Happy Friday, friends! I am here today to report on my March spending. As a reminder, this is a spending report, which means I am only talking about the money I spent after it hits my bank account. You will not see anything related to my 401k, health insurance premiums, HSA contributions, etc.
Before I get into the fun stuff, let’s review my money goals for March:
- A full boycott of Amazon and Target – Not complete. I definitely used both places a LOT less than normal, but I needed to use Target a few times for toiletries and Amazon for a few hard-to-find items.
- Switch from Publix to Aldi – Somewhat complete. I did one shopping trip at Aldi but I wasn’t too impressed with the selection nor the quality of some of the food. Womp.
- Reduce my shopping budget further – Not complete. As you’ll see below, I actually spent double in March than I did in February. Oops.
SPENDING BREAKDOWN
Categories That Increased
BILLS ($5,872 | ↑ $3,825)
Well, no surprise here! This category increased dramatically because I paid off my Care Credit debt. That comprises over $3,000 of this overage. I also had two car payments in March because I missed my February payment (it was a few days late but within the grace period, so no biggie). My electric bill was also slighter higher than February but ($124 vs $108).
SHOPPING ($682 | ↑ $300)
Whew, my shopping category got a workout in March. Some of this was expected; I knew I was going to spend a lot of money at the bookstore in Orlando and I bought a large area rug for my home. And hey, I got my bonus this month and was responsible with the majority of it. The rest got to be fun money! Here were my highest categories:
- Books and bookish items: $197
- Home (area rug): $150
- Workout clothes (sports bra, yoga mat, workout top, and stretch strap): $88
- Clothes (dress, t-shirt, socks, bralette, and nightgown): $84
- Office (thank you cards and a mousepad): $55
MISC ($257 | ↑ $179)
This was almost all taxes. I paid $182 to the government and then paid $70 to TurboTax. There was also a small $6 charge from Google for something related to the blog but I couldn’t tell you what it’s for.
SUPPLIES ($196 | ↑ $148)
I replenished my collection of body wash and also needed to buy some household supplies that I don’t need often, like dishwasher detergent, toilet paper, and Clorox wipes. Oh, and I bought a new toilet bowl brush!
GIFTS ($143 | ↑ $56)
A little higher this month since I finally gave my mom her birthday present, which was going to a pet portrait event to make paintings of our pets! I also bought some bulk gifts for friends (I have a fun plan for celebrating friends’ birthdays this year!) as well as some sweet treats for Chip and Lucy’s birthdays. My monthly donation to the ASPCA is also part of this category.
Categories That Decreased
MEDICAL ($127 | ↓ $318)
This month, I spent money on some ice packs for my finger (I’ve been having some weird joint soreness/pain in my index fingers that comes and goes) and medication. Last month, I had to pay off a big medical bill for my CPAP machine that I had been neglecting.
CATS ($185 | ↓ $64)
No vet bill this month, which brought down this category by a bit. I did have to replenish both their wet and dry food, which was a hit to the ole bank account. Plus, they needed new litter and I finally got a Litter Genie to make the whole litter-scooping process a lot less arduous.
ENTERTAINMENT ($283 | ↓ $58)
This month, I added the “food with friends” subcategory back to my entertainment category. It’s good for me to see how much money I spend monthly when going out to eat with my mom and with other friends. This month, it was $140! I also spent $50 for book club’s afternoon tea event, $60 on the pet portrait event (my portion—what I paid for her portrait was added to the gifts category), and $10 on iPhone game tokens.
FOOD ($769 | ↓ $36)
Yay! My food budget improved this time around. I’m very happy with this number, even though I went overbudget in my online takeout category. But I didn’t do as poorly as February (I was over by $73 rather than $105), so that’s a win for me.
CAR ($215 | ↓ $36)
A small decrease for my car category due to only needing to fill up my car with gas once rather than twice.
Categories That Held Steady
SUBSCRIPTIONS ($98)
I still have not canceled my Amazon Prime – argh! I need to do that ASAP. And I’d like to take the money I was using on Amazon Prime and pay it forward for some of the Substacks I read.
SAVINGS ($125)
Of course, same old same old. I have a recurring savings autodraft of $75 to my Christmas fund and $50 to a cat fund for future medical bills.
NEW Categories
TRAVEL ($620)
This category was nonexistent for the first two months of the year, but it’s going to start getting a workout! This month, I categorized all food purchases when I was in Orlando under the “travel” category. I also paid for the VRBO (where I’m typing up this post now!) for my reading retreat.
SPA ($232)
I got my hair colored and cut, and I also got my underarms waxed and my brows waxed and dyed. It was an expensive appointment at the salon! But I will only need to get my hair colored/cut every three months. I only need my brows waxed every 2-3 months at most (and I don’t think I’m going to continue getting them dyed since it only lasted 1-2 weeks, ugh). My underarm waxing will be more frequent for now, but I’m hoping it means no more cyst growth!
Overall Thoughts
I’m happy with my spending habits this month. The bonus obviously helped, and I’m proud that I put most of it toward paying off my LASIK debt. Now the only debts I have are my student loans ($2,400) and my car loan ($27,000). I’m feeling good I can finally get those student loans paid off within the next year, and having a car loan doesn’t really bother me right now.
I’m also happy to report that I spent under my means this month, only by $100 but hey—it’s something! I was worried that I was in the red this month with all of the extra shopping I did and the deposit for the VRBO and such, but nope. It was a good month for my spending.
There are some big things coming up for me in the second half of 2025, namely my trip to London in October and moving to a new apartment in November. I want to make sure I’m saving at a decent rate so that neither of those investments puts me in the hole. This will be even more precarious with the way the government is messing with the stock market, so we’ll see how things shake out. I’m not optimistic, but maybe something will be surprising. (A Trump-loving family member keeps telling me to just “wait” for 1-2 years and things will turn around. Hmm, okay then.)
One thing I’m excited about: I’m $70 away from meeting my health insurance deductible! Woop! I’ve been spending so much money on appointments and medication and equipment costs (thanks, CPAP machine) and it will be nice to get something of a break on some of that. Maybe I’ll even be able to build up some money in my HSA since right now, I’m draining it every time I get paid to pay off some sort of lingering medical bill. It’s fun getting older.
March was a good month and my goals for April are to reduce my shopping budget by half, meet my online ordering goal (less than $100 spent), and finally cancel Amazon Prime.
What was your last “spa” purchases, aka hair color, haircut, waxing, pedicure, manicure, etc? Do you have any financial goals for April?