This post comes a few days later than usual, this week has been busy busy busy, lots going on in life!  

April Spending:

As always, this does not include my bills, only "discretionary" spending.  I cannot change my bills as easily as I can change discretionary spending.  My goal is not to live as frugally as I can, I only track my spending to be able to establish patterns and made decisions based on those patterns.

Category - April Spend/YTD Spend: context

Car/Gas - $148/294.28:  this one is deceptive.  While it does include an expensive tank of gas (ouch), it also includes a toll pass replenishment that will be reimbursed (went to another office for the day for work) next week, so the credit will appear in May.  I also ordered a replacement copy of my car title, as I noticed last year that it had my old address on it.  

Clothing/Accessories - $134/$742.07:  sigh.  I don't need to be buying clothes.  And yet....

Dining/Entertainment - $484.07/$1428.73:  ewwwww - the slightly good news is that I was able to submit for reimbursement for about $210 worth of this based on a temporary stipen my company gave us.  Still horrifying total but that helps.  I've been so uninterested in my usual meal prep for the past month+, but hoping to get back on track now that school is over for the semester.

Gifts - $0/$81.85:  nothing here this month, yay!

Grocery/Household - $702.52/$1715.40:  this is quite high due to some stocking up I did this month.  I won't need to buy several of these items for a while now, so I am ok with it.  Since I had Covid earlier in the month, I also had to use Instacart to get some grocery deliveries which is always more expensive than just going myself.  

Health/Wellness - ($224)/$339.97:  this is coming up as negative because I received my health & wellness stpiend reimbursement from a purchase made in this category in February.  The only actual spending here this month was my monthly Peloton membership for $26.

Home Decor/Furniture - $320.68/$708.38:  I splurged on a table I have had my eye on.  Completely unnecessary and I did not deserve it lol.  But here we are.

Medical (non FSA) - $1400/$1289.22:  I put the deposit down for my surgery - this was 10% of the portion I owe OOP after insurance pays their part.  The YTD number reflects a refund I got earlier in the year for a payment I made in 2021.  This number will be ugly by the end of the year but it has been planned for a long time, so I'm thrilled to have it look like this.

Miscellaneous - $510.98/$626.14:  I will probably rearrange some of the items I put to this category - this was a new vacuum (mine died ugh and I cannot be without it since I have carpets and cats), and a copy of my birth certificate I need for a family project I am working on.  Can't decide where to move the vacuum to, but it'll be somewhere different by next month haha.  

Office Supplies - $0/$126.21:  another no spend category!

Personal Care - $352.73/$1347.44:  needed to replenish a lot of products.  This is even a hair salon month, and I didn't have my monthly mani/pedi date with mama since I had covid.  Blergh.

Pet - $173.22/$340.59:  had to stock up on litter and both types of food, plus I bought a new litter box.  

Subscriptions - $2.99/$140.93:  monthly iCloud only this month.

Travel - $0/$1689.37:  this one shouldn't see much more action until the fall.

Total (excluding FSA spending) - $4005.19/$10870.58

Medical (FSA) - $279.38/$856.21:  I don't include this in my total since the money has been set aside for this purpose at the start of the year and is funded pre-tax from my paycheck.  This account is going to be getting a workout for the nesxt few months tho!  This month was a few co-pays, prescriptions and covered supplies.

Overall, my spending is getting out of hand again and doing this exercise every month helps me recognize that.  

April Summary:

Some of this bleeds a little into May but I didn't get a chance to take the screenshot earlier.  Usually, this does not include the 401k contribution/loan payment from my last paycheck of the month, but this month it does!  

Credit card increase is concerning.  Everything else is as expected.  I did go ahead and take the 401k loan I have been planning for my surgery, and have it sitting in savings until I need to make final payment.  I also took enough to cover potential coinsurance and deductible I might still need to meet, but can hopefully use my FSA for that.  401k loan 2 should be paid off by the end of this month or mid next month depending on when my final grades are posted, and my tuition reimbursement is processed.  I will also start tackling my federal tax balance this month.  Lots going on.  I will do another post about it, because I am tired now lol.