The trees are starting to look bare, daylight hours are scarce, and there are delightful Christmas lights up everywhere: must be December! And that means it’s time for a breakdown of November’s spending.
This is going to be a brief one because concentration is not a thing that’s happening tonight. I can hear EVERY SINGLE FUCKING THING that happens in the apartment above me and my dear upstairs neighbors are currently having a huge party on a Monday night. I will not be the asshole who interrupts their party to let them know just how loud things are down here. I will not be that asshole who interrupts their party. I will not be that asshole who interrupts their party… Although for the love of all that is good in this life, could they possibly stop incessantly walking around back and forth above me, or at the very least take off their shoes?
Apartment living in a horribly uninsulated building with creaky floors is fun, y’all! (I’m regretting this particular trade-off at the moment.)
Moving on. In case you couldn’t tell from my recent musings on routine, this month was a busy one. I worked a ton, I was sociable, I had a few doctor visits, and there was Thanksgiving.
The big thing this month was extra income.
Bringing home the extra bacon
The first weekend of November I got my first check from my part-time job! They don’t take taxes out for me since I’m apparently technically a contractor, so I’ve opened a new savings account and I’m setting aside 1/3 of what I get from them for taxes. The numbers I report in these posts won’t include anything I send to that savings account.
I worked quite a few hours in November and got the paycheck last weekend to prove it, so December’s already a good month for side income.
I also pet/housesat for three of the neediest animals on earth for a few days before Thanksgiving. I got paid quite nicely for it, but goodness. Between getting woken up at 4 am multiple days in a row by meowing cats/getting nudged by the dog to get up every time I rolled over, having to fight the cats off while I made/ate dinner and breakfast, and the rush hour traffic on the commute from Virginia (and there was less traffic than normal due to the holiday), that job is right on the cusp of not being worth the $250 I made. But on the other hand, I made $250, which makes a huge difference for me.
As I’ve said before, every penny I make extra from my second job is going over to my credit card debt until it’s gone, so my debt payoff got quite a boost from both it and the petsitting!
The numbers
| Rent |
$1050.00 |
My half of rent |
| Internet and utilities |
$58.58 |
My half of utilities |
| Groceries |
$153.94 |
|
| Student loans |
$110.25 |
Automatic loan payment |
| Vacation |
$30.81 |
Lyft to/from the airport for Thanksgiving, plus coffee in the airport |
| Gas |
$19.47 |
|
| Barre membership |
$104.69 |
|
| Transportation |
$4.00 |
One parking fee. Shockingly this was a rare month where I didn’t need to top-off my metro card after the auto pre-tax deduction from my paycheck |
| Clothing |
$100.00 |
New sweaters, new jeans |
| Gifts |
$177.68 |
Almost done with my Christmas shopping |
| Restaurants/bars |
$108.31 |
Going out with coworkers is a bunch of this (don’t do it, y’all. You end up spending/drinking SO MUCH), plus meetups |
| Personal care |
$17.77 |
|
| Medical |
$168.00 |
Waiting on reimbursement for this visit to the dentist |
| Misc dues/subscriptions |
$19.99 |
Spotify and Patreon |
| Frames |
$24.95 |
Bought art last month, bought frames for it this month |
| Charitable giving |
$75.00 |
#GivingTuesday donations to VoteRunLead, COLOR, and the Capital Area Food Bank |
| Blog hosting |
$35.40 |
I took advantage of a Cyber Monday deal and switched the hosting provider for this blog |
| Registration/parking renewal* |
$107.00 |
Annual registration. I’m actually pleasantly surprised at how relatively inexpensive this is, given the general high cost of things in this city |
| Online course* |
$179.00 |
|
| Annual national parks pass* |
$85.00 |
Last year’s pass was WELL worth the expenditure so of course I got another one this year |
| Total spending: |
$2629.84 |
|
| Paychecks and other income |
$2452.35 |
|
| Second job(s) income |
$502.14 |
I got my first check! And petsat! |
| Total income: |
$2954.49 |
|
| Total: |
$324.65 |
Saving to spend
See those asterisks on the last three lines of my spending, and remember how I said October was the calm before the spending storm this month? Those three things are what I was alluding to. I knew that I needed to renew the registration and parking permit for my car, and I knew I wanted to buy another annual parks pass. I’d also been contemplating an online course for next year for a while and decided to bite the bullet.
Knowing all that, I set up savings goals in Qapital and Tip Yourself months ago to prepare for that spending. When the time came to make those purchases, I transferred that money over to my checking account from the apps and then over to my credit card. Easy!
That saving essentially made those purchases a net zero in my spending this month. It’s hard to capture that in a spending report, but here’s a slightly different look:
| Total spending: |
$2629.84 |
|
| Paychecks and other income |
$2452.35 |
|
| Second job(s) income |
$502.14 |
I got my first check! And petsat! |
| Transfers from savings apps |
$371.00 |
Savings set aside for car registration, the online course, and my new parks pass |
| Total income: |
$3325.49 |
|
| Total: |
$695.65 |
I know the money from those goals isn’t technically income, but that’s a more accurate picture of my cash flow this month. In addition to sending all of my extra income over to my debt, my Roth IRA and brokerage accounts also got some love this month with some of my extra cash!
It’s 10:30 pm, people keep arriving for this party upstairs, and I can’t hear myself think, so I’m going to stop typing now (and maybe go look for another apartment to live in…).
Yikes, sorry about the noise situation, I’ve been there before. I’m sure you’ve already thought about possible ways to mitigate, but white noise helps a lot. I used to have one of those nature CDs (back in those days) of a running stream, and I used it a lot. Makes you feel like you’re out in nature and hides the annoying neighbors a bit.
Also consider noise canceling headphones, but I’ve never found a pair that is comfortable to wear for any length of time.
I usually don’t have to resort to such measures while I’m awake (although maybe I should’ve last night), but the things I have to do in order to get a good night’s sleep are quite ridiculous. Every night I’ve got a loud floor fan on, a white noise machine, and earplugs in on top of that. Part of that’s just me being way too light of a sleeper, but some of that is the creaky floors. I dream of the day I won’t have to go to such lengths!
Yay, congrats on the extra income! And nice job planning ahead for those annual expenses. I hope the party quieted down and you got some sleep! I am absolutely the neighbor that would interrupt the party, especially on a MONDAY.
Thanks! One of my goals for 2018 is definitely more planning ahead for annual expenses. I was just thinking about some the other day that might take me by surprise in a few months…
I held out til about 10:45 but no longer. Also went to another neighbor to ask what I could do besides asking them to shut the hell up and we talked about calling the police. It didn’t happen but honestly after all evening I was kind of hoping we’d get to that point!
Congrats on the extra income! Yay for knocking down those loans and putting extra into retirement accounts. I’m sorry your neighbors are butt heads 🙁 Opportunity to look for cheaper place? 😉
Thank you! It’s definitely a great feeling. And haha, sadly it doesn’t get much cheaper around here unless I want a really shitty place. So I’ll just have to hope that party was a one-off.
I don’t know why, but I love seeing how much you spent in a month! I guess it feels more relatable than some of the family costs I see on other blogs. And I can see how it doesn’t seem you’re really buying anything extra, but things add up anyway. And gotta love that extra income! Sometimes I feel like I should go get a seasonal job. I think I could pass as an elf at Macy’s.
Hope your neighbors quit the partying! Seriously, who has a party on a Monday?
Thank you! Yeah it seems like there aren’t a lot of people posting numbers that don’t have families and even fewer people that aren’t coupled up. Glad my singleness makes my spending reports more unique 😉 Whew anyone working retail these days is a saint, so props to you if you go that route!
They did eventually, but seriously, who does that? I’ll have to hope that was a one-off but next time I’m calling the police.
May I ask what course you will be taking? I feel like a kindred spirit as I too live in a high cost of living city, cherish my discounted rate barre membership, and work in the nonprofit field. I love reading your posts!
Hello, kindred spirit! Thanks for reading and commenting, and it’s so nice to hear from someone who knows where I’m coming from (and yay barre)!
I’m taking A Simple Year: https://simpleyear.co/
That course looks wonderful. I look forward to your post giving it a full review. 🙂