On Wednesday, I wrote a brutally honest post about my financial situation as it stands today and I’ve been thrilled by the response! It is so gratifying to know that we’re all in the same boat – just trying to implement good financial habits into our lives, no matter where we stand with our salaries.
Today, I want to get into the nitty-gritty of my discretionary spending. This year, I’m trying to do a better job of tracking my expenses in all the different categories I use. I’ll be honest and say there have been weeks when I don’t look at my bank account once and when I do finally log on, it’s with a hand over my eyes. That’s not a good feeling, not one bit, and I want to stop that. I’m committed to checking in on a daily basis so I can make sure I know exactly where I stand with my money.
So, let’s dive into how I spend my money after my bills have been paid. I’m thankful to have enough discretionary spending to meet my needs, so I don’t feel as if I’m living paycheck-to-paycheck. I’ve separated these categories into where I spent the most money in Q1 to where I spent the least. But this is a pretty accurate depiction of how I spend my money:
Travel
I like to take two trips a year – one big trip with my mom (usually a cruise) and one smaller trip with my girlfriends. This year, I’m trying to tack on a third trip, so fingers crossed I can make it work!
In Q1, I spent $1,210 on travel, which is a staggeringly large number, but it includes my cruise deposit ($1,010) and the two shore excursions we booked ($200). I really prioritize this yearly cruise with my mom and it’s something I look forward to all year. I’m happy to spend the money on it because I know we’re going to have an awesome time and fully enjoy ourselves. And that’s what I want most from my life, both personally and financially.
Eating Out
Oh, this has always been my kryptonite when it comes to budgeting. I love eating out. If I could eat out every night, I probably would. I just do not care for cooking and I’ve stopped feeling bad about that. I’ve also stopped feeling bad about my love for eating out. I want to keep it in check, of course, but I’ve also realized that it’s something I truly enjoy and I should embrace it. So I have!
I have had to rein in some of my eating out behavior, mostly due to the fact that I’m trying to lose weight and most foods at restaurants are not very waistline-friendly. Of course, one can always find healthy options, but they are never as much fun as the unhealthy options and if I’m going to treat myself to a meal out, I don’t want to stick with chicken and steamed veggies. No thanks!
In Q1, I spent $585 on eating out. This includes social dinners, lunches out, pizza delivery, and all those trips to Publix for a sub (which happens at least a few times a week). This amounts to about $50 a week and yes, it’s definitely something I need to get a better handle on, I can admit. In Q2, I want to break down my eating out budget into different categories: eating alone, eating with Mom, and eating with friends. I’d like to see what the difference is there!
Beauty
This category includes hair appointments, pedicures, massages, and eyebrow waxes. I get my hair colored every other month and cut every four months. I like to get a pedicure monthly if I can, just because it makes my feet feel so good and the place I go isn’t very expensive ($25). I get my eyebrows waxed every other month, and I try to do one massage every quarter.
Generally, this is an area of my life where I spend a lot of money, more than most people. It’s a version of self-care for me, but I also have to be careful about my spending, which is why I didn’t do my usual pedicure in March and I skipped a massage this quarter.
In Q1, I spent $343 and the majority of that came from a really pricey hair appointment. Actually, $270 of it came from this one hair appointment and I’m still sick to my stomach about it. Apparently, balayage is really frickin expensive! I mean, the color does last much longer, but I didn’t love my color enough for the price, ha. Lesson learned! I also got two pedicures and an eyebrow wax to round out my beauty spending. All in all, a very pricey quarter one for beauty. Yikes.
Toiletries
Twice a month, I take a trip to Target to stock up on personal care items, makeup, and household items. In quarter one, I spent $230 on toiletries, so about $77 a month or $38 every visit. This is something I don’t really put in my budget – it’s part of my discretionary spending, but I also want to separate out the different types of toiletry items I have. For example, I don’t think I should include my makeup purchases in the same category as my household cleaners, you know?
In Q2, I’m going to itemize my purchases for this category so that I can get a better handle on how much money I’m spending and where I’m spending it. (For example, how much money do I spend on makeup in a given month?) I’d also like to get to a point where I’m only shopping for toiletries once a month, rather than twice a month. I think that might also cut down on how much I spend here, too!
Amazon
Oh, dearest Amazon. I have a Prime membership and I’ve been contemplating canceling it for a while now. I’m just really not using Prime to its fullest abilities. I spent $85 in Q1 on Amazon purchases and only placed 8 orders over the entire quarter. It just seems silly to spend $14 a month on Prime when I’m barely using it.
Books
Ooh, my newest kryptonite! I never used to spend money on books, but now I can’t stop, won’t stop. Okay, I’m not doing terrible here. I spent $125 in Q1, and this includes my $15 a month Book of the Month subscription. It’s something I try to keep in check, by only buying books through BOTM or using Thriftbooks.com, where I can get a beautiful paperback for less than $5. Oh! And I’m also susceptible to $2 ebook deals from BookBub, but I only purchase the ebook if it’s something on my Goodreads TBR, and I only allow myself two ebooks a week. Standards, I have them?
Savings
I know, I know. “Pay yourself first.” But I haven’t gotten there yet. Instead, I’m using this handy-dandy worksheet to save $1,000 this year, which will serve as my emergency fund. (Currently, my credit card is my “emergency” fund, oops.) I have $173 in my savings and I’m slowly building it up. Slow and steady.
Birthdays
My nephew turned three, I celebrated the birthday of a friend, and I put together a care package for another friend, so I spent $60 on gifts in Q1. I’m happy with this one and that I was able to put a smile on the faces of my loved ones.
So there you have it – how I’m spending my money these days! There are definitely areas of improvement, especially when it comes to eating out and beauty. But there are also a ton of categories that I’m not spending money in – like clothing, entertainment, happy hours, and stuff like that. It’s always a give and take. Do I wish I could throw more money at my savings and debts? Of course. But not at the cost of losing out on living a life that feels enjoyable to me.
This is fascinating but I can’t stand tracking my money. Thankfully I have a larger discretionary spending budget and a husband to tell me when I overspend so I don’t have to look at it. My husband is FASCINATED with money stuff (he’s recently started investing my 401k and I’m all ‘as long as I don’t have to look at it’). I’d say I spend $50 a week on lunches/breakfasts. We eat out once a week for $100 for the four of us? I think. Over the last month I’ve spent $25 on books, $60 on makeup. My hair hates me so I’m just not doing anything to it and my last pedicure lasted for-ev-er so I haven’t really spent much on those things. I’m going on two trips in the next month with girlfriends but I paid for my flights before the new year so I haven’t spent money on those trips recently.
Amazon is my kryptonite. Apparently I’ve placed SIXTY-FIVE ORDERS in 2018 so far. Clothes, Easter basket stuff, coffee pods, cat litter, facial moisturizer, anti-anxiety nutrition books, dog toys … so much. I need to stop. Let’s see if next quarter I can be better at that.
Ha – I am just so bad at pushing the “buy” button on Amazon. But at least you’re using Prime to its fullest extent! I just can’t seem to use it enough that it makes sense to pay $13 a month for a membership.
What do you use to track your spending? I’m sure you’ve written about it, but I don’t remember… help?
I actually just use an Excel spreadsheet! Nothing fancy here. Hoping to invest in the You Need a Budget system in the near future, though!
Hey, as always thanks for sharing. I’m not sure if you’ve tried Mint.com yet. It’s free to set-up. My husband and I use it for our budgeting. It links to your banks, credit cards, etc. it took a few months but now every penny we spend gets accounted for.
I tried Mint a loooong time ago, but at the time, it didn’t really work for my needs. I’m also overwhelmed by the setup process, haha, which is just an excuse, I know. But I think I am going to invest in the You Need a Budget system very soon. I’ve heard such great things about it and I think it’s exactly what I need to really get a handle on serious budgeting.
Eating out is a weakness of ours too! I also hate cooking, and Caleb is SO damn picky. I need to work on it, but also… I enjoy it? So how much should I really stop? LOL.
I always have an internal battle going between savings and debt. I feel so strongly that both need to be prioritized, but it’s impossible to prioritize both. UGHH! I try to contribute a fair amount to each month, but it’s always a battle over which is more important and which should get more of our money. Sigh.
I have the same conundrum with eating out – I love it and as long as I account for it in my budget, isn’t that okay? Then again, I could start saving more and putting more towards my debt if I ate out less. Argh!
I still don’t really know what to do when it comes to saving up for my next car down payment or putting away more money to my student loans. I might take an every-other-month approach: one month, I put $250 into a savings account for the down payment and the other month, send that payment to one of my student loans. It would take me a little longer to save for the down payment, but it might be a better compromise.
I haven’t been watching my spending as closely since Paul was born because I am not in front of a computer often. I use mint.com to track my spending and while they have an ap, I prefer to look at it on my PC. But I haven’t been spending much besides on amazon stuff. But luckily we’ve use gift cards from our wedding so haven’t paid out of pocket for much of the baby stuff we’ve gotten. So that is nice! I am sure this trend of not spending money will change once I am back at work. Right now I’m in a place where I’m not at the size I want to be so I don’t feel tempted to buy clothes and when I get away from the house to grocery shop or go to Target, I’m on a mission so don’t deviate from my list. One big purchase I made in the first quarter was a photography package from our wedding photographer. She’ll take photos 4 times in the first year of Paul’s life. This was NOT CHEAP. But I feel it was a great investment and I am so happy with how our newborn photos turned out. But it did make me a bit sick to make the payment for the package. Gulp.
That sucks that your cut and color was so expensive. It sucks because you can’t return it when you realize how freaking it expensive it was. And it’s hard to let go of a big expense like that. Try not to beat yourself up too much. Now you know how expensive that color treatment is and won’t make that purchase again!
Again, I commend you for being so open about your spending!! I”m glad you’ve received great comments so far!
Having those photos of Paul throughout his first year are going to be so worth every penny, I’m sure. It’s hard to make such a large payment like that, but it’ll be so special in the coming years to be able to see how he grew in such a short amount of time!
I’m always worried when I get honest about my spending because people tend to have Very Strong Feelings about the way people spend money, so I’m grateful that I’ve received nothing but helpful and positive comments. It makes sharing about my money situation a LOT less scary!
This year, I split out a bunch of different budgets that used to be filed under “stuff” or “misc.” So far, I’m really liking being able to see what I’m spending on specific categories, like toiletries and make-up or household supplies and I’ve been much, much better about labeling what my Amazon purchases are, especially since a lot of them are pet or house-related.
Also really enjoying this series!
I’m glad you enjoyed this series! I hope to talk a lot more about my budgeting and money in the future, even though I don’t feel like I’ve got a handle on it near as well as other people do. But it’s still important to talk about – after all, if the only people talking about money are those who have their shit together, what’s the fun in that?
I’m trying to be a lot more intentional about categorizing my purchases, too, because I tend to just lump them all together. It’ll be helpful to see exactly where my discretionary spending purchases actually go!
This is so insightful. I try to keep in mind that everybody’s spending will look different (just because we all have different priorities) but it’s really helpful to see how others spent their money. Again, thanks for sharing so openly… I am also really enjoying this ‘money-series’. 🙂
Love all of this! I was about to write about our spending in Q1 too. 🙂 I like how you broke down Amazon Prime into a monthly #. I’ve gotta sayyyy – I don’t think I purchase THAT much on Amazon to make it worthwhile, but I keep it out of convenience. So I don’t have to buy up to $25 to get my free shipping. :p