Wednesday, September 3, 2008

August Spending Analysis

First, a quick administrative note: they have blocked blogger functions at work, and so my blogging will now occur a little bit less frequently. I'm hoping to find the energy to continue blogging after work, maybe by emailing myself some posts. Also, while I can still read all of your posts, I am unfortunately no longer able to comment, so I'll try to remember to do that from home, too.

On to business!

August spending was a under a little bit more control compared to July's total of $4,203, which included a reunion trip to Vegas.

MONEY EARNED: $5574 (after FSA, health insurance, gym membership, taxes, etc. This is what is direct-deposited into my savings account each month)

Note: This is about $1400 more than what I earned in July for three reasons:
1) My promotion raise became effective Aug 1!
2) I maxed out my 401k at the end of July, thus no more 401k deductions
3) I maxed out my Social Security at the end of July, thus no more SS deductions

MONEY SPENT: $3,065

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BREAKDOWN: (Last month's total in parenthesis)

Beauty: $86 ($124)- A mani/pedi combo, another manicure, and a bottle of a new perfume

Cash: $300-
ATM withdrawals for items not listed below and to pay for lunches

Cashback Bonuses: $30- 5% back from Discover Card on gas and hotel spending, and a $10 Discover giftcard for spending $100 at a participating mall

Charity: $50- Colleague's Multiple Sclerosis bike event

Clothing: $197- Mini shopping spree at Banana Republic less the money I was refunded for my price adjustment, some new flip-flops, and a belt.

Dining out: $238 ($165)- Includes a promotion-celebration at Bertucci's, the bachelorette party meal, and the dinner out I bought for B's family to thank them for having me at their lake house ($130 for five people at a nice Italian restaurant- I thought that the bill would be twice as much, and was prepared to pay for it). The rest of my restaurant dinners were company/client-expensed.

Drugstore/household: $15 ($120)

Entertainment: $38 ($84)- BOGO Discover promotion for Wall-E tickets, and a magazine subscription renewal

Furniture: $0 ($420)

Gas: $58- To help B pay for gas on our road trips


Gifts: $53 ($141)- Gift for the wedding I will attend in San Francisco later this month

Groceries: $171 ($61)- Mostly comprised of my trip to COSTCO! This food will last me months (although I will have to restock the diet cokes soon!)

Poker/Gambling: $20- Includes a $100 poker game with my colleagues, a $5 game I lost to B's mom (was worth the $5 to not suffer the consequences of beating her, haha), and a $26 game for B's cousin's 26th birthday. I love that his family likes to play poker, but I wish I had a better poker face. Offsetting these losses is the $111 I won at the Saratoga Race Track on a $2 trifecta bet!

Rent + Utilities: $1513 ($1507)- $1375 rent, half of $165 for cable and $112 for electricity ($13 more than last month's electric bill)

Taxis: $137 Includes the $5-$6 taxi to get to work in the morning. This is discretionary, but I choose to save 30 precious sleeping minutes by spending $5-6/day to get to work by 6:30 a.m. (not to mention that it's too dark to walk safely in the winter). The additional taxis are used to get to/from B's place when I'm in a hurry- to get there by subway requires a transfer and takes at least 35 minutes, a taxi costs $12 and takes less than 10 minutes. It's always a tough call, especially if I'm carrying heavy bags or if it's late at night and I'm tired.

Travel/Lodging: $188 ($1025)- Includes $175 for flights to Richmond for the wedding I'm in this October, although $70 of it was credit from a flight refund. Also includes a shared hotel expense for my friend's bachelorette party in D.C. My train tickets were purchased via rewards from my Amtrak Mastercard.

Wedding related: $29 ($108)- Shared cost of the bridal shower gift for the bride who's wedding I'm in. This category is exclusively for costs related to that wedding (except for travel), which is why the gift I purchased for the other wedding is not in this category.


All of the money left over is now earning some fatty interest in my new HSBC account along with the bonus I just deposited. September will be a bit expensive with the hotel and rental car for my trip to San Francisco, but maybe I can reign in some of the other cost categories (or maybe play less poker! :P ).