Posted on January 02, 2010 by Jim Fitzsimmons

I thought I’d do a recap today on where I’ve spent my money for December 2009. As December was the first full month I’ve dedicted to debt reduction I’ve tried to spend less and be more aware of my spending: I’ve still got lots of wiggle room to improve, but rome wasn’t built in a day. There’s some spending I could tighten even further, but rather than try to save and scrimp every penny I’m going to concetrate more on making more money. Long term, this is where my focus needs to be.

Rent: $1400 monthy, all in. One monthly payment takes care of it all and includes all but phone, which I use sparingly anyway.

Groceries501.12 I’m not shopping from a list yet, but should – and I suppose I could tighten here even more..but I’ve pretty much killed all other expenses. I guestimated about $500 for groceries in a month before, and it looks like I’m spot on. I don’t know that I couls shrink this much. Heck, I have pasta/sauce a whole lot. And with winter the fruit/veggies are pricey. Top it off that my local grocery store is a minature version aimed at the yuppies so I’m sure I’m paying for it. If I had plain rice every night and drank water only I’m sure I could get the groceries down $100/month. But is it worth it? I don’t drink, don’t smoke… at very least I’d like t eat well. We’ll see how I do for January.

Starbucks I’m surprised. The total was only 93.46, and that includes buying myself my own christmas present, as a joke which was about$15. $80/month for lattes is only $20/week. If you know me, you know this is really good for me. Considering, there’s a starbucks down the street, and I’m me, and. Yay for me. I think I’ll buy a $75 gift card for this month and see if I can live on that. Then, maybe next month: $50.

Transportation. $118.30. My friends and family all live a short train ride away, and this is all train fare. Considering that this number is less than what insurance would be, if I had a car, this number is just fine. It could be higher in fact. It means I’m seeing more of my friends and family, which you can’t put a price on. Oh I’ve got insurance costs of $75/monthly for my motorbike and apartment contents combined. Most is the bike (apartment insurance is like $20 monthly or so)

Bank Fees $38.50. I have to investigate this. I’ve been paying silly bank fees for long enough. I need to contact my bank and remind them that I’ve been a client for 20+ years, and they need to do something about it.

Entertainment I have no life.. all my entertainment costs are ‘jim’s too lazy to cook for one, and I can get a pizza or walk up the street and find something cheaper than I can groceries’. $69.79, for about five meals at $10-15 each. Not too worried about this. In fact, it could be a lot higher and I’d still be OK with this.

Misc Items
I bought a card reader for my camera: $24.95, and a cable at best buy for a hard drive for $55 and that’s it. I did spend some money on postage to ship all my ebay sales but I’ve been paid for the postage so it’s probably a wash, or close enough so I won’t bother listing it. I might have been down a bit this month, as I offered free shipping on a few items and the shipping costs were more than expected…but I was still up, and most important: I got rid of some crap

I managed to pay Royal Bank VISA $650 in December, and Mastercard got a whopping ten grand thrown at it as well this month, plus an additional $500 due to my ebay sales. I’ve just yanked out $600 from my paypal account and as soon as it shows up in my bank account, I’ll toss it in the BMO mastercard too, and even add a few hundred too. This should bring my BMO mastercard down to about a balance of $6000, or close. MY RBC VISA is still at a silly $21,000 balance but we’re working on Mr. Mastercard for the time being as it has the highest interest rate.

So there we are. I really can’t see spending much less. Sure, I could knock out my starbucks habit, but then there’s a point where you’re too frugal for the sake of frugal. Some days that latte keeps me sane. The real money is the make more money option: either with a j-j-job, or through my efforts online here, and elsewhere.

It’s a great start to a new year: I can see the end of the Mastercard debt at very least by the end of the year if not sooner. Then we can work on RBC VISA next.

Here’s hoping.

More Bad News

1. Happy Groundhog Day
2. The 38,000 Dollar Challenge. An introduction
3. November 2009 Month in Review
4. RBC Royal Bank of Canada Credit Cards