I have an excellent excuse for not having posted last week: Gwen from Fiery Millennials is now my roommate and was moving in! Admittedly, it’s my fault for naively assuming I’d have time to write Wednesday night and that, say, putting together a bed wouldn’t take hours. But never mind that—blame her instead for my radio silence last week!
Which leads into February’s rundown.
Roommate drama
Much of February was spent worrying about my roommate situation. Because in case you didn’t realize, there is no way I can afford to live here without one. In January my roommate let me know she’d be moving out and moving in with a friend of hers who had previously been living with his parents. The loose goal was March 1, but it depended on when they could sign a lease. At the beginning of February, I got the news that—surprise!—she was moving out February 15.
Luckily for me, Gwen had recently moved to the area and was looking for a place to live. But her job situation was uncertain (including a job prospect out in CA) and the timing was…stressful since a lot of the answers we’d need about whether she was going to be living with me would be coming right at the end of the month. Which also was the time I in theory needed to be interviewing potential new roommates if Gwen was cruelly ditching me (just kidding, friend!). This was also the time I was in constant rehearsals for my own chorus concert and I didn’t have time to make food for myself, let alone interview roommates.
But it turns out I didn’t need to anyway. In case you couldn’t tell by the cat photos in my Instagram stories or the first sentence of this post, this story ends with Gwen moving in with me. Hooray, no more roommate uncertainty!
So my utilities were way higher this month since I paid for ¾ of them. But hey, my old roommate paid me the full rent for the month and I got the last half of the month with an apartment to myself. I’ll take it!
Trip to NC
Mid-month my boyfriend and I drove down to NC to visit my parents. I usually visit around February anyway, and it was a good opportunity for my partner to meet them.
Mom and I always go to a ballet or another performance when I’m home, and this trip was no different. We went to a ballet on Saturday, and then part of the reason to go home that weekend was because it coincided with her chorus concert Saturday evening. I dragged my boyfriend to both of those performances too; he was a good sport about it.
Sunday was cold and rainy and we spent much of the day doing a tour of the local breweries. If the weather was going to suck, that was an excellent use of a day spent indoors! And because it was my birthday trip, my partner insisted on paying, so my restaurant/bar spending is way lower than it would’ve been.
Don’t stay with people you meet on the internet
This trip home had a twist: I didn’t stay with my parents for once while visiting them. And that’s because mom had a gross cold of the kind that sticks around forever. I had my own chorus concert the following weekend and frankly didn’t have time to get sick, plus sharing isn’t caring when it comes to germs. Given that sharing wouldn’t have been a very good impression to make since my partner was meeting my dad for the first time and my mom for the second time, a few days in advance we started looking for alternative lodging or seeing how many/if we could shift plans around.
Here’s where the power of blogging and an online community comes in—The Budget Epicurean lives very close to my parents and was willing to host us for the weekend. As a bonus, I got to play with her pups and see her flock of quail. Shoutout to her for being awesome!
Numbers time
| Rent | $1050.00 | My half of rent |
| Internet and utilities | $73.96 | My 3/4 of utilities this month, since my roommate moved out halfway through February. At least she paid full rent! |
| Groceries | $87.65 | After the ridiculously expensive month in January, under my normal is more like it! |
| Gas | $29.65 | Pretty typical for a month with a drive down to NC |
| Transportation | $24.91 | Lyft rides |
| Barre membership | $104.69 | |
| Restaurants/bars | $23.78 | I ate out a lot more than this number reflects |
| Vacation | $122.58 | Airbnbs for my March Europe trip and for a weekend in NC in a few months for a friend’s wedding |
| Misc household goods | $9.74 | Returned that pillow from last month. Bought Tanja’s excellent book! |
| Personal care | $48.35 | |
| Charitable giving | $75.00 | |
| Misc dues/subscriptions | $51.58 | Patreon, Spotify, etc |
| Annual fee | $95.00 | Opened a new credit card that doesn’t waive the annual fee for the first year |
| Entertainment | $19.08 | We went to see a movie when my mom was in town |
| Blog | $7.16 | Renewed my domain name |
| Clothes | $211.33 | Two dresses to wear to weddings/other events and some basic tees/tanks that I’ve been sorely lacking |
| Total spending: | $2034.46 | |
| Paychecks and other income | $1971.83 | |
| Side hustle income | $196.41 | |
| Retirement contributions | $1390.12 | |
| Bonus | $250.00 | Bonus from opening that new credit card |
| Total income: | $3808.36 | |
| Total: | $1773.90 | |
| Savings rate: | 47% |
Considering I’m currently in Europe as this gets posted, a cheaper February is just what I needed before all of the spending I’m currently doing!
Staying with people I know from the internet is what I’m all about this past year ?? jealous you got to meet those quail babies / get some quality face to face time with BE! Ahem… aren’t you glad I threw out that suggestion? ?
Hahahaha yeah. I probably would’ve come to that conclusion eventually but you throwing out the suggestion just sped up the process!
Wow 47% is an awesome month!! Especially for one that seemed so jam packed with fun! This guy friend of yours seems like a real keeper if he’s game to do all sorts of things with you! +1 on meeting people through the blogging community, it’s so fun make connections and friends that way!