Frugal Babe

Well, we just finished our first month of tracking expenses.  We’re not going to be spending money for the rest of the day, so I decided to post the results for this month.  It’s interesting to note that we’re on track to have one of the lowest credit card bills we’ve had in the last 12 months - directly related to tracking finances I’m sure. 

I am not tallying taxes in my reports.  For income, I’m looking at after-tax numbers, and our real-estate tax is included in our mortgage as escrow.  But everything else is here, rounded to the nearest dollar.

After-tax income: $5165

EXPENSES:

• mortgage: $1260
• groceries: $676
• Discover card: $492
• car insurance (4 months, 2 cars): $253
• health/dental insurance: $303
• life insurance: $66
• dermatology bill: $200
• healthcare (walgreens, etc.): $44
• entertainment/hobbies: $54
• dining out: $79
• clothes/shoes: $84
• donations: $45
• water/sewer: $54
• electricity: $96
• vonage phone: $31
• cable tv: $16
• car maintenance: $32
• car registration/emissions tests: $210
• gasoline: $53
• alcohol: $12
• clothes to resell: $33
• gifts: $31
• household: $28
• petcare: $48
• misc: $8

SAVINGS:

• additional mortgage payment: $81
• emergency fund (ING): $100
• HSA contribution: $200
• IRA contribution: $200
• employee 457 retirement plan (no match): $648

So our total income was $5165, and our total expenses came to $4209.  That left $956 for savings, plus a little extra left over from July, so our total savings for the month came to $1229.  My goal is that we save at least $1000/month, so we did well there this month. 

I’m really glad that I started tracking our expenses.  It’s nice to be able to see everything in black and white (no red!) and know exactly where our money is going.  Already looking forward to seeing which expense numbers we can lower in September.