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!

  1. We have totally fallen off the wagon in tracking our spending in the last two months, but before that we were doing a lot better at it. I’m hoping that it continues and we’re going to get back on track with our tracking. I keep telling my husband we should give YNAB a try.

  2. That’s great you didn’t have any unexpected spending the past few months. I’ve had to spend more for a wedding that I’m in, and then right now I’m focusing on my trip to NY and Christmas gifts. It will be nice when some of those things are over with (just in terms of money spending – I’m excited for all of them), then I can hopefully go back to saving more!

    -Lauren

  3. I love finance posts like these! They are so interesting to me as the way we spend money differs from person to person and reflects what we value! Our biggest change for Q3 spending was the cost of daycare. It’s a big chunk of our spending but we love Paul’s daycare. They seem to genuinely love Paul and he is so happy there. He definitely does not seem to miss us at all when he’s there! One expense that is basically non-existent for us is travel. Paul is not a good sleeper so it’s just not worth going anywhere when he sleeps so poorly. Plus he sleeps especially bad when we are in a new place. I have some friends who continue to travel even though they have a baby but it’s just not worth it for us. We’ll travel again some day, but probably not until Paul is 18 months.

  4. Oh you always remind me with those posts that I should track for a while to see where all the money goes. I am just so lazy to type in all the receipts… And hubby wouldn’t comply so it’s not really the full picture. But still it would help a lot. Anyway, I was wondering under which category you file your spendings for crafts, knitting and such.
    happy day to you, Tobia

  5. I love these types of posts! I haven’t tracked my spending at all since going from two incomes to one. Mine was two thirds of the combined income which put me in a much better position. I’m now renting a smaller home, paid of my car ($600 in monthly savings) and am paying $400 less per month for Eva’s daycare. These are significant savings and I haven’t had a need for budgeting. However, I do feel like I could do better so I can increase my retirement contributions and savings overall.

  6. I just started using YNAB and I’m a little bit obsessed with it. I’ve used Mint for years and years and finally got serious about my spending, but YNAB is new and shiny (for me) and I’m really enjoying the different way it approaches spending and saving money.

Comments are closed.