My apologies whoever reads this, I’m late on the March update! Now that it’s halfway through April I barely remember what happened. Let’s see what my spreadsheet says.

Net Worth

Apparently my net worth increased by 3.6 percent, so that’s good. Most of my net worth increase came from the market performance. But I did manage to save $400 somehow, I must have had extra income.

Liquid Assets	Start	End	Change
Cash & Checking	$2,025	$1,800	($225)
Emerg. Fund	$6,000	$7,225	+$1,225
Savings	$2,600	$3,250	+$650
Brokerage	$1,600	$1,600	+$0
HSA	$1,025	$1,300	+$275
Illiquid Assets	Start	End	Change
Bonds	$1,225	$0	($1,225)
Home Eq	$28,950	$29,500	+$550
401K	$49,025	$51,225	+$2,200
Roth IRA	$27,225	$27,900	+$675
Debt	Start	End	Change
Loans	($3,550)	($3,450)	+$100
Net	$116,125	$120,350	+$4,225
% Change	+3.6%

Spending

Each month, after my housing costs and retirement plan contributions I have $1,100 to spend on all the other things. My goal historically has been to “budget” $750/month for these expenditures, meaning I’d have the potential to save $350. This month I went over that “budget” and spent $1,040, of which, $185 were medical expenses.

I say “budget” loosely as I’m not really aiming to save right now, but I do want to maintain a positive cash flow.

Category	Budget	Actual	Diff
(1)Bills & Utilities	$150	$144	($6)
(2)Food	$300	$270	($30)
(3)Medical	$-	$185	$-
(4)Misc	$300	$442	$142
(5)SF	$-	$-	$-
Total (1+2+4+5)	$750	$856	$106 over

(1) Bills & Utilities

I was $6 under budget

(2) Food

And I was somehow under budget on food, again.

(3) Medical

I am cash flowing my medical expenses this year, maybe. I have chronic health conditions that make my medical expenses quite high. I am hoping that at some point things stabilize and things aren’t so costly.

(4) Misc

I was slightly over “budget” in this category mostly because I purchased clothes. I actually have a sinking fund for clothing, but I decided to cash flow it.

(5) Sinking Fund

I didn’t touch any of my sinking funds this month despite having funds set aside for medical & clothing expenses. I cash flow all my expenses when I can.

Conclusions & April

Overall I’m happy with how things are going. I earn enough to max out my HSA, Roth IRA and 401K. But after all my additional expenses I don’t have much left over to blow or save. My medical expenses, which have totaled ~$600 so far this year, are a big contributor to my inability to save on a monthly basis. Thankfully three paycheck months make up for lost ground. I just wish I didn’t feel so strapped each month. And in good news, next month I am getting another pay raise which will make for an extra $150/month post taxes. That will certainly help!

It’s halfway through April so I know how it’s going already. Not surprisingly I have quite a bit in terms of medical expenses. I’m also trying this new thing where I don’t meticulously track my budget. Instead I just glance at my credit card totals and am trying to keep them collectively under $600. I like the ease of this system, but I’m totally going to be over my historical $600 budget due to some large purchases of furniture.