Now that the end of the month is here, here’s my income/expenses report for September 2014!
Fair warning, I fundamentally redid how I tracked my expenses during September. Originally, my spreadsheet was a straight expense tracker. I changed it so that it now accounts for debt repayments (if any), investments made, and transfers into savings accounts and such. As a result, my numbers for this month may be off by a little bit.
After my standard pre-tax 401(k) contribution and various deductions, my net take-home pay was $5,179.05.
I did not make an investment this month, but I used $2,496.11 to pay off my credit card. I normally never carry this high a balance, but I purchased an emerald last month. So I suppose this is an investment, indirectly. I also consider paying off debt an investment in and of itself, since it increases my net worth and minimizes unnecessary financial drains.
My expenses for the month were: $2,549.90. It can be broken down as follows:
- Rent: $935.00
- Bills: $168.72
- Includes: cell phone, electric, gas, cable, and my FAST Graphs subscription
- Car maintenance: $0.00
- Gas: $327.08
- Groceries: $198.46
- Medical expenses: $0.00
- Discretionary expenses: $920.64
- Restaurants/eating out: $63.95
- Carnivorous plants: $204.84
- Road trip: $527.23
- Everything else: $124.62
Notes: This was a pretty bad month for me. My expenses are usually nowhere near this high; I usually shoot for the $1,750.00/mo mark. The two biggest expenses were my road trip to North Carolina and my carnivorous plants hobby. The road trip was actually a quasi-spur-of-the-moment trip to see my girlfriend play at a golf tournament there. She lives in Florida, so we don’t get to see each other very often, and I wanted to surprise her by being there. It worked! It was a complete surprise to her, and to all of her team! Only her coach knew, since she was the one who gave me all the info on where to meet the team and such. I really had a great time there, and my girlfriend was so happy and surprised, she cried! It was an awesome anniversary present, if I do say so myself 
Heh, and her golf team is super jealous of us now. One of them told me that I had set the bar super high for their boyfriends. Anyway, that was a somewhat costly trip that I didn’t budget for at the beginning of the month. Gas was extremely high because it was a 15.5 hour trip each way, and food costs were higher because I needed to eat on the road. I drove back to Wisconsin in one shot because I had work the next day. As a result, the total cost of the trip is actually lower than expected, since there’s no hotel to account for. But I would never, ever recommend doing that long of a drive at once. I never will again, that’s for sure! The other major expense is my carnivorous plants collection. I grow them as a hobby, and I just bought a new batch, with appropriate supplies. This is a one-time deal, and it’s a hobby that I like, so no big deal here. I’ll probably post about my collection later on, just for fun.
The end result of the month was that I managed to save 50.8% of my income this month. This number is short of my goal of saving 2/3rds of my income, but I don’t regret the extra expenditures at all. It’s just a blip, and I’m still better off than 90% of people my age!
Separately, my dividend income for the month was $240.96. I want to keep this in a separate category, as I never actually handle this money. It is automatically DRIPped into the stocks that produced that dividend.
My Income/Expenses archive page has been updated accordingly. Image source is available here.
How was your month? Did you meet your target savings rate?
21 Comments
Thats one helluva saving, DD. 50% savings rate is nothing to sneeze at. And congrats on the dividend income!
Best wishes
R2R
Thank you very much. Interesting perspective too; I may be a little mad that my savings rate wasn’t my personal best, but I often forget that my savings rate is objectively phenomenal compared to most! Thanks for the reminder, and for stopping by!
Saving over 50% this month is still very impressive! I wouldn’t beat yourself up if I were you. Some people couldn’t even save up for 5% of their incomes. You’re way further along than these people.
Exactly. I tend to be pretty negative on myself, but like you say, I’m still better off than most! Especially at around my age. Thanks for the support!
Well for starters most 23 year olds aren’t bringing home +$5k a month after taxes so you got a really good thing going for you there
I know you want feel guilty for not saving more, but remember this you are starting to utilize the power of compound interest at such an early age you will be laughing in by the time you are 40. Not to mention props to you for having the will power to continue saving your money and not blowing your entire pay checks like many other people your age who make similar income.
Also props for being able to drive 15.5 hrs lol i could never do that all in one trip.
keep up the good work brutha!
Ace
Thanks for the compliments! Heh, you’re right. Based on my conversations with old colege friends, a savings rate greater than 0% is a good thing! As much as I loved seeing my girlfriend again, that drive was brutal; never again will I do something like that …
DD,
I just made the trip from Michigan to Florida in about 18 hours…straight through. Not fun, so I know how you feel! But I’m glad it all worked out for you and your girlfriend was surprised. Score!
Great job on the savings rate. I always shoot for 50% every year because I consider that the level to where one is an “extreme” saver. So I would give yourself a hearty slap on the back, even if it’s below your lofty standard. You’re setting yourself up for a very prosperous future, especially with your substantial and impressive income.
Keep up the great work!
Best wishes.
Haha, so you know the feeling very well. Didn’t you do the same thing going to Michigan as well? I remember thinking that that must be one hell of a drive. And look what I did not too long after! Thanks for stopping by!
Carnivorous plants? Sounds awesome! I expect your next post to be about your hobby, DD!
Great job saving 50% of your income, that’s still a major achievement even if you didn’t make your goal to save 66%. You’re totally right too about it being a blip over the long-run.
I’m glad to hear your surprise visit was such a success. Lucky girlfriend!
Cheers and keep it up,
NMW
Oh, I’m working on it for sure! I want to get out a few more posts I have in draft though. It’s been so long since I’ve done some serious research that I’m itching to complete and release some. Yeah, me too! It was a great time for all. She couldn’t resist rubbing it in a bit for everyone else (in a friendly way, of course)! Gotta set those standards high, you know!
Impressive income and savings! Keep at it, I need to work 2 jobs to that level.
Heh, thanks! The years of grad school finally paid off.
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You probably raised the bar for all of humanity. That is one hell of a drive for a spur of the moment trip! Isn’t it pretty cool that you can take this sort of trip and STILL save 50%+ of your income?
Also, I just looked at your portfolio page. How did you embed the spreadsheet into your site?
Hahaha, love makes you do crazy things sometimes. It is awesome indeed; got lucky, I guess. I use a Google Docs spreadsheet. Should be [your document] > File > Publish to the web, which should give you some code that you embed on the page of your choice. May need to adjust the visibility/privacy of your doc first.
Got it! I did not know about the googlefinance function until yesterday. Pleasantly surprised. I think I will put up my portfolio performance on my blog as well. Thanks for the tip
No prob, glad to help!
50% a bad month? I wish…
For me, everything above 25% is absolutely fenomenal. Keep up the good work, money is definitely working for you…
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Thank you! I’m lucky for sure.
Impressive savings rate!!
But don’t be upset at yourself for not being higher – if you can manage > 25% over the long haul you’ll do very well and FIRE (like the acronym) will be attained in reasonably short order – been there done that
btw the trick for long haul road trips, imo, is to get book tapes (audiobooks) – many a 20+ hour trip has flown by – and to take a break every 2-3 hours – get out of the car and run around for a few minutes literally!
Thanks! That’s a really good tip, one that I haven’t thought of before. Never looked into audiobooks, just listened to music CDs mostly. If I have to make a trip like that again, I may get Lord of the Rings or some other good book I haven’t read in a while.