Life Updates – Becoming A Happy Person

February 2024 – Monthly Spending Update

It’s true. I haven’t provided a monthly spending update in some time. It has been difficult to capture all of my finances, and it is not until now that I feel comfortable with the new system I have been using. I recently transitioned over to Monarch after the tragic and senseless death of Mint.com. You were good to me, Mint, you were so goddamn good.

In February, I finished paying off my Affirm loan and transitioned towards building up my emergency savings in my new American Express High Yield Savings Account. I do still have a car loan with CarMax that I will focus on paying down in Q2 and Q3 of this year, but for the month of March, I will place all extra savings into my AMEX HYSA.

The Big Picture

In February, I spent so little by targeting the very biggest drains on my finances – restaurants and groceries. I learned to cook my own meals, baked salmon, had lentils on multiple occasions, and made my very first Bacon-Tot-Chicken Alfredo casserole! I also eliminated some, nearly all, subscriptions – I see you NordVPN. But I need a VPN, I just don’t really trust the cyber guerilla, and it makes me feel safe. In addition to all of this, I placed my car in storage mode with USAA, and I saved on my insurance. I also canceled the renter’s insurance and property insurance, so more savings! It’s insane how many savings are “invisible” to you, but when you’re auditing where every penny goes you tend to find the “invisible.”

January Spending: $3,786
February Spending: $1,334

Net Difference: +$2,452

Notes from February

It may seem insignificant, but it is no small feat to keep my Grocery budget under $200 and my Restaurants & Bars under $60. Initially, I had intended to not spend a single dollar at restaurants, “imagine a world where you HAD to cook your own food.” That was my mindset with that, and it allowed me to feed myself at an average cost of $8.32 per day. Most people spend that much on coffee alone, so I consider this a major victory. In January, I spent $528 on Groceries and $291 on Restaurants. Net Difference: +$578

I am also impressed, maybe relieved?, that I managed to spend only $112.94 on Gas. How did I do it? I said no to engine idling. I brought lunch and ate it in my car with the engine off, so I didn’t have to drive anywhere to eat lunch. I drove to and from work at 5 miles below the speed limit. I practiced hypermiling, and on the weekends when I didn’t have to drive, I didn’t. In January, I spent $209 on this category. Net Difference: +$96.

Overall, the difference from month to month is staggering even if I only focus on these 3 categories. This allowed me to increase my American Express HYSA “Emergency Fund” to $1,800 as of this writing, and it puts me in a financial position (no credit card debt, with nearly $2,000 in reserve cash) that I hadn’t been in since 2018.

Pay attention to this quote: “Long-lasting change comes from little steps, repeated regularly, over time.”

I believe when it comes to the world of personal finance, nothing else comes close to describing a natural law. It is not the latte that you want to account for, it is the gas that you consume on the drive to the latte while waiting in the drive-thru. It is the extra nice tip that you pay the barista for serving your warm cup of coffee. It is the time that this adds to your commute, your time away from the things that truly move you. Little by little, these things add up, and you begin to see lasting change.

Summary

In March, I aim to reduce my Grocery budget even further. I challenge myself to spend only $100, which will require me to be even more creative with my meal planning, source coupons, and find new ways to spend less. I challenge myself to spend no more than $30 on Restaurant meals and to spend no more than $50 on gas. Considering my car will be going into storage, this should not be difficult to accomplish.

At the end of this quarter, I plan to provide an updated picture of my net worth. See you next time, be happy!

Pausing

Things didn’t work out with her.

But maybe they did, at the moment I am writing after long hiatus and the break up brought me back to writing. Thank you.

She said she didn’t believe we would make it through deployment. I believed her. It was nice while it lasted.

Last night I dreamt about Caroline, the one I loved. I missed her laughs while watching tiktok videos together. I’ve heard she speaks bad about me and compares me to Shane. She says I can be narcissistic, I don’t know what to believe.

I haven’t heard from my mom since January 1. 40 odd days without a word. I heard she says I am a bad son because I do not visit. Because I stay away from home. But has she come to visit me? In 3.5 years, does she have any idea how I have lived? I know the answer.

Life will evolve as it must, and I feel clearly what it is that I have to do. For one, I will embrace being in no relationship. I will read and learn about celibacy, self-loving and care. I will approach life with simplicity.

I have no laptop now so I cannot provide graphs for my net worth. But it’s somewhere around $34,000. It’s rising fast, and there is little debt, about $5,000 for my car and $475 in credit cards.

I have read 16 books this year. By the end of this week I will be at 19 most likely.

I am running consistently, shaving my head every 5 days (and no longer paying for haircuts), and writing in my journal and now my blog.

I will come back to this blog, and I will write more often.

My new mantra: I love myself, I’m proud of myself, I believe in myself. I forgive myself.

fear before starting

Every now and then a feeling of fear resurfaces when I find myself facing a seemingly insurmountable task. My fear manifests itself by limiting my efforts in preparation. Instead of preparing myself and equipping myself with the best knowledge, I let time expire and then show up as the less presentable version of myself.

With the PMP exam, this is almost true. Although I have spent a respectable amount of time preparing for this exam, I have spent an equal amount of time avoiding it and dreading the preparation aspect. This slip-up in preparation work applies in many other areas of my life. I am not really consistent with practice, and yet I can be so good at so many things.

The joy for me comes in doing, not in preparing to do, and this itself is the challenge I face. Because I can probably enjoy doing more if I adequately prepare myself.

I cannot be too hard on myself, I can only observe where I am in this moment and take steps to be better in the next moments. My first encounter with the PMP Exam will either result in a qualification, or in the revelation that I have still more to go, more to study, and with either outcome, more to learn.

Perhaps that is the reminder I need, that regardless of the outcome I can be thankful that I learned so much in the limited amount of time I have spent studying. I completed over 100 lessons in PMI Study Hall. I have answered 100s of questions in practice exams and quizzes, and while I can be doing a lot better, I could also be doing a lot worse.

This week, I want to be intentional about drinking water and stretching only a bit more than usual. My body is stiffening up and sore much more frequently. The last month of the year will prove to be an exciting time to explore new things. More to come.

mid-november clarity

Mid-November, how the time has flown. I haven’t had a moment to write or capture my thoughts. I haven’t had a moment to read, and settle my mind. I find myself daily in a race against time. So, today I will pause and I will write.

Life without writing does not feel like life at all, and I can say the same about reading books. I don’t feel like myself at all when these things are missing from my life. This brings a terrible fear of not feeling myself at all, of not recognizing my own self.

Sometimes I crave a hard reset, a return to my roots, to the kid who ate healthy, exercised daily, reads, writes, explores, is curious. Some days he is still around, but some days he is tired, exhausted. This life could take it’s toll, not to mention the changes all around me.

Oftentimes, I find myself referencing the trifecta that most directs our human life. In essence, it’s these three questions: who do you spend your life with, i.e. your partner? what do you do with your life, i.e. your career? and where do you spend your life, i.e. your home? In 2023, I found all of these shifting, and the questions around each of these questions grew more and more. Uncertainty became the norm, and with that came a restlessness that I could not outrun.

In my lifetime, I have struggled to answer these questions. My relationships did not last very long before conflict, boredom, or some other intervention came along. I stayed at jobs for less than 18 months and transitioned, sometimes seeking higher pay, sometimes seeking something else entirely. I haven’t had a stable home since I was 17, spending nights asleep on park benches, renting rooms, sleeping in a car, renting a studio apartment, sharing a studio apartment, airbnbs, sharing a 2 bed-room. When I think of it, I’ve found shelter most anywhere, including in military tents and barracks.

As I move on through this life, I hope that things start settling, but a part of me thinks that maybe this is how it goes until I go, which isn’t a bad thing.

But I can’t let the past haunt me. I have to let go of people that don’t play a central role in my life anymore, I have to let go of doubts, fears, and uncertainties. Sometimes I seek God. I need his answers, but sometimes I feel like he may be busy helping others. And that’s ok, there are people worse off than me. But I can wait patiently. If there is one thing about me, it’s that. I am able to wait, and the time will come when the answers are clear to me.

September 2023 Budget

With three new subscriptions to boot, I am not exactly marching into September with great spending habits. However, I can still make an improvement from August if I can limit my spending in order to come in under $1725.00.

A few things to note, October will bring a pay raise, due to meeting 3 years in military service, and a uniform clothing allowance. This extra cash would be welcome in all other circumstances, but I have increased my contributions to my thrift savings plan to 23%, which caps my paycheck amount at $1600, bi-monthly. With this new fixed income, I plan to cover all expenses while simultaneously building a foundation for my retirement.

Opportunities abound in September. With a $350 budget for groceries, there should be no reason why I ever dine out if I am smart and diligent with my meal planning. Lately, I have been careless with my spending and drifting away from my spending principles. I need to right this ship.

Here are action-items for September.

1. Cancel Hinge subscription.
2. Cancel Blue Jacketeer subscription.
3. Cancel Spotify subscription.

While I have thoroughly enjoyed these subscriptions, I can divert my time and attention to linkedin learning (which I obtained for free for one year due to a military benefit), Netflix (free on family account), and Audible (free through American Express). These are non-negotiables if I plan to take my journey to financial freedom seriously.

With the main goal still being to eliminate credit card debt, I don’t see how I can sustain any extra subscriptions. These three alone would add $90 to my monthly spending for September, accounting for 5% of my output.

Here is a breakdown of my projected spending for September.

Housing/Internet/Utilities: $780
Auto & Transport: $150
Food & Dining: $500
Shopping & Other: $240
____________________________
Grand Total: $1,670

Housing/Internet/Utilities: $780

My monthly rent in my shared apartment is fixed at $542.80. Internet costs are $45, while electricity has been running high at roughly $85 per month. Altogether, $780 is a bargain on the “essentials.” This budget will remain the same until I deploy.

Auto & Transport: $150

Now that I have learned a few lessons in hypermiling, I look forward to the savings I can manage while driving. I cruise to a red light knowing how much money I save, and I enjoy my morning commute on cruise control – watching the mpg meter top its limits. This $150 budget limit will definitely be a challenge, but I think I am up for it.

Food & Dining: $500

This is the only category I am quite lenient with for now. I am still learning how to save on food spending, and oftentimes I find myself too drained to cook a meal. Truth is, I don’t enjoy cooking. It doesn’t come naturally to me, but nevertheless, every meal cooked is a meal I don’t purchase and I save on the tipping.

I really want to challenge myself to avoid fast food restaurants and coffee shops this month, especially in a short month. Being able to say goodbye to these two services for good will be a major lifestyle change. I cannot wait. I am helplessly dependent on convenience.

Shopping & Other: $240

While these subscriptions remain active, I will maintain this budget cost. But one thing is for sure, I am cutting my own hair this month. This alone saved me $90 last month, and I don’t plan to revert back to that.

My shopping budget is $100, although aside from a USB-C cable that’s starting to fray I don’t see any shopping expenses in the future for me. I have already committed to not purchasing GU energy gels or supplements, so I just have to stay the course on that.

Grand Total: $1,670

In September, I need to be careful to not purchase new subscriptions or revert back to old habits. This is the end of a very important quarter which could see all of my consumer credit debt wiped away and precedes a new financial model in which my income is limited to only $3,200 monthly. Even with the coming raise, the goal will remain to make due with less. With a strong showing in September, I can alleviate so much credit card debt and set myself up to start completely paying down my car and building a savings reserve.

August 2023 – Monthly Spending Update

As my journey towards financial freedom kicks into full gear, I am beginning to experience progress and difficulties that I did not expect. One of the bigger difficulties this month was facing decision fatigue upon completion of the field exercise. On the flip side, I also made an advanced payment towards my Affirm loan and my Navy Federal Credit Union balance now sits at under $1,000.

The Big Picture

There is no surprise that I would spend less in August than I did in July. After all, I spent 13 days in the field with minimal, almost no, opportunity to spend money. We had our meals and shelter provided for us which limited my chances to engage in impulsive spending. Overall, in this month I saw the most zero-spend days I would probably see at any other time other than deployment. However, I sort of reverted to old habits once I returned from the field exercise. I got some subscriptions, notably Blue Jacketeer ($19.99/mo.) and Spotify ($10.99/mo.). I did not renew my Strava subscription so maybe that is a positive from all of this.

July Spending: $2,289.53
August Spending: $1,772.33

Net Difference: +$517.20

Notes from August

The spending “valley” from August 03 until about August 15 represents my time in the field. Beyond that, the only other significant outlier was a $260 grocery store trip in late August after a 50 mile bike ride. I understand now why we should not shop for groceries when we are hungry, and on this particular day I was ravaged. This one day accounted for most of my spending in food expenses, which once again was my highest expense category.

Once again, rent makes up a huge piece of the pie, but this time food is almost 2/3’s of all my spending as opposed to about a quarter last month. If I can shift my efforts in September so that I can cook more affordable meals at home, I can reduce my spending in the Food & Dining category even more. Overall, the difference from month to month was $19.76 less than July. So, I’ll still call it a win.

I am also proud of myself for spending less than $200 in Shopping. But my commitment to no more new things is becoming increasingly harder to sustain as I am tempted to replace old items. September comes with the launch of a new iPhone and suddenly mine is looking older and used. I also want some darker curtains, a duvet or bigger blanket, some new pieces for my bike. It is easy to re-enter the world of wanting when my habits aren’t yet ingrained. This month will be full of these challenges.

Summary

In my next post, I will provide and updated version of my budget for September 2023. This month, I aim to reduce Food & Dining spending by 5%. So my budget for that category will be $570. I am recognizing that a more gradual approach will work better for me, and I aim to honor that. At the end of this quarter, I plan to provide an updated picture of my net worth. See you next time, be happy!

August 2023 Budget

In July, I focused on establishing benchmarks for my spending, and I learned lessons that give me the confidence to spend less money. If I am careful, deliberate, and proactive about my spending, I can continue to develop a surplus that will enable me to pay off a larger chunk of my credit card debt.

In August, I want to minimize restaurant and fast food expenses, while also avoiding shopping centers like Target that provide windows of opportunities for careless spending. One of my major principles is to never subscribe to anything. As of today, I still have an Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom subscription, as well as an iCloud subscription. But I cannot accept any more subscriptions beyond that. In addition, I want to learn how to cut my own hair or spend less than $15 on a haircut.

As I mentioned at the start of my financial journey, my goal right now is to eliminate credit card debt. At the end of August, I will assess my spending performance and make adjustments for September.

Here is a rough breakdown of my projected spending for August.

Housing/Internet/Utilities: $780
Auto & Transport: $160
Food & Dining: $290
Shopping & Other: $70
____________________________
Grand Total: $1,300

Housing/Internet/Utilities: $780

Rent is roughly $550 per month. Recently, I have been exploring the idea of obtaining a Mercedes Sprinter Van to experience what it would be like to live in a van. The idea of living in a converted van excites me as it would likely enable me to generate a substantial amount of extra income while serving in the military, while also cutting costs on things like rent. I will provide more updates on this aspect of my life as I continue to make changes, but for now, I am still sharing an apartment in Ocean Springs with my friend.

Internet is roughly $90, the Electric Bill is roughly $90, and my cellphone plan is $30. Altogether, I would say I spend about $780 on Housing/Internet/Utilities, and at the moment there is very little flexibility with that amount.

Auto & Transport: $160

As I’ve written before in A Message to Whoever Stole My Car, my 2017 Hyundai Sonata Sport was stolen at the end of last month. I will still have to make my monthly payment for the car while my insurance company processes their claim, but I don’t anticipate any further spending on gas. I am curious to see what other budgets are affected by this. My car payment is $157, so I am going to set this budget at $160.

Food & Dining: $300

For Groceries, I have allocated $250 to continue meal-prepping my favorite simple recipes, which include overnight oats and salads. In July, I learned how to bake a salmon, which I can purchase for about $8 or $9 and can feed me for 3 days! All I do is season the salmon, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and let it bake for 24-26 minutes. This takes so little time, it makes me mad I didn’t try to cook before. I will continue to learn new recipes and save money!

I am cutting my budget for restaurants down from $200 to $50. When I consider that these meals end up costing me about half a week’s grocery, I see that there is still more room to grow. But I am human, and I know I will want to eat at a restaurant once or twice in a month.

Lastly, we have Coffee Shops and Fast Food. I am forgoing both for the month. Since I don’t drive anymore, I probably won’t be going to my favorite coffee shops. We’ll see how this goes!

Shopping & Other: $70

No more haircuts! I will try to learn to cut my own hair, or simply pay less than $15 for someone else to do it. Still, this will be a learning process for me, but it can end up saving me about $90 per month.

I decreased my shopping budget to $50 in August, and I plan to stick to that. After all, I will be going on a field exercise this month, and I won’t even have time to spend money. This should help me really pay off my credit card debt earlier than I anticipated. No more GU energy gels for a while.

Grand Total: $2,200

In August, I am pulling way back on my spending. I know this is plan is ambitious, and I hope I don’t overextend myself. But, I need at least one strong month to eliminate my credit card debt and start building a savings reserve to set myself up for deployment. Here goes nothing!

July 2023 – Monthly Spending Update

Last month I made the decision to revive the happy person blog, which has served as a forum for sharing my writing, poems, everyday experiences, and finances. In my first post about finance, I shared a picture of what my budget would like for the month of July. As a new month begins, I want to pause and reflect on my spending in the past month in order to get a better understanding of how my spending matched, exceeded, or came under those planned expenses.

The Big Picture

In the below graph, one of the first things I noticed is that there are very few days in which I spent an exorbitant amount of money in July, as opposed to in June. In June, reflected in the grey bars, I experienced 4 days in which I spent over $300, whereas in July that only occurred one time. I spent close to $600 in order to cover my rent for the month. The biggest net change to notice is total spending amount.

June Spending: $5,336.55
July Spending: $2,289.53

Net Difference: $3,047.02

In the Weeds

The very important thing to note is that July was a much better effort of curbing my bad spending habits and beginning to form good ones. As a comparison with June, I excelled and spent less than half the amount. But the eye-opening revelation is that as a stand-alone effort, July featured many money “mistakes.”

By taking a quick glance at how I’ve cut up the pie in July, we can immediately notice that food, shelter, and transportation (the big three consumer drains) form the biggest slices of the spending pie. Rent is, as of now, an unavoidable expense, but I can still make improvements in Food & Dining by continuing to cook my meals and avoid supporting the restaurant industry.

In July, I spent $155.09 on restaurants. What would it look like if I spent $0. Restaurants can be pricey, and most of the time leave me feeling quite unfulfilled with the experience. In America, it’s really hard to go to a restaurant and not leave a tip. This seems like a small thing, but it adds up. Imagine tipping $5 on every $20 trip to a restaurants, that’s $30 of tips in 6 trips. So out of those $150, $120 will go to the actual food and $30 will go towards tips. I am not against the restaurant industry, but I am not in a position to be the one supporting it’s workers.

Similarly, with fast food restaurants I experience a pull to spend money on food with very little nutritional value and a high cost for attainment. I spent $55.49 on Fast Food in July, but what if I spent $0. I may not be tipping at a fast food restaurant, but what about the cost-per-mile that it takes to get there, idle in my car as I wait for the order and drive back home to eat it. It’s probably unfair to incorporate Auto & Transport costs into fast food spending, but that’s the reality of the situation.

For Groceries, I allocated $300. But last month, I spent $389.86. Let’s be real, I can. increase my budget to $400 and if I decrease my Restaurant and Fast Food spending, I am making a net gain. While I exceeded this budget, I can recognize the potential to raise it for now, and slowly start cutting back on grocery spending as I learn new recipes, how to avoid wasting produce, and buying fruits and vegetables that are in season.

On the Road

Similar to food spending, I can also make improvements in Auto & Transport by … well, I have no car now so this is going to be an interesting category in August. In July, my biggest car expense was my monthly payment of $156.77. I wonder if I will still have that payment now that I don’t have a car, but if I did I could save a lot on gas by simply driving less. Let’s face it, I have gotten lazy and complacent and I can bike more than I already do. I own two bikes. If I can bike to work just one day per week, that can save me so much money. I can also ensure to avoid driving to base just to work out. It’s not worth the gas money, even though I do enjoy my time working out on the weekends. Instead, I can go for multiple long bike rides upwards of 2.5-3 hours on Saturday and Sundays.

Lookin‘ Good

Let’s face it, the $45 haircuts are nice but I am going to start getting a buzz cut from now on. A simple, easy to maintain buzz will keep me cool in the Summer and save me time in traveling to get a haircut. These simple things cut costs, by a lot!

And no more books! With the loss of my Kindle PaperWhite, I have decided to simply download the Kindle app on my iPhone and begin to transition toward a more minimalist lifestyle. As I slowly start to pare down my possessions, I will eventually have to let go of books that I own. Whether I read them before I retire them is entirely up to me, and right now I have time to make that decision, but by October 1, I will force myself to only choose 5 books to keep with me for the rest of my life, or at least until they are destroyed.

Shopping! Can I commit to no more new things? I can surely try, that’s all I can promise. But avoiding trips to Target, and having no car should help, can position me to save a lot of the income that I have coming to me. If I can commit to not buying new things, I can change my life. In August, not buying anything new will be a goal of mine.

Summary

In my next post, I will provide an updated version of my budget for August 2023. I am very happy with the direction I am trending in, and I am eager to see what comes next in my journey. I am looking forward to providing a net worth update at the end of this quarter as well. Until the next time, be happy!

A Message to Whoever Stole My Car

There is a feeling, deep down inside of me, of a hauntedness or burden of bad luck that is pervasive throughout my life. When I pause to think about the things that matter in life, it seems that they are all out of sync in the worst, most careless ways. Sometimes it takes over 30 minutes to muster the strength to keep going, to stand up from my bed, open the door to my bedroom, step out into the hallway, open the door to the bathroom, grab my toothbrush, and brush my teeth. Everything seems hard.

These areas that are out of sync are essential to living a balanced life. I would assume that feeling a mother’s love and support from family members is essential in some way. So is feeling love and connection in relationships. What about feeling fundamentally supported from a financial standpoint? These things matter, but right now I feel increasingly alienated from my mother, and having grown up away from my father, I feel parent-less. I also got out of a relationship, so I am also processing heartbreak and residual damage from breaking up. I have to learn what living is supposed to mean again. I am broke. Beyond broke. I have $2500 in credit card debt, $7000 in loans, and almost no money in saving or checking accounts. Life is hard, and today my car was stolen.

I always knew this could happen. I never knew it would happen. For the past few weeks, I have been waking up from these dark, vivid nightmares that often left me more tired than I was before I went to bed. I wondered if these were signs of my own bad luck creeping in, or something deeper. But maybe because of all of this, perhaps due to some premonition or other godly reason, I emptied most of the items out of my car – except for my Kindle, a pair of running shoes, sunglasses, and a bike pump.

When I thought things couldn’t get worse, they did. But that’s okay, and here I am learning to be thankful. So the message I have for whoever stole my car is simply that – thank you.

Thank you for offering to be my teacher today, for sharing this lesson that nothing in the world, especially material, is truly “belonging” to anyone. Most things, if not everything, is borrowed. We borrow things and we pay for them with money which we acquire by trading our time.

This experience inspires me to spend more time in quiet nature and seeking opportunities to pare down my “belongings” even further. I want to experience life without a Kindle, something I held so dearly and thought I would never part with, and I want to experience life without a Nintendo Switch. What meaning will life hold without the books I own, the extra clothes I never wear, the items that take up space in my closet?

I want to live an adventurous life and fulfill a greater purpose, and maybe losing my car was the catalyst that will enable me to do that. I don’t think I would have ever had the guts, much less the desire, to sell my car. I also don’t know how I will manage life without a car now – logistically. Do I bike 2 hours to work every day? I don’t have all the answers, but I am grateful to you for helping me escape this drive everywhere lifestyle, and search for a more peaceful existence. You have improved my quality of life and that of others too. I harbor no ill feelings to you, only gratitude and joy.

My journey towards financial freedom and independence must continue, with or without a car. My journey towards self-love must continue, with or without a girlfriend, my mom, and my family. My journey towards self-realization must continue, in spite of whatever circumstances I encounter. I need help, I truly do, but if it never comes I know I will be alright still.

2022 Financial Report

Happy Person has served as a platform for me to reveal my innermost thoughts in the form of poems, tell-alls, and story-telling. But there is a strange disconnect in that I do spend a lot of time thinking about finances, participating in sports, and cultivating my dream life by pursuing habits and goals that almost never get mentioned. In an effort to better share my story, I want to begin logging and tracking my progress with financial goals, lifestyle changes, and I know that some of them will stick and some of them will not.

In my first post, I want to approach the subject by selecting a baseline for myself. Since 2022 is the last complete year of my life for which I have closely tracked spending by using the Mint.com website and cellphone app, that is the month that I will begin tracking financial progress.

Breakdown of 2022 Monthly Spending

One of the sobering realizations of the 2022 monthly spending breakdown is that there were only 4 months in which I spent less than $2,000 on the month. Once I reveal the categories in which this money was spent, we could understand that there were a lot of financial mistakes made in 2022. Despite having read over 15 books on personal finance, I have failed to apply much of what I have learned. I made emotional and impulsive purchases that have led me to where I am today, with over $10,000 in consumer, auto, and loan debt combined.

Below is a breakdown of the spending totals in a table form for each month of 2022.

One thing I would like to note, despite spending an average of $3,382.84 each month, I managed to cut down my spending in November to $1,146.37 and $548.00 in December. These two months, if averaged out and replicated would lead to annual expenses of $10,166.22, a total savings of $30,427.89 when compared to the $40,594.11 spent in total on the year. These small nuggets provide the most optimistic picture for me as they symbolize the what-if that can result from a radical transformation in spending habits, and once I break down the spending by categories you will see that this is not only a possible way to live, but a responsible way to live.

The 2022 Spending Category Pie

Like many Americans, my top-three spending categories are Shopping, Food and Dining, and Auto & Transport. It is also no surprise that my next two highest spending categories are Travel and Entertainment, which brings me back to the biggest observation: if I am willing to make radical changes to my spending habits, I will be able to live debt-free and even pursue the goal of early retirement or financial independence.

Here is a further breakdown of these categories with the amounts spent on each category.

Shopping consisted of several major impulsive, and as such, unplanned purchases. One of them included a sweet BMC Teammachine SLR Road Bike in Orange that I purchased in July from Biloxi Bicycle Works for $2,138.93. My second most expensive purchase was a Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L II USM Optical Telephoto Lens that I purchased in January from Amazon for $1,680.99. Among other expenditures in the Shopping category was a suit from Brooks Brothers to attend a wedding in March for $850.38, and a Goruck GR1 Backpack that I purchased in May for $384.41. Do I have expensive taste? Yes. Am I proud of these decisions? No, not really. But now I can move forward.

Food and Dining amounted to a whopping $9,238.23. Of this total, I spent $4,451.23 (48.18%) at Restaurants, $3,544.27 (38.36%) on groceries, and $1,242.73 (13.46%) on everything else, likely fast food, coffee shops, and snacks. This is a major area for improvement and the budget that I have set for this year includes $200 per month on Restaurants and $300 per month on Groceries, which should bring me to at most $6,000 in those combined categories, a 33% reduction in those two sub-categories. Recently, I have been experimenting with a simple salad, consisting of cucumber, tomato, chickpeas, and onions for my lunch meal. If I can learn to cook, I can save so much money in this category.

Auto & Transport cost me $4,829.45 last year. This is largely comprised of my monthly car payments, about $200 per month, and my auto insurance $1,350.80 for the year. I spend about $140 on gas monthly, and all of this spending reinforces the finance blogs that preach getting rid of your car. These are mostly the expected expenses and don’t include the $250 battery replacement.

2022 Year In Review

What I learned from this analysis is that there are so many financial mistakes that I expose myself to if I don’t actively manage a budget, and there are so many mistakes I am doomed to repeat if I don’t make drastic changes to my lifestyle. Although I am proud to say I have experienced several paradigm shifts, I have to confess that I am not where I want to be financially.

As a general trend, my spending has moved lower over each quarter since 2022 Q1, but I have not been able to consistently maintain this progress. While 2022 was a horrible spending year, 2023 has been a year focused on eliminating debt from my life. I can be very optimistic for the 2024 Year In Review as I hope to learn how to cook, generate income from other sources, and return to investing.

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