Spending Overview

I’m keeping track of my spending to hopefully break the habit of going over budget. This week went well. I’m no longer in the red! I was actually really sick this week so not going outdoors helped. The weekly spend:

Shopping: $46
Misc.: $1
Health: $55
Utilities:$91

I’m not counting the health and utility categories against myself (that’s why they’re greyed out). My utilities are relatively fixed and my healthcare expenses are reimbursed from my FSA. I also do not constrain my healthcare spending.

My cumulative monthly totals thus far are:

Food: $40
Shopping: $221
Misc.: $23
Health: $74
Per diem bonus: $55
Utilities:$91

The goal is to spend $15/day in the first three relevant categories. So far I’ve spent $284 over 21 days for an average of $13.52/day.

Day 1-3

Beginning Balance: $12
Spending: $0
Ending Balance: $12

No spend!

Day 4

Beginning Balance: $27
Spending: $30
Ending Balance: ($3)

I’m back in the red here because I bought stuff on Amazon: toothpaste, toothbrushes, bathroom cleaner, etc. Ahh, necessities.

Day 5

Beginning Balance: $12
Spending: $1
Ending Balance: $11

I made an in-game purchase on my phone. Yeah I’m that person.

Day 6

Beginning Balance: $26
Spending: $0
Ending Balance: $26

No spend!

Day 7

Beginning Balance: $41
Spending: $16
Ending Balance: $25

Amazon purchase.

Spending Overview

I’m keeping track of my spending to hopefully break the habit of going over budget. This week had fairly minimal spend:

Food: $22
Shopping: $15
Misc.: $20

Admittedly I’m not including times that I ate out which totaled $55. This is due to my business trip earlier in the month in which I received a per diem. If I don’t spend all of my per diem during a trip I allow myself to spend it in a similar fashion in my city. This way I can frequent a new or favorite restaurant without blowing my budget.

My cumulative totals are:

Food: $40
Shopping: $175
Misc.: $22
Health: $19
Per diem bonus: $55

Day 1

Beginning Balance: ($70)
Spending: $0
Ending Balance: ($70)

I did so well! $0 Spend!!! (Okay I actually ate on left over per diem).

Day 2

Beginning Balance: ($55)
Spending: $32
Ending Balance: ($83)

I bought $22 worth of groceries and took out $10 in cash. I’m getting better at eating my groceries before they spoil.

Day 3

Beginning Balance: ($68)
Spending: $15
Ending Balance: ($83)

Amazon spending! I forgot exactly what I bought but I’m sure it was important.

Day 4-5

Beginning Balance: ($53)
Spending: $0
Ending Balance: ($53)

I did well! $0 Spend!!!

Day 6

Beginning Balance: ($38)
Spending: $10
Ending Balance: ($48)

Uber! I went house hunting this day and also ate on left over per diem.

Day 7

Beginning Balance: ($48)
Spending: $0
Ending Balance:  ($33)

House hunting wore me out. And I actually placed an offer on the second house I saw!!! Scary!! I’ve managed to make up for most of last week’s spending except my computer broke. The repair will definitely put me over budget. But since that’s beyond my control I’m going to continue the challenge of $15/day average spend minus the impending repair. I’m writing this entire post on my phone! That’s why it’s a bit late and not so detailed.

The hunt is officially on! I’m looking for a condo, albeit much earlier than anticipated.

So why the sudden change of heart?

1. I really want to live in a 1 bedroom place.
   • I hate living in a studio, especially since having a chronic illness means I spend a lot of time at home. I’m convinced that having only one room is not healthy in the long term.
   • The average 1 bedroom in this city rents for $2,100/month in my neighborhood it’s closer to $2,500. A mortgage payment plus HOA fees would lie somewhere in this range.
2. Housing prices are rising quickly in my city.
   • They’ve risen 10% in the past year. Should this trend continue a $300,000 house would be worth almost $400,000 in 3 years. I am not sure I can afford this  sort of increase in three years.
3. I came across the perfect mortgage through my local credit union and the interest rate is super low. I am considering other loans now too.

How will I come up with the down payment then?

I’ll be taking out a 401K loan.

I know this is generally ill advised, but I figure I’ll be ahead in the long run. I had been muling over various strategies to save for a 3-10% down payment plus closing costs over the next couple of years.   Realistically saving for a down payment would entail me halving my current 401K contributions in order to save. I plan on taking a loan out for the amount of contributions I would forgo had I decided to wait a couple years to purchase.

How will this change my monthly budget?

I’ve come up with a few scenarios.  The scenarios  are in the chart below and show my post-condo monthly disposable income at various 401k contribution levels (10%, 15% and $18,000). For privacy purposes I don’t disclose my salary so I am going call the various salary possibilities (a) , (b) and  (c), where:

• (a) – is my current salary;
• (b) – will be my salary in 2 months;
• (c) – is my potential salary in 2-3 months if I am promoted; and
• COLA – represents the  cost of living adjustment (COLA) I’ll receive in January.
• I round all figures to the nearest $50

Monthly Disposable Income Scenarios  After Buying a Condo and Contributing 10 percent, 15 percent or the Max to my 401K
Scenario	Salary Amount	Disposable Income Amount
		10 percent	15 percent	Max
#1	(a)	$200	$0	–
#2	(b)	$300	$100	–
#3	(b) + COLA	$350	$150	–
#4	(c)	–	$550	$300
#5	(c) + COLA	–	$600	$400

What do I make of the above chart?

• If I don’t get promoted, I will likely contribute 10% of my income to my 401K.
• If I do get promoted, I will max out my 401K.

Alright, I’m off to fantasy hunt online!

Spending Overview

Food: $18
Shopping: $160
Misc.: $2
Health: $19

My goal is to spend $15 a day, on average, throughoutI the month of August. I am tracking my daily expenses, week by week, for at least the month of August. Technically Day 1 was in July  (as in July 31), but I think it’s simpler to work with a 7-day week from the start. I’m certainly not off to a stellar start, hopefully I can smooth this over in subsequent weeks.

Day 1-4

Beginning Balance: $45
Spending: $0
Ending Balance: $45

I was on a business trip, so all my meals and travel expenses will eventually be reimbursed. I typically don’t include reimbursable expenses in my budget/calculations. Since I was out of town I didn’t make any purchases except for one ($19) at a pharmacy.  This falls into the “health” category.  And since I don’t constrain my medical expenses, I left this out of my budget as well.

Day 5

Beginning Balance: $60
Spending: $49
Ending Balance:  $11

I returned home this evening and did my biweekly online shopping. I don’t have a car, so this is  how things are usually purchased. My purchases included:
(1) a memory card ($10) for my phone; and
(2) home-goods ($39).

Day 6

Beginning Balance: $26
Spend: $18
Ending Balance: $8

I had a low-key day so I mostly stayed at home. I got groceries ($16) and did laundry ($2). The weather was unusually mild so I also went for a walk (as my doctor ordered). I also did some work.

Day 7

Beginning Balance: $26
Spend: $111
Ending Balance: ($85)

I spent most of the day cleaning my apartment and attempting to meet a work deadline. But I also went on an amazon shopping spree, ugh. My purchases included:
(1) a printer ($73); and
(2) more home goods ($38)
All purchases  I had been eyeballing for several months, so they weren’t impulse purchases. I got rid of my old printer because it was too heavy for me.

 

I haven’t been posting with much regularity due to poor health. Hopefully in August I’ll do more than one post. But at least July treated me well in the financial sense, which wasn’t a surprise given it was a three-paycheck month.  All of my account balances increased:

Liquid Assets	Jun-17	Jul-17	Change
Cash & Checking	$898	$1,000	+$102
Emergency Fund	$3,154	$3,380	+$226
Short Term Savings	$850	$1,125	+$275
Vanguard Fund	$300	$500	+$200
Illiquid Assets	Jun-17	Jul-17	Change
Brokerage	$450	$460	+$10
Savings Bonds	$1,904	$2,060	+$156
Retirement	Jun-17	Jul-17	Change
Roth IRA	$16,117	$17,367	+$1,250
Traditional 401K	$23,117	$26,171	+$3,054
Net Worth	$46,181	$52,063	+$5,882
% Change			12.7%

I love the months where my net worth increases by 10 percent or more. I know as my net worth increases,  10+ percent increases will be fewer  and farther between.

I’m on track to meet my goals for 2017:

Fund/Goal	Contrib.	Total	Goal	Progress
401K	$2,214	$10,636	$18,000	59.1%
Roth IRA	$810	$4,000	$5,500	72.7%
Emergency Fund	$455	$5,440	$5,500	98.9%
Vanguard Fund	$200	$500	$3,000	16.7%
Vacation*	$275	$1,125	$1,000	112.5%

I’ve now fully funded my vacation fund. And I’m almost done with the goals directed towards my emergency fund and IRA. I still have a ways to go with the vanguard fund, but I don’t plan to finish that in 2017. I’ll be using the $3,000 to invest in one of vanguard’s mutual funds. I’m not sure which fund. I’m also not sure if the investment will be in my brokerage or Roth account.

It also looks like I may need to come up with additional goals.

July Budget

As far as the budget went, I could have done better. I increased the “Everything Else” category by $100 because of gift purchases.

Category	Budgeted	Actual	Remaining
Rent	$1,650	$1,650	$0 left
Fixed Expenses	$100	$89	$11 under
Medical	$-	$65
Food	$250	$201	$49 under
Everything Else	$300	$453	$153 over
Total	$2,300	$2,393	$93 over

I’m consistently going over budget in the “Everything Else” category.  Online shopping continues to be a problem for me. I think a major disconnect lies in my checking account not instantaneously reflecting my credit card purchases. I have a few strategies to at least attempt to meet my budget in August:

1. Limit online purchases to two days a week
2. Keep track of daily expenses.
   • I’ll probably publish this “diary”
3. Utilize a daily budget method
   • This means limiting my spending to $15/day and rolling the left over balance into subsequent days.
   • I will now be setting aside money from my checking accounts at the end of the day so that I can actually see the balance decreasing. I think the visualization should help immensely.

Ahh June! I finally received some much needed reimbursements which made for a smooth month.

Liquid Assets	May-17	Jun-17	Change
Cash & Checking	$528	$898	+$370
Emergency Fund	$3,065	$3,154	+$89
Short Term Savings	$750	$850	+$100
Vanguard Fund	$250	$300	+$50
Illiquid Assets	May-17	Jun-17	Change
Brokerage	$447	$450	+$3
Savings Bonds	$1,800	$1,904	+$104
Retirement	May-17	Jun-17	Change
Roth IRA	$15,754	$16,117	+$363
Traditional 401K	$21,136	$23,117	+$1,981
Net Worth	$43,730	$46,181	+$2,451
% Change			+5.6%

I  continue to push towards the finish line of several goals.

Goal Progress:

Fund/Goal	Contrib.	Total	Goal	Progress
401K	$1,476	$8,422	$18,000	46.7%
Roth IRA	$330	$3,030	$5,500	55.1%
Emergency Fund	$122	$4,985	$5,500	90.1%
Vanguard Fund	$61	$300	$3,000	10.0%
Vacation*	$100	$850	$1,000	85.0%

All in all I’m doing well for being halfway through 2017.  I also officially met my 2nd quarter goal of having $6,750 in assets outside of my retirement accounts. The only goal I am seemingly behind on is the “Vanguard Fund”. That’s okay. I’m not looking to complete that goal this year.

Category	Budgeted	Actual	Remaining
Rent	$1,650	$1,650	$0 left
Fixed Expenses	$100	$92	$8 under
Medical	$-	$145
Food	$250	$381	$131 over
Everything Else	$400	$648	$248 over
Total	$2,400	$2,771	$371 over

Usually I aim to spend $2,200 each month, but this month I added an extra $200 to my budget due to my 3 day vacation. This means my June budget was $2,400.  Interestingly, I was able to stick to exactly $200 for the 3 day excursion. Still I managed to go ~$400 over budget. Here’s where I “fell off” the wagon:

• Gifts – $125
• Rental Insurance – $149

A business trip and additional medical expenses (i.e. taxis) are incorporated into the above spending,  and I had these expenses reimbursed but am too lazy to go through and figure how much was spent in the corresponding category. All in all, my extra expenses were offset by earning $300 extra this month.  I didn’t even have to dip into my savings!

One thing I’d really like to work on in upcoming months is how I shop. I think I managed to do well in June. To be fair, I don’t have a car, so most of my shopping is done online for convenience and cost savings. I’m going to try to limit my shopping to one day a week.

Never say never, I guess. I’ve somehow managed to have a side hustle practically fall into my lap. This side hustle is based on my professional area of expertise and I just couldn’t say no.

My main fears about dedicating myself to a side hustle is that I won’t be able to consistently perform due to health reasons. So any side hustle that requires some sort of schedule is always out. Also I don’t have the energy to establish myself amongst new clients or within a new field. Admittedly, I never thought about writing in my current field because that requires things like grants and that’s very time consuming. In this case I was approached by a friend from grad school, to join them on their grant project. They knew I was familiar with a particular area and I said I’d be interested in helping.

This side hustle isn’t anything earth shattering, it’s essentially a freelance reference written report. My understanding is that income generated from such reports is roughly $200-$500 per page.

I forgot to outline/project my second quarterly allocation goals for 2017! So here it is albeit 5 weeks late.

Although I have a monthly budget and yearly end goals, I also like to plan my incoming paycheck allocations towards three broad categories: my Roth IRA, 401K and savings goals.  I do this to make sure that I’m meeting my goals on a quarterly basis despite slight deviations. These deviations may include changes in investment strategies; going over budget some months and not others; and changes in income.

The Details

Some differences between my first-quarter goal post include:

• Decreased allocations to my Roth IRA. This is due to contributing $300+ ahead of schedule.
• No savings in April and part of June. Because of my vacation and an upcoming trip.

Here are some past and upcoming distributions:

Date	Roth IRA	401K	Savings
9-Apr	$195	$738	$0
23-Apr	$195	$738	$0
7-May	$195	$738	$125
21-May	$180	$738	$125
4-Jun	$180	$738	$0
28-Jun	$180	$738	$125

Based on all of this, my goal is to have $6,500-$6,750 in illiquid/liquid assets outside of my retirement accounts by the end of June. According to my April net worth post, I had a little over $6,300 in these asset categories two weeks ago.

I’m still well ahead of where I need to be at this point in the year. My April net worth post certainly showed me that. At a third of the way through the year, I already met 80% of my Emergency Fund goal; contributed over 40% to my Roth IRA; and also started a new vacation fund which is also 40% complete. I am a little behind on my 401K contributions but that doesn’t bother me.

 

My vacation came and went smoother than expected. I had been padding my “Short Term Savings” account in the months prior in anticipation.  When I started saving for the trip, I failed to consider that I would not be buying the usual groceries and daily necessities whilst away from home. This resulted in saving too much, which is not a bad thing.

If I don’t count the extra day, the cost of the vacation over and above what I usually spend in a month was $0. So I still have $500 in my short-term account remaining.

The rest of the month involved some extra spending. However I did this knowing it was either reimbursable or within my adjusted budget. I adjusted my monthly budget because, following my vacation, I had a business trip. My employer provides a meal per diem when I have a business trip, so I increase my food budget accordingly.

Here is where my accounts stand:

Liquid Assets	Mar-17	Apr-17	$ Change
Cash & Checking	$600	$522	($78)
Emergency Fund	$3,026	$3,043	+$17
Short Term Savings	$500	$605	+$105
Long Term Savings	$154	$165	+$11
Illiquid Assets	Mar-17	Apr-17	$ Change
Brokerage	$287	$287	+$0
Savings Bonds	$1,445	$1,700	+$255
Incoming	$76	–	($76)
Retirement Accts	Mar-17	Apr-17	$ Change
Roth IRA	$14,492	$14,870	+$378
Traditional 401K	$17,157	$19,163	+$2,006
Net Worth	$37,737	$40,355	+$2,618
% Change			+6.9%

I do have a bit of a cash flow issue.  My Cash & Checking balances are much lower than I’d like. If I can stay close to my budget this month I should be fine. I’m slowing down my contributions to my Emergency Fund and Short Term Savings accounts.

What would really help me is getting my vacation expenses reimbursed. Since my vacation reimbursements are somewhat uncertain, I’m not entering it into the “Incoming” asset category.  But I did all the necessary paperwork, and anticipate a reimbursment of about $200 at some point. It would be great if everything gets processed before June.

Oh, and I surpassed a $40,000 net worth!

Goal Progress:

Fund/Goal	Contrib.	Total	Goal	Progress
401K	$1,476	$5,468	$18,000	30.4%
Roth IRA	$195	$2,225	$5,500	40.5%
Emergency Fund	$271	$4,742	$5,500	81.3%
Vanguard Fund	$10	$160	$3,000	5.1%
Vacation Goal*	$100	$600	$1,500	40%

* – This is a new goal

I’m still on track for meeting all of my goals! And I even have a new goal. I’ll go into more detail on the new one later. But first I’m going to break down my spending. Using my usual categories, this is how my budget went

 

Category	Budgeted	Actual	Remaining
Rent	$1,650	$1,650	$0 left
Fixed Expenses	$100	$88	$12 left
Medical	$-	$240
Food	$633	$482	$151 left
Everything Else	$546	$696	$150 over
Total	$2,929	$2,916	$13 left

Rent: I paid the usual: a lot. I choose to live close to work.

Food: Usually I budget $200 food, but this was increased due to my business trip and my travel insurance reimbursment.  I think I did relatively well, My understanding is that most spend a bit more than I do on food and eat $300-$500 worth of food during a typical month. This month was atypical for me, and a third of the food costs come from my 5 day business trip.

Fixed Expenses: No surprises here.

Everything Else: I usually budget $250 here. But I increased it mostly due to my vacation (i.e. hotel). I went over budget because I did some excess spending before and after my trips.

Medical Expenses: I don’t include medical expenses in my total monthly budget (I am reimbursed with my FSA). But I had sizable bills this month which I was anticipating.

My Next Trip:

I’m already saving for my next trip, and I have $600 to start me off. I am looking to vacation in South America. This time I’d like to do a 2-week Spanish immersion course. I hope to take this trip in January 2018!