The money part:
A reminder to myself of why I’m doing a month in review post:
- Stay accountable. It is soOOOooOOOoo easy for me to be semi ok with my spending knowing there’s at least a couple thousand in my checking account, but I know I’m currently bleeding money and can’t reach my 100K goal unless I know where my money’s going
- Track trends. I find trends the easiest to track, and the easiest to tackle. I can’t really control an unexpected $2,000 tax bill (true story) but I can re-evaluate trends. Am I eating out more? Spending more on clothes? Why?
- See the progress. It’s easy to forget where you come from (jk, it was $0.00 and I remember it like yesterday!!) but seriously, it’s nice to be able to look back on progress, and progress is more important than an arbitrary goal anyway.
| November 2019 | October 2019 | |
| Cash | $9,576.87 | $8,226.13 |
| Investments | $12,705.66 | $11,539.77 |
| Net Worth Total | $22,229.01 | $19,507.01 |
Caveat: I don’t include my 0% interest car loan in my net worth, because it’s now worth as much as I owe. I also have other assets and a joint account with my husband (but that’s our money and not my money).
A breakdown of my most of my expenses
| Car | $413.25 | My car payment (I drive a brand new car I bought at 0% interest) |
| Restaurants | $249.23 | Apparently net worth tracking works because this is STILL coming down from last month ($279.86). What’s even better is that $125 of this was coffee shop spend and this includes an $88 supes fancy anniversary dinner! Frozen breakfast sandwiches and snack stash at my desk has helped a ton. |
| Healthcare | $303.68 | Up from last month, but I did make the final $270-something payment on an outstanding medical bill. Which means this money gets tossed into savings next month!! |
| Personal Care | $120 | My orangetheory membership. |
| Clothing | $189.34 | What’s totally crazy is that this is the exact amount (give or take a few cents) I spent last month. Huh. This is mostly my annual Sephora haul during their 15% off sale, plus lots of hijabs from aliexpress. |
| Charitable Giving | $213.72 | Includes a larger than usual donation to an organization I feel strongly about supporting. |
| Entertainment | $55.43 | Paint for the guest bathroom, and shipping costs for things I sold on eBay. |
| Groceries | $15.92 | Girl’s gotta eat. |
Wait – where’s the rent?!?!
My half of rent, utilities, and grocery bill is $1,000 but because I helped Mr. H out a couple months ago, I’m not paying rent until December. Whoo hoo!
How I feel
I feel incredibly accomplished and blessed, alhamdulillah. What a privilege to be able to save money so easily and so naturally. Crossing $20K in savings feels like some kind of critical mass – this is the most money I’ve ever saved at once, and this is enough for a years worth of expenses for me if I decided to quit my job tomorrow. That is so unbelievably liberating. Mr. H decided to quit his job before lining another one up and I feel totally, 100% relaxed about his decision, especially since we have a giant non-monetary fund: a supportive family and in laws who don’t mind if rent is paid 1 or 2 or 6 months from now when he’s back on his feet.
As the net worth number climbs, smaller decisions about where to spend money become so much easier and my goals have never been clearer. I also now see the big things I’d like to spend money on in the near future: nicer furniture, vacations, larger charitable contributions.
The life part:
I also want to document some general life wins, because it’s easy to forget all the good things that happened:
- We spent a ton of time with family! We had some (in laws) family in town so there was a lot of lounging around, dinners, and family reunions. I also spent time with my own family which is always a treat.
- We celebrated our anniversary! It was a lovely dinner out at one of our favorite new restaurants.
- We spent lots of time outside with a trip to deep creek over a weekend and Great Falls for a quick day trip.
- I painted the guest bathroom! It looks a million times better.
- I made some EXCELLENT homemade pizza. I’ve been making pizza dough for years now, but this time around I followed serious eats’ recipes for both NY style and Detroit style and it was 100% worth the effort – definitely some of the best pizza I’ve made.
- I didn’t buy anything on Black Friday. The first time in a….decade?
And that’s it! Until next time!