13: Real Life | Spending Summary 2018 – Q3

I am a little late with this, but I still wanted to share our quarterly spending update for the months of July through September (Q3). You can see our spending for Q1 and Q2 in earlier posts.

I pulled this pie-chart out of YNAB* again, the budgeting software I’ve been using for over 3 years now and which I have reviewed here.

As a reminder: these are percentages based on money spent, not based on my (take-home) income. Savings are not included.

Here is how it all broke down:

Home (30% – was 30% in Q1, 31% in Q2) – home expenses include mortgage/taxes, utilities, and maintenance cost and stayed around the same this quarter. We had a couple of minor repairs.

Groceries (19% – was 13% in Q1, 19% in Q2) and Dining Out (9% – was 8% in Q1, 8% in Q2) – Our grocery spending went up just a little bit for the last three month if I look at the dollar amount, but it appears to be a larger percentage of our overall budget because of how other spending worked out. Our actual spending for dining out was lower, but the percentage stayed the same this quarter. I know that is a little bit confusing (at least to me) if you don’t look at the actual dollars spent.

Health & Fitness (12% – was 4% in Q1, 11% in Q2) – we had a few health-related expenses, but this category also includes my gym membership and my running-related expenses (two race registrations this quarter).

Car Maintenance (10% – was 29% in Q1, 0% in Q2) – car-related expenses were back this quarter, but it’s mainly because the bi-annual insurance payment and AAA membership were due.

Cable & Internet (5% – was 4% in Q1,  6% in Q2) – that expense pretty much stayed the same, just appears larger because of the way overall spending worked out.

Cellphone (3% – was 2% Q1,  2% in Q2) – spending stayed the same.

Shopping & Misc. (2% – was 1% in Q1,  3% in Q2) – All the spending that doesn’t really fit into other categories.

Travel (2% – was 0% in Q1, 13% in Q2) – I only spent one night away when I went to San Francisco for my half marathon this summer.

Transportation (2% – was 2% in Q1,  2% in Q2) – spending stayed the same, mainly gas and parking fees.

Personal Care (1% – was 2% in Q1,  1% in Q2) – This category includes all toiletry items, makeup, and haircuts.

Household (1% – was 1% in Q1,  2% in Q2) – spending doubled due to replacing some household items we ran out off. (This is a category that varies throughout the year for sure.)

Subscriptions (1% – n/a in Q1 and Q2). I pulled this out as a separate category and it includes our Netflix and Identity Guard memberships. I probably could have left this under general spending.

Clothing (1% – was <1% in Q1,  1% in Q2) –  yeah, still not spending much on clothing, but I did buy some new sandals.

Gifts (1% – was 2% in Q1,  2% in Q2) – birthdays, notecards, just because.

Donations (<1% – was 0% in Q1,  <1% in Q2) – I want to give more. End of story.

Overall, I am pretty happy with how this quarter went. Our spending is (mostly) in line with our priorities and we didn’t have any big unexpected expenses in the last three months. 

How did you feel about your spending in Q2? Did you meet your goals or did you have to deal with any unexpected expenses?

* This is not a sponsored post. I have not been compensated by YNAB for mentioning their product. I just share it for transparency’s sake. However, the post does contain an affiliate link. If you feel like you need a budget software in your life, download the fully functioning trial version and give it a shot! If you like it, you can use this link to activate the software and we’ll both get a month free!