daily life

Daily Life | 2020 (a pandemic) Spending Report

February 24, 2021 filed under: budgeting, daily life, finances

When I was looking for our 2019 spending report, I realized with surprise that I never posted it last year. I had done quarterly reports throughout the year of 2019 and then never shared the annual report. I also completely dropped the quarterly reports through 2020 (might have been a bit distracted by other things, oops! What could that have been?!). However, I’ve been doing the analyses behind the scenes and I thought it would be interesting to compare our 2020 (pandemic) spending to the previous spending report because I suspected that our spending shifted.

I also debated if I wanted to add our healthcare expenses to the chart. I never see that money because it’s deducted from my paycheck, but I feel like I should include it because healthcare premiums can differ widely and are technically part of my budget. (I have one of the cheaper plans my employer offers and I am pretty happy with our coverage (so far), but it’s still a big chunk of money every month). However, since we can’t really opt out of it and it’s money I never actually see in my account, I decided to not add it to the expense report.

The analyses of these datasets made one thing crystal-clear again: a budget is a very fluid thing and needs constant tweaking and adjusting. Not one annual budget will look like the other and spending can vary significantly from month to month. Therefore, it’s really imperative to know your spending, your fixed expenses, and your discretionary purchases, and to budget the money that you have according to short- and long-term priorities. I pulled these data out of YNAB* — You Need A Budget, the software I’ve been using for 6+ years (the pie-chart was done in Excel). It’s been helping me to really stay on top of our finances. I’ve previously reviewed YNAB here.

As a reminder: These are percentages based on money spent, not based on my (take-home) income. Not included are savings, retirement contributions, healthcare premiums, taxes, and everything else that is pre-deducted from my paycheck.

Home (45% was 39% in 2019) — The spending for our (rental) home includes rent, utilities, household items, and rental insurance. Spending in this category was actually down by $750 in 2020, which is a little confusing if you see that 45% of expenses went towards our home compared to 39% in 2019. It simply means that overall, we spent quite a bit less in 2020, and home expenses made up a larger chunk of our overall spending than the previous year. Overall spending: ⬇︎

Groceries (22% was 15% in 2019) and Dining Out (5% was 9% in 2019) — This shift in spending shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, as we were all forced to stay at home and cook our own meals (most of the time). We “saved” about $400 overall, but spending shifted significantly from takeout to grocery spending. And yeah, food is still a huge chunk of our budget. I know. Overall spending: ⬇︎

Cable/Internet (4% was 4% in 2019) — This category stayed pretty much the same in 2020 and interestingly stayed the same percentage of our spending as well. Overall spending: ➡︎

Travel (3% was 8% in 2019) — This one “hurts” a little bit, because most of this spending was for travel, we didn’t even take (I had some flights booked that I have available as “vouchers” now, but the money was spent, and besides a weekend trip to Tahoe in January, no traveling actually happened in 2020. Overall spending: ⬇︎

Shopping and Miscellaneous (3% was 4% in 2019) — We spent about $400 less on discretionary spending in 2020, which was not very high to begin with. I guess we’re just not frivolous shoppers. Overall spending: ⬇︎

Gifts (3% was 3% in 2019) — We spent about $500 less on gifts in 2020. This includes birthday, Christmas, and ‘just because’-gifts throughout the year. Overall spending: ⬇︎

Car Maintenance (3% was 6% in 2019) – This is a bit of a shifty category. We usually pay our annual car insurance at the end of the year for the following year, but we switched insurances and they only billed us for a 6-month policy (so we’ll have to pay the other half in the middle of this year, which totally messes with my budget LOL). Regardless, I think it’s needless to say that we drove our car very little in 2020 and except for a battery replacement, and the usual maintenance expenses (registration, AAA), we didn’t spend much and spent about $2000 less than in 2020. Overall spending: ⬇︎

Fitness (2% was 1% in 2019) — This category includes my gym membership (which was frozen for most of 2020 and then canceled) and other exercise/running-related expenses. We spent about $540 more than the previous year, even though I dropped the gym membership and didn’t attend any in-person races. We did however invest in some home exercise equipment. Overall spending: ⬆︎

Healthcare (4% was 2% in 2019) — Our medical spending, out-of-pocket and co-payments, was down $1200 in 2020 and I am attributing that to staying home as much as possible, wearing masks, washing our hands, and not having any unforeseen doctor visits (thankfully!!). Let’s keep it that way. Overall spending: ⬇︎

Cellphone (2% was 2% in 2019) – Expenses were about the same. Overall spending: ➡︎

Subscriptions (2% was 1% in 2019) – This includes YNAB, Netflix, Prime, and Identity Guard Fraud protection. Oh, and my bi-annual blog hosting service was due, so we spent about $170 more overall in 2020. Overall spending: ⬆︎

Personal Care (1% was 2% in 2019) – This category includes all toiletry items, makeup, J’s beard trims, and haircuts. We spent about $460 less. I mean, nowhere to go, barbershops closed, it makes sense. Overall spending: ⬇︎

Transportation (1% was 2% in 2019) – Well, we already spent very little gas money in 2019, because I was using the bus and bike more to get to work, but we moved our car even less in 2020. Our gas spending was down $460. Overall spending: ⬇︎

Donations (1% was <1% in 2019) – We upped our donations in 2020 but it’s still just about 1% of our spending. We’ll be expanding this further this year. Overall spending: ⬆︎

Clothing (<1% was 2% in 2019) – we’re not big spenders when it comes to clothing anyway, but 2020 was definitely a new low. With no place to go, I spent most of 2020 in workout gear and I think the only things I purchased were activewear. Overall spending: ⬇︎

So, overall our spending was significantly down last year, and funnily enough, almost three-quarters of the pie represent our reality of last year: staying at home + food. Ha. I am more than okay with the categories where spending went up (donations, fitness, and subscriptions), but what you don’t see in this chart is that we got (more) serious about retirement/investment planning. I had been paying into a 401K at work, of course, (make sure you get at least get your company’s match! Don’t miss out on free money!), but we also made sure to set up IRAs and other investments to plan for the future. It’s been something we had talked about for a while but never put into action. Last year seemed like a good time to take care of it.

Did you see the same trends in your spending in 2020?

* 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!

Six months of working from home

September 17, 2020 filed under: Corona Life, daily life

It’s been six months to the day since we were told to go into full-time telework status. We were given two days to figure out the logistics, grab all our necessary stuff from the office, and make sure that we had a functioning workspace set up at home. Not a small feat for everybody, as I for one didn’t have a spare bedroom to convert into an office.

I was still excited about it. I always liked the idea of working from home, but only had a handful of opportunities to do so, e.g. when we had a short stint of mandatory telework two years ago when the wildfires in California were out of control and the air quality was so bad that we were asked to not leave the house for a week (sounds like it would have been a repeat this year if we hadn’t been already teleworking).

While my employer has a very generous flexible work policy (you might know that I’ve been working a 4-10 work schedule for most of my career) and I knew that teleworking was generally an option for every employee, I never felt like the option was available to me. Asking to work from home felt like asking for something that I wasn’t entitled to, for whatever stupid reason.

Well, the stupid reason being that I was a contractor for 9 years and was repeatedly told that certain things just didn’t apply to me. Feeling like a second class employee is something I struggled with for a long time in my career (and sometimes still struggle with); even after 14 years working at the same office, I sometimes still don’t feel equal with my co-workers. But that’s a story for another time.

So, here we were in March, all of a sudden being forced to work from home while all other aspects of our normal lives mostly came to a screeching halt simultaneously.

I was relieved and excited at the same time. Relieved because I felt that our management took the Covid-19 situation seriously and took proper precautions, and excited because part of me was looking forward to working from home. I realize that we were also exceptionally fortunate to be able to move into telework status almost seamlessly. Of course, there were some issues that needed to be worked out, as not all of our work can be easily done remotely (think: field/lab work) but overall, it was a fairly smooth transition.

I was able to take home two (big) monitors and a docking station from my office to create a semi-permanent, efficient workspace in the corner of our living room, and after riding it out on a rigid kitchen chair for a few weeks, I invested into an actual office chair, which has made all the difference. Granted, my space feels a little cramped, but at least I have a dedicated workspace and don’t work from my kitchen table. So there’s that.

Separating work from home life hasn’t really been a problem. I am not allowed to work overtime without supervisor approval and while I am dedicated to my work, there’s no benefit for me in working more hours than approved. I thrive on routine, so I mostly stick to my pre-pandemic work schedule, but I also enjoy having the flexibility to work late if I need to meet a deadline or to attend a meeting on my day off if need be, and shift my work hours around accordingly.

We had just recently switched to a new mail and online meeting platform (Microsoft Teams) and transitioning to virtual meetings was easy-peasy (for the most part). Group calls, screen sharing, and shared file servers all made it possible. Could you imagine if the pandemic happened 10 or 15 years ago?

I must say though, I’ve never had so many (virtual) meetings and teleconferences IN MY LIFE (like, way more than in-person meetings at the office), or maybe it just feels so intense, because everything is virtual these days.

Still, I’m very grateful for the ability to work remotely (although I wish the circumstances weren’t because of a global pandemic) and for the opportunity to figure out if that is something I’d like to continue once this mandatory order is lifted. I know other people have already inquired about increased telework flexibility in the future.

So, to cut a long story short, I am loving the work from home life (minus all the surrounding circumstances). It has slowed down my days, it has allowed for a no-rush morning routine (including daily exercise!) and it has added extra flexibility into my life.
I feel this is probably also a good time to acknowledge that I am not only aware but lucky that I don’t have the added responsibility of dealing with homeschooling and childcare during these trying times. I don’t envy working parents one bit right now (kudos to all of you who have been on double-duty for months now. It can’t be easy!).

Being able to work from home makes me feel safer during the pandemic, and I very much appreciate that I am not forced to go to the office to mingle with other people unnecessarily.

While I do miss interacting with my co-workers in person, I think I would be perfectly happy with a part time-telework schedule when things go back to normal (and hopefully would have enough ground to stand on to advocate for it).

If you’re (still) working work from home, how do you feel about it?
Oh, and show me your workspace!

Daily Life | 2019 Spending Summary – Q4

January 13, 2020 filed under: budgeting, daily life, finances

Last year, I skipped the spending report for the 4th quarter of the previous year, because I didn’t get around to analyze it before January was over and then it made more sense to do the annual spending report for the whole year.

This year I am trying to wrap up the quarterly spending, before I analyze our whole spending year 2019, although I am not seeing huge fluctuations from the previous quarters in our main categories. However, I am proud to say that we did bring down food spending (groceries and eating out) quite a bit (if you’ve been following my spending reports, you know that is always an area that I wish we would spend less, but then I always realize that food is a priority in our budget).

So, let’s take a look at our spending for Q4. I pulled these data out of YNAB* (the pie-chart was done in Excel). Our overall spending was pretty much the same in Q4 as it was in Q3, although the spending by category shifted a bit.

Let me tell you, it was much more fun spending money on plane tickets overseas in Q3 than paying our annual car insurance bill in Q4, but oh well. That’s life, am I right?

As a reminder: these are percentages based on money spent, not based on my (take-home) income. Not included are savings, retirement contributions, healthcare premiums, taxes, and everything else that is pre-deducted from my paycheck.

Home (38 was 36% in Q3) – The spending for our (rental) home now includes rent, utilities, household items, and rental insurance. Spending was up this quarter, because rental insurance came out (due in January).

Groceries (14 was 16% in Q3) and Dining Out (6% was 11% in Q3) – We did bring down our grocery and dining out spending this quarter, which makes me really happy (because it’s still a big chunk of our spending and something I am constantly working on.)

Car Maintenance (13% was 1% in Q3) – Annual Car Insurance payment is due in January, but came out at the end of December (so we paid it “twice” this year), but will bring down totals in 2020, I hope.

Gifts (5% was <1% in Q3) – This quarter included Christmas, so I don’t think I need to explain the increase in gift spending, or do I?

Travel (5% was 15% in Q3) – Travel expenses were down, because we only took a weekend trip to SoCal in November.

Health & Fitness (4% was 4% in Q3) – This category includes my gym membership, and our medical and dental co-payments and stays pretty much the same, if there are no unforeseen doctor visits.

Cable/Internet (3% was 4% in Q3) – Bill went down a little bit, because we didn’t order any movies on demand.

Clothing (3% was 1% in Q3) – we’re not big spenders when it comes to clothing, but we did buy a few new things this quarter (boots for me, sneakers for Jon, a couple of long-sleeve shirts and jeans.)

Shopping and Miscellaneous (2% was 4% in Q3) – We did cut our discretionary spending again in Q4 by about 40%, which is not very high to begin with but made a significant dip as we did have race fees in Q3 that we didn’t have in Q4.

Cellphone (2% was 2% in Q3) – Expenses were almost the same.

Transportation (2% was 2% in Q3) – Gas and parking fees. Even though I’ve been using the bus and bike more to get to work, our spending on gas hasn’t changed much (which could be due to fluctuating gas prices, and gas here is expensive in general).

Personal Care (2% was 3% in Q3) – This category includes all toiletry items, makeup, J’s beard trims, and haircuts.

Subscriptions (1% was 1% Q3) – This includes Netflix, Prime, and Identity Guard Fraud protection.

Donations <1% was <1% in Q3) – still an area I’d like to expand, but at least we’re giving something.

How was your spending in Q4? Did you have a chunk of Christmas expenses?

How to stay sane at the grocery store

October 4, 2019 filed under: daily life

Photo by Anne Preble on Unsplash

Do you enjoy grocery shopping or do you squarely fall into the camp of grocery store haters? I know so many people that hate going to the store, but for me, it’s the opposite. I actually enjoy grocery shopping and I enjoy the prep process.

I still like to be fast and efficient when I do it though. I tend to visit 2-3 stores on my weekly shopping trips, but I can usually get it all done within one to 1.5 hours. I think that’s pretty good.

So, here’s a list of tips to make this mandatory weekly chore a bit more pleasant.

1. Meal plan.

I mentioned this on this blog before (and it still applies), we meal plan which makes the whole process of grocery shopping more stream-lined and efficient. Every Thursday night we write out a list of meals for the next week and add things to the shopping list accordingly.

2. Keep a running shopping list.

I have a list in Evernote (which I can access from my phone) and where I can easily add things when I notice that we’re about to run out of something. On Thursday, I add the rest of our meal planning ingredients to it, and voilà, there’s your complete shopping list.

3. Write your shopping list according to the shop layout.

I know people who write out their shopping lists by store department (e.g. meats, produce, dairy, frozen, etc.), which makes sense, but I actually go a step further and write my list out by aisles the way I’ll walk through the store. If you shop at the same stores, you’ll soon know the layout of the store. I walk the aisles in the same order every time and my grocery lists is written accordingly, which makes for a much quicker trip through the store.

4. Pick a good time to shop.

If you want to make grocery shopping quick and painless, pick a good time to go to the store. I usually try to go on Fridays shortly before or after lunch time. I know I have the luxury of doing my grocery shopping on my day off, but there are other times during the week that are not peak hours (e.g. Wednesday nights).

5. Help bagging.

That’s a pet peeve of mine, but I see so many people standing around with their arms crossed while the clerk rings up the items and bags them afterwards. SMH. I mean, unless there is a second person there to bag the groceries, be proactive and help bagging your own purchases. Not only will this speed up the time you spend at the store, you’ll also have the freedom to pack your stuff the way you like. I often like things grouped a certain way, heavy stuff in my canvas bags, smaller stuff in my basket. (Not to brag, but store clerks have commented on my badass bagging skills and wanted to know if I had worked as a grocery bagger before. Nope, just a skilled, common-sense human being over here. Haha.)

Do you have any more tips to make grocery shopping fast and efficient?

Daily Life | 2019 Spending Report – Q2

August 9, 2019 filed under: budgeting, daily life

I can’t believe we’re well into the third quarter of this year, so who is ready to look back at our Q2 spending?

Our overall spending was actually down over the last three months compared to Q1 of this year, but that’s why the pie-pieces have shape-shifted a bit when it comes to percentages of spending. These quarterly updates show easily how spending varies throughout the year and why it’s so important to budget for your true expenses (e.g. save ahead for less frequent, but regular payments like insurance premiums that are due bi-annually or annually and also build up funds for unexpected expenses).

I think I mentioned in my last post that we’ve decided to open a FSA (Flexible Spending Account) this year to try and take advantage of some tax savings. I am curious to see how that works out at the end of the year. You kind of have to know or anticipate what your expenses for the year are going to be and it’s an extra hit to my take-home paycheck. Unlike others – with a FedsFSA, you don’t get an FSA spending card, but have to pay upfront and then get reimbursed for medical expenses, so it’s a little bit of a trickier situation on the budget side. I do hope it’ll have been worth it when I assess at the end of the year.

So, let’s look at our spending. I pulled this handy pie-chart out of YNAB* (well, actually the pie-chart was done in Excel, but the report came out of YNAB.)

I have more subcategories that I track separately in my budgeting software, but I consolidated them a bit for the purpose of easier visualization. As a reminder: these are percentages based on money spent, not based on my (take-home) income.

Home (44% was 35% in Q1) – The spending for our (rental) home now includes rent, utilities, household items, and rental insurance. We actually spent a little less in actual dollars on this category over the last few months, but I guess based on other spending the percentage went up and made it a larger chunk of our overall budget.

Groceries (15% was 14% in Q1) and Dining Out (8% was 10% in Q1) – We also spent less on groceries and eating out in Q2 of this year, although the percentages have not changed much and I still think we could do better. When’s Aldi coming to NorCal? Sigh.

Shopping and Miscellaneous (9% was 3% in Q1) – Oops, we almost doubled our discretionary spending in Q2 but in included a concert, race entries, an outing at the County Fair and a couple of Amazon purchases.

Travel (8% was 6% in Q1) – That’s bascially the money I spent on my trip to Germany and what J spent back home (we called that his “staycation”).

Health & Fitness (4% was 6% in Q1) – This category includes my gym membership, and our medical and dental co-payments. I predicted that this was going to go down as I was expecting a refund for a dental cleaning that came through. Always check your billing statements, guys!

Cable/Internet (4% was 3% in Q1) – Slightly higher percentage this time, but same numbers bascially.

Personal Care (2% was 1% in Q1) – This category includes all toiletry items, makeup, J’s beard trims, and haircuts.

Clothing (2% was 1% in Q1) – J got a couple of new shirts and some shorts, I bought some shoes (so cliché – ha!) and a new bra.

Transportation (2% was 1% in Q1) – Gas and parking fees. Even though I’ve been using the bus and bike more to get to work, our spending on gas hasn’t changed much (which could be due to fluctuating gas prices, and gas here is expensive in general, or that we used the car for a couple of day trips).

Cellphone (1% was 2% in Q1) – Expenses were the same, percentage went slightly down because of other expense patterns.

Gifts (1% was 6% in Q1) – Birthdays, mainly.

Subscriptions (1 % was 3% Q1) – This includes Netflix and Identity Guard Fraud protection.

Car Maintenance (<1% was 9% in Q1) – A car wash. That was it in Q2. I like it.

How did you spend your money in Q2 of this year? Do you have a FSA?

Daily Life | 2018 Spending Report

February 15, 2019 filed under: budgeting, daily life, finances

I apologize, I skipped the spending report for the last quarter of 2018, but since we’re already well into the first quarter of 2019, I decided to just do my annual spending report and call it a day. I hope that’s ok with you guys.

Some of my friends, who have done spending reports in previous years, have already published their money pies (at least Lisa did). (And also, here’s what we spent in 2015, 2016, and 2017.)

A few notes again about our spending. This pie chart was created from my data in YNAB* (You Need A Budget), the budgeting software I have been using for over 3 years (and which I previously reviewed HERE). I just love it.

I know that technically there is no right or wrong way to budget. If I have learned one thing over the years is that my budget and spending will look different than yours, and that is totally ok.

It’s still good to talk about these things. These percentages are based on our actually spent money, not income. Not included are contributions to retirement funds (around 15% of my paycheck right now) and personal savings. Let’s break it down.

Home (41% — 39% in 2017) This category includes all home-related expenses, including maintenance, utilities, taxes, and all household items. We had some extra repairs and project expenses last year when we got our house ready for sale, so that’s why the number went slightly up.

Groceries (14% — 11% in 2017) The percentage from last year went up, and so did our average spending. Woomp.

Car Maintenance (8% — listed under Transportation last year). I broke this out into its own category this year, because we got new tires at the beginning of 2018 and then had our car serviced in March which triggered another (minor, but costly) repair.

Shopping & Misc. (8% — 6% in 2017) This went up from last year. We’re not big shoppers in general, but we did get a new laptop at the end of the year which caused the spike, I think.

Eating out (7% — 6% in 2017) We get take-out once a week and then eat out 2-3 times a month. This seems like a lot, even though it feels like I am also cooking all the time.

Fitness and Health (7% — 12% in 2017) This category includes our healthcare premiums, and our medical and dental co-payments. Nothing out of the ordinary last year.

Travel (3% — 5%in 2017) I didn’t travel as much as I had planned or wanted to last year. I did get to go to Washington, D.C. in the spring, I went to a women’s retreat and spent a weekend in San Francisco to run the half marathon.

Cable & Internet (3%) This category includes the Internet and cable. (Yes, we still pay for cable.)

Gifts (2%) This is a pretty straight-forward category and it includes birthday gifts, Christmas gifts and ‘just because’-gifts for family and friends.

Subscriptions (2%) I didn’t have that as a separate category last year, but thought I’d break it out. This included my gym membership, Identity Guard, Netflix, MLBTV, Flickr, Webhosting for my blog, YNAB, and Amazon Prime.

Cellphone (2% — 3% in 2017 ) I am glad this category was smaller in 2017.

Transportation (1% — 10% in 2017) This category is just gas, parking, and toll fees. Everything else is covered under car maintenance.

Clothing (1%) I think that was part of shopping & misc. in 2017. We do not spend a whole lot of money on clothing. J even less than I.

Personal Care (<1% — 1% in 2017) This category includes all toiletry items, makeup, and haircuts.

Donations (<1% — 1% in 2017) We still make regular donations every month, but the percentage hasn’t changed. I am still hoping to make this a larger percentage in the future.

* * *

The bottom line: In 2018, we spent 9% less money (as in, actual dollars) than the previous year (and remember, this pie chart only reflects solely on spending in percentage of ALL spending, not percentage of income).

I switched around some of the categories (again) and I am contemplating how I can update the format of these finance posts to be a little bit more transparent (without putting dollar amounts on everything), because I myself get a little confused sometimes when I looked at the pie chart and know that a percentage of total spending doesn’t necessarily give me a feel of where my “problem spending” is. It just tells me how I split the lump sum of money that we actually spent.

What could we do differently? I’m still playing around with the categories (and I should keep better track of what kind of spending I put in which category).

I am curious to see how renting this year compares to the expenses of home ownership last year.

Do you look at your finances once a year (or more often)? How do you organize your categories? Where do you spend the most, and where the least?

If you have any suggestions on making these kinds of posts more meaningful, I am all ears!

*The post contains a referral link. Download the fully functioning YNAB trial version for 34 days and if you like it, you can use this link to activate the software and we’ll both get a month free!

26: A little life update

November 26, 2018 filed under: daily life, home, NaBloPoMo, news

A week ago, J and I moved. We are no longer homeowners.

I know, this announcement just came out of left field for you guys. In all honesty, I didn’t feel like discussing it and I also didn’t want to “blog through the process”. I had mixed feelings about the decision and I just didn’t feel like sharing the whys and hows while going through it. Because you know, people have opinions. So many opinions. I just didn’t want to deal with it.

Fact is, almost 3 years to the day when we closed Escrow to buy the house, we signed the documents to release it ~~back to the world~~ to a new owner.

Am I sad? Yes. Make no mistake, I loved our house (and THAT KITCHEN!), and there was still so much I wanted to do with this place. I guess that is the plight of homeownership. You’re never finished, and now we won’t ever be.

Do I feel good about the decision? Also yes. We’ve gone months and months hemming and hawing (mostly me) and weighing the pros and cons and our options, but in the end, this seemed to be the best decision for us.

Are we moving out of town? Am I switching jobs? No and no. Everything stays the same for now. Living in that house was a wonderful and exciting experience in some ways, but in other ways, it was also harder than we thought. Owning a home is a huge responsibility – emotionally and financially – and we just felt that it wasn’t quite right for us (at this time at least).

We’re now busy settling into a duplex in a great neighborhood, closer to my work. It’s been a blessing to find the place and I’ll share more about it when I had the mental capacity to process everything that has been going on the last few weeks. The home (buying and) selling process is so incredibly fast in this country that you barely have time to wrap your head around what’s happening.

I just thought it was time to let you all know, with the holidays approaching and all.

Daily Life | 2017 Spending Report

January 17, 2018 filed under: daily life, moneytalk

Yes, it’s my favorite time of the year! The number nerd in me likes to talk about finances and it’s time to recap our financial year 2017. I’ve started these recap a couple of years ago when I saw some of my blog friends do the same. If you’re interested in these kinds of posts, my friend Lisa, Kyria, and Suki have shared their money pies as well. (And also, here’s what we spent in 2015 and 2016.)

A few notes about our spending. This pie chart was created from my data in YNAB* (You Need A Budget), the budgeting software I have been using for over 3 years (and which I previously reviewed here). I just love it. It’s a now web-based (paid) version which goes hand in hand with a very handy app on your smartphone, which makes tracking ‘on-the-go’ super-easy. (I’ll share an updated review soon, so keep an eye out.)

I know that technically there is no right or wrong way to budget. If I have learned one thing over the years is that my budget and spending will look different than yours, and that is totally ok.

Home (39%) This category includes all home-related expenses, including maintenance, utilities, taxes, and all household items. It’s a smaller chunk than last year, mainly because we had only a couple of smaller repairs/home projects and purchases than the previous year.

Groceries (11%) The percentage from last year didn’t change, but we actually brought down our grocery budget by 6%. We still average $650/month. I’ve lamented the fact before that our grocery bill is fairly high, but what can I say, we do like to cook real food. Our dinners are usually full dinners, often with many ingredients. Rarely do we do simple meals like sandwiches or very simple dishes (spaghetti with marinara sauce, ha!). I like to cook with a wide variety of produce and yes, we do eat meat. Not every day, but multiple days per week. It adds up. I meal plan every week and we eat everything we buy (so there is not a whole lot of food waste going on either.)

Eating out (6%) I always bring my own lunch to work (or 99% of the time, unless we go out for group lunch), but we get take-out once a week and eat out 2-3 times per month. If it was my decision alone, we would probably eat out less, but J enjoys going out and since he basically doesn’t spend any money (or very little) on himself otherwise, I compromise and we eat out more often. (Hey, I spend money on running, he likes to spend it on restaurants.)

Personal Care (1%) This category includes all toiletry items, makeup, and haircuts.

Entertainment (3%) This category includes the Internet, cable, and our Netflix and MLB TV subscription. This is also a category I would probably shrink if it was only up to me, but J values the cable and MLB subscriptions.

Cellphone (3%) I am glad this category was smaller in 2017 (which was mainly due to the fact that we didn’t have to buy new phones last year).

Shopping (6%) This includes all expenses that didn’t really belong in any other category, e.g. impulse purchases, annual membership fees, running-related expenses (except for the gym membership), clothing, and other shopping.

Transportation (10%) This category includes car insurance, registration, AAA membership, gas, tolls, and repairs. My commute is short, so our day-to-day expenses didn’t change, but the total expense doubled last year percentage-wise because we had to get the hydraulic pump of our car replaced (which was not a cheap thing to have done. Don’t recommend it, if you can avoid it. Ugh!).

Fitness and Health (12%) This category includes our healthcare premiums, my gym membership, and our medical and dental co-payments. My premiums went up last year and we had a few more doctor’s visits and it’s reflected in the 30% increase in health and fitness spending for 2017.

Gifts (2%) This is a pretty straight-forward category and it includes birthday gifts, Christmas gifts and ‘just because’-gifts for family and friends.

Donations (1%) We still make regular donations every month, but the percentage hasn’t changed. I am still hoping to make this a larger percentage in the future.

Travel (5%) I was lucky to be able to travel to Germany (for my niece’s first communion), go on a roadtrip with my cousin and his girlfriend, and meet up with my Australian bff last for a weekend in Vegas last year.

Life Insurance (1%) I added this in as part of my spending report, as it is a voluntary expense.

* * *

The bottom line: In 2017, we spent 11% less overall than the previous year, which I feel good about. I made bigger contributions to retirement and savings, too.

Our home expenses went down by almost 30%. Grocery spending and dining out spending went down too (dollarwise), although the percentages for both categories stayed the same.

We saw a big increase in health-related spending (I blame it on premiums and a few more doctor’s visits, including a dental procedure I needed to get done last year). Transportation/car-related expenses were up (because of a costly car repair), but general shopping was down by about 30%. We also spent a little bit more on travel, which I am not mad about.

What could we do differently? I’m still thinking about doing a bit more work on better categorizing our expenses to get an even better understanding on where our money goes. Overall, I think I am doing a good job in YNAB categorizing and splitting combined purchases that include items from different categories (e.g. food and personal care items when I shop at Target). I’d still like to try to decrease our food spending (groceries/dining out) a little and also hope we don’t have any major car or home expenses this year (although that is always hard to predict).

Do you look at your finances once a year (or more often)? Where do you spend the most, and where the least?

*The post contains a referral link. Download the fully functioning YNAB trial version for 34 days and if you like it, you can use this link to activate the software and we’ll both get a month free!

8: A Day in the Life

November 8, 2017 filed under: daily life, NaBloPoMo

I don’t think I’ve ever posted one of these “A Day in the Life” posts but people seem to enjoy them, so who am I to judge. So, you’re getting a glimpse into a regular week day of my life. Today’s “day in the life” is actually from YESTERDAY, because I can’t take pictures in the future, obviously.

4:15 AM — My alarm goes off. I hit the snooze button. 9 minutes to wake up. Then I get out of bed, throw on my workout clothes (that I have put out the night before, because I am organized like that) and do a quick bathroom routine (brush and braid hair, wash face, brush teeth).

4:35 AM — I grab my breakfast/lunch (also prepared the night before) and my water bottle (with a NUUN tablet) bottle from the fridge and get all my bags: lunch bag, purse and gym bag. J kisses me goodbye and locks the front door behind me.

4:40 AM — I drive to the gym + eat a string cheese on the way. Can’t workout on an empty stomach (and dairy protein agrees with me). I also listen to NPR in the car, always.

5:00 AM — I park at the gym, check in, put my gym bag in the locker, and text J that I am there. He worries because it’s dark out when I leave and I park in a parking garage downtown and who knows what kind of people are out and about at this ungodly hour. (Psst, mostly other dedicated people that go to the gym before work – oh, and construction workers, apparently.)

5:10 AM — I start my warm up, followed by 30 min strength training and a 4-mile run on the treadmill.

6:30 AM — Workout done! Time to get in the shower and get ready to go to work.

7:15 AM — I arrive at work and I am the first one in the office (well, at least in our suite). I put my breakfast in the fridge and turn on the computer.

7:30 AM — I catch up on email and set up my to-do list for the day. I have drinkable yogurt as a post-workout snack.

7:45 AM — I can finally make coffee. I usually don’t make coffee right when I get to the office, because my co-workers come in about an hour later and since we share the coffee pot, I don’t want their first cup of coffee to have sat on the burner for an hour already. (Maybe it’s because I am simply a nice person, or it’s just because I myself wouldn’t want coffee that has been sitting out that long.)

8:15 AM — My co-workers trickle in. As you know, I have a cubicle in the back of the suite now and people mostly yell “good morning” over the cubicle walls. I try to make an effort and go see them “face-to-face” when I go get my first cup of coffee. I used to share an office with (one of my) co-worker(s) and it’s still weird to not have that anymore (plus the window view). Then again, it’s nice to have some more privacy.

8:20 AM — I start working on a new alignment project. If you recall, I work with 3D models of laser point clouds and part of the processing is putting the collected scans together into said 3D model. I love this type of visual work and am super grateful whenever I have a LiDAR project to work on. Most of my time is spent with Excel spreadsheets these days, and while I don’t mind juggling numbers and creating graphs/tables, I mostly prefer the visual work with the LiDAR data.

9:15 AM — I get my second cup of coffee (before it starts getting cold) and chat with my co-worker about his kid’s field trip.

9:20 AM — Spreadsheets, maps, processing. Work, work, work.

10:00 AM — I eat my breakfast. Overnight steel cut oats with raspberries (slightly warmed in the microwave). Yum. It’s my perfect winter go-to breakfast.

12:00 PM — I got outside and on a walk for my lunch break. It’s a beautiful fall day here in Northern California.

12:15 PM — I call J for a few minutes and then call my parents for a mid-week check in while I am walking.

12:45 PM — Back in the office. I eat my lunch (tomato soup, mmmh!), and add some croutons for the heck of it, and keep working on data processing.

3:00 PM — I need a mental break and get up to walk around a bit. I go to the mail room to check the mail (no mail).

3:15 PM — It’s a pretty quiet day, no meetings on the schedule, so I dive into some new data spreadsheets that I just received.

5:00 PM — It’s pitch-dark outside and I haven’t even noticed because my office doesn’t have a window anymore. Ha, gotcha! I actually went and took a picture from my old office. My co-workers have already left. The sun is setting and I miss having this view from my desk.

5:50 PM — I go wash my mug, bowl and silverware. I also clean out the coffee pot. Since I am usually the last one in the office, cleaning up somehow became my responsibility.

6:00 PM — I wrap up my work day and head home. I call J and talk to him on the way to my car, because it’s dark and campus is a scary place when it’s dark.

6:20 PM — I stop at Rite Aid to pick up some milk and ear plugs. We have construction work going on next door.

6:40 PM — I arrive at home and immediately start preparing dinner. I try a new recipe: beef & gnocchi stew. Yum.

7:00 PM — J and sit down and catch up on our days while our dinner is cooking.

7:30 PM — I watch some news and work a few rows on my knitting project.

8:00 PM — Dinner is finally ready and it’s delicious. The recipe will probably go into our recipe binder (which means we’ll make it again!). Next time, I’ll probably prepare it the night before and cook it in the slow cooker. Usually I don’t make dinners that take longer than 30 minutes during the week.

8:30 PM — Time for my evening cup of tea. It’s a ritual during fall and winter. Honey Chamomille Vanilla.

8:40 PM — I try to catch up on the news but can only handle it for like 20 minutes. Then I tell my (new and shiny) Xfinity Voice Remote to “watch Friends” instead. Always a good decision.

9:30 PM — I get ready for bed. J lies down with me and we talk for a little while. Then he goes to the living room to watch TV and I read a couple of pages before I turn off the lights.

How was your Tuesday?

Daily life | My work week

July 7, 2016 filed under: about me, daily life

This is a new installment of my “daily life”-posts. It’s been a little while. I thought you might be interested to hear what a typical work week looks like for me.

As you may or may not know, I work a flex schedule at work, which means that I don’t work the usual 9-5 five-day schedule.

I work a 4-10 flex schedule, which means I have a four-day work week (yay!) but work 10+ hour days, which means I am usually out of the house for about 12 hours (including commute, lunch break, and all). While it takes some getting used to (my work days are pretty long and there is not much else that is getting done during these four days than work, eat, sleep, repeat), I have really come to like my schedule and and having a three-day weekend every week is simply glorious! I wouldn’t change it for the world (unless I’d be forced to).

Having the four day work week has multiple advantages for me. First, it’s given me the opportunity to work the occasional Friday and easily build up some comp time; or ‘extra-vacation time’, as I like to call it. I only get 12 days of vacation per year (my European readers’ jaws probably dropped to the floor in horror just now, while my American readers probably think this is a pretty decent amount of time). Let me just tell you that it’s not really that much time off, if your family lives halfway around the world and when you’re faced with an at least 11+ hour- long flight just to go and see them. Well, and everybody knows that going to Europe for only a few days, or even one full week, is just silly nonsense. When you take travel time and jet lag into account, you gotta go at least for two weeks (if not longer). So, having the option to work the four-day schedule gives me the flexibility to work some extra days and build up some more vacation time to go and see my family, but I also have the option to take advantage of a long weekend to go on shorter trips here and there with J without having to take extra time off.

My employer is also really flexible and lets me move around my hours as I please. There are certain “core hours”, that I am supposed to be available, but if I have to leave early one day or get in a little late on another, I can just make up that time on a different day. I can also shift my “day off” and occasionally take a different day off during the week, if need be.

One more reason why – despite all the hassle I’ve endured in my eight years at this job – I love my work place and have fought hard (and have waited very patiently) to stay here.

I usually get to work around 7:00 a.m. and I am usually the first one in the office. I am also frequently the last one to leave (unless one of my co-workers is around who works really odd hours – sometimes he doesn’t come in before the early afternoon). I enjoy the ‘quiet time’ that I get at the beginning and end of each work day.

I am also lucky to not be stuck in cubicle land, but to share a corner office (yes, with two sides of windows!) with one other co-worker. We’re on the 5th floor, we have a beautiful view, oh, and did I mention that I work on a College Campus? I love it.
I have a nice workstation with a height-adjustable desk and two big monitors (and seriously, I wouldn’t know what to do without them anymore!). And on top of that, I like what I do (most of the time) and the people I work with. It’s a pretty sweet arrangement, if you ask me.

The only downside is that I wish my work- and therefore my home – was closer to the beach. Ha! You can’t have everything, right?

Do you have a 9-5 job, do you work a flex schedule, or do you work really odd hours? What’s your workspace like? Tell me in the comments!

This post is part of my ‘daily life‘ series where I talk about how we do things around here! Find the last post here.