August spending recap!

Just trying to support the restaurant industry apparently

I track our spending as a household of two meticulously using Monarch Money. Absolutely love reveiwing the month to see how things shook out.

Let’s start with food, everyone’s favorite. This is for two adults. We mainly eat vegetarian, we don’t try to keep this low, and I spend an absolute fortune on fresh fruit and Spindrift.

Groceries $749
Three trips to Costco, which has become our main grocery store. A few stops at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s to get some random things. And $18 at IKEA for vegetarian meatballs.

Restaurants $646
Wow, this hasn’t been so high in a while! This was six meals out, but for three of them we picked up the tab for a group. Sometimes you treat people, and sometimes they treat you. It all works out in the long run.

Takeout $294
Also on the higher side for us. Two times getting Thai takeout. ($68 and $52) Three times going out for ice cream. ($7, $18, $18) Two stops at the Costco food court. ($2 each) One order of fancy donuts to take to a brunch. ($37) One pastry from a food truck and one lunch from a food truck. ($8 and $21) Door dashed sweetgreens for lunch for both of us. ($28, had some credits) Mediterranean fast casual lunch for two. ($25) And an order of fries one night just because it sounded good. ($5)

Coffee shops $61
Eight visits to local coffee shops. Mostly my partner on the morning walk with the dog.

Alcohol $54
Buying drinks at two live shows. (I don’t break out drinks from restaurants or buying a bottle of wine at Costco.) We had a pretty social month and spent a lot of time at restaurants or at show. I had 14 drinks in August total.

Now on to everything else!

Gifts $397
I’m on a big sending flowers kick lately. I sent bouquets for two wedding anniversaries, one person who had surgery, and one person whose dog passed.

Charity $0
We are behind on our yearly giving goal, but plan to do some catch up in the next few months.

Driving $186
$90 on parking, tolls, and one time we used a fast charger for our EV. $190 to fix the sun visor on our car. (W only have one.) I apparently didn’t know my own strength and accidentally yanked it off when I was trying to adjust it.

Public Transportation $3
I want this to be higher but these days it’s usually just walk or drive.

Uber/Lyfts $0
My partner has become a very rare drinker. We pay more in parking when we go out but less for cabs.


Home Furnishings $19
I returned an office chair I tried from Costco and got $131 back, but spent $150 buying a piece of art off of facebook marketplace.

Electronics, Clothing, Books $0
My goal of holding onto my airpods all year is going well! Read books from the library. Wore the clothes in my closet.

Personal care $146
Got my eyebrows waxed for $45, got a manicure and pedicure for $93, and bought a can of hairspray for $8.

Live Performances $337
Concerts, lectures, etc. If you haven’t been to a live Moth event I can’t recommend enough!

Dog walker, pet supplies, vet, pet food, pet grooming $0
Every time we have a month where there’s $0 in pet spending, when we do the money date we shout “free dog!!” But at any price, still a bargain. Very high return on investment.

Medical $58
Two prescriptions and my co-insurance for my therapy appointment.

Fitness $224
Woof. Peloton membership, plus ClassPass for pilates and barre classes. I also get a free gym membership through work.

Utilities $692
I’ll be honest, I throw a lot of things under “Internet.” Streaming services. All those Apple charges that you’re not sure you remember what it is? That’s all in here.

Home maintenance $0
Every time this is zero I am so grateful ha.

House supplies $62
Toilet paper from CloudPaper and toothbrush refills from Quip.

House cleaners $400
If you remember, they were going to charge the same to clean our big house as our small apartment--$220. We asked to pay $200 and they agreed. Still feels kinda steep but they’re great.

Lawn/yard $540
It’s $60 each time they come to mow, and then they did some extra weeding or trimming or…something. I don’t know. They show up, and I happily pay the bill.

Total: $4,868

Some footnotes:

1. I don’t share what we spend on housing. A gal is entitled to a couple secrets.

2. Our total spend this month (minus housing) is almost identical to what I had withheld in income taxes this month. I just thought that was kinda neat.

3. We invested about $2800. $2500 of that came out of my paychecks to go into my HSA and 401k. We put $300 into a taxable brokerage.

Overall I feel happy about how we spent our money in August. Lots of time and money spent out with other people. It always feels good of have a month without something like a big car repair, medical bill, vacation, or something else that knocks your budget sideways.

On to this week’s vitals…

What I'm Reading: I started a novel called A Spool of Blue Thread. (links are affiliate) Anne Tyler has a knack for realistic family dynamics and developing characters, but I need just a smidge more plot. I set it aside after several chapters.

What I'm Eating: Sorry if there’s a peach shortage--I ate them all. Can’t stop/won’t stop.

How I'm Moving My Body: Pilates, barre, more pilates, more barre. I just enjoy these workouts so much. Also aiming for 10,000 steps every day in September. So far so good! (I got about 3,000 steps on my walking pad while I wrote this post.)

What I'm Watching: I finished And Just Like That, and I don’t think we’ve watched anything else since then. We recently downsized from a larger house to a small apartment. (And I’m loving it!) In the house, our living room had a TV. In the apartment, we opted not to have a TV and to just go back to watching shows on a laptop or an iPad. (Which is how we were always set up pre-pandemic.) And I know this is so obvious, but not having a TV makes you watch less TV. Who knew.

(To be clear, I might just be doing more scrolling vs watching TV. This may not be a net benefit.)

What I'm Obsessing Over: So, so, so happy I grabbed a couple bottle of my favorite Hair, Skin, and Nails vitamins. I never see them at Whole Foods anymore, but I was in a random grocery store, saw them on the shelf, and stocked up! I started taking these after a bad haircut, hoping my hair would grow faster. Not sure they did anything for my hair, but my nails got so strong it was almost too much.

What I’m Searching For: I need a navy blue evening gown to be in a wedding in October. It’s surprisingly hard to find something that doesn’t have an immediate deal breaker for me: a slit up the leg, clingy around the midsection (like soooo many mermaid style dresses), long sleeves. I just ordered like 10 dresses from Saks and Nordstrom. This one is probably the most promising? I’ll report back!

Sending you extra love, my friends. Be safe out there.

xoxo

Liz