money.

It really is eye-opening to see where money goes. Thinking I might risk going from cash to debit, although I'm not super reliable about writing everything down. Due to reduced income and high outflow, I don't keep a ton of money in my checking account and I don't have overdraft. Tips on keeping track of money? I still use a paper register...

Not sure if I will continue tracking going into 2014, as it seems I've got things as under control as it can be...

6 comments:

  1. I think the honestly you have by posting this on your blog is amazing! I don't know of a better way to track money, especially since you can barely cut your spending now.

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  2. I can't even begin to see where you could cut further. Cripes, I spend at LEAST $80/week on gas!

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  3. try mint.com. good way to see trends over time.

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  4. keeping track and putting it all out there for everyone to see is hard. I just follow along every day on my online banking to check my spending. Not ideal, but not going to use a check register.

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  5. I definitely think it still helps to keep track of all your spending, even after it's under control. I second the recommendation of Mint.

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  6. Good job on staying on track! I think there is an app, where you just take a picture of the receipt, enter the category and it does all the tracking for you.

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