After thinking about it for a bit, I’ve decided I’m going to show you the real, raw numbers of my spending. Sometimes the way percentages shake out don’t paint the most accurate picture of how I’m spending my money, and since I’m only reporting on myself, it feels fair enough to use actual numbers. Let’s do this! Note: This is a spending report, so I’m only talking about money I spent after it hit my bank account. Don’t expect to see anything about my 401k, FSA, health insurance, etc.

Bills ($2,381 | ↓ $715 from March): Y’all, I am stumped on this one. I don’t know why my bills were so much lower in April than in March! I did miss paying my water bill (the setup is so complicated, and I can’t do automatic, ugh), and maybe the way the car payments shook out meant it didn’t show up on my April budget? IDK! I mean, I’m not complaining, but I’m just not sure if I did my math right, ha.

Savings ($1,370 | ↑ $945 from March): I am so very proud of this number! I finally put four figures away in savings this month. I don’t know if I’ve ever been able to do that. Most of this went into my emergency fund. I’m so close to having $3,000 in that fund, which feels really good. I’ll keep building it, of course, but woohoo!

Food ($794 | ↓ $8 from March): A pretty steady month for my food budget. My goal is to stay under $800, so I’m happy I managed to do that in April! I spent a little less on groceries, but didn’t meet my Ubereats goal of $100. Womp, womp. No bougie pedicure for me this month! Still, my total for Ubereats was $138, so it’s still much lower than it’s been in previous months. The key is making sure I have fun dinner options for the weekends.

Shopping ($640 | ↓ $830 from March): This is the sweet spot for my shopping budget, I think. Ideally, I’d keep things under $500, but what can I say? I like buying things! This month, my highest-spend categories were home ($245 – mainly due to having to replace my Keurig!), beauty ($160), and books ($82).

Travel ($611 | ↑ $611 from March): I didn’t spend any money on travel expenses in March, but this category got a sweet lil workout in April. Anything I bought during my reading retreat (groceries and one Ubereats order) went into this category, as well as paying my mom back for a plane ticket for our New England road trip in the fall.

Pets ($306 | ↓ $112 from March): Last month involved getting Lila set up with a new vet wellness plan (so I had to pay a setup fee) and a gorgeous cat tower for my office. This month, things were more normal, sort of what I expect things to look like going forward. I paid for their wellness plans, bought some accessories (a new collar for Eloise, a new cat scratcher, etc.), and got some necessities like litter and wet food.

Car ($283 | ↑ $33 from March): I got gas twice (nearly $50 both times, sigh), put money into my car insurance savings fund, and got a car wash membership. I’ve been very leery about starting a car wash membership because I don’t trust myself to use it enough to make it worth it, but I’m giving myself a three-month trial. As long as I get my car washed 10 times in the next three months, I can keep the membership. Wish me luck!

Gifts ($223 | ↑ $68 from March): I bought two thank-you gifts and a gift for a grieving friend.

Entertainment ($126 | ↓ $145 from March): A much more reasonable number for April! I want to keep my entertainment category under $200, and I came well below that target. The majority of this spending comprises restaurants. I don’t include those in my food budget if I’m out with friends or my mom because that’s part of being social!

Household Supplies ($108 | ↑ $100 from March): I seemingly needed to replace all of my household supplies in April! Mopping solution, mopping pads, dishwasher pods, mouthwash, toothpaste, shampoo/conditioner, and on and on. It was a busy month for those household supplies!

Subscriptions ($93 | no change from March): This seems to be the sweet spot for my subscriptions—just under $100! If you want to know the way my mind works, I feel like there’s room to add another subscription to this list. Frugality? I don’t know her.

Medical ($0 | ↓ $126 from March): No medical expenses needed in April! Everything was able to go on my FSA card, yay!

Overall Thoughts

This was honestly my ideal spending month. I am not a frugal person so I’m never going to be someone who doesn’t spend a ton of money in a single month, but if I can do so while contributing a good amount of money to savings and investing in travel, then I feel really good about that!

What went well?

• I put almost $1,400 away in my savings! And it didn’t even feel like a massive sacrifice. It feels so good to have made this happen. I need to hold onto this feeling!
• I still came in under-budget in my food category, even though I didn’t meet my Ubereats goal of $100. With prices rising everywhere, I’m glad I haven’t felt the pinch too much yet.
• I’m proud of bringing down my shopping category in a substantial way. Of course, that was bound to happen since I bought two pieces of furniture in March, but sometimes it’s hard to bring myself back down to normal spending after an expensive month. I’m learning how to be a smart money manager, I guess.

Where can I improve?

• I still need to get a handle on Ubereats orders. Even though I didn’t go massively overboard ($138), I still didn’t meet my goal because sometimes I prioritize comfort/ease over saving money. It would be nice to switch bodies with a frugal person for a day so I can better understand how their mind works. What do you meeeean you don’t want to spend money all the time?!!?!
• While I didn’t spend beyond my means, if I didn’t have a big buffer in my checking account, things would have gotten a bit tight near the end of the month. I came in just shy of $100 under my take-home income, so that’s something I really want to keep track of to make sure that number starts to increase. Then again, my housing costs have risen dramatically, so I’m really glad I’m still able to spend below my means when my rent is 25% higher than it used to be!

What is one of your must-have discretionary expenses? Mine is probably Starbucks. 

Okay, remember last month when I was like “I want a different way to look at my spending!!!” and then did a “good/bad/ugly” style post to detail my January spending?

Well, I’m going back to my roots because as much as I enjoyed that exercise, I find it much more helpful to look at my spending habits this way to get a more detailed picture of where my money is going. So, we’re back! I’ll list out all of my different spending categories and show you how they compare to January. As a quick reminder, this is a spending report so I’m only talking about money I spent after it hit my bank account. Don’t expect to see anything about my 401k, FSA, health insurance, etc.

Here’s the breakdown:

Bills (45.8% | ↑ 29.7% from January): This increase looks scary, but it’s really only because I didn’t have to pay rent in January. This category comprises all of my bills, including rent, utilities, Internet, phone, gym, electric, my school loan, and my car payment.

Food (13.9% | ↓ 4.7% from January): I made some improvements with my food budget from January, hooray! My biggest improvement was spending $100 less in Ubereats orders. My total is still much higher than I would like it to be ($174), but slow and steady progress, right?

Shopping (10.1% | ↑ .5% from January): I actually spent less money shopping in February than I did in January ($480 vs $636), but it shook out differently with the way my budget shifted due to rent. My goal was to get my shopping budget under $500 so I’m happy to see this progress. Let’s see if I can get it even lower in March! Highest-spend categories: home ($199), books ($124), and miscellaneous ($73).

Travel (9.1% | ↑ 9.1% from January): I didn’t spend any money on travel in January, so this is my first travel expense of 2026! I reserved an Airbnb for a few days in April.

Savings (5.7% | ↑ 2.9% from January): I always love when my savings percentage increases! I continue to put $25/week into my emergency savings, set aside money in a Christmas savings fund, and I’ve been adding money to the savings account tied to my bank. I’d like to have around $2,000 in that savings account (separate from emergency savings) since that can be more quickly moved over to my checking account. It would just feel really satisfying to have a buffer like that in my savings!

Pets (4.0% | ↓ 2.4% from January): I spent less on the cats in February, so hooray for that. This came in just under $200. This includes Eloise’s wellness plan, new collars, food, and treats.

Entertainment (3.3% | ↑ 1.7% from January): There were a handful of very fun things in February, and some of them were a little on the pricey side. Still, I kept my entertainment spending under $200, and I’m happy about that!

Gifts/Donations (2.9% | ↑ 1.1% from January): February has Galentine’s Day and my younger nephew’s birthday. I also bought Girl Scout cookies from a friend and donated to the ASPCA.

Subscriptions (1.9% | ↑ 1.1% from January): I think this increase has more to do with the way the percentages shook out than anything else, since I didn’t add any new subscriptions in February. Same old, same old. Things like Patreon, Spotify, Canva, Paramount+, Book of the Month, etc.

Medical (1.2% | ↑ 1.2% from January): Most of my medical expenses are paid for by my FSA card, and I don’t include those in this spending report. But I did spend about $55 on some medical-related expenses like replacing a few of my supplements that had run out.

Household Supplies (.8% | ↓ 2.3% from January): Last month was an expensive one for household supplies, as a lot of things needed to be replenished. This month, not so much! Just random things like aluminum foil and Ziploc bags.

Car (.7% | ↓ 0.3% from January): An easy month for car expenses in February. I only needed to fill up my car with gas once.

Beauty (.6% | ↓ 4.3% from January): An easy month for beauty expenses. I replenished some skincare supplies and bought a foot mask for my rough heels, but that was it!

---

Overall Thoughts

As a whole, February was a much more realistic picture of my monthly spending patterns than January. Adding in an $1,800 rent bill really skewed some of my percentages—for example, my shopping percentage should have gone down since I spent less money.

What went well?

• I met my shopping budget! I wanted to spend less than $500 and I did. I’m really glad to see that!
• I kept my entertainment budget under $200, which is a realistic place for me to be.
• I booked my Airbnb on my debit card. I realize many of you would book something like that on a credit card to get points, but typically, I would book something like that on my credit card to pay for later (sometimes… much later). I’m really happy the Airbnb is fully paid for right off the bat.

Where can I improve?

• Say it with me, you guys: Ubereats! While I’m happy I spent $100 less than I did in January, my total in January was embarrassingly high. The incentive I’m giving myself to lower this number is this: If I can keep my Ubereats budget under $100 in any month, then I can treat myself to a bougie pedicure.
• I spent beyond my means in February by almost $300. However, since I have built a nice little buffer in my checking account, it just meant that buffer reduced a bit. This was the first month I had to pay rent, so hopefully, I can adjust my spending a bit to keep it in line with my income.

What’s something fun you’ve bought recently?

It’s a new year, and it’s time for a new way to track and analyze my spending. I downloaded a budgeting spreadsheet in mid-January and spent the time meticulously filling it out and making sure I had all of my budget categories just so. Things were going well, until I had an epiphany: I don’t want to budget. I don’t want to sit down every month and set specific parameters for my spending. What I want to do is track where my money is going once bills are paid, but not in a “I can only spend $100 in this category” kind of way.

The truth is, I find it really hard to project into the future and think about how much I should budget for the cats or the car or my entertainment budget. What I would rather do is figure out how much money I have left over for myself once I have paid all my bills and set aside a portion for food and other necessities like household supplies. Once everything necessary is accounted for, what do I have left over? That can be used for myself in myriad ways – sometimes it’s for things like cat litter or car washes, and sometimes it’s for things like books and beauty appointments. The key is that it’s all in one big bucket that I keep track of and pull from throughout the month.

With that in mind, I wanted a different way to look at my month of spending. Rather than listing out all of my different categories, let’s do this the good, the bad, and the ugly style! But first, here’s the total breakdown:

The Good (aka, three categories that went well this month)

• Entertainment (1.6% of total budget)

My entertainment category was fairly low this month, which sometimes means I’m being too much of a hermit, but that was not true in January. It’s just that a lot of my entertainment was either cheap or free, which is nice!

• Credit card (33% of total budget)

This was my biggest category by far, but this is a big win because I finally paid off my credit card balance that had been looking a little scary since October (international trip + a move + holidays = a mess). I’m glad I was able to get it down to $0 and start fresh in the new year!

• Bills (16.1% of total budget)

January was my final month of not having to pay rent, so my bills category looked amazing. (I got two months free when I moved in.) I need every apartment to run a special like this because it helped so much to recoup my moving costs and get settled into my new place.

The Bad (aka, three categories that were a bit higher than I wanted)

• Groceries ($860 total)

Some of this grocery total falls under the snack category because I spent a lot of money upfront to fill up my pantry with good snacks for myself. I also did grocery delivery once when my PsA symptoms were at an all-time high. That’s always a much higher grocery bill than normal!

• Cats ($400)

The girls were expensive in January! A good chunk of this total is an annual fee I paid to the PetLibro app so I could track the girls’ eating habits. It was $129 for the entire year, which feels excessive, but whatever. I also got them food, litter, a new litter box, and some treats. Oh, and a portion of this went to Eloise’s vet plan.

• Shopping ($636)

Whoops. This is what happens when I don’t have to pay rent. I have all this money that’s burning a hole in my pocket! Here’s how it broke down:

• Home ($274) – I bought a nightstand, a small end table, two rugs, and some scents at Bath & Body Works
• Books ($210) – I bought 11 books in January, oopsy! I bought three from Barnes & Noble (I had a gift card), one e-book that I couldn’t get from my library, two Book of the Month add-ons, and then five books during my bookish shopping spree with Jenny.
• Misc ($92) – All those little things surely add up! This category comprises things like a large pill organizer, a new wall calendar for 2026, a to-do list pad, some gold star stickers, and my “books read” sign from Etsy

My goal is to spend under $500 monthly in my shopping category, so let’s see how I do in February!

The Ugly (my worst category)

• Online ordering ($265)

Who is surprised by this being my worst category? Oh, Ubereats. How I love thee! But I do not need to spend almost $300 in a single month on these online orders. Some of this was due to PsA pain and just not having the physical/mental capacity to cook for myself, and some of this was just sheer laziness. I hope that once my symptoms are better controlled, I will rely less on Ubereats.

In February, my goal is to spend less than $150 on online orders and to limit orders to only Friday and Saturday. 

Final Thoughts

There were definitely some bright spots in January, especially being able to pay off my high credit card balance, so I didn’t have that hanging over my head anymore. And there were some common spending patterns that have been an issue for a while. I’m nothing if not consistent! But I’m also giving myself some grace here because it was a hard month for me as I waited for my first rheumatology appointment, and I did what needed to be done to take care of myself and meet my needs.

What was your last home purchase?