Income/Expenses for February 2011

Each month I will post my income/expenses for the previous month. I track every dollar in and out, so what you see is exactly what I earned and spent (rounded to the nearest dollar).

Income from February 2011:
$3,191–Regular Paycheck
$34–Dividends
$160–Bonus and Spiffs

Total Income:
$3,386

Expenses from February 2011:
$637–Rent
$287–Car Payment
$180–Student Loans
$93–Restaurant
$76–Auto Insurance
$58–Groceries
$40–Fuel
$47–Fast Food and Pizza
$44–Internet
$17–Pharmacy
$9–Mobile Phone (iCall VOIP)
$50–Everything Else*

Total Expenses:
$1,542

*-The Everything Else category includes things I don’t have a regular budget for. In this case, it was the cost to do taxes on TurboTax ($37) and roses for Valentine’s Day ($13).

I managed to save 54.4% of net income. Total savings were $1,843. Of that money saved I contributed $1,200 towards investments. The rest went to my cash/short term positions. I am trying to build a separate emergency fund. I think $5,000 is appropriate for my income/expense levels. I am very close to that mark right now.

This budget was very close to my final tally from January 2011. The restaurant budget exceeded my normal expenditures due to an expensive meal out for Valentine’s Day. I don’t go out much, due to my frugal living doctrine, but my girlfriend would probably kill me had we not gone out to a really nice romantic meal for Feb. 14th. It was worth it and it was a nice night out. Also, the cost to do my taxes are not a usual budgeted item, but a necessary evil. Next month’s budget will actually include the cost to balance my taxes, as I owed the IRS a small sum.

I will post a real exact budget every month. Some thoughts for the future are I plan reducing rent by 30-40% once my lease is up in August. Until then, I have to deal with my past decision to sign up for a relatively expensive lease. I am also contemplating living car-free. That would free up a lot of funds every month with which to invest. This decision will revolve on where I live next and how close that location is to work/groceries etc. We will see.

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9 Comments

  1. Thanks for the details. A few observations..spending $37 on Turbotax may not needed per freefile from IRS. (usually costs to file for state, but I use my states own site and re-enter the data for free)…I’d agree strongly on the car payment reduction goal. I’d try to find a good quality/condition 10yr old car you can pay cash for if a car is a necessity.

  2. Hi Jason,

    Shall start reading your post right from the beginning as the conversation with you via email, just curious for the

    $160โ€“Bonus and Spiffs (What it means, or where do we account it from into the expenses spreadsheet)

    Do you have life insurance or endowment plans, if not, where would you account it under in your expenses spreadsheet? Anticipating your advise, thanks.

  3. miltontan,

    Thanks for stopping by! And I appreciate you reading from the beginning. I hope I’ve improved as a writer since these early days! ๐Ÿ™‚

    As far as your question goes, the bonus/spiff category included income I earned for special sales we ran at work. For instance, we often ran special programs where management would compensate us in the form of bonuses for certain items sold, like: tires, brakes, alignments, etc. That’s where I used to categorize this income.

    I don’t have life insurance, and don’t plan to get any at this time. I don’t have a family or anything, so it just doesn’t make sense for me.

    Hope that helps!

    Best regards.

  4. It’s interesting to go back to your early days and re-read some of the posts. You’ve always had a really high savings rate, and always been quite frugal with your expenditure. It’s also really good to see such a strong sense of purpose all the way through your journey, you’ve kept plugging away at the goal and are ever closer to reaching it! I know you will keep up the good work!

    Cheers!

  5. M,

    Haha! Thanks for allowing me a little jog down memory lane. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Yeah, I remember these budgets pretty fondly. I’m looking forward to getting back down to this spending level at some point. Although, I lacked health insurance and blogging expenses back then. But frugality is pretty much part of my DNA at this point.

    Thanks for the support. I really appreciate it. I hope your journey is proving just as fruitful as my own!

    Best wishes.

  6. I’m 4 years behind you but I like what’s going on here.

    I think I’m going to start doing the same.

    Thank you for the inspiration.

  7. John G,

    No problem!

    You simply divide your net savings by your net income.

    So in this case I saved $1,844 ($3,386 – $1,542). You then divide that $1,844 by $3,386, which gives you 54.5%. I didn’t round it up, but I should have (the actual result is 54.459%).

    Hope that helps!

    Best regards.

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