Evolving Personal Finance » Entries tagged with "budget"
October 2015 Budget Report
October was our third full month living in Seattle, so our expenses are becoming more regular/predictable, which is great. I traveled three times in October for my business, all three times to California. The weather in Seattle quickly transitioned in October from summer-ish to winter-ish (at least, that’s how it feels to us!), so my jaunts to warm, sunny California reminded me of the importance of our goal to move there sooner rather than later. Other than … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
April 2015 Money Puddle and Spending Report
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 … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
September 2014 Month in Review: Money
Please sign up for EPF’s new newsletter at the top of the right sidebar. I’ll email you about once per month about behind-the-scenes stuff. The purpose is to better connect with you! 🙂 This is going to be my last spending report in this format because we have revamped our money management system starting in October. So look out for some changes in my next spending update! Even though our budget for this month was funded with … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
Financial Tweaks for Our New Year
Kyle and I have been so busy with work in the past few months that we have really left our money management on autopilot. I haven’t even played with spending scenarios recently, as I love to do! But even without me looking for issues to tweak, three areas of our budget have popped up with some needed updates. Take-Home Pay Increase We noticed that the take-home pay we received at the end of in January was slightly … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, food, savings, spending, targeted savings, taxes
How Do You Decide If You Can Afford a Purchase?
Lately I have been thinking about how to determine whether to make a purchase of a “want” and I’d love some feedback from you all about how you make that decision. One of the purposes of a budget, in my mind, is to help you make that decision. A budget gives you guidelines for what you want your spending to be, and then all you have to do when contemplating a purchase is ask yourself … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, spending, targeted savings
June 2013 Month in Review: Money
We did an excellent job sticking to our budget this month! We came in under budget in every single category! Plus we had a big-spending month from our targeted savings, so months like these really validate why we have those accounts in place. We paid for much of our July 4 trip to Madison, WI as well as a quick drive up to northern Virginia. The Everyday Budget Top-line items INCOME: Our paychecks from our university plus $172.40 from … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
November 2012 Month in Review: Money
We did a terrible job staying under budget this month – check the bottom to see if it was a pass or fail (it was close!). Our lack of control in the grocery store was to blame again. Our targeted savings accounts saved our behinds, too, as our car failed its yearly safety inspection and we had to make some unexpected repairs, but our Cars account was up to the task. Kyle is, I swear, … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
Future Directions for EPF
The primary niche within the personal finance blogosphere in which I see EPF living is one for graduate students. I only have about two years left as a PhD student and while I hope that the blog will outlive my pursuit of the degree, its niche can evolve (hence the name) at that time. During these last two years I’d like to target a higher percentage of our content toward how personal finance topics and … Read entire article »
Filed under: blogging, grad school
Average Clothes Spending and Pattern
Two weeks ago Marketplace did a short segment on clothes-buying habits and amounts from Elizabeth Cline’s book, Overdressed. I was surprised by what they reported so I’ll share their numbers and observations here along with how they compare to our buying patterns, as determined from Mint. Average Spending Level Americans spend an average of $1,100 per person on clothes each year. We spent way, way less than that on clothes and shoes in the last year – … Read entire article »
What’s the Point of Calculating Net Worth?
I enjoy reading other PF bloggers’ monthly reports on their net worth progress, whether they use real numbers or percentage increases. I haven’t so far written a net worth post or series for us and as of now I don’t plan to. I just don’t see how it would be interesting or informative in our situation. So I’ll bore you with one post instead of with a series. Here are the components that contribute to our … Read entire article »
Filed under: net worth, savings, stock market
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