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 ($2,872 | ↑ $189 from May): This includes rent, phone, electric, Internet, utilities, car payment, and school loan. My electric bill was up by $24, and I expect it to continue to rise throughout these wretched summer months. I also missed a utilities payment in May (oops) and finally figured out how to set up automatic withdrawals for that account. I had to put close to $200 toward utilities between May and June bills, eeks.
Food ($557 | ↓ $314 from May): Look at that! My food spending went way down in June! I started grocery shopping twice a week, and I think that has helped tremendously because I’m only thinking about what I want to eat for a few days at a time. Also, my Uber Eats spending was under $100, which means I get a bougie pedicure this month. WOOHOO!
Shopping ($409 | ↓ $75 from May): My shopping budget continues to decrease, woohoo! This month, my highest categories included books ($130), home ($121), and clothes ($59). Some fun new purchases this month: a wooden TV tray, a new lamp for my dining room, and a sunshade for my car (which has already come in clutch).
Entertainment ($256 | ↓ $80 from May): I’m happy to see that my entertainment spending didn’t go off the rails, even though I had a lot of fun plans with friends and family this month! A lot of this consists of dinners out and some fun things with Kim while she was in town.
Car ($253 | ↓ $33 from May): I only needed to get gas once in June, so that helped my car spending a bit. I also paid for my car wash membership, paid some tolls, and put money away for car insurance.
Savings ($200 | ↓ $460 from May): I didn’t put any extra money away in my savings this month, just my typical automatic withdrawals. I need to do better in July!
Spa ($162 | ↓ $218 from May): Not too much to report here! I paid for my massage membership, got an underarm wax, and paid for a massage upgrade + the tip to my therapist.
Pets ($275 | ↑ $30 from May): I paid for the girls’ vet plans and got boring things like litter, food, treats, etc.
Travel ($105 | ↓ $98 from May): Just a few odds and ends during our book club weekend, nothing crazy!
Household Supplies ($82 | ↓ $64 from May): A lot of my spending on household supplies this month was devoted to fruit fly supplies (and thankfully, the infestation has been eradicated!). And some random things like toilet paper, dishwasher pods, floss picks, etc.
Subscriptions ($70 | ↓ $35 from May): Nothing crazy to report here. This is a normal month for me. (Last month, I paid for a year’s subscription to Emily in Your Phone’s Substack, which accounts for the overage.)
Medical ($18 |↓ $3 from May): I had to replace my multivitamins. Exciting!
Gifts ($0 | ↓ $167 from May): No gifts to buy in June! Surprisingly, it’s not a busy birthday month in my world.
Spending Goals
I’ve been ending these posts with my overall thoughts on what went well and where I can improve, but it started to feel a little samey-samey. So instead, I’m going to keep track of five different money goals every month and report on how I’m doing:
- Spend below my means – Complete! I spent $633 below my means in June.
- Spend under $600 on groceries and $100 on Uber Eats orders – Complete! I spent $405 on groceries and $98 on Uber Eats orders.
- Spend under $500 on shopping – Complete! I came in right over $400.
- Add $250 to my emergency savings every month – Not complete. I only added $100 in June, but this is a new goal for me, so hopefully I can achieve it in July!
- Track and report on no-spend days – No data for June since I just decided to make this a goal, but we’ll see where I land in July!
Do you have any money goals this year?
Great job, Stephany! You are crushing your goals! (sorry you had to spend so much on fruit fly supplies, eeep)
I just hope those damn fruit flies STAY AWAY. So freaking annoying!
Hooray for coming in under budget! And hooray for an “unexciting” month, especially for medical stuff. Our air conditioning bill is going to be huge this month, so I’m trying not to buy anything extra.
Ughhhhh, those electric bills! I know I could have a cheaper bill if I didn’t keep my apartment so cold but I just can’t handle a warm home in the summer!
Booyah for a low spend food month! That’s huge!!!
I don’t have a formal budget, but I have aspirations for how much I would like to spend on travel. I’m way under “budget” for that since believe it or not I’m traveling less than I planned, and I’ve ended up taking mostly road trips, which are much cheaper than flying/renting a car. No worries, I figure that I’ll catch up later on in my 50 state project when driving isn’t an option. I’m still figuring out what “new normal” looks like for spending now that I’m living on my own, but so far so good. While it’s true that I had a lot of “start up” costs in new furniture, those are one time expenses.
Finding a new normal after all those start-up expenses are done is a fun little puzzle! My mom is going through something similar, and it’s definitely been an adjustment for her but doable!
Well done on keeping uber eats below $100! I ordered what was probably my last Poke bowl as I’ve finally depleted the door dash gift cards from the fire incident. I did 2 more orders after I was out of gift cards but I was close to a $10 off reward so wanted to take advantage of that.
We just had our Q2 financial review and are happy with where things are at. But our situation is so very different as a 2-income household with one mildly frugal person and one very frugal person. I did spend out in June and purchased $130/person pool passes for the boys and me. But we’ve already been 5 times, I think? We need to go 8-9 to make it worth it. It’s been hot (for us) this week so I was planning to take the boys to the pool after dinner. I did that on Tuesday but today it’s closed due to dangerous smoke levels in our air due to wild fires. 🙁 I hope it clears out by Saturday for a variety of reason as I like to spend one weekend afternoon at the pool!
I just need, like, 10% of your frugalness to help me stop spending so much damn money on takeout orders! I know the cost is ridiculous but the convenience gets me every time.
I’m sorry you’re experiencing such horrible air quality! It’s gotten so bad up there. 🙁
Well, I think you did great. Your spending in most areas went down, and now you get a pedicure! I like how “books” was your highest category in shopping- as it should be.
Books being my highest-spent shopping category means all is right in the world!
OK, now I need to know specifics. Our place is about 1188 square feet, and our electric/gas bill is between $150-$300 a month. A really good month is less than $150. It is rarely more than $250, but August and January are rough. I think our prices are really high in California, there is a lot of cost based on trying to get wildfires under control and so on. But I’d be really interested to know what the average utility bill is for you in your hot months, your cold months, and the shoulder months. (Because I’m nosy and this is blogging, right? We all want to know how everyone else lives?)
So, I can only give you a glimpse into November-June when it comes to my electric bill, since I haven’t experienced what July-October will look like in terms of my electric bill. In my old place, I think the highest my bill got was in the $180s. It can be as low as $75 in the colder months and now it’s getting higher and higher as we’re in the hot months and I’m running my AC like crazy. I’m going to guess I’ll get into the low 200s with August/September since those are our hottest months. So, hot months ($190-$210?), shoulder months ($100-$130), and cold months (less than $100) sounds about right.
I’m trying to imagine only getting gas once in a whole month. Yowza that would be amazing. This looks like you have made great progress meeting your goals. It never occurred to me that groceries twice a week could lead to savings. Thinking only about what you need for the next few days does make sense though, vs buying stuff that you won’t potentially eat. Reg eats anything that isn’t nailed down, so I am def not in this boat. I am delegating grocery shopping to my grown-ish children and that’s the bomb. I like the color coding of your chart, BTW. Bills should be brown, because BLAH. 😉
I am definitely lucky in the fact that I don’t have multiple children to cart around and I work from home! It has helped my gas purchases IMMENSELY.