This month, I am splitting my spending summary and the month end "where am I" summary into two separate post - mostly because some payments weren't made until today and won't post til tomorrow, but they're technically part of September, so I wanna count them. Plus, since as we flip to the next quarter, I wanted to take stock of where I am tracking against my goals for the year, and that always turns into a longer entry!
Last month I was lazy, and didn't detail out my spending by category for the month. It was a combination of lazy and also horrified at how high some of them were....silly, I know. This month we are back in a "normal" range after the crazy of the summer, so I'll go back to detailing.
As always, spending does not include my bills - this is discretionary spending. I have less control over bills than I do the categories covered here.
Category: September Spending/YTD Spending - context
Alcohol: $0/$279.80 - another month without anything in this category. My previous wine collecting self giggles everytime I see this. Guess it's another good example of how we are constantly evoloving. For a few years, I was an avid wine collector, now I have no interest lol.
Car/Gas: $64.24/$471.89 - got gas, my toll tag did an automatic refill after I picked my mother up from the airport, and a few credit card enabled parking meters.
Clothing: $219.10/$1431.99 - creeping up but still not awful.
Dining/Entertainment: $147.83/$1788.47 - much lower than it was the past few months. I'm confortable with this level, this was all takeout, no actual meals out here.
Education: ($150)/$1022.59 - I received reimbursement for a bunch of test fees this month. Considering how much progress I've made this year toward my degree, I am not mad at $1k out of pocket! This obviously doesn't include any tuition/loans etc. Tuition is completely covered by loans so I don't pay for it upfront out of pocket. Loans are considered part of bills, which are not captured in my spending.
Gifts: $0/$547.14 - nothing this month.
Grocery/Household/Toiletries: $468.24/$4777.36 - way better this month. I budget $400 a month for this category, so glad to see I am closer to that. Next year, I will probably bump it to $450. This includes any groceries, drugstore level toiletries, laundry card refills or cleaning supplies. This year I have also been including home decor and furniture, next year there will be a separate category for that.
Medical: $84.99/$621.45 - two appointment co-pays and a prescription refill. I'm thankful to have very good medical coverage, I see a lot of specialists, so it comes in handy!
Miscellaneous: $197.49/$553.93 - this includes a bunch of new travel mugs that were ridiculously priced but that I wanted anyway (I guess I should have included this in grocery/household to be consistent but it doesn't really matter lol) and a trip to the post office.
Office Supplies: $0/$106.92 - this is a tiny bit misleading, I did buy printer ink this month but it was covered by an Amazon gift card so I don't count that as spending.
Personal Care: $128.45/$1437.69 - treated my mama to a mani/pedi day (she had treated last time, we generally go once a month), and a cash tip for another prepaid service.
Pet: $115.95/$934.97 - the usual....food, litter and whatever toys mysteriously make it into my cart lol.
Subscriptions: $2.99/$326.34 - monthly iCloud.
Travel: $0/$2302.37 - no travel this month, it's been a very busy month between work and school. I was hoping to maybe go somewhere in October but that looks unlikely as well.
Grand Total: $1279.28/$16602.91 - much better than the past few months, if I could keep my spending in this area I would be in great shape hahaha.