Heather Allen

I started analyzing my spending last month and posting about it here, so the tradition continues! I tried really hard this month not to overspend. I wanted to make sure that I had a cushion of savings for when we go on vacation (as of this post only one week away!). So my spending was dramatically reduced from last month, which had the issue of many December transactions hitting my account at the beginning of the month.

I know this is only about spending, but I do want to acknowledge that I got a third paycheck at the end of January, plus my tax returns, so even though I have money to burn, it already had a purpose so I wasn’t going to spend it on things that I didn’t need.

The Normal Spending: Rent (Home), Student Loans (Education), Utilities (Bills &Utilities, Credit Card interest fees (Fees & Charges), and my monthly subway pass (Auto & Transport).

Also, I noticed that this spending calculator doesn’t account for “transfers” from one account to another, as in, it doesn’t calculate my monthly contribution to savings, or my credit card payment, or any money that goes into my Acorns account. Rest assured, these transactions are happening!

Unusual spending: 

Birthday gift card for my brother: This fell in the “Other” category, along with my gym membership and iTunes purchases (which are actually just e-book purchases)

Shopping: I made a purchases in the name of travel on Amazon. The total amount was $98, but I had a gift card and some Amazon credit so I only paid $50. In the shopping category, I also spent $100 at Target, but this was mostly household items that I had been putting off.

Food: This is the category that makes me the happiest this month. I only made two purchases that were not grocery related. I went out to eat donuts and coffee with a friend (intentionally a low spend activity), and separately, I bought a bottle of wine for a visit to a friend’s place. Otherwise, a bulk of my food spending was for groceries. I started working overtime the last two weeks of February and I have been bringing in my lunches and dinners every night so I didn’t have to eat out. It’s been really challenging, but I can definitely see that I spent WAY less money. To be fair, I bought dinner two nights of the 7 I worked overtime, but I used cash for this so I wouldn’t be tempted to overspend (<$20).

The good news is that I spent a lot less money this month, in all my unusual spend categories, so I’m very grateful for that.

I can’t even imagine what next months spending is going to look like. Probably all over the map with the holiday travel. Stay tuned.

Spending Habits [last month]