If I could only use one word to describe November, it would be, bleh. Mediocre at best, at least it felt that way after last months RADICALNESS. I guess I shouldn’t be complaining ’cause I still brought home more than I spent, and when that happens, life is good. Here’s where the money went…
My Income:
Salary: My take home pay from the day job. I should have only brought home about $2,700 last month, but I got paid out for the last of the overtime I worked in October. It’s gonna be depressing to watch my income drop. Oh well, in February I get a $12,000 raise! YAY!!!
Gift: Mom Ninja’s hooking it up with some money to throw at my student loan. Everyone should say nice things about Mom Ninja down in my comment box, haterz not allowed 🙂
My Expenses:
Auto: Looking at my Auto expenses make me want to throw up. My car registration was due, so that was $220 gone. Another $180 came from one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done (car mirror vs fence = fence wins).
Dining/Groceries: Fudge! I broke my grocery/dinging budget for the first time in a REALLY long time. I have a goal to be under $250 total for food each month. Unfortunately I broke that by $26.74. I went out to eat quite a bit last month because I had been on a business trip abroad for six weeks and wanted to go out with my friends 🙂
Interest expense: Good ol’ Sallie Mae. Brought the old hag down another $1,600 last month which ain’t to shabby if ya ask me. Especially considering my minimum obligation is only $230.
Travel/Reimbursement: These were all costs/reimbursements related to my business trip to the Marshal Islands. Nothing to exciting here.
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 ended up having $1,670, which I put in to my savings account. I’m foaming at the mouth, waiting for that raise to come so I can have even more options with my cash flow.
Is it bad that I’m not excited with over a $1,000 do-whatever-the-crap-I-want-category? Don’t answer that. Are these monthly expense reports even entertaining for you to read? I’m imagining in my head right now, all of my readers hating these updates. If that’s the case, I’ll stop 🙂 Let me know. THREE MORE DAYS TO CHRISTMAS!
* 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. *
1) Mad props to Mom Ninja! My Dad helped me out with my student loan last month and it really saved my behind. Thank goodness for parents.
2) Don't stress too much about car vs. fence. I've survived two rounds of car vs. parking garage (although the car lost both times) and we have an estimate for about $1600 that we're ignoring right now. :-S We all do things like that sometimes. Just be glad yours wasn't too expensive! 🙂
Mom Ninja sounds like an amazing, thoughtful, caring Mom! My parents also helped me out by forgiving a small loan that they gave me throughout university/grad school. They rock! It was an unbelievably great surprise at the end of school.
I like to read these updates-it's cool to know the nuts and bolts of finances (but then, I'm a geek…)
Yeah, Mama Ninja – you ROCK. And PDITF – I like the updates. Inspiring.
Mom Ninja, you go girl!!!
Is it bad that I actually come here for your drawings? I mean, I like your posts but those drawings start my day off RIGHT!
Always best to drive perpendicularly into the fence if you want to obliterate it.
Im tired of you whining when really you got it pretty good!!!