The good, the bad, and the WTF
Oof. Here are all the raw numbers but I have some emooootions about our spending in the first half of the year. Listen to the podcast episode 5.3 to get the full download on what was up with this wild 6 months and how it threw me for a loop.
This is the total for two people. It doesn’t include our mortgage because one, I don’t like to share it. And two, I think it’s easier to compare apples to apples without it.
| Category | YTD | Average per month | Notes |
| YTD Total | $76,957 | $12,826 | This feels bananas to me. This is more than I made in a year until I was…32? (Elder millennial here!) |
| YTD minus the car | $52,845 | $8,807 | Slightly less bananas but still wild. (We bought a new car and have paid almost $24k towards it so far. I think it’s helpful to look at both totals.) |
| Charity 2023 | $5,680 | $947 | I’m passionate about giving but this is also one of my largest expense categories. To be completely honest, I still struggle with giving so much away sometimes when I’m trying to grow our net worth. |
| Gifts | $1,595 | $266 | Babies, weddings, birthdays. They all add up. |
| Hosting | $906 | $151 | This is a newer category for me. Loosely tracked but intended to capture the cost of throwing dinner parties or hosting out of town guests. |
| Takeout | $840 | $140 | This seems on the high side, but cutting here doesn’t feel like it makes a difference. |
| Booze/bars | $410 | $68 | I mean, it’s called Liz Gets Loaded not Liz Drinks Tea. (But as much as I like to make that joke, I really don’t drink that much. Usually one drink a night.) |
| Coffee Shops | $237 | $40 | I try to hit our local coffee shop a couple times a month because I value it being in the neighborhood. |
| Groceries | $4,090 | $682 | This feels reasonable for 2 people who don’t eat meat but do enjoy pricey things like fancy cheese and shelled pistachios. |
| Restaurants | $2,024 | $337 | Making up for two years of staying home. |
| Car payment | $24,112 | $4,019 | Our new car was almost 60k. I’m trying to pay it off ASAP. |
| Bikes | $263 | $44 | Tune ups and parts. It’s not usually much but a few things came up in the first half of the year. I’m resisting the urge to drop $1k on an ebike. |
| Driving | $1,835 | $306 | New car means higher insurance, boo. This includes parking, insurance, gas from before we bought an EV, and tolls. |
| Auto Maintenance | $4,719 | $787 | We spend $4k replacing the shocks and struts on our old car before deciding to buy a new one a month later. So that was smart! |
| Car service | $244 | $41 | Lyfts and ubers. Lately we’ve just been having one of us be a designated driver so this has dropped a lot. |
| Games/Books | $176 | $29 | Video games, special dice, and the occassional book. Most of what we read comes from the library. |
| Fees | $124 | $21 | A catch all category for random things! |
| Home Furnishings | $4,268 | $711 | This is a one off for the first half of the year. I worked with a designer to polish our house. New bedding, pillows, plants, etc. It really made a massive difference! This also includes about $800 for 4 new patios chairs and a new outdoor rug and umbrella for our deck. |
| Electronics | $1,784 | $297 | One new personal laptop, replacement AirPods. I forget what else here. |
| Clothes | $1,369 | $228 | Couple of pairs of jeans, work shirts, and several pairs of shoes. |
| Personal care | $777 | $130 | Haircuts, brow wax, manicures, etc. |
| Live Performances | $3,242 | $540 | Definitely a splurge category! Again, making up for lost time after spending two years at home. We both love live performances but could probably focus on less expensive experiences. |
| Dog walker | $333 | $56 | When we both go into the office, we schedule a mid day check in. |
| Pet Supplies | $249 | $42 | Food bowls, grip mats for the floor, that sort of thing. |
| Vet | $1,527 | $255 | One pet now has about $150 per month in medication, so that plus a couple of vet bills. |
| Pet Food | $455 | $76 | Dry food for one pet, fancy refrigerated food for the other. |
| Grooming | $0 | $0 | None in first half of the year, but already went once in July. They just do such a better job with the bath and de-shedding than I can do at home. |
| Medical | $5,328 | $888 | We’re both fine but we both have some things going on. A lot of this is not covered by insurance or with an out of network provider. So that’s super fun! |
| Therapy | $0 | $0 | Sorry to brag but free therapy at work is one of the best perks I’ve ever had. |
| Gym | $341 | $57 | Peloton plus odds and ends for the home gym like a gooseneck mount to use my iPad on my treadmill. |
| Utilities | $2,246 | $374 | Did your parents call it the light bill? For some reason I find that charming. This is everything including internet. |
| Streaming | $249 | $41 | Currently have audible, spotify, and I rotate between HBO, Netflex, and Hulu. |
| Mortgage | $0 | $0 | I WISH it was zero. We have a hefty mortgage but I don’t share the number. This is the right house for two people who mostly work from home. In a few years I expect we will downsize. |
| Home Maintenance | $1,116 | $186 | KNOCK ON WOOD. The last two years we spent 15k+ per year on this lovely old house. Fingers crossed this year stays chill. |
| House Supplies | $550 | $92 | Toilet paper, etc. |
| House Cleaning | $3,080 | $513 | We pay $220 and they come every 2 weeks. |
| Lawn/yard | $709 | $118 | Just started using a lawn service this year. They mow and take care of the weeds, etc. |
| Vacation | $7,699 | $1,283 | This is a place where I’m generally happy to spend money but I’m annoyed that a trip to the Bay Area ended up being $3k because we literally had a free place to stay! But we hit a very fancy restaurant for dinner ($700) and took Lyft alllll over the bay area ($1k over a week) and just didn’t really plan well. For $3k I could have done something that was more fun. |
| Professional Services | $155 | $26 | I honestly don’t even remember what this is for and I’m too lazy to go look. |
| Christmas | $0 | $0 | No Christmas spending yet! But setting aside a little cash each month in YNAB so it’s ready. |
| Cell phone | $417 | $70 | Paid $417 to pre-pay our cell phone bill for the year, so it works out to $30 per month. Mint Mobile is fantastic! |
| Everything else | $0 | $0 | I used to make liberal use of an “everything else” category, but last year I decided there shall be a category for everything! It feels good not to have a couple hundred dollars a month just in a miscellaneous category. I feel like I know where everything is going! |
Tell me what of this seems unreasonable? Because the total feels wild, but all of the individual categories seem fine to me and I’m afraid I have lifestyle inflation goggles on. Tell me what you’d cut!
Liz Gets Loaded 
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