Let’s take a quick look at how the ‘ol wallet finished up the last month of summer.
| Category | Total | Notes |
| Mortgage | 793 | |
| Taxes | 320 | |
| Groceries | 156 | |
| Restaurants | 64 | two $5 lunches @work, four dinners w/friends |
| Utilities | 55 | Electricity |
| Cable | 75 | Phone, ISP, Cable |
| Cell | 17 | Ting |
| Medical | 0 | |
| Pharmacy | 3 | Earplugs |
| Clothes | 44 | Three new shirts and some breech-cloths |
| Café/Coffee Out | 22 | |
| Entertainment | 55 |
|
| Gas | 33 | |
| Other | 106 | Home Improvement – indoor painting projects, fall reseeding. Also paid a guy $30 for lawn mowing one weekend. |
| Vitamin A(lcohol) | 11 | Single bottle of wine |
| Other Transportation | 11 | Couple of trips on the T |
| Charity | 1000 | clearwaterinitiative.org |
| Total | 2765 |
Notes
- Drove less than normal, restaurant expenses were down because I remembered to bring lunch most days, and nothing unexpected came up.
- Annual charitable contribution.
- Listened to Charlie Hunter perform in Cambridge for entertainment, and bought a CD during the intermission. Best way to support an artist you like: Buy merch directly from them.
Glorious, glorious mono.
Yearly Total
| January | 2106 |
| February | 2013 |
| March | 2305 |
| April | 2043 |
| May | 1876 |
| June | 3036 |
| July | 2109 |
| Aug | 2218 |
| Sept | 2765 |
| Total | 20471 |
Net Worth Update
| Taxable Mutual Funds | 277K |
| Taxable Cash (CDs) | 40K |
| Retirement 401(k) | 307K |
| Retirement Roth | 98K |
| Home Equity | 125K |
| Total | 847K |
It’s a drop of almost 10K this month, because the markets are correcting just a bit — a good thing IMO.
Numbers crunched 09.28.2014
Sticky notes on expense tracking
- The expenses listed represent half of our total household expenses. I’m 50% of a DINK couple. The same is true for net worth. I only list my personal stash — my wife has her own and I’m not tracking it on this blog. Yeah, we’re completely spoiled.
- You’ll notice that there is no mention of car insurance here. I pay my premium annually in June. There’s a 10% discount for paying 12 months in advance, which is a pretty good return on investment.
- Similarly, there’s also no mention of home insurance. We pay the yearly premium annually in full every March.
- There are menus at the top of the blog (Finances->2014->Month) if you are interested in additional reports.
- I’ve also logged an account of my financial history
Living a FI 
The markets are dragging my returns down too – stay the course. I am still up for the year, but had finally started shifting some cash (-2 to 0%return depending in inflation) to investments (index funds – Vanguard). I was feeling like quite the smarty pants for awhile, now market reality is back (the market will fluctuate – be patient).
Thanks G. Have no fear — the course will be maintained.
Ok, I have to ask…what is a breech cloth? It sounds like something Tarzan would wear 😉
You had it pretty much exactly. What I actually bought was much more boring: jockey shorts.
Ah – Wikipedia to the rescue: A breechcloth, or breechclout, is a form of loincloth consisting in a strip of material – usually a narrow rectangle – passed between the thighs and held up in front and behind by a belt or string.[2][3] Often, the flaps hang down in front and back.[3]
Not wanting to be considered an outcast in the FIRE community and not previously aware of the FI uniform de riguuer, I’ve purchased 7 pair (are they considered pairs?) of breech-cloths – one for each day of the month – and signed-up for the breech-cloth of the month club. I did check with my local thrift shops first before my purchases and they insisted they can’t keep them in stock.
Oh wait, were you joking about the breech-cloths? 🙂
I *LOVE* the breech cloth of the month club. Keeps things fresh in more ways than one. So good to know I’m not alone in this passion.
Wow! Net of your charitable donation and your mortgage, you spent less than $1,000. That is insane. Keep up the amazing progress, my friend.
MDP
Gas was low, 2nd consecutive month of decent grocery bills + very little restaurant eating = low expenses. All that and we didn’t even give up cable.
Looks like a great month for you! September was quite standard for us, I do believe. Have yet to assemble the spreadsheets, but I surmise it was fine.
I’d love to hear more about your decision to support the Clear Water Initiative–what made you choose that organization? I’m always interested in hearing about people’s philanthropic motivations and decisions.
It was a great month, no doubt, and one I feel very good about. Always helps when we don’t have an oil bill. I recently posted an article about charitable giving where I go into the details of why I give to Clear Water, if you’re interested. Thanks for stopping by!