Most notable in October were the medical bills. They were sizable. Other than that, another big happening was that I shifted most of my savings to Capital One. Capital One released “performance savings accounts” this month that with competitive interest rates. The rates were enough for me to switch, since they also have a physical presence in DC, and don’t require that I share my password with mint. Now I don’t have to solely rely on my excel spreadsheet when tracking my expenditures.
My net worth increased by a little under $5,000 this month. My savings was the only asset category that saw a decline. Some of that was due to moving my money around into my checking, but a lot of that was due to it being the time of the year for periodic bills, which I do budget and save for each month.
| Liquid Assets | Start | End | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash & Checking | $3,500 | $3,600 | +$100 |
| Emerg. Fund | $8,400 | $8,700 | +$300 |
| Savings | $3,100 | $1,800 | ($1,300) |
| Brokerage | $3,500 | $3,600 | +$100 |
| HSA | $2,800 | $3,000 | +$200 |
| Illiquid Assets | Start | End | Change |
| Home Eq | $32,900 | $33,500 | +$600 |
| 401K | $65,800 | $69,000 | +$3,200 |
| Roth IRA | $31,500 | $33,200 | +$1,700 |
| Debt | Start | End | Change |
| Loans | ($3,200) | ($3,200) | +$0 |
| Net | $148,300 | $153,200 | $4,900 |
| % Change | 3.3% |
Spending
| Category | Budget | Actual | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1)Bills & Utilities | $670 | $650 | $20 under |
| (2)Food | $300 | $260 | $40 under |
| (3)Medical | $- | $1,291 | $- |
| (4)Misc | $500 | $440 | $60 under |
| (5)Sinking Funds | $- | $- | $- |
| Total (1+2+4+5) | $1,470 | $1,350 | $120 under |
| Total + Medical (3) | $2,641 | $1,171 over |
Bills & Utilities
On a typical month I only have two bills, not including my mortgage, which I budget $125 for. This month I also had a two (anticipated) periodic bills. I paid for these bills with sinking funds. I will do a better job next year of keeping track of my sinking funds, so that this type of spending makes a bit more sense.
Food
I was slightly under budget this month since I had a lot of food left from the previous month. I even ate out more than usual because I went on vacation.
Medical
This looks like a lot, but this was mostly anticipated and budgeted for in my sinking funds. There was only one bill that was a bit of a surprise, which was for $300.
Everything Else
I went on a shopping spree last month to see if it would curb my spending in this category. This is only a month after but it seems to have helped with my internet shopping.
Sinking Funds
I did take money out of my sinking funds, but since I haven’t been consistently tracking this, I left it blank.
A Tale of Finances 