January 2022 Expense Report

The above represents my actual expenses for January. You'll notice that the grey area is health and fitness and it's pretty big. That's because I had some dental work done that cost over $1200. I paid for this out of my health savings account, so it's money I put into into the account, along with some matching employer funds.  But I'm going to give you data as if that expense didn't happen because that money didn't come out of my earnings for the month. I did something similar last year in May when Hannah had an MRI done and we took that money out of savings. (BUT I KNOW IT HAPPENED.)

So the revised graph looks like:

Savings ($750, 31%): Because I didn't have to spend much on Hannah the Dog this month (KNOCKS WOOD), I was able to finally put money into savings. This felt good. Woot woot!

Groceries ($728.84, 30%): This included four trips to the grocery store and a trip to our local honey farm where I spent more than $100 on honey to get us through until the Farmers' Market opens back up on a regular basis. (My husband drinks A LOT of tea and puts A LOT of honey in it.)

Pets ($282.94, 11.7%): I consider this a "light" month. For heaven's sake. I got Zelda the Cat's food, some toothpaste, a Seresto collar for Hannah (I don't need this for a couple of months, but I needed the toothpaste right now, so I added it to the order to get the Chewy discounts), Hannah's allergy medication, and I renewed Zelda's microchip.  

Bills ($214, 8.9%): Home and car insurance and water bill. Our water bill went up dramatically because the rates increased and there's some sort of new main sewer line replacement charge. I nearly keeled over at the more than 30% increase. I'm pretty sure this is something I voted yes for, so ignore my complaining. 

House ($100.23, 4.1%): I started intentionally separating out household supplies from our grocery trips to get a better handle on household goods and supplies versus food costs. This includes things like paper products, cleaning supplies, and the new recycling bin. 

Communication ($92.73, 3.8%): If we really had to start economizing, I'd start with this area. I went to our local Hallmark store and bought greeting cards for everyone with January birthdays in our family and I bought a slew of Valentine's Day cards and stickers to send out to our nieces and nephews and other people I frequently send mail to.  This is absolutely unnecessary, but I love doing it and so it stays.  I also paid for my Zoom membership.

Gifts ($75, 3%): My oldest niece and two of our nephews had birthdays this month, so they each got a card and $25.

Charity ($51.06, 2.1%): Stephany wrote that one of her goals last year was to donate $25 a month to a charity and I think that's a great goal. I am going to try to do that this year, too. I'm going to try to focus on local charities. I bought a bunch of things off of the Amazon page of the rescue that helped us adopt Hannah the Dog.

Books ($41.12, 1.7%): I had to buy our book club book for the month because it just wasn't coming in to the library fast enough. I also bought a few Kindle books.  Buying books is not a great habit. I read so much that I rely on library systems with relish.  This was not a promising start to 2022, but I'll try to encourage our book club to read later releases if I can.

I did get a $200 gift card to Powell's for helping out with some friends' dogs while they were on vacation. I went over there twice a day and walked one of them and hung out with them for about two and a half weeks. I don't know if this service called for quite this much of a payment, but I will be trying to buy any other books using this gift card (obviously it came after I had already bought these books).

Health and fitness ($31, 1.3%): Once I took out that pesky dental procedure, this boiled down to my running app and the $20 fitness pass I pay for Zoom classes through our local healthcare system. The great news is that I'M NO LONGER PAYING FOR THE YOGA PASS I WON'T USE!! I'm so excited about this and still a tiny bit bitter about that $300. I was debating the usefulness of the running app now that it's too cold/icy for me to run outside, but I've taken to using it to track the length of dog walks, so now it's being used regularly and I want to keep it. 

Cars ($26.45, 1.1%): I filled up a car with gas once. My husband is the one who does most of the driving these days, so he's the one filling up. Ha ha ha on him!  One of the keys to our VW needs a replacement battery and neither of us are sure how that's going to work or how much it will be, so that's something that's probably going to happen in the next month.

Eating out ($24.50, 1%): I ate lunch out once and got coffee a few times.  I know that $25 a month is $300 a year, but it's not that bad, is it? I feel like I deserve a treat now and then. *sigh* I guess this really should be $0, but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to convince myself to make it so. 

And that's that.

February is a shorter month, so I'm expecting groceries to go down slightly. I realized that some of my bras are looking a little ratty and the elastic is starting to crinkle, so I'm pretty sure I'll spend money on clothing next month, too, which is a little unusual.  I think I can get the books down to $0 and if Hannah the Dog can maintain her health status quo, the expenses should stay steady.  Fingers crossed!