April Spending and Summary
May 5th, 2022 at 07:54 pmThis 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.