December Spending Summary

It's time to share our Monthly Spending Summary again.  The month over month image is a bit small, but if you click on it you can view it in detail.  I've highlighted in green December, which is the month we're currently looking at, as well as added an average column.

We had spent nothing in the following categories: annual expenses, wedding, pets, medical, hair, travel or emergencies.  It was nice to see all those categories with (-)'s in them.  This is pretty  much the same information that was in the bigger image above, but it's easier to comment on in this form:

 We spent more on gas then we did in November, but about the same as in August - which makes sense.  They are both months when we drive more than normal.  I'm actually surprised we didn't spend more because of our new vehicle.

We spent a TONNE on booze.  Please keep in mind we haven't actually drank all of this.  I tend to re-stock our bar in December b/c we often have guests stopping by.  There were also a few gifts of booze that I didn't separate out of our personal consumption.  As well, we had a huge New Years Eve Party...so I'll just leave it at that.

Eating out was on par with November, which is great b/c we were on the road a lot.  I expect this will go down significantly (if not $0 for January).

We spent a little more on groceries, but not a lot - this is pretty average.

Entertainment is high because of some decoration purchases for the New Years Eve Party.

Banking just depresses me, for the first time in probably two years we have to pay interest.  We weren't able to pay off last months bill 100% before the deadline.  This is the second month I've been tripped up with the deadline not aligning with the last pay day in the month.  With our $100 diet challenge this month, we should be back on track for January.

If you remember back to my winter tire post (it got little action, so I won't be offended if you didn't read it), we bought new winter tires for the Escape - so this is high because of that.

Gifts is just gifts....some of these were purchases for other people that we got reimbursed for but it was at stores where many things were bought, I don't have the receipts on me so didn't sort it all out.

In total, we spent $5,6478.10 in the month of December - of that probably around $2,500 was reimbursed.

Jordan and I are looking forward to a quieter month with a lot less spending.  I'm actually looking forward to writing this post next month (I think it will be a lot shorter). While it's hard to acknowledge where the money goes I am still finding this a valuable exercise - to put all the details on paper (or excel) and share it with both you and Jordan.  I think it keeps us honest and helps remind us where we want our cash to go.

~Jessie