June 2021 Budget Breakdown
Hello everyone! If you’re new to my blog, at the beginning of each month I take a look at the previous month to see what I saved, invested, and spent. I’m in the beginning stages of my journey to reach early retirement and reach financial independence. A great way to do this is by tracking your expenses, which I do with a great platform called Personal Capital which is completely free to use. I have all of my checking accounts, credit cards, Roth IRA, and brokerage account linked to it which makes it easy to get a birds-eye view of my spending and saving habits.
If you missed my May 2021 budget breakdown you can read that by clicking here. I know that today is the 4th of July, a holiday in the USA. I hope that you had plenty of delicious barbecues and spent time with friends and family. Let’s dig in!
Investing $0 USD
I stuck with my decision to not invest any money from my monthly salary. I will only invest money that is from my sales commission checks that come quarterly. This has been helpful for me because I only budget my monthly salary and can easily just invest my commissions without thinking too hard about It. I recently had a baby two months ago and wanted to free up some cash to go towards baby essentials such as diapers, wipes, clothes, etc.
Savings $1,500
I started adding money to my savings accounts again. I had a goal of saving a good chunk of money to be a potential down payment on a home in 3-5 years. My husband and I will both be contributing to the down payment if we choose to purchase a house, if we decide not to, I can go ahead and invest the cash. So $1,000 went to the house down payment fund, and I setup an automatic $500 monthly savings to go towards creating a separate family savings fund that is separate from my emergency fund.
Rent & Utilities $1433.51
My husband and I split the rent of a 2-bedroom apartment in the San Francisco East Bay Area as well as the sewage, water, and electricity bills. This month came out to be a bit lower than the previous month. We still use the air conditioning when the temperature goes above 75 degrees Fahrenheit. When it’s below that temperature, we simply open up the windows to get a nice cross breeze and some fresh air.
Groceries $473
Our grocery bill was very high this month in comparison to the $130 grocery bill last month. But that’s okay! Since I am breastfeeding, I have found that I am much hungrier than usual and do my best to stay hydrated as well. I’ve set a new budget goal of $400 every month for groceries that I plan to stick with. I hope that adding an extra $100 to my grocery budget will account for the extra food.
Charitable Giving $36
This month’s charitable giving is the same as the previous month. I donate $36 per month through an organization called ‘Save The Children’. The money goes to the sponsorship of a young girl in Kenya to pay for their school fees as well as providing clean water for their village.
Subscriptions $39.95
I am subscribed to Netflix, Amazon Prime and pay membership fees to two YouTube creators that I love to watch.
General Merchandise $424.62
I haven’t spent this much on general merchandise in a longgggg time. But let me explain! It was my 31st birthday and I decided to buy myself another pair of slip-on shoes (essential with a newborn baby) and a new purse. I take good care of my purses and bought one from a great shop called Min and Mon that makes small batches of creative purses hand-made by women in Columbia and sold from New York City. I also bought some household items to stock up on for the next few months.
Restaurants $0
You read that correctly! I didn’t spend ANY money on restaurants last month. I focused more on cooking and eating at home. I did go out to dinner with my mother but she had a restaurant gift card that we used. Whoo-hoo!
Debt Payoff $240
This goes toward my low-interest personal loan. I plan on paying this off in the next two years. I might even pay it off by the end of this year. But for now, I’m paying slightly more than the monthly payments.
Baby Supplies $313.85
There’s a reason why some people think it’s harder to reach financial independence with children. I didn’t expect this to be so high! However, I tried to stock up on diapers, wipes, children’s medicine, and a few other baby items. By buying in bulk, I should cut down on how much I will be spending in this category next month. Fingers crossed.
Hobbies $149.35
I love tennis and grew up playing it with my family. I wasn’t even on my high school’s varsity tennis team and got my letter woman’s jacket. Unfortunately, I haven’t played much in the past decade. Now that I have healed after having my baby and want to start being more active I thought it would be a great time to ease back into playing tennis. I paid for adult tennis classes and wanted to start off at the beginner level and work my way back up to being advanced. I look forward to playing again and hopefully finding other people to play with from time to time.
In conclusion…
In the entire month of June, I saved and spent a grand total of….$4610.28 USD. I’m happy with this number and am curious to see what my grand total will look like next month.
Do you track your spending? If so, tell me how you do so and I’d be happy to hear from you!
