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2015 Spending / Savings

December 27th, 2015 at 10:14 pm

Patient Saver's post made me curious to see what my totals were for the year. This is really the first year I've actually managed to almost 100% of the time track my finances faithfully. I've been using YNAB since around 2006, but would go months+ at a time without tracking ...

So ... I think this will give me a good basis to start with at least.

I'm going to go with my biggest expense to smallest, then look at savings.

---
Rent - 5,160 - 430/month
Groceries - 2153.25 - 179.74/month average
This is a lot more than I would like to spend on groceries. I would like to get my average down to 150/month for 2016 - including any treat type foods. (This groceries figure does not include treats.)

Tithe - 10% of net - rent (This is what my dad, a pastor told me was a good way to figure for tithe.)

Medical - $1286.91 - 107.24/month
This includes an $800 ER bill from fainting in March. Here's hoping that there won't be any big bills like this in 2016! (Not included is the $700 of FSA money which was completely spent.)

Vacation - 974.88 - $81.xx/month
About $500 of this was reimbursed by my aunt for my CA trip. Most of the rest was from when my mom came out here to visit me.

Internet - 865.91 - 72.16
Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. I hate how much I am paying for this, but unless I gave up Internet completely, it is unavoidable. (Nothing cheaper available that has WiFi.)

Restaurants - $545.42 - $5.45
OH MY WORD! This is an entirely ridiculous amount of money to have spent eating out / fast food places. $35 of it is for a restaurants $200 credit, but still. Way too much money. My goal in 2016 is to not eat at fast food place or restaurants unless I'm with someone else. Hopefully this will cut this amount down a lot. (Plus using the $200 credit for gift certificates.)

Electronics - $463.38
Thanks to losing my phone this year ... plus a couple cheap smartphones for PerkTv use, etc.

Electricity - 452.54 - 37.71/average

Giving - 451.80 - 37.65 average
Not as much as I'd like to do. For 2016 I've added two new categories to up this amount a little.

Car Insurance - 433.60 - 36.13 average

Household - 419.23 - 34.94 average
This includes $100 to the housecleaner UGH, plus replacing shower curtain, etc. Cleaning supplies, new to me loveseat, bookcase etc.

Treats - 397.69 - 33.14 average
I think I actually spent more in this category than this that got "lumped" in to the groceries category ... Really need to get this one WAY down.

Gym - 395.63 - 32.97 average
Sigh. I signed up in March and by September pretty much have stopped going. I have a two-year contract - I really need to get over there and see what it would cost to get out of it. Or somehow get myself going there again.

Kari - 337 - 28.08 average
Stocking up on cat food/wet food/litter, replacing litter boxes/scoops, license fees, etc.

Auto Fuel - 326.84 - 27.24 average
Not too bad I guess. This includes several extra tanks in March when I was driving back and forth from the hospital for NE.

Phone - 321.69 - 26.81 average
This includes the ETF from ATT and several months of no phone bills due to Ting credits.

Car Care - 312.11 - $26.09 average
A couple of oil changes, transmission fluid, wiper blades, etc.

Natural Gas - 306.50 - 25.54 average
The sad thing is that there is a $14/month "customer fee" irregardless of actual usage. So really the lowest possible to get this would be about $18/month. And they are talking about raising the "customer fee."

Clothing - 193.51 - 16.13/average
This is two pairs of shoes for work/church, bras, new pair of jeans, and misc. items throughout the year.

Car Tax - 175.09
Yearly car tax

Beauty - 154.26 - 12.86 average
The majority of this is from my treating my aunt and grandma to a mani/pedi at Thanksgiving time

Gifts - 83.01 - 6.92 average
I actually spent more than this, but was able to use Amazon money to pay for most gifts.

Miscellaneous - 80.85
This includes library fines, and other small things that don't really need a category.

Tax Prep - 34.98
This will be less this year since I only have to do one state's taxes.

Entertainment - 15
Bought a CD from a concert

Movies - 10
Two movies (matinees)

iTunes - 6.41
A couple of apps

Savings:
7% of my gross salary is automatically deducted to my 401b, plus a matching 9% from my company.

On my own, I also put $2500 into ROTH savings.

Between cash savings, retirement savings, stock growth, etc., my networth went up roughly 20k this year. (At one point it was up much, much, much more ....)

So .. of my total income this year, I kept ~18% of it, plus the ROTH savings, plus the 7% which was automatically taken from my paycheck.

So, a rough estimate of my savings rate for the year would be about 35%. Not great, but not horrible either.

2016 will be interesting because I'll hopefully be saving a LOT more until August, but then will be spending a HUGE chunk around September.


11 Responses to “2015 Spending / Savings”

  1. ceejay74 Says:
    1451258718

    It's very cool that you guys can do this...my system only looks forward, so I have no way to see how our spending actually went. What's your system? I don't think I'd add another manual tracking thing, but if I could get an app to track it for me, I might consider it.

  2. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1451258977

    Ceejay - I use YNAB. I got this info from the reporting feature.

  3. PatientSaver Says:
    1451261186

    So interesting to see the huge variation in standard expenses in another part of the country like Nebraska!

    Your rent and grocery bills seem positively cheap! I agree with you that eating out is SO very expensive, given what it is. My feeling is that if I'm going to eat out, I'm not going to waste my dollars on fast food or mediocre food. I really want to enjoy it when I go so I do try to hit the better restaurants when I go out with friends and make it an "event." Unfortunately, my dad is a devoted fan of diners, so the one in town by the highway ramp is always his first choice. Sigh.

  4. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1451261678

    Yes, it is interesting to see the variation in expenses. Of course, there also is a large variation in income too. Smile
    My apartment is a one bedroom/one bath and approximately 500 sq feet (maybe.) I have no amenities other than the laundry room being right next to my apartment. Smile
    I buy way more groceries than I really need to. I'm really wanting to get it down to around $80/month with $20 leftover for stocking up on things that are on sale. We'll see if I can stick to that or not.

    I like going out to eat - just not as much as my SO does. We've compromised on how often we go out and who pays. He'd like to go out much more often. Fast food is nice - and quite tempting when you have a BK within a block of your home ...

  5. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1451290135

    Big picture, the fact that you kept around ~18% of your income is absolutely amazing!!! Kudos to you. That's a wonderful achievement.

  6. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1451307918

    Thanks VS Smile

  7. pjmama Says:
    1451313100

    I am impressed (and almost shocked! haha). Seriously. I spent close to $2k between groceries and restaurants this year :/ Kudos for sure!!! Keep up the good work!

  8. ceejay74 Says:
    1451330014

    Is YNAB the one people were writing about getting referral credits on? (I don't usually pay attention to other budgeting tools since I have my homemade ones, but I am intrigued to try a real one.) If so, let me know how to use you as a referral.

  9. Frugaltexan75 Says:
    1451336672

    Yes, that's the one. My referral link is on the sidebar, but when I get home I can post it in a comment. Smile

  10. ceejay74 Says:
    1451336913

    Oh, I see it now! I looked before, but I was looking for a URL, not a link. Thanks!

  11. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1451349902

    Good Smile Let me know if you have any questions. There is a new version coming out on Wednesday - but if you download today or tomorrow you can still get the current version. The new one is all web based and doesn't have the report feature yet.

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