Lanny’s August Income & Expense Summary

August is officially in the books after a quick review of the income & expense breakdown for the month.  It was probably the best overall month that I’ve had in a while, as I was home predominantly again for the period outside of just one week that was 2.50 hours away from home, plus a lot of fun activities happening during this time period.  Wonder if I still am achieving the 60% savings challenge?  Only one way to find out, let;s check out my income & expense summary for August!

Income & Expense Summary for August:

Below is the snapshot of what August looks like compared to the prior month.  I figured this way gives you much more of what had fluctuated from the last month I reported on to the current month being reported on, with explanations of what happened.
Income and Expense AugustIncome Side Summary: Salary swung way up… why did this happen?  Fairly simple – I received the annual bonus at the end of July therefore, my salary as a % of my overall income was much higher due to bonus $’s being way lower.  My bonus amount was from staying overnights in hotels as my firm accomodates the amount of overnights you take by providing a bonus per night over 10+ nights you are overnight during the quarter.  My August dividend income wasn’t too bad, and was overall a stellar month there.  

Expense Side Summary:  Here is where it can get a bit interesting.  My last expense post I had a whole slew of weddings for a few months… this one only had one wedding in Michigan, therefore my gift expense was down.  However, you can see my household, transportation and food expense are up quite a bit.  Why?  With my spending this past month – the food budget is up quite a bit due to a few incredible dates that I have gone on and little things I’ve been making at dinner that go beyond my normal grocery bill – love cooking for a special someone, it doesn’t get better than that.  It entailed making a few breakfasts, lunches and dinners that I wouldn’t have traded for the world.  All amazing.

The transportation is way up due to the gas I have been spending – I have been traveling a TON for our clients in August, as I have a client that is approximately 1.25-1.50 hours away from my house.  Made quite a few trips there, causing the gas to uptick, as well as other miscellaneous trips and going to Michigan and back, phew.  Again, hands down wouldn’t trade back any of the time in the car – outside of going to my client that far away… there just has to be a better way!

With these few other categories going up – my utilities were also higher – I received my bill for sewage and water this past month and rather than amortizing it over the year (ex: $15/month), I just expense it as I make the payment.  Therefore, that pushed household higher, as well as electricity and internet increasing slightly.  I may have to give AT&T a call and see what I can do about my internet price increasing; thank goodness I don’t have cable though!

Conclusion

Well… looks like we knew where this was heading, no big bonus, higher household, transportation and food costs = not a formula for a 60% savings from the income & expense standpoint.  However, I still was able to invest consistently throughout the month, such as buying more Norfolk Southern (NSC) and Emerson Electric (EMR) and never did I feel like I wasn’t saving enough.  Obviously the goal is to hit 60% savings overall, but I still managed to climb over 50% and hey – I’ll take that any day.  Mad at the fact that I could have tweaked a few things here and there – such as a dinner out could have been a dinner in and a few differences places we tried we could have made some trades at the table.  Further, I didn’t have to put all of the miles in my car for work, but most days I drove by myself and the city I worked in had bottom gas prices, so it was hard to not drive the last day when I was close to empty in the tank.  52.4% savings rate for the month of August and we’ll see if I can make moves in September.  Thanks everyone, appreciate the stop by, the comments, suggestions and any further guidance!  Talk soon.

-Lanny

6 thoughts on “Lanny’s August Income & Expense Summary

  1. Hey man, a 50% + savings rate is not to be sniffed at! We typically managed 28-31%, so you are doing just awesome!

    Keep up the good work of investing into those wonderful dividend growers and you’ll do just fine.

    Cheers

  2. Over 50% in savings rate is still pretty impressive nonetheless, despite all the increasing expenses you encountered this past month. Keep up the good work Lanny.

  3. 50% is no joke! After graduation, I fight the lifestyle inflation so hard, but I couldn’t resist – bigger house from an apartment, a few year later after my car died -> bigger car, instead of staying in hostels, I started to stay in hotel s when traveling. As much as I fight it, lifestyle inflation will catch up to anyone, unless you live in a cave. 🙂 So, 50% is pretty moderate 🙂

  4. I am not a great budgeter, Have you ever tried to figure out your annual salary and just save 60% of it first and force yourself to make adjustments and live off the rest? Essentially leaving behind the budget, and just introducing a self imposed shortage you wont need to be “Mad at the fact that I could have tweaked a few things here and there – such as a dinner out could have been a dinner in and a few differences places we tried we could have made some trades at the table.” because you will look at your bank account and already know what you have left to live off of. Just a thought 🙂 I call it the lazy budget.

    Great work on 50%
    Andrew
    SHM

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