My Cost of Living in the Austin, TX Metro Area-April 2022
It’s that time again for me to look back at my spending, saving and investing from the previous month. I like to use Personal Capital which offers a great dashboard for keeping track of all of your accounts in one place. If you’d like to check out my last monthly budget blog post you can find that here. Now, let’s get started!
Investing $3126 USD
This month I received my quarterly commission from my job so I invested an extra $1,000 more than usual. My job has a 4% 401k match and I am also investing in my Vanguard brokerage account and a new Wealthfront brokerage account.
About $626 is invested into my Roth 401k, $1,000 into my Vanguard brokerage which completely goes into the Total Stock Market ETF, and $400 into Wealthfront that is in an aggressive investing fund mostly made up of stocks.
Savings $2000
Since we currently have a house under construction, I decided to add an extra $2,000 to my monthly emergency fund to bring it to $10,000. This way, it has about 4 months of my required living expenses.
Rent & Utilities $1186
My husband and I split the rent and utilities of a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom apartment in the Austin Texas metro area. This total includes my portion of our rent/sewage/water as well as our electricity bill and apartment insurance. This month’s electric bill was a bit higher than usual due to the temperature starting to get hotter. It’s definitely going to be a precursor to this summer.
Groceries $852
So…this is the highest that my grocery bill has ever been. In the past, my husband and I usually split the cost of food. But, we have been solely ordering our food and doing grocery pickup with H-E-B grocery and have been doing weekly trips. We buy a lot of fresh fruits and veggies and restock on our daughter’s whole milk and snacks as well. We also have my husband’s mother living with us which adds an extra cost. On top of that, I have groceries for 3-4 meals sent to me by Hello Fresh which serve as my lunch and dinners during the work week. It makes life so much easier to already know what to cook and just follow the recipe cards. If you’ve ever thought about trying them out, feel free to use my code for $120 promotion towards your first box of fresh ingredients and delicious recipes.
When I first saw how high this was, I was shocked. But, I’m essentially buying groceries for three adults and one rapidly growing toddler. Yes, I can be more disciplined but to be honest I have the ability to not have to be strict with my food budget.
Charitable Giving $136
This month I made a monthly donation to a child I’m sponsoring in Kenya. This is something that I’ve been doing for over two years and I write the young girls letters throughout the years.
Subscriptions $67
This covers my two YouTube creator subscriptions, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix.
General Merchandise $867
This spending was also WAY too high. Let me explain! $340 of this went towards buying business slacks and business shirts. I don’t have any business professional clothing anymore. I’m attending a few work conferences and wanted to invest in comfortable dress slacks and blouses for the future. The rest of it went towards buying household items on Amazon. This included shoes for my daughter, baby wipes, chairs for our patio, a baby gate, two baby playmate, a storage ottoman, and washcloths.
I’m not planning on spending as much in the upcoming weeks. I have to make a few purchases but plan to keep this number under $400 in May.
Restaurants $162
I’m recognizing a pattern for April. Every category is higher than usual! I bought some popsicles at a visit to a park in Austin. One night I bought Chilis for dinner and another night was Dominos pizza. I plan on cooking much more in May except when I am gone on work travel. When I eat during work travel those meals are always reimbursed by my company.
Debt Payoff $300
This goes toward my low-interest personal loan. I have increased the monthly payment by $60 to chop down this debt much quicker. I’m still considering paying it off completely by the end of this year with my commission money.
Hobbies $265
I have been wanting to attend some FIRE (financial independence retire early) conferences for the past three years. Unfortunately, COVID stopped me from attending anything. I did buy some early bird tickets to attend the EconoMe Conference in March 2023. I feel safe enough that by then, my daughter will be able to have the COVID vaccine and surges in infections should hopefully have slowed down.
Taxes $2303
Don’t you just love taxes? LOL. Thankfully this year the birth of our daughter helped to bring down our tax bill. Still, we had to pay about $150 to file our federal and California state taxes as well as just over $2,000 in taxes owed to the state of California. Thankfully, Texas doesn’t charge any state taxes. Phew.
Medical Expenses $145
This went to my co pay to see my general practitioner and half the cost of my weekly therapy sessions. My company covers the other half of the cost of therapy.
Personal/Self Care $144
This is one of my favorite categories because it allows me to take care of myself. $90 goes to an hour long massage including tip. The rest of it was to purchase new body wash from a black owned company, Alaffia. Also, I purchased some replacement razors.
Dependent $92
This could technically be rolled into general merchandise. It includes the cost of my daughter’s monthly diaper subscription with Coterie Baby. The diapers are amazingly soft, absorbent and gentle on her skin.
Entertainment $70
This went to spending money at Specs to purchase some local beer, spirits and mixers.
Insurance $66
This category isn’t very exciting. It covers our apartment insurance and my term life insurance.
In conclusion…
In the entire month of April, I invested and spent a grand total of….$11,781 USD. This month was unique because we had to pay taxes, I saved and invested $5,000 and I spent more than usual in the grocery and general merchandise categories.
Do you track your spending? If so, tell me how you do so and I’d be happy to hear from you!
Are you new to paying off debt and investing towards retirement? If so, I’d recommend checking out my free Early Retirement Resources Toolkit.
