11 months? REALLY? Wowza. In many ways I feel I’ve not done enough. In other ways I feel I’ve done so much more than I would have without a significant change in my mindset 11 months ago. I don’t know which one outweighs the other. Perhaps that isn’t important at all. However, I am definitely going to reflect on this as the first year of attempting FI/RE comes to a close. Welcome to the monthly FIRE report.
Stats for Month 10 and 11.
Turns out, summer is SPENDY TIME! And also, a time to not focus on anything remotely related to frugality. Consequently these have been 2 of the more expensive months since beginning the FIRE journey. Wellllll BOOOO.
Saved: July – $366. Aug – $409.
Extra Income from Side Hustles: July – $76. Aug – $87.
Debt Repayment: July – $1616. Aug – $1529.
Expenses
| Category | Jul-19 | Aug-19 |
| Mortgage Interest | 610 | 488 |
| Mortgage Principal | 715 | 572 |
| Interest & Fees | 46 | 43 |
| Property tax | 315 | 252 |
| Childcare | 730 | 337 |
| Parking | 115 | 115 |
| Auto Insurance | 95 | 93 |
| Electric | 256 | 256 |
| TV, home Phone, internet | 158 | 293 |
| Life insurance | 156 | 156 |
| Netflix | 14 | 14 |
| Mobile Phones | 209 | 0 |
| Water/sewerage | 232 | 0 |
| Home insurance | 0 | 0 |
| School Supplies | 28 | 57 |
| Groceries | 960 | 1031 |
| Fuel | 401 | 260 |
| Medical, Eyecare, Prescriptions,Vitamins | 23 | 67 |
| Dental | 0 | 0 |
| Auto Repair & Maintenance | 444 | 689 |
| Car Registrations & License Renewals | 0 | 0 |
| Vacations | 19 | 910 |
| Home Imprvmnt, Services, Supplies, Maint | 63 | 35 |
| Education | 0 | 0 |
| Health & Fitness, Sports | 231 | 115 |
| Beauty Supplies | 0 | 0 |
| Haircuts | 171 | 62 |
| Car Seat Savings | 0 | 0 |
| Gifts & Holiday Expenses | 101 | 63 |
| Clothing | 14 | 60 |
| Charitable Donations | 25 | 40 |
| Annual Memberships & Subscriptions | 69 | 0 |
| Heat (Wood & Propane) | 0 | 0 |
| Furniture & Decor | 0 | 0 |
| UNKNOWN EXPENSE | 103 | 131 |
| Allowance – M | 11 | 19 |
| Allowance – I | 202 | 300 |
| Allowance – T | 182 | 147 |
| Dining Out – Family | 276 | 233 |
| Entertainment – Family | 81 | 60 |
| Lotto Tickets | 28 | 37 |
| Business Transactions | 1 | 14 |
| TOTALS | 7084 | 6949 |
Sigh.
Completing this report was rather depressing. This isn’t a report of a spendthrift, frugal family. I feel like all efforts were abandoned just to live it up for the summer, which isn’t sustainable in the long term if I want to become FI before I’m in my 60s. This month, I’m going to do some analysis on how things have progressed since month 1 of attempting FIRE, and identify perhaps the top 3 things I can do to reduce expenses for the rest of the year. Some of these numbers are downright ridiculous. We’ve never spent over $200 on eating out for many months!! Anyway, we were busy, lots of excuses, yada yada.
Putting the eyeballs and brains on it should help. Going to try to sit down with Hubs over the next few days to get us both thinking on the same track.
Aiming for a less embarrassing expense report next month. FIRE on!