Welcome to my first monthly budget post! Here’s what I spent in the month of October living in Athens, Georgia on a fluctuating low income:
@yallwaterfall Honest low income monthly budget for October! 🎃👻😉🍂 #monthlybudget #lowincome ♬ Take Five – Davy Graham
- I pay $750 for rent, utilities, and internet. Even though my rent increased this year, this is still a steal for where I live. I’m in a 1 bedroom apartment which I lovingly call The Lair with my two sweet, senior cats.
- I spent $468 on healthcare. This is anything connected to the doctor, the dentist, my prescriptions, and therapy. It’s higher than normal because I got hit with $297 of dental work. My dental insurance plan sucks, but my dentist RULES and I’m thankful the damage wasn’t worse.
- I spent $166 on transportation. This is also higher than usual because I had to buy a new tire. Boo!
- Next are my cats who I spent $135 on for their food and litter. This is a low month for them.
- My groceries came to $118 which is the lowest I’ve gotten it ALL YEAR. I’m proud of that, but want to clarify that I first took an inventory of my pantry and freezer, then supplemented with $118 of groceries. Plus, I enjoyed some wonderful dinners my boyfriend cooked. 🎃
- I spent $25 on going out to eat or drink, another record low for the year. This was an Indian buffet in Atlanta and it was sooo delicious. (I didn’t include food I ate out while traveling here because that’s accounted for in the travel category.)
- Work related: $63 on miscellaneous shit like cloud storage and Adobe software.
- $50 went into my Roth IRA. That may sound like peanuts, but saving is very new to me, so I’m hyped.
- Onto fun stuff! I went to the Lemon Pepper Zine fest in Atlanta and spent $35 on these guys.
- Then I went on a trip to Tennessee and paid $123. I think this is some pretty sick budgeting for three days because it includes gas, food, activities, and lodging (in this case, two campsites) for a jam-packed vacation. We saw a lot of outsider art, cool graves, waterfalls, and a haunted cave. We also ate really well.
- Nothing for car insurance or my phone this month because I pay those bills six months at a time.
- I currently do not have any paid subscriptions and I no longer have student loans. Note: I also do not have any children or dependents.
This all gives me a grand total of ✨$1,932✨ in expenses for October!
In earnings, I only made $1,828 for the month continuing a four month trend of being in the red, but honestly, I’m cool with it short-term. My debt has been in some truly scary places in the past and right now, my debt’s low and my credit score is still high.
Why did I decide to start a money diary like this: I genuinely enjoy budgeting and seeing other people’s finances. However, I want to be clear that I do not believe someone can simply budget their way out of being “poor” because a big part of this is living in a flawed and brutal economic system. Tracking my finances here is a journey to re-work my negative relationship with money, and I hope these posts are kinda fun for my fellow finance freaks. Happy Halloween! 👻