Previously September was my most impressive spending report, at least savings-wise. (I’ve had some other pretty impressive months, but those were impressive if you used the “holy shit, that was a ton of spending” definition of “impressive.”)
Well, turns out December just blew that out of the water!
Overall it was a pretty quiet month; and that combined with the fact that I worked four of five weekends at my second job helped contribute to just how much money I had left over.
In other news, I’ve officially been tracking my net worth and spending for a year, and what a difference that year has made! If you don’t already track your spending, I recommend that you do!
Travel
I drove home for Christmas (for all of about 60 hours because I went to work the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Am I hoarding my vacation days like a vengeful dragon for use during 2018? Yep!). Gotta love cheap holiday travel! I also went to Ohio early in December to see family, but I bought that plane ticket in October, so this trip cost me the price of a roundtrip Lyft ride to the airport and a coffee while waiting to board my plane.
Windfall
My parents mentioned a few months ago that they’ve been holding onto some savings bonds that some relatives purchased for me when I was born. You’ll hear more on those later—I’ll be asking the personal finance community for some advice on what to do with those.
What I didn’t know is that there was also apparently a random stack of cash they’ve been holding for me in their safe deposit box as well. Don’t ask me why. I’m not asking why. I got the surprise of $281 in cash when they gave me the envelope with the savings bonds.
Between that cash, the money from my side hustle, and the fact that December was an extra paycheck month, the income side of the equation looked pretty damn awesome for the month.
Numbers time!
| Rent |
$1050.00 |
My half of rent |
| Internet and utilities |
$61.06 |
My half of utilities |
| Plastic window coverings |
$7.00 |
Here’s hoping this ends up saving us a bit on heating, even though the lack of insulation in the walls is probably a bigger culprit of cold air leaking in than our surprisingly decent windows |
| Groceries |
$146.11 |
|
| Student loans |
$110.25 |
Automatic loan payment |
| Gas |
$12.16 |
Greatly helped along the way by the fact that my parents had enough grocery points for $1.00 off/gallon and they paid to fill my tank when I was home over Christmas |
| Barre membership |
$104.69 |
|
| Vacation |
$32.06 |
Lyft to/from the airport |
| Clothing |
$134.64 |
Paid off the rest of what I owed from the sweaters/jeans I bought in November |
| Holiday spending |
$10.06 |
Christmas tree and the last of the spending on gifts, largely offset by what my siblings owed me from joint gifts I bought in November |
| Restaurants/bars |
$77.49 |
This is a bit higher than I wanted it to be, but ’twas the season for catching up with friends while at home plus a meetup with the ONLs while they were in town! |
| Personal care |
$4.69 |
|
| Charitable giving |
$25.00 |
Donation to Stacey Abrams’ political campaign |
| Shopping |
$81.25 |
Miscellaneous shopping, including *gasp* a book that was not from the library! |
| Misc dues/subscriptions |
$19.99 |
Spotify and Patreon |
| Medical |
-$168.00 |
Reimbursement for my November dentist appointment |
| Total spending: |
$1708.45 |
|
| Paychecks and other income |
$2826.41 |
Five paycheck month, interest, and I redeemed some credit card cashback via check (because my double cash card doesn’t get me cashback on statement credits, but I do get cashback on payments I make!) |
| Side hustle income |
$452.22 |
Got my second paycheck! This is minus what I’m putting aside for taxes, and with some Lyft costs subtracted out for the two occasions I didn’t drive to work (the holiday party being one of them) |
| Surprise cash |
$281.00 |
Little did I know this was sitting in my parents’ safe deposit box at the bank! |
| Total income: |
$3559.63 |
|
| Total: |
$1851.18 |
Fifty-one percent. That’s a fifty-one percent savings rate for December. That is the first time in my life I’ve saved that much.
Brb buying all the avocado toast in celebration! Just kidding, I’ve got avocados at home and can make my own avocado toast. But you are all welcome to congratulate me on how awesome I am! 😉
Celebratory spending spree
What did I do with all of that extra money, besides (not) buying all the avocado toast a girl can eat?
The cash got split between my Roth IRA and my brokerage accounts. The extra paycheck is being used somewhat as a slush fund (remember how I said Qapital is a super-aggressive savings app? December happens to be the expensive part of the 52 week challenge!) and as a bit of padding for my emergency fund. And, as usual, every cent from my second job is going towards my consumer debt. Just a few months until I’ve got that paid off!
I think the last time my savings rate looked this good was back in March when I got my tax return (which was a 45% savings rate month). January’s income won’t be this much, but seeing as how I’m doing the Uber Frugal Month challenge, in theory my savings rate should be similarly high.
Can I do a repeat performance? Find out in a few weeks!
OVER HALF! That’s awesome girl! I don’t know that I’ve ever hit a rate that high, well done. December looks to have been good for you. Fingers crossed for you in January. Getting the last of the debt paid off will feel so good too 🙂
Thank you, thank you! Here’s hoping this is not the first and also last time this happens haha.
Another credit card payment posted this morning and I got excited looking at the balance. I’m so close!
Yes, you are awesome! Well done. I’m impressed you did not spend any of the extra surprise money in yourself. Sounds like you’re on the right track to pay off that consumer debt.
Thank you, E! It was extremely tempting to leave just a bit for myself, but I sent over those payments the same day I deposited the cash. The next time I get surprise money maybe I’ll let myself keep some of it once I’m debt-free 😉
Congrats on the +50% savings rate! You are absolutely killing the game in that department:)
Keep up the GREAT work!!!
Thank you, Sean!
Wow sub-$2K expenses! That’s crazy low spending for the month! I don’t think I’ve ever had a month that low in the city haha.
Hopefully with the Uber Frugal month in January you may be able to replicate! 🙂
I find I hover around $2k-$2.2k most months lately, so this was certainly an anomaly. But yes, here’s hoping January looks similar!
This is freaking impressive! The only reason we’ve hit that number (once) is there are two of us. Even with the cost of part time preschool, it’s just easier when you have another person to split rent/groceries/etc (as long as that person is on board of course). Hats off to you for achieving it on your own especially in such a HCOL area.
Thank you! I’ve been thinking about (and being jealous of all you couples!) how much easier it seems sometimes to save money when you’ve got two incomes coming in and can split costs. Damn you, singledom haha!
At the same time, you get a spendy spouse and you can go waaaaaay in the other direction (I can think of certain friends who this definitely applies to).
Oh – and the kid is certainly NOT cheap 😉
Fair, although I’m assuming I’ll be selecting out the potential spendy spouses 😉
Can’t argue with the kid not being cheap though!
Big congrats Erin, keep it up!
Thank you! I don’t know that it’ll happen again but I’ll certainly try!
Hooray for 50% savings rate! That’s pretty incredible, and all while in the middle of gift-giving season and catching up with friends and charitable giving. Pretty rocking way to end the year!
Thank you, Kristine!
That’s amazing! I haven’t reconciled my December expenses and income yet (oops?) but I feel like holiday shopping may have done a number on my savings. I saw so many good friends and enjoyed every minute of extra purchases though so I’m chalking that up as a win since I really want to focus on values-based spending this year (experiences and people over things!). Loved this post as usual.
Values-based spending and spending money on people and things you want to do is absolutely a win! Love that that’s your focus this year!
Woo! 51% savings rate is no small feat!
Thank you!
Congrats! Saving half of our income is always a great win, isn’t it?!
Even with a high rent, it looks like you are able to keep your spending at a very reasonable level!
Thank you, it was such a great feeling and I’d love to replicate it!
Wow! You must be the only person in the world that bucked the trend of spend December. Well done! How do you manage to keep your grocery spending so low? I feel like I’ve never seen anything less than $200 a month for the American blogs I read.
Hah yeah, that isn’t usual for December/holiday spending!
As for groceries, it helps that I’m only one person. I eat a LOT of leftovers, plus I’ve got a stocked pantry and freezer, which means I don’t routinely have to buy a lot of the staples. I also shop in bulk when it makes sense for me to do so. Those things are enough to keep my costs low, since I don’t usually worry about whether things are on sale or not when I buy them.
Thanks for reading!
Awesome job!!!
I should really track my spending for awhile. I used to do it constantly, but since stabilizing my spending I rarely have bothered to do so. When I check my budget, I’m only confirming that I spent at or less than the planned amount. I’m counting down vs up, if that makes sense. It’d be interesting to see what it looks like if I total it all together.
Well you don’t track your spending and I don’t have a budget so together we make one perfect FIRE blogger 😉