There is no more spending to be had in December so it’s time for the update. December was difficult due to the holidays but my net worth still managed to increase by more than 7 percent. I’ve also officially separated out and started working on my emergency fund!

Liquid Assets: Obviously the decrease in Cash & Savings is due to its transfer into the Emergency Fund.  I have a solid $1,500 emergency fund which is almost one month’s worth of living expenses. The “Other” category shows that people still owe me money and I am owed $50 more than last month.

Retirement: My retirement accounts increased nicely. I continue to make regular contributions and it appears that the markets performed well. I have not been paying attention to the markets to be honest.

Liabilities: I decided not to carry over any credit card debt this month and I would like to get into that habit. I still have medical bills to pay though.

Budget

I was pretty certain I wouldn’t meet my budget in December. I was correct, however I actually didn’t do too bad. I ate out a lot more this month than I usually do but should be able to save quite a bit next month since I now have groceries stock piled.  I live in DC and I go to restaurants semi-freely but still manage to keep my food expenditures low. For reference my food spending includes eating out at restaurants three times ($82) and eating fast food two times ($14). The rest of the money includes grocery store purchases. The Quicken software I use to track my spending doesnt properly categorize some of my spending if I buy groceries on amazon, for instance, so that explains some of why my food expenditures are low. But mostly I don’t eat much meat or buy more than 2-3 days worth of food at a time because that’s all I can carry without a car. In other words, I don’t waste much. I’m not terribly pressed on categorization as long as I don’t go over the total budget for the month.