I recently posted our expenditures through the
first 3 quarters of the year with a promise to update, by category, what those
disbursements entailed. Thanks to paying off all of our debts a couple years
ago, we are now in a position to enjoy life considerably more than before,
when we owed the majority of our incoming cash to liabilities.
Through the end of September, we have spent about
12% of our bring-home pay on lifestyle expenses, broken down as follows:
· Vacation/Travel: 47% of
our lifestyle expenses went to 3 nice trips this summer, including Colorado
where my son and I got to hike some nice trails and visit the MMM headquarters
with Carl (Mr. 1500). We also traveled to Boston and North Carolina.
· Spending
Money: 30% went towards expenses such as hanging out with friends,
concerts (Aaron Lewis and The Muckers were both AWESOME!) and other excursions
that didn’t fit neatly into other categories.
· Clothing: We
spent just shy of 7% of this category on clothing. We’re not fancy dressers so
the majority of this went the basics, like underwear, socks, long johns, etc.
· Self-Care (mainly
the wife): This includes nails, hair (haha for those of you who know me),
massages, etc. We spent just shy of 10% of our lifestyle expense here.
· Gym (YMCA):
6% of our lifestyle costs went to our local YMCA, which we, in fairness, did
not use as much as we could have/should have.
What is even more awesome is that the vast majority of these
expenses were paid for with a 2% cash-back credit card (through Fidelity, which
then allows us to invest directly back into our brokerage account), which paid
us a few hundred dollars for traveling, hanging out with friends, going to the
gym and taking care of ourselves, without us ever paying a dime of interest.
Next up will be insurance and medical expenses…..
