A Year's Worth Of Expenses
One interesting exercise at year start is to calculate how much you spent in the last year, figure out your spending pattern, and think about how you can cut some fat in the next 12 months.
Today, I finally got some time to complete this work for 2004, and here is how I ended up spending $65,703 in 2004.
| Categories | 2004 | % of Total | Comments |
| Auto | |||
| Auto Insurance | $ 933 | 1.4% | |
| Depreciation | $ 2,850 | 4.3% | Monthly automatic depreciation |
| Gas | $ 1,535 | 2.3% | |
| Maintenance | $ 1,182 | 1.8% | Monthly accrual + misc repairs |
| Licensing/Sales Tax | $ 957 | 1.5% | Includes ~740 sales tax with Kia purchase |
| Other | $ 47 | 0.1% | Parking/Car Wash |
| Auto Total | $ 7,504 | 11.4% | |
| Bills | |||
| Cable/Internet/TiVo | $ 1,426 | 2.2% | |
| Cellular | $ 297 | 0.5% | |
| Day Care | $ 6,058 | 9.2% | Starting in late June |
| Electricity and Gas | $ 1,054 | 1.6% | |
| Garbage | $ 180 | 0.3% | |
| Telephone | $ 407 | 0.6% | |
| Water | $ 632 | 1.0% | |
| Bills Total | $ 10,054 | 15.3% | |
| Clothing | $ 1,722 | 2.6% | |
| Education | $ 715 | 1.1% | CFA enrollment, etc. |
| Food and Groceries | |||
| Dining Out | $ 3,934 | 6.0% | |
| Lunch | $ 1,290 | 2.0% | |
| Groceries | $ 9,853 | 15.0% | |
| Food and Groceries Total | $ 15,077 | 22.9% | |
| Healthcare | $ 428 | 0.7% | Dental/prescriptions |
| Household | |||
| Home Maintenance | $ 3,637 | 5.5% | Include $300 monthly accrual |
| Appliance and Furnishings | $ 2,415 | 3.7% | |
| Property Tax | $ 3,592 | 5.5% | |
| Mortgage Interest | $ 9,483 | 14.4% | |
| Household Total | $ 19,127 | 29.1% | |
| Insurance | |||
| Homeowner | $ 459 | 0.7% | Includes Umbrella Insurance |
| AD&D/Disability | $ 1,003 | 1.5% | Thru Employment |
| Life | $ 513 | 0.8% | Thru Employment |
| Insurance Total | $ 1,975 | 3.0% | |
| Leisure | |||
| Books and Magazines | $ 269 | 0.4% | |
| Movie and Video Rental | $ 105 | 0.2% | |
| Toys | $ 202 | 0.3% | |
| Vacation | $ 2,208 | 3.4% | |
| Leisure Total | $ 2,785 | 4.2% | |
| Other Expenses | |||
| Gifts | $ 2,148 | 3.3% | |
| Other Expenses | $ 4,168 | 6.3% | ~$1,800 for refinancing; also donations, etc. |
| Other Expenses Total | $ 6,317 | 9.6% | |
| Total Expenses | $ 65,703 | 100.0% |
(A quick note before further discussion: as you can find out from the comments, the breakdown includes certain expenses that wasn't actually paid out. Such expenses include accounting entry of car depreciation, home maintenance accrual and car maintenance accrual and amount to approximately $7,000 for the year.)
So, how does $65,703 compare to my 2004 goal of containing my cost within $59,000?
First, my original budget does not include the day care expense of $6,058, which is a legitimate increase to my cost structure, because as a result, my wife is now able to pull in additional income much more than the day care expense itself. This also justifies the second car and around $1,300 incurred for car related expenses (depreciation, maintenance accrual, insurance and gas).
Second, the "other expenses" line includes $1,800 refinancing cost. As I analyzed before, the deal would bring unfavorable consequences of ~$900 to my 2004 results, but is a great deal for the long run.
Adjusting for the impact of $6,000 for day care, $1,300 for the second set of wheels and $900 for refinancing, my annual 2004 expense is about $57,500, or $1,500 favorable to the $59,000 goal. Therefore, I consider the cost control goal as achieved.
What did the expense breakdown tell me? One key conclusion is I'm pretty lean in terms of cost structure. The largely fixed cost, household (29.1%), bills (15.3%), auto (11.4%) and insurance (3.0%), represents 58.8% of my total expenses. Adding food and groceries (22.9%), which is at least partially fixed cost, the ratio goes to 81.7%. In other words, I only have control to about 20% of my total cost structure. I will continue to find new ways to save, but it is growingly harder to find the next buck to cut :-)
In the last several months, I received at least four email asking me how I can manage my personal finance in Excel and whether I can share my Excel models. I guess it is because most of my illustrations at PFBlog, including the regular monthly ... Read
Seven months ago, I blogged about the $175 bonus promotion from E*Trade Bank. The offer does require some little patience and a couple of hours of work, but it hands you $75 for opening a checking account, $25 for setting up bill payment, and $75 ... Read
This morning, I sold my ESPP (Employee Stock Purchase Program) shares from the 2004 Q4 period at $26.93 a pop. This post is just a housekeeping note to help me track my actions -- as you can recall, I hae been subscribing to the "immediate-sale ... Read
Thank you for all the comments to my post "Should I Get A TiVo?" yesterday. 6 comments on the same entry sets a new record at PFBlog. Especially, I love the comment by Jonathan from MyMoneyBlog: "I think of it this way - I now ... Read
