“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 March 2019 expenses:
Overall we are ok with March’s expenses, we were up from February slightly, but had some extenuating circumstances, namely:
- Argentina fun- Mrs. FInding booked some day trips while in Argentina for work, obviously that’s not a normal expense.
- Aibnb for an event in April- we have a fun event in April we are hosting and rented the Airbnb for everyone in March, another unusual expense.
- Clothes- Mr. FInding bought a few more replacement clothes than normal. We are trying the method of buying higher quality (and therefore higher price tag) for now, it still feels a bit hard when you see the prices, but we’ll hoping it will be worth it in the long run.
- Concert tickets- Mrs. FInding debated for a long time, but finally gave in and bought tickets to one of her favorite bands, so a bit higher spend in entertainment than normal.
We really can’t complain about these expenses, they are all for something fun and as much as we want to be frugal, we also want to enjoy our lives- for us that means music shows, travel experiences, and time spent with our loved ones, among other things. So we’re calling this month a win!
How about you? Any improvements or fun things you spent your money on this month?
