The Year of Living Frugally – Week 8

Second-Month Budget Checkup

First full month of living in the new location…

Not bad – good company, getting my space figured out and not missing television at all anymore. The no-heat, drafty-house took a little getting used to – but it’s a chance to use my outdoor gear (and keep the down parka out of storage).

The biggest challenge of the last month was work-related. As in the overtime necessity and stress-level demands have been off the charts. I backslid a bit on making lunches for work – sometimes the greasy cafeteria food can be comforting.

If you recall from the “Baseline Budget“, which was taken from the average monthly expenses for 2007 – my expenses looked like this:

Total Housing & Utilities $1043
Transportation Total $337
Health Total $44
Total Debt Maintenance $636
Food total $390
Total Dog $200
Vacation $300
Misc Total $225

Expense Total $3270
Salary Total $2719
Overtime Total $600

The “normal” expenses for the month of March went as follows:

Total Housing & Utilities $493
Transportation Total $264
Health Total $61
Total Debt Maintenance $730
Food Total $327
Total Dog $141
Vacation Total $168
Misc Total $145

Expense Total $2330
Income Total $2772

Savings $442/month

For a more detailed look, I am test-driving Google-documents to post my budget. I have changed the major categories a bit – such as rolling the emergency fund expenses into the “Debt Maintenance” category.

My housing expense was the biggest savings. Next month I should realize greater savings, since I was paying for the more expensive utilities.

I am tracking a new category, for health-related expenses. Luckily, I have a good employer-based health plan that does not cost me anything. I finally had to spend some money for a checkup. I am also including the gym membership here. If you remember my “After One Week” post, I was going to track my gym usage to see if it was a worthy expense. During the month of March, I was averaging 2-3 visits a week to the pool, and one yoga class – so I can justify keeping this expense.

My food, transportation, and miscellaneous costs were increased for the month. The extra food expenses were entirely from buying food at work. The transportation increase was registration for the motorcycle and some maintenance on the truck. The miscellaneous contained about $70 of expenses that were paid in cash that I could not account for.

My vacation expenses for March were from my Monterey business trip. I have a travelogue post for the aquarium which I hope to someday finish…

As the end of the month approached, I made an additional $500 credit card payment.

Overall, not bad – considering how chaotic the month was. I can see an easy $200 of fat-trimming that can be made (food, miscellaneous, and driving the motorcycle more) from my current expenses. The once-a-year expenses – these do not bother me as much (I do not plan ahead for them, but my budget can absorb these as they happen). I also have a security deposit coming back to me for the old rental, a tax refund, and an “economic stimulus bribe” in May. All of these will go towards credit card repayment.

Using the amount of money I was able to save this month, and extrapolating that over the rest of the year – I can predict where I will be at the end of this project. Based on my current frugality, at the end of this project (end of January 2009) I will have zero credit card debt and $7100 in savings. This is quite a ways away from the initial estimate of $31,700 to cover all expenses for a year of driving around Latin America. At my current rate of savings it would take me until June 2010 to afford such a trip.

Not all is as bleak as it seems…

I’m pretty sure I can squeeze more savings per month out of my current budget. I will inquire about more overtime, and look into supplemental income sources. I will redo the projections on the first of May to reflect my April belt-tightening…

Paz

(continue on to Week Ten)