Despite my net worth showing a decrease in May, I spent substantially less than my income. That doesn’t mean things are perfect. Take a look at the (extended) numbers.
I decided to provide more detail about my expenses going forward, although I don’t have the data from 2004 broken down in as many categories. It is interesting to note the first line, the salary from my day job. Although my salary has been progressing upward, I am not working as much overtime as I used to. This has been the case since starting my new position at the end of April. This does mean I’ll have more time to devote to other projects which I hope will bring in some income to replace what is lost by the lack of overtime.
In fact, if I did not earn income above and beyond my day job salary, I would have spent more than I earned. The down side of this is I have to dip into the money I earn from side jobs when I’d prefer to leave all of it in savings.
Speaking of projects, Google Adsense has been a primary provider of income through this website and a few others, but the last few months have not been impressive. The biggest project I’ve been working on since February has no advertising at all, so that has been a bit of a time drain.
Wow! May was a big month for dining out and ordering in. I will have to look to cut that back in June (but I can tell you already that it’s only the second day of the month and it’s on track to be expensive).
I had larger than usual expenses under the Gifts Given and Household categories due to the bicycles I bought for myself and my girlfriend. Utilities expenses seem to be on track.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Updated February 6, 2012 and originally published June 2, 2006. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
Rank: Platinum
Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Which personal finance software do you utilize? I am amazed at your ‘groceries’ dollar amount. Good month!
Thanks, Mike! I use Quicken (and Excel for formatting these reports). Whatever I didn’t pay for in groceries, I probably paid for twice as much in dining out…
Thanks as always for publishing this. Not sure about you or other viewers, but I’d find it much more interesting to replace . . .
May 2004 with 2004 YTD through May
May 2005 with 2005 YTD through May
April 2006 with Current YTD vs. Expected (i.e. what you expected for income and expenses when you developed a 2006 plan)
Good idea, Brett. I was thinking about using YTD values but I can’t include too many columns of data without stretching the website. I’ll see what I can come up with for next month.
Oh, and you’re assuming I developed a 2006 plan. My plan consisted of “get a decent raise” which I accomplished by getting a new position at my company — a raise and promotion — and “save more money” which I’m on track for.