August 2021 Monthly Spend
Instead of guessing how much I really spend and what a realistic budget looks like, I decided to track my monthly spending this year in a Google Sheet.
August 2021 Spend: $3,406 vs $2,900
Rent: 31% vs 36%
Groceries: 13% vs 9%
Shopping: 1% vs 3%
Dining Out: 19% vs 17%
Health: 1% vs 2%
Transportation: 1% vs 1%
Work: 0% vs 1%
Gifts: 12% vs 2%
Membership: 0% vs 2%
Travel: 22% vs 7%
Misc: 0% vs 2%
Subscription: 0% vs 2%
Moving: 12% vs 17%
Overall I’m a bit disappointed that I spent more than my budget, but I’m ok with what I spent my money on. I spent more on travel than expected since I decided in August to plan for a trip with a friend later this year. Recently, I came to terms that I’m ok spending money on trips to see people are really important in my life, especially since I wasn’t able to see people last year. I broke my rule of not buying clothes this year since I wanted to replace my worn out white t-shirt for a new one and also got a black t-shirt. Given how much I’ve simplified my wardrobe, I am content with only buying these two items of clothing since they go with everything and I’ve been gravitating towards simple t-shirts more with WFH. I also splurged more on dining out since it was the last time I would see my roommates for a while.
September 2021 Budget: $2,700
Rent: 39%
Groceries: 9%
Shopping: 4%
Dining Out: 26%
Health: 2%
Transportation: 1%
Work: 1%
Gifts: 2%
Membership: 2%
Travel: 11%
Misc: 2%
Subscription: 2%
I upped my dining out and travel budget for September since Ill be on vacation for a week. I removed the moving category since fingers crossed, I won’t have to move anytime soon.
