Welcome to the February Monthly FIRE Report! Yes, I realize it’s almost April. Yes, I realize I’ve been slacking on my FIRE efforts. YES I AM GOING TO DO BETTER! Yes, I will stop starting sentences with the word “yes”.
It’s been a busy couple of months. Fortunately all good things! I just need to have a refocus session to revitalize my efforts towards achieving FIRE.
One key area I want to work on in April is deciding on a side hustle, and getting it off the ground. I also need to do more reading. I’m SERIOUSLY considering an April Internet ban to increase my productivity. WTF, T on FIRE!?!!
Believe it or not, I’m serious. I was introduced to the WheezeyWaiter recently by Youtube. Youtube thought I might like his channel. Turns out, Youtube is good at recommending things I might like sometimes. I love this guy, and his awesome wife! Anyway, WheezeyWaiter’s video “We Quit the Internet for a Month. Here’s what Happened.” inspired me to want to give this a shot. I don’t want to give away what happened (please click the link and watch the video yourself) but productivity was definitely impacted in a positive way.
Now, you can make your own rules for your internet ban. Mine may be a bit more flexible than WheezeyWaiter’s. I’m going to work on the rules tonight and see what comes out of that exercise. For example I still want to blog, and that will obviously require internet access. I will write a further post on this in the future if I get up the guts between now and Midnight.
Stats for February
Here are some fun stats!
Saved: $560. Same as January…gotta work on upping this.
Extra Income from Side Hustles: $43 from sales of items in our home.
Debt Repayment: We paid $2700 towards debt. Best month EVERRRR. Fact is we got a big rebate cheque from the power company for installing heat pumps and attic insulation, and that allowed us to kick it up a notch for February.
Expense report for February
Total February Spending: $5259!! I made my goal of under 6k for the first time ever. This is the best month we’ve had since starting our FIRE journey. March will be higher, but I’m still basking in the awesomeness that was February spending, for the next few days at least, until I have to do the March report. For you keeners, here’s the breakdown:
- Mortgage+Property Tax: $1408
- Child Care: $390
- Stupid Bank Fees: $11
- Home Insurance: $185
- Power: $256
- Heat: $10. Some kindling for the wood stove.
- TV, Home Phone, Internet: $191. This will go down a bit more in March since we renegotiated our bill.
- Life insurance: $157
- Netflix: $11
- 2 Mobile Phones: $95
- Transportation: $712. This is WAY better than January.
- Charitable Donations: $42
- Groceries: $763. Cheapest grocery month EVER!!! Unfortunately we went a bit crazy in March…
- Gifts: $58. ANOTHER kids birthday party. A belated Christmas gathering. A family birthday. Valentine’s Day.
- Medical: $42. Vitamins and drugs.
- Health, Fitness, and Sports: $32. Hubs and I joined a weight loss/healthy eating program to shed some winter pounds. Who am I kidding, these pounds have been here for 3 seasons. HURRAH! Money well spent.
- Vacation: $387. Down payments for holiday rentals.
- Home Maintenance, Improvements, supplies: $28
- Fun Money: $481. Includes allowances, Lotto tickets, dining out, family entertainment, alcohol. Over budget, par usual. See my post about when your Hubs wants more fun money.
Though I know there will be plenty more ups and downs in the coming months, we are making progress. We still have work to do to hammer down expenses even more. It’s certainly an ongoing journey. What did you do over the last month to reduce your expenses? Let me know in the comments.