Ah, June, you lovely, lovely month. To be fair, my income was inflated because I was underpaid the last week of May and my paycheck on June 2nd made up for that. It’s sorta cheating, but you know what? I’m going to take it. July is off to an extremely expensive start so let’s focus on the (net positive!) numbers for June instead:
| Rent |
$900.00 |
I charged my sister rent, which my roommate and I split. Hooray for cheaper rent! |
| Internet and utilities |
$40.46 |
My third of utilities (I’m going to avoid a rant here about my generally unfavorable feelings towards a/c and the arctic temps everyone seems to prefer and just say I’m glad things were split 3 ways this month) |
| Groceries |
$325.48 |
Add a second person into the mix for 3 weeks and groceries get expensive. I did feel bad about charging my sister rent when she’s making minimum wage, so I told her her birthday present was not paying me for groceries |
| Student loans |
$110.25 |
Automatic loan payment |
| Renter’s insurance |
$96.00 |
Annual insurance time. If you’re a renter, you have no excuse not to get this. It’s dirt cheap! |
| Gas |
$6.17 |
One of my friends was super generous in the gas money she gave me for a hiking trip out to Shenandoah |
| Barre membership |
$104.69 |
|
| Medical expenses |
$2.12 |
One prescription copay. I’m so glad I have such fantastic health insurance |
| Transportation |
$44.50 |
To be fair, $20 of that was an early birthday present on my spare metro card for my sister |
| Interest |
$5.73 |
D’oh. A weekend messed up the timing of a $100 payment to finish paying off my travel credit card and I missed paying off the balance by one day. $5 interest doesn’t sound like much, but my balance was only $100 |
| Clothing |
$97.62 |
My Old Navy credit card is paid off! I intend to keep it that way for the foreseeable future. Also bras were on sale and given how ridiculously expensive they usually are, it was time to buy a few to replace some of my oldest ones |
| Restaurants |
$9.53 |
Mmmm, frozen margs |
| Personal care |
$29.16 |
A few more face washes in pursuit of taming my birth control-caused acne… |
| Portland flight |
$207.00 |
I made an impulse purchase when my roommate told me she’d found $200 tickets to fly out to Portland in October to visit my previous roommate/our mutual friend. Impulse purchases are something I’m working to avoid, but even despite the horrendous flight times/layovers, it’s still hard to beat $200 for a cross-country flight. Also I’ve never been to Portland and want to see my friend. Worth it |
| Art and frames |
$224.62 |
I’d been thinking about purchasing new art for a while (because I am a child who likes pretty colors and pictures and patterns. No plain walls for me!). I waited weeks to make this purchase to make sure I wasn’t just swayed by pretty colors and patterns in the moment, and I also figured there would probably be a sale around the 4th of July (yes, I stalked their Instagram to confirm this was the case last year so likely would be again this year). I was right, so hooray for 20% off. Rounded off the purchase with cheap frames from Wal-Mart |
| Misc dues/subscriptions |
$20.56 |
Spotify, Patreon, and YNAB |
| Total spending: |
$2223.89 |
|
| Income |
$2894.01 |
This month was a 5 paycheck month, and the first one was also larger than normal to make up for the smaller than normal paycheck I got at the end of last month. This also includes the usual deposits from my parents and interest |
| Total income: |
$2894.01 |
|
| Total: |
$670.12 |
Hey, a positive number! |
This is not a great savings rate, but the plane ticket and art were one-offs, plus I only pay renter’s insurance once a year. Having some money left over at the end of the month makes me feel less panicked about the way July has started, less guilty about having to dip into my savings account for my car, and also a tad less annoyed that I bought both the art and the plane ticket just days before the car debacle (but just a tad less). It’s not great, but it is something, and I’m going to celebrate this win.
And by celebrating I mean by looking at my new art or something. But also maybe with (real) ice cream!
Congrats on lowering your rent, that’s huge! Keep it going!
Sadly that was a one-off for June while my sister was staying with me, but I’m still happy about it. Thanks for reading!
Hi Erin,
Congratulations on more than balancing your budget! Thoughts on what you’ll do with the extra money?
Do you have an email subscribe option on your blog? I’d love to follow you.
Sarah
Thanks, Sarah! Sadly most of that money went immediately towards replacing my car windows a few days later, but I’m looking forward to future months where I don’t have to spend any surplus on emergency car repairs!
Edit: I just created an email subscribe option. Thanks for reading and thanks for suggesting that!