Autumn 2016
I am due an update since I haven't done one since Sept 6. There hasn't been much to report as we weren't saving much money. The biggest change was that I moved all my tracking to Google Docs away from Excel.
Normal Expenses for the past 3 months. Property taxes in the two highest months.
Sept - 1312.53
Oct - 699.78
Nov - 1700.45
December 2016
Now that we are basically done with our renovation, our savings rate is going way up. Even without my bonus last month we saved 83%. We did purchase the last of the flooring we need for our basement.
Expenses/Savings
December
Normal Spend - $571.56
Remodel Spend - $388.02
Total Spend - $959.58
Total Savings - $12,206.83 ; 93%
2016
Normal Spend - $14,781.85
Remodel Spend - $27,221.46
Total Spend - $42,003.31
Total Savings - $35,010.35 ; 46%
We took a major hit on our Lending Club account in December. We had over $400 (19 in total!) in charge offs in December, which make our investment income turn negative! I really hope this is the worst of it. I have not put anything into the account since May and now I don't really want to for a while because I'd like to see how the account evolves over time with no additions. Simulating when I am done working.
Given that the P2P space has not been doing as well this year, I am happy with a 6.48% return for the year.
Our FAI for dividends is now well over $1000.
We have topped $1500 in FAI for my 401K. This is using our brokerage account yield, assuming we just roll the money into those investments.
Total FAI - $3610.63 (+569.26)
Time to Bills Only - 9 Months (-4)
Time to Bills & Food - 24 Months (-5)
Time to TTM Expenses - 48 Months (-3)
TTM Expenses - $14781.85(-323.71)
All of the 'time to' values have declined nicely in the last few months. They should continue declining from here on out. In the coming months, we have a number of 'high expense' months (February, March & May) that will be rolling off of our TTM Expense value. These months will see significant gains if we don't have any unexpected expenses.
Further Expense Reductions
I have talked previously about things I can do to reduced expenses more. I've started doing a number of them already.
- Cheaper Chicken Feed
This one was a big decline. We are not buying really crappy feed, but we are not going for 'Organic' anymore simply because we don't think it's worth the cost. We found a feed that doesn't include animal by products. It's 40 lbs for 13.86. Each bag should last just over 1 month.
- Groceries
We have started making a deliberate attempt at spending less on groceries. Far less snacks are being bought and more in season produce than before. Also no more organic at all.
- Eating Out
We haven't been eating out much at all, except over Christmas. We ate out once in December, once in October, and once in July. I think we ordered a pizza once as well. I am just really not finding eating out to be fun anymore. It's a hassle to pick something from the menu and I also don't really like being served. Lunch buffets are much better.
- Energy
This is a tough one. All my monitoring efforts have been fruitless. The computer is using $2-$3 per month. The fridge and freezer are each using less than $5 per month. Water heating is our biggest cost, our water heater is 5500 watt. To reduce this we are not using hot water for washing clothes anymore and when I do dishes I rinse with cold water, not warm. So far it seems to be reducing our usage quite a bit. We have also starting setting our dryer to 'Extremely Low' and it is doing a great job of drying. It runs for about 20 more minutes, but using far less energy.
I have a goal of keeping all of our non-property taxes/insurance expenses under $1000 each month. The months we have bills due (Mar, June, Aug, Sept, Nov) can go over $1000, but not over $1500.
Year End Returns
We achieved 6.48% in Lending Club, 11% in our brokerage, 12% in my 401K and a whopping 18% in our HSA.
Happy New Year!!