Monthly Expense Report- January 2019

“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 January 2019 expenses:

Total January Expenses: $5,074

This seems like a ton for us, but there were a few unusual expenses. Most notably:

• Flights for a trip we are taking in May to Peru/Ecuador
• Left over Christmas gifts
• Mrs. FInding had a long weekend in NYC with her sister and friends
• And we bought a bed

We hope to see this drop significantly in February, stay tuned to see how we do!