Monthly Spending Report – April 2019

Welcome to month 4 of my 2019 Monthly Spending Report series. This month I went on two work trips, so expect low grocery costs and lots of business travel expenses. I ate out a total of 31 times in April! Oy. Thank goodness I’m reimbursed for much of that.

To catch up on previous reports, you can find January 2019’s report here, February’s report here, and March’s report here.

And yes, I’ve been MIA for a whole month. But I’m back! I’m sorry for the gap in my posting schedule. I’ve just been…busy.

Let’s get into it.

What is a Monthly Spending Report?

Back when I first created this blog, I wrote about budgets. A budget is a plan for how you are going to spend your money.

A spending report is a record of what you actually spent. Chances are most of your spending isn’t going to perfectly align with your planned budget. For instance, you may estimate that your electricity bill will be $70 and then it ends up being $76. Or you might budget $200 for eating out/entertainment and end up being sick one weekend and only spending $160 for the month.

The point is, a spending report is what really happened vs what you expected to happen (your budget). For my military readers, you could think of building your spending report as the data compilation portion of your financial debrief for the month.

April 2019 Monthly Spending Report

My total personal spending for April was $1,865.12. This is below average.

Take note: I am a single human caring for one large dog. My car is paid off, I don’t have any debt other than a mortgage on my rental property (I track rental property expenses separately), and I don’t want a giant house (been there, done that). All of those things affect my numbers, so if you look at this and anything seems surprising that might be why.

Some thoughts before I start

Last month I talked about how my expenses so far in 2019 have been lower than I expected. That I “feel” like I live a much more expensive life than my expenses show. Some of that is because I live in a low cost of living area. Some is because I have no consumer debt. But I’m starting to wonder if I’ve just somehow become more frugal than I think I am.

• I go out to eat a lot, but it’s usually at places that aren’t too expensive. At work a hearty lunch is $5-$8 while breakfast ranges from $1.50-$3. In town I rarely spend more than $15 on a meal. So, that’s part of it. I often save more expensive dishes, especially seafood, for cooking at home where I can control costs more.
• Having a brand new car means I haven’t had any repair costs. People mock my Honda Fit but it’s less than 1 year old, gets great gas mileage, and is comfortable and safe. What more do I need? I’m not a car person so this has been great for me!
• I am about to embark on 13 total days of vacation (there will be a post on that in June!) but my total costs for that are going to be pretty low. You’ll have to wait for the post for details, but I’m paying only a few dollars for the airfare, very little on lodging, and many of my meals will be included. The most expensive part of the 2 trips (it’s split) is going to be dog boarding! So that’s keeping costs very low.
• etc

I’m saying all this because after last month’s spending report, someone asked if I can start including useful tips. She didn’t provide any info about what kind of tips she’s looking for, so I will try to explain my spending but my biggest tip this month is simply “Don’t pay more than you have to to live the life you want.”*

If you can get something you want for free (legally and morally) do it! If you can satisfy your eating out desires with $3 breakfasts instead of $20 lunches, take advantage! And don’t drive a fancy car/pay for loud concerts/buy $300 outfits if you don’t care about those things. But do spend generously on the things you care about. For me that’s good ingredients for cooking at home, travel expenses that I can’t cover with points, and gifts/charity.

I can (and will) talk about more frugality tips later, but honestly the very best thing I’ve ever done to help out my spending is to stop spending more than I needed to.*

*this advice doesn’t help if you are on such a tight budget that you have no leisure spending. If you want to talk about that, let me know. I’ve done that too, but it’s an entirely different way of approaching finances than what I normally talk about.

Housing Expenses – $1209.57

My rent was normal. I live in a fairly low cost of living area where I rent out a nice 2-bedroom patio home in a gated community for $1010/month, including a small amount for pet rent for my dog. I pay an extra $1.95/month for the convenience of having my rent auto-paid so I don’t have to worry about checks or remembering the due date.

My utilities were higher this month ($197.62) than previously because I had prepaid several months of utilities to meet a minimum spend requirement on a credit card and that credit has now run out. It will be higher next month, too.

I include cable/internet and my cell phone bill in my utilities cost because I consider internet and a phone line to be near requirements these days.

Insurance – $29.00

My car insurance was paid in full (6 months worth) two months ago and my renters a few months ago, so it was just life insurance this month. I have a $400,000 policy through SGLI, the life insurance for military members.

Groceries – $84.78

My grocery spending only includes actual food and drink meant for home preparation. I lump restaurant food into my entertainment budget, dog food under pet care, and toiletries under Miscellaneous. I know some people count all of those things as groceries but it just doesn’t make sense in my head that way.

Grocery spending is low this month because I bought a ton of stuff in March and went on two work trips in April. This is mostly just fresh foods like meat, vegetables, and dairy.

Entertainment – $118.50

This amount includes Netflix, Avengers: Endgame tickets (woot!), and 12 meals out (mostly cheap ones at work). I also signed up for HBO Now at the end of March and it’s reflected here ($15.76). It’s Game of Thrones season! Anybody watching? What do you think of the current season (no spoilers please!)?

Personal Travel – $0.00

Nothing in April, but May’s spending report should be fun!

Transportation – $53.40

More trips to/from the airport are keeping my gas costs high for a car with such good gas mileage. When I’m not having to make that roundtrip, it’s about $40/month.

Car Repairs and Maintenance – $0.00

Nada.

Pet Care – $62.29

Dog food and some toys.

Clothes – $64.92

A wallet (mine was falling apart…buy quality!) and a shirt.

Uniforms – $0.00

Nope.

Gifts – $0.00

Nothing this month.

Charity – $200.00

This $200 is my paycheck deductions going to the Combined Federal Campaign and the Air Force Assistance Fund. I also have a savings account for a sinking fund where I save money for additional charitable contributions, but I didn’t disburse any money from there last month.

Miscellaneous – $42.66

This could be anything. I like having a catch-all category for the things that aren’t easily lumped in elsewhere. Sometimes it’s a mug. Sometimes it’s paper towels. Whatever.

This month, my miscellaneous spending mostly consisted of replenishing laundry supplies.

Personal Total – $1865.12

So far my annual spending has been $1707.87 in January, $2710.45 in February, $2070.88 in March, and $1865.12 for a total of $8354.32. That’s a monthly average of $2088.58.

Business Travel – $1853.80

While the above amounts show personal spending, I also spent almost the exact same amount on business travel. But it wasn’t money I would’ve spent on my own, so I’m accounting for it separately. This money covered two TDY trips.

This $1854 includes:

• Six hotel nights
• A rental car
• Fuel for the rental car
• Airport parking
• Dog boarding for my pup
• 19 more restaurant meals!

I was reimbursed for all of this (I spend less on food so that my dog boarding is covered by per diem – normally it wouldn’t be) so it doesn’t feel right to include in my personal spending total. But it does affect my grocery bill, utilities, fuel to drive to the airport, etc so I still wanted to show it.

If you include this spending in my monthly spending report, April 2019 cost me $3718.92.

That’s my monthly spending for April 2019. Anything interesting to report from your own spending?