“What is measured is improved” they say, so we publicly track our expenses here each month to hopefully fulfill that axiom.
We have a few goals for these monthly reports:
- Keep ourselves accountable and aware of our monthly expenses (do we really eat out that much?!)
- Receive feedback from you on where you see room for improvement
- Reduce overwhelm in us and you that budgeting and planning for retirement expenses is too big and broad to figure out by breaking down each month into specific areas that are more manageable
- Help keep us motivated as we see how little (hopefully!) we are spending
- Keep us mindful of our purchases and aware of any trends in excess spending
- Indulge the naturally curious part of you that wants to compare yourself to us 😉
It’s important to note that these reports are based off our take home pay (after taxes, retirement, and healthcare have been withheld) so you won’t see those listed. We understand that some people prefer to include those items in their overall expense tracking, but that’s not the method for us (although if you want to try to persuade us to change, we are open to your thoughts).
So with that, here are our February 2019 expenses:
Total February Expenses: $3,745
We are pleased to say we did, in fact, spend less than last month.
We just saw a few anomalies this month, namely:
- We had a pretty big purchase on Amazon (almost $200) for different supplements and long term products (we aren’t sure how long they will last us, we are going to start tracking that now to get a better idea of how often we replenish).
- Mrs. FInding bought a 6 month supply of contacts for just over $200.
- Mr. FInding had to purchase some prescriptions to hit his copay of $500.
Overall we are happy with this budget- we see a little room for improvement in eating out and are focusing on that while balancing enjoying our day to day on this path to FIRE.
How about you? Do you track your expenses? How did you do in February? Is eating out also an area you see a significant amount of money going to? We’d love any tips for how to scale back!
