I wanted to give y’all a sneak peek into my monthly spending and savings, so here is a breakdown of my income and expenses for the month of January. I’ll be doing this at the beginning of each month, so stay tuned for more!

To give you a more complete picture, each section of this post breaks down my income, my expenses, and then my total savings. Let’s start with income:

January 2020 Income

This January was a good month for my income and my savings because it was a three-paycheck month (rather than my usual two) for my full-time job. But, the dog walking check that I received in January was a bit less than usual, since it’s actually for the walks I did in December. I took more time off dog walking in December to visit family for the holidays and for the wedding. Next month’s should be back up to between $500-$600.

Here’s the full breakdown:

Income Source	$$$	Notes
Full-Time Income (Salary)	$3,506.62	Three-paycheck month!
Deferred Retirement Savings & Match	$852.20
Dog Walking	$376.43	This is for the walks I did in the month of December. I did fewer walks than I typically do, so this is lower than usual.
Other	$47.40	Savings interest, cash back rewards, selling stuff online, etc.

Total January 2020 Income: $4,782.65

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January 2020 Spending

January was a pretty typical spending month for me. Some categories are a little higher than usual and some a little lower, so overall, it evens out.

It’s been great weather, so our electric bill was a bit less than usual. At the same time, I’ve been throwing extra money at my car loan the past few months to kill it off early. I should be done with that by the end of March (so it’ll be paid off two years early) and that money can all be redirected toward savings and investments.

I also bought a plane ticket for a quick trip we’re taking in February. We’re still working on cutting down our dining out costs a bit, but we managed to stick to the meal plan pretty well this month. (Stay tuned for the meal plan update, complete with recipes, later this week).

We didn’t quite do a dry January, but we did manage a slightly damp January. We drank less frequently but didn’t totally abstain.

I bought a bike and paid for the start-up costs for this blog, so those are some other one-off costs listed here.

Overall it was a pretty good month. I spent a lot of time outside, enjoyed time with friends and family, attended an Ira Glass talk, started this blog, and tried out some new restaurants and recipes. A swell start to the new year, if I do say so myself.

The chart below shows how my spending broke down. Everything with an asterisk* means that Cassie and I each pay that amount (so our total rent is $1,410 per month, but we each pay $705).

Category	$$$	Notes
Rent*	$705
Water/Waste*	$53.65	Our city is in the middle of overhauling the water infrastructure, so we have extra high fees/taxes along with usage costs.
WiFi*	$32.49
Electric*	$35.67
Renters Insurance*	$9.71
Car Payment	$634.64	My car payment each month is only $184.64, but I’ve been paying an extra $450 each month towards the principle for the past few months so that I can just be done with it. Two more months to go!
Auto Insurance	$77.43
Gas	$45.22	Took a trip to visit my parents one weekend, so that added an extra tank of gas.
Groceries*	$209.19	Includes household items and a trip to Costco where we bought a year’s worth of dish soap, floss, lint rollers, and a couple months’ worth of laundry detergent. My next post will be an overview of our meal plan from January.
Dining Out & Entertaining	$106.04	Hopefully next month’s will be lower.
Fun Money & Bars	$7.46
Coffee	$6.30
Subscriptions & Memberships*	$40.19	Costco membership came out this month along with our regular monthly subscriptions.
Stuff for the House*	$81.79	New set of sheets, new hose hookups for the washing machine, new air filters, garden supplies, and a space heater so we don’t have to heat the whole house for the few weeks it gets cold here.
Travel	$200	Bought a plane ticket for our trip to Pennsylvania in February.
Insurance (Health, Dental, Life, Disability Insurance)	$96.60
Health Spending	$5	Got sick and bought some medicine.
Work Expenses	$74.89	Annual domain and web hosting costs for blog, as well as supplies for work and food for my staff.
Misc.	$67.99	I bought a bike! and little tire cap screws.

Total Spending: $2,489.26

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January 2020 Savings & Investments

I earned $4,782.65 this month, spent $2,489.26 on expenses, and the rest of my money went into various savings vehicles. So, I saved $2,293.39 this January.

I’m pretty happy with how things went this month, especially since I have some savings goals that might be a bit of a stretch this year.