Money and Finance
Another month has rolled by and it's been just an amazing start to the year. My income has been higher than average every month so far this year, although June's will take a dip. April was a pretty standard month with nothing really out of the ordinary so expenses stuck right in line with where I want them to be. My minimum expenses for the month came in at $1,361.56 which brought my average minimum expenses down to $1,370.09. My goal when I started the year was to get these expenses to average under $1,400 per month, so I'm on track for that. My total expenses did creep back higher than I'd like but not by too extreme of an amount. I spent a total of $1,554.60 in April, which raised my average total monthly outlay to $1,522.89. I'm still okay with this number although there's still things I want to focus more on.
My food budget still seems pretty high considering I'm paying for myself only for most of the month. Groceries came in under budget but the restaurants hurt my overall food budget. Both of these I want to work more on lowering the expenses. Overall I still came in under budget by $20.46, so there's nothing much to worry about and just some extra attention to be paid. Cooking for myself while away at the rig is the biggest issue for my grocery budget. I tend to go for convenience after working because the cooking equipment is different from rig to rig and usually mediocre at best. I really hate having to learn whether the oven/stove cooks higher or lower than normal every time that I change rigs and it's a huge pain to me. I love cooking though so I just need to quit being lazy and do it already.
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- Income Update - February 2013
February was a great month. I had a higher than normal income and put the difference to straight to savings. I did a pretty good job with controlling expenses for the month. Restaurants and groceries both overshot their budget, but by a combined $14 so...
- Income Update - December 2012
December's income was lower than what I'd averaged through the first 11 months of 2012 but was still great at almost $6,500. It wasn't a great month for expenses but considering how much I went over budget on a few areas I'm happy that...
- Income Update - September 2012
September was an okay month for my spending. I let my expenses creep up higher than where I would like but I was still lower than my average for the year so far. My minimum expenses for September ended the month at $1,422.25. This brought my average...
- Income Update - August 2012
August was a decent month for my spending with it being below my average so far for the year, but it was still higher than it should have been. My minimum expenses in August ended the month at $1,417.13. So far in 2012 my minimum expenses have averaged...
- Income Update - January 2012
My expenses went back up from December thanks to lots of driving increasing my gas costs. Unfortunately my total expenses for January was pretty much on par with the average for last year. I’m hoping to get my expenses down further to create a larger...
Money and Finance
Income Update - April 2013
Another month has rolled by and it's been just an amazing start to the year. My income has been higher than average every month so far this year, although June's will take a dip. April was a pretty standard month with nothing really out of the ordinary so expenses stuck right in line with where I want them to be. My minimum expenses for the month came in at $1,361.56 which brought my average minimum expenses down to $1,370.09. My goal when I started the year was to get these expenses to average under $1,400 per month, so I'm on track for that. My total expenses did creep back higher than I'd like but not by too extreme of an amount. I spent a total of $1,554.60 in April, which raised my average total monthly outlay to $1,522.89. I'm still okay with this number although there's still things I want to focus more on.
My food budget still seems pretty high considering I'm paying for myself only for most of the month. Groceries came in under budget but the restaurants hurt my overall food budget. Both of these I want to work more on lowering the expenses. Overall I still came in under budget by $20.46, so there's nothing much to worry about and just some extra attention to be paid. Cooking for myself while away at the rig is the biggest issue for my grocery budget. I tend to go for convenience after working because the cooking equipment is different from rig to rig and usually mediocre at best. I really hate having to learn whether the oven/stove cooks higher or lower than normal every time that I change rigs and it's a huge pain to me. I love cooking though so I just need to quit being lazy and do it already.
Read more »
- Income Update - February 2013
February was a great month. I had a higher than normal income and put the difference to straight to savings. I did a pretty good job with controlling expenses for the month. Restaurants and groceries both overshot their budget, but by a combined $14 so...
- Income Update - December 2012
December's income was lower than what I'd averaged through the first 11 months of 2012 but was still great at almost $6,500. It wasn't a great month for expenses but considering how much I went over budget on a few areas I'm happy that...
- Income Update - September 2012
September was an okay month for my spending. I let my expenses creep up higher than where I would like but I was still lower than my average for the year so far. My minimum expenses for September ended the month at $1,422.25. This brought my average...
- Income Update - August 2012
August was a decent month for my spending with it being below my average so far for the year, but it was still higher than it should have been. My minimum expenses in August ended the month at $1,417.13. So far in 2012 my minimum expenses have averaged...
- Income Update - January 2012
My expenses went back up from December thanks to lots of driving increasing my gas costs. Unfortunately my total expenses for January was pretty much on par with the average for last year. I’m hoping to get my expenses down further to create a larger...