Mayday mayday mayday… the ship is going down quickly! Okay, it might not be that bad. But damn it sure seems like we’re stuck in a spending rut. (By the way, this post contains affiliate links. That means if you click on them and buy something I may make a commission, thank you!)
I was hoping by tracking our expenses each month it would give a little insight on where we should cut back, but that doesn’t seem to be working. Or maybe it is working, we’re just not taking actionable steps towards improvement.
One thing to note is that it is possible to have restraint when it comes to shopping. Best piece of advice I can give, is that TEMPTATION IS NOT YOUR FRIEND! Notice Zulily and Etsy rarely show up on the expense report any more! It’s so easy to waste valuable time and money perusing those apps, that then make it waaaay to easy to purchase at the click of a button.
Now here’s the nitty gritty:
FOOD EXPENSES:
TRADER JOE’S – $858 (July was a five-week month, so there’s an extra week in here.)
OTHER GROCERY – $380 (This one crept back up, I’m going with the same excuse as above.)
GROCERY – $1,238
According to the USDA Food Plan, this puts us right in between the “Moderate” and “Liberal” cost plans… aka pretty much the highest you should be paying. We’ve actually been doing a great job eating dinner at home, but I’ve always had kind of expensive taste. Even when it comes to groceries.
EATING OUT – $477
I’m a little frustrated with this number. Even though we don’t go out to dinner much any more it continues to be high every month, although this is nothing compared to last month. We’re working on a plan to cut back lunch expenses which would help quite a bit.
FOOD TOTAL – $1,715
SHOPPING EXPENSES:
ZULILY – Zip, zilch, zero!
COSTCO – $131 (Pretty much exactly the same as last month.)
WALMART – $57
AMAZON – $148
TARGET – $141
HONEST COMPANY – $35
TJ MAXX -$35
REI – Zip, zilch, zero!
FARMER’S MARKET – $38
Fun find of the century at the Park Silly Market.
SHOPPING TOTAL – $585
A teeny bit less than June, but the first number is lower so that’s all that counts.
BLOG EXPENSES:
I figured it was probably time to start factoring in my blog expenses, since I am incurring some on a monthly basis. It’s hard to look at this and not get discouraged, but I know it’s leading to greater things. I realize I say that every month, but if you look at what professional bloggers are spending this really isn’t that much.
PIC MONKEY – $5
IZEA – $1
ADVERTISING – $0
MEDIA KIT AND THEME UPDATE – $200 (I may be slightly obsessed with the design and layout of this blog. So when fellow blogger Stephanie Jones of Good Blog Groupie and Jornie.com offered to do a little design work for me, well I couldn’t turn it down. Did you notice the difference?)
TAILWIND – $15 (It hurts me a little bit every month to see this payment go through, but I’m seeing a noticeable difference in increased blog traffic coming from Pinterest. )
BLOG EXPENSE TOTAL – $221
(I’m investing in the future, I’m investing in the future, I’m investing in the future.)
TOTAL EXPENSES – $2,521
Well, at least we’re consistent about spending too much money every month. Imagine what it was like before I implemented these 5 Things to Buy That Will Save You Money.
Blog Income:
And now on to the BLOG INCOME portion. If this is your first time reading, you may be wondering why I’m talking about income as well… It is my goal to eventually be able to earn a full time income on this blog. While I am still a VERY long ways from that, I wanted to keep track from the beginning to help see what’s working and what’s not. So in the interest of budgeting, full disclosure, and full accountability, I invite you to follow along on my progress. (By the way if you are also interested in starting your own website, Bluehost is a great place to begin, and if you use this link it’s only $3.95/month.)
GOOGLE ADSENSE – $0.89 (Had a pretty big lull in Adsense income in July. But only 28,000 more pageviews per month and I can upgrade my ad networks.)
IZEA – $0
AMAZON – $5.13 (Considering I pretty much called them the devil a few times via instant chat because of their shady affiliate practices, I’m just happy they didn’t cut me out of the affiliate program.)
TARGET – $0
THE HONEST COMPANY – $0
ZULILY – $0
TOTAL BLOG INCOME – $6.02
It’s time to start reassessing this situation here. In August I’ll be applying for more sponsored tweets with Izea, experimenting with different ad placement, and realizing it’s all about building an audience before it all starts to pay off.
I can already tell you, in August there’s a bit of a lift in income!
As always, thanks for stopping by and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.
