Expense Report February 2016

Monthly Expense Report Highlighting and Tracking Key Areas With The Goal To Lower Overall Costs

When you’re working for yourself you have to account for every dollar spent since you don’t have that predictable paycheque coming in.  I also like to look at saving as a form of income generation because the less you spend, the less you need to work.  Having said that, I started a spreadsheet to track & categorize my expenses to see how much I’ve been spending.  So far on the blog, I’ve only been discussing grocery expenses because, at the time, I hadn’t built up enough of a history to really know where my money was going.  Now, after nearly 3 full months of tracking, I am able to start to notice patterns and see where I can cut back.  I admit, it’s a lot of work to track every dollar, but if you set up a system and keep your receipts, you’ll only have to update every couple of days.

 

Overview

Total Expenses: Up $250.29 Over January

There were a few additional business related expenses that pushed me over budget this month.  Unfortunately I haven’t experienced the same success in reducing my income as I had in January.  In January, I reduced spending by more than $650.00 over December but somehow failed to follow up with another success.  I spent $250.15 more than last and will have to be more accurate when I plan for March.

Groceries

Total Cost: $250.15

Goal was: less than $242

Fail by: (-$8.15)

Savings: $106.71

I realized that reporting just on groceries expenses alone each month could become boring.  There’s only so much you can do to reduce your grocery expenses before you’ve become a cheapskate living off Mr. Noodles and Kraft Dinner, which I’m not willing to reduce myself to.  I’d much rather be living off @jordana_rose’s TightWad Recipes and homemade soups, which are zesty as fuck!  Although I did miss my goal of lowering this months grocery budget, I had an astounding $106.71 of savings this month.  Nearly 50% of my total grocery costs.  The only issue I’ve noticed is that a lot of the food on sale tends to be garbage.  I need to refrain from garbage because the goal isn’t to become a cheapskate, it’s to eat healthier while also saving more.

Receipt of the Month

I’m going to start including the receipt of the month in the expense report as well.  The best receipt of February works out to 61.93% savings, a new record.  The previous best was 58% for the record.  It’s always nice getting $59.77 worth of groceries for $36.91.

Business Expenses

Costs: $236.81

This explains why I missed this months target but at least these are good expenses.  I had a few business costs that couldn’t be avoided such as paying for website hosting.  Then on the trading side, I also had a few unforeseen costs that arose.  Costs associated with transferring accounts and mail accounted for the inflated expenses here.

Final Thoughts

The pie graph above represents my total spending for the month. The 76% category was necessary spending this month. That category should naturally become lower as well in March as I shouldn’t have as many business expenses. As for the 24%, that’s all stuff that can be cut out. Of course we all need some leisure in our lives, and I’ll continue to spend on it, but the goal is to slowly cut back. Now that it’s become official (working for myself), I will look forward to keeping a close eye on these reports.  The overall takeaway is just to cut back on the 24%, not necessarily delete it.  Some of the expenses in this category, such as wine, I thoroughly enjoy, and wouldn’t be willing to eliminate from life.  The point going forward is just to be more aware, save where I can, and try to moderate my spending category a little better.

Question: How are you saving money?