Vacations and holiday lights and everything we spent money on in September
Why share the details of what we spent? Because I always wish more people would. It’s an interesting way to see how people are living their lives. No two people spend money the same way.
I’ve always posted a summary to Instagram, but I’ve also always loved the way The Frugalwoods post each month. So I’m trying out something new. It’s a surprising amount of work to type it all out, but also strangely satisfying.
September was a dichotomy
September was a frugal month in terms of every day spending but there were a couple massive expenses that just threw everything off. Wanna guess how I had $10k in random expenses? Read on!
This is total spending for a month for two adults in a medium-to-high cost of living city. One thing you might notice is missing is cell phone service. I use Mint Mobile and so I only pay in a lump sum once a year.
| Food | ||
| Groceries | $370 | Out of town for a week visiting family, which kept our food costs low. |
| Restaurants | $0 | Hasn’t been $0 since pre-vaccine days! We went to restaurants on our trip but that goes in the travel/vacation budget. |
| Takeout | $161 | Chipotle. Sushi from Whole Foods.Thai food for dinner. Veggie subs. |
| Coffee | $41 | Coffee and pastries make me happy. |
| Beer and Wine | $138 | Plenty of drinks in the travel/vacation budget 🙂 |
| Vacation | ||
| Flights | $960 | Didn’t see a good deal using miles so paid cash. |
| Annual CC Fee | $550 | I put this into travel because it pays for itself with miles, lounge access, perks, etc |
| Eating out | $392 | Tacos, burgers, wine, etc. |
| Home | ||
| Permanent holiday lights | $1,530 | This is split into two payments so the total was just over $3k. So stinking excited for these. |
| Painting | $3,388 | Ugh boring and not fun. But my paint is no longer peeling so that’s a win. |
| Bat eviction | $648 | One tiny payment on the eviction of the bats from our attic.Balance paid later, will be about $5k I think. |
| Water & Power | $581 | There was some reason the water was super high this month. This is a one off. Usually these two together are maybe half of this. |
| House cleaning | $660 | $220 per visit. |
| Streaming/Internet | ||
| Hulu | $14 | Without ads. Because I’m fancy. |
| NY Times | $8 | Support good journalism. |
| Apple storage | $3 | Cloud storage. |
| Internet | $50 | Happy to have fast service so zoom works most of the time. |
| Netflix | $10 | Re-activated Netflix to watch Never Have I Ever |
| Audible | $16 | Mmmm need to use my credits. Taking audiobook suggestions! |
| Transportation | ||
| Gas | $0 | I usually fill up once every 5ish weeks lately, so sometimes I get to skip a month! |
| Insurance | $108 | My car insurance company doesn’t offer a discount to pay all at once so I pay monthly. |
| Tolls | $32 | Whatever. |
| Parking | $2 | I hate parking meters. |
| Ride shares | $0 | Woo hoo, one category that was low! |
| Charity/Gifts | ||
| Charity | $4,093 | Definitely out of the ordinary for me but bought a table for a charity fundraiser, made a cash donation to a cause I love, and bought some groceries for the local Little Free Pantry. |
| Personal | ||
| Haircut | $0 | Not this month! |
| Medical | $640 | I finally paid a bunch of small ~$100 medicall bills. I hate paper medical bills in the mail! Wish I could just leave my credit card on file when I go in. |
| Gym | $48 | Peloton monthly membership. Love it. |
| Clothes | $536 | High! Some new special occassion clothes, pair of sneakers, and some casual jewelry. |
| Home furnishings | $261 | Some new towels and pillow covers for the guest room. And I threw umbrellas in this category because I didn’t know where else to put them? But I bought two umbrellas because who knows where mine have went. |
| Home supplies | $24 | Toothpaste, etc. |
| Joy | ||
| Pets | $74 | Pet medication. Stocked up on food so I’m good for a bit! |
| Live performances | $0 | Boo. Need to do better at spending here. |
| TOTAL | $15,338 | Not including the mortage. Ooooof. Most expensive month of the year by a lot. |
How did September treat you? One of us had a small project bonus paid out so we managed to squeak out a 16% savings rate.
Most of my regular spending categories were on the low side but house projects plus buying that table for a fundrasier means it was the most expensive month of the year.
October is also looking pricey. One, because I kind of stopped caring and have been wanting to go out to eat or order in for every meal, ha! And two gotta pay for the bats to be evicted, probably booking a trip, and I need to finish out with our estate planning attorney.
Favorite purchase lately? I have to say, my permanent holiday lights are SO FUN. 5 stars, would recommend.
Liz Gets Loaded 
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