Well hello. I’m thinking going forward I should just call this the monthly FIRE report. Like, I feel like I’m talking about a toddler. A 15-month old toddler. Hmm. That’s a good analogy to where I’m at on this journey to FIRE. Just a toddler, bumbling around and hitting my head on things. On to the good stuff!
Month 15 Highlights
Saved: $450
Extra Income from Side Hustles: $146. Ebay Sales + user testing income.
Debt Repayment: Mortgage Principal: $717. LOC: $790
Expenses:
| Category | Dec-19 | Relevant notes of notey-ness |
| Mortgage Principal, Interest, & Property Tax | 1638 | |
| Bank Fees + Interest on LOC | 21 | |
| Child Care | 424 | |
| Parking | 117 | |
| Auto Insurance | 93 | |
| Internet | 12 | My bill didn’t get paid intentionally this month. “Insert Big Internet Company name here”‘s fault. |
| Electricity | 256 | Next month I get a credit. Heat pumps paying off a wee bit. HURRAY! |
| Life Insurance | 156 | |
| Netflix | 13 | |
| Mobile Phones | 18 | |
| Groceries, Toiletries, Household supplies | 1135 | Considering it was Christmas, the season of excess, I am not surprised. |
| Fuel | 294 | |
| Medical, Eye care, Prescriptions,Vitamins | 30 | |
| Home Improvement, Services, Supplies, Maintenance | 45 | |
| Health & Fitness, Sports | 14 | |
| Gifts & Holiday Expenses | 814 | Went way over budget on gifts. Happens yearly. NOT NEXT YEAR dag nammit! |
| Charitable Donations | 28 | |
| Clothing | 22 | |
| Annual Memberships & Subscriptions | 113 | YNAB! |
| UNKNOWN EXPENSE | 309 | Hubs’ fault. We’re trying harder this year. |
| Allowance – Hubs | 164 | |
| Allowance – T | 200 | |
| Dining Out – Family | 275 | |
| Entertainment – Family | 60 | |
| Lotto Tickets | 12 | |
| Alcohol | 41 | |
| Business Transactions | 2 | |
| TOTAL SPENT | 6306 |
I am extremely pleased with this expense report considering it’s the spendy-ist time of year for us. One thing that helped? Really well behaved old cars. We needed zero repairs or maintenance this month! But just wait for January, where that lull of garage visits turns into a giant tsunami. Trying not to cross the line of buying a new vehicle UNTIL I have saved up enough cash.
Well that’s it for this monthly FIRE report!
As always I appreciate your constructive feedback. 🙂
Love the real numbers. We used to do allowances too. Eventually when we paid off our mortgage I couldn’t convince hubby to keep them. Funny thing is the habits have already been developed. Even if we don’t have allowances anymore we are still not spending like crazy. Weird how things work out sometimes.
That’s excellent, Maria! I cannot wait to have a paid-off mortgage, although we aren’t putting extra payments on it right now (something to consider?) Anyway, it’s great that your habits have already been built – I’m unsure if that would work right now for us, but perhaps in the future it will. I look forward to getting us to that place.