First up, month-to-month variable expenses. With a rough budget of $1,600 a month, I came in under in three months, February, April, and July, which likely coincided with when my book drafts were due. Turns out staying at home is cheaper! (But is it really?!)
- Jan: $2,500
- Feb: $1,400
- Mar: $2,000
- Apr: $1,250
- May: $2,400
- Jun: $2,000
- Jul: $1,500
- Aug: $2,000
- Sept: $2,700
- Oct: $2,000
- Nov: $3,400 (adj to $2,400)
- Dec: $3,900 (adj to $3,000)
Wait, but if I use vacation offset for November and March — which is fifty percent of the vacation money — then I guess those numbers would drop! So it would be -$1,000 for November and -$800 for December. Hooray for fuzzy accounting!
This year’s big four category breakdown is:
- 🌮 Food: $11,500
- 🎩 Shopping: $8,000
- 🎠Play: $4,500
- 🚌 Transportation: $3,000
Let’s break down the annual cost of a house shall we? My faux mortgage is $2,000 per month, and then there’s $550 a month in bills for monthly house cleaning, internet, HOA, water, gas and electricity, four times a year pest control, and a quarterly gardener. In addition, there is the fun toll of property tax, which is twice a year at about $3,500 each, and then house insurance for $800 per year. All told, owning a house costs about $3,200 per month. Total monthly expenditures including variable, fixed, and annual expenses? A whopping $6,750. Yowza! I don’t make that much, so um, yeah.
Aside from running at house, there’s the random big things that happen. In my case, 2019 was the year of the closet and the Quiet Cool. Both have changed my life for the better, but they were by far the biggest ticket items on the Annual tab. My lovely closet was $3,000 and installing the life changing Quiet Cool cost $2,350 all inclusive.
My other big ticket items included a new tattoo ($1,200) and a new iPhone 11 ($1,150) to replace the one I dumped in an Uber while on vacation. The latter is paid by the company though, more or less. Other stuff: Fantasy basketball fees for five years ($450), iPad Mini 5 ($400), a wonderful music from the front row ($400), two classes at Poway Adult School ($400), two surfboards ($350), a face laser session in Taiwan ($350), a haul of Magic cards ($300), and a stupid toll road late fee that was overdue ($250).
There were seven flights I bought this year, two of which were not for me. Eight if you count the one that flew me back from Taipei at the beginning of January but was technically from December 2018. Total for that was about $2,800, but I roll in rides from the airports and whatever luggage or crossing fees there are. So a total of about $3,200 on flights.And similar to last year, here were my various trips out of San Diego and how much they cost, including all expenses, flights, and accommodations.
- Taipei (Jan): $1,100 / 14 nights
- San Francisco (Jun): $760 / 7
- Taipei (Nov): $3,250 / 17
- Mexico City (Dec): $4,650 / 19
Now onto our favorite section of reporting, tags! Food, as usual, was the biggest expense, adding up to a total of $11,500, which works out to about a thousand dollars per month, or $32 a day. Of that, a little less than half was “dining out / shared" (defined as eating with other people, or you know, bringing food to the family). Eating out solo was around $3,000 and then groceries and boba tied at a little over a thousand dollars each. Trailing the pack is the nebulous “snacks” which I think I should probably break down into actual snacks and liquid like substances. Do I smell a new tag for 2020? Cue the excitement!
There was aslso three thousand dollars worth of shopping this year, which doesn’t even encompass the $1,800 I spent on clothes. I spent $150 a month on clothes?! I need to dig deeper here, as I sure don’t feel like I dressed like a hundred and fifty bucks! Oh I see, two of those items were wedding outfits and one was basketball shoes. Okay, I feel slightly better.
Then there was a shocking $900 spent on games, most of which was games for the Switch ($700), with a smattering on board games ($100), iOS and PC games ($100), and the aforementioned three hundred dollars on Magic cards.
Broadly speaking, “gifts” covered things that I just had to get other people, highlighted by a tremendous shopping spree I did for George in the night markets. The poor kiddos got so little, but mom got a lot! Woohoo! Oh lastly for shopping, there was $600 spent on books, which about equals movies — a personal record low for movies I’m sure — but that technically goes into the "play" category.
Also I don’t know what went into “car” but it was a whopping $2,500, and plus $1,600 of gas. Most of that is car insurance of course. While we’re on transportation, I spent over a thousand dollars on taxis this year. That’s actually way lower than usual. But should I be tracking Uber Eats and food deliveries? Hum, maybe another new tag!
Instead of the typical pie chart showing “Spending % vs Category”, we’re gonna throw up the categories in a spreadsheet for extra clarity. Strangely my “drinking” vaulted up from $400 last year to $600 this year. I’m not sure what that was from since I swore I drank much less than when I was traveling?
Lastly, I realized my monthly subscriptions are costing $170 a month. That’s SimpliSafe ($25), NBA League Pass ($20), Netflix ($16), Spotify ($15), Bluehost ($13), GoDaddy ($12), Soundcloud Pro ($12), Logitech Circle ($8), Chase Sapphire Preferred ($8), Patreon ($6), Marvel Unlimited ($6), YouTube Red ($5), another Logitech ($4), 1Password ($3), two iClouds ($6), Nintendo Online ($3), Sticher ($3), and then Instapaper, Google Drive, and Bear. Can I cut any of that two thousand annually? We’ll think about it… Note: Seven of those qualify for “entertainment,” and that’s $70 per month.
Does that cover it all? Have I learned anything new? Well, I guess I learned that having a house is expensive, even though I thought I was getting a deal! Thanks Mom! I guess it’s time to get out there and make some more money...
Oh wait, I better address why November and December were so high! For November the answer is easy: lots of shopping in Taipei over that trip. And in December the answer is also pretty easy, as it was basically also vacation with a friend visiting from Japan, and then a New Year's Eve week or so with another visitor from Mexico City. All told, that back half of December pushed up the variable spending for those two weeks. But it was well worth it! 2019 ended with a bang and we're ready for the travels and fun of the upcoming year!
#tbt: Comparatively, a decade ago I was living off unemployment while writing a book and living halfway between San Diego and San Francisco. Too bad I didn't have this great budgeting report back then to see how I was living then!
No comments:
Post a Comment