August was supposed to be a no spend month, at least for non-essentials. That didn’t quite happen, but I did a decent job. I also had a couple of unanticipated essential purchases that were larger than I’d like. Thanks Murphy! First, let’s look into my net worth, which didn’t change much:

Liquid Assets	Start	End	Change
Cash & Checking	$3,300	$3,100	($200)
Emerg. Fund	$7,600	$7,900	+$300
Savings	$3,500	$3,400	($100)
Brokerage	$3,500	$3,400	($100)
HSA	$2,300	$2,600	+$300
Illiquid Assets	Start	End	Change
Home Eq	$31,700	$32,400	+$700
401K	$62,800	$63,000	+$200
Roth IRA	$30,900	$30,900	+$0
Debt	Start	End	Change
Loans	($3,300)	($3,300)	+$0
Net	$142,300	$143,400	$1,100
% Change	0.8%

And there you have it! I have nothing to show for my modest contributions to my retirement accounts. August was a rocky month for the stock market due to the ongoing trade war.

Spending

The no-spend stipulation was a challenge. And even though I did fairly well, my medical expenses offset an otherwise low-spend month. Keeping myself alive is costly. At least I didn’t have to dip into my sinking funds.

Category	Budget	Actual	Diff
(1)Bills & Utilities	$125	$100	$25 under
(2)Food	$300	$324	$24 over
(3)Medical	$-	$279	$-
(4)Misc	$500	$395	$105 under
(5)Sinking Funds	$-	$-	$-
Total (1+2+4+5)	$925	$819	$106 under
Total + Medical (3)		$1,098	$173 over

Bills & Utilities

I only paid two bills (electricity and internet) and they were low.

Food

I was all set to be within my $300 budget, but I met up with a visiting for brunch on the last day of the month. The cost of said brunch? The amount in which I went over budget: $24. It was worth it!

Medical

I spent nearly $300 keeping myself alive, and it’s paying off! This is the first time in over a year in which I can say my health has improved The improvement is slight and needs to be greater. I will most likely add another expensive medication to my treatment plan. But I’ll take it.

Misc

So this month was a no spend month for non-essentials in the “miscellaneous” category. It wasn’t easy, especially the first week or two. I did a fairly decent job of sticking to the plan, with the exception of three non-essential purchases that totaled ~$100. Two purchases I was intending to make in September, but the items had huge (>40%) mark downs on Amazon. I use camelcamelcamel to follow items on my wishlist and snatch up good deals.

Notable essential purchases include:

• A new (to me) cellphone- $90 (unanticipated)
• New luggage – $70 (unanticipated)
• Transportation Costs – $80 (anticipated)

Conclusions & Next Month

The no-spend made a huge difference this month. I know I would have gone way over budget otherwise. I wish I could make September another no-spend month, but I don’t have it in me. I’ll probably try again in January. Until then, I’ll work on figuring out a better way to stay within budget.