THE LIFE – working on my business while enjoying the CA sunshine

This month, I transitioned from living in the DC area with my parents to living in Durham with Kyle again. So we had a half-month of my DC expenses (public transport, gas to get between the cities) and a half-month of our normal Durham expenses. We had a nice fat income because we were both working full-time in March and fairly low-ish expenses. We still were not focused in April on keeping our discretionary spending super low, though we should start trying to do that again now that we’re living in the same city and only have one full-time income.

I also went to Los Angeles this month for a speaking trip (expenses paid, so they don’t appear here). It was a welcome change from the winter I had just left in DC.

We had some unusual extra purchases this month. We bought a flight to a wedding next month that was rather expensive. We shouldn’t have waited so long, but we were a bit disorganized from not being in the same state most of the month. Kyle also went a bit wild with the electronics spending toward the end of the month and bought some useful things that are definitely not ‘needs.’

Next month, we hope to switch Kyle’s retirement contribution from our Roth IRAs to a new Roth 403(b) at our university. We finished up our 2014 Roth IRA contributions in April so it’s time to reconsider our retirement saving plan. We may not need the 403(b) in terms of contribution room, but just to be on the safe side we’re going to start diverting the 15% of his income that we save to there. It’s very unclear what my income will be later in the year and whether I’ll have my own workplace-based retirement account, but in the case that I make a lot of self-employment income it’s easier to contribute to Kyle’s Roth 403(b) (and roll to his IRA when he leaves our university) than to open a self-employment retirement account.

Money Puddle

Our money puddle represents our gross income from March, less taxes, our tithe, and savings into our Roth IRAs. This is the source of all of our spending money for the month (before dipping into savings).

April 2015 Money Puddle: $3,326.71

Not quite as much as last month, but enough to celebrate!

Sources:

• Kyle’s postdoc paycheck
• Emily’s fellowship paycheck
• Emily’s contract work paycheck

Spending

Overall, our spending for this month was pretty reasonable for our current life situation. We are not trying super hard to be frugal and are giving ourselves extra leeway because of the difficulty in coordinating between two households.

Housing and Utilities

• rent $910: This is our rent for our Durham townhouse, which Kyle was living in alone. My parents did not charge me rent or utilities to live with them during my fellowship.
• electricity $76.95: Nice spring no-heating/cooling period.
• internet $34.99
• cell phones $61.52: I love our new low cell bills! I have Republic Wireless and Kyle has Cricket Wireless.
• water $24.09

Transportation

I’m so glad this category is decreasing now and will be back to normal soon!

• gas $132.33: Very high still, but that was because of two visits to see one another in early April plus my move back to Durham.
• Metro $95
• flight $800.40: We are going out of town for a wedding in May.

Food

• groceries $295.31: We were nicely under what we normally spend per month, I suppose for the opposite effect of what happened in January – recombining two households’ worth of food.
• eating out $105.67: A little high here, but returning to normal!

Shopping

• Amazon $40.66: Kyle made a few electronics-related purchases and also a barber cape for his home haircuts.
• Blu-Ray player $24.99: Our X-Box 360 died and apparently none of our other gaming consoles play movies properly (aspect ratio, surround sound), so Kyle bought a discounted Blu-Ray player.

Miscellaneous

• student loan payment $98.46
• late fee $25
• intramural sports registration $5
• postage for tax return $1.19
• cash $15
• appointment co-pay $25
• dry cleaning $21.77

Reimbursed from Charitable Giving

• missionary support $50: This went to our second missionary.

Assessment

Money Puddle: $3,326.71

Total Spending: $2,793.33

Difference: $533.38

We have three ways of assessing how successful we were in terms of living within our means this month.

1: Did we spend within our money puddle+$176?

Simple question – did we have money left in our checking account at the end of the month or did we need to transfer money in? (This is after accounting for the smoothed retirement contributions from my last two paychecks, which come out of savings.)

Yes! Third month in a row that we have lived within our means!

2: Was our deficit, if any, less than the amount we saved to our Roth IRAs?

We didn’t have a deficit!

3: Did our net worth increase?

I’m not officially calculating this, but I think so.

How is your spring going financially? Do you have any summer spending plans yet? What are your financial goals for next month?