Tag Archives: What I Spent

2023 Net Worth and Monthly Spending Update

by in Rachel Barnard and tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Here are some charts I made to compare my monthly spending over 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018. The purpose of these charts is to show changes in spending over time (across different categories).

Here are a few more fun numbers:

  1. I increased my spending 39% from 2021 to 2022, while increasing my income 22% (I increased my spending 12% from 2020 to 2021 while increasing my income 3.5% and I increased my spending 4% from 2019 to 2020 while increasing my income 3%)
  2. The house I bought in 2021 increased in value 37% since last year
  3. My credit score increased and then decreased when I moved so it’s roughly the same number as where it was at the beginning of last year
  4. Notable increases in spending from 2021 to 2022 include:
    1. Household/Clothing – 603% increase due to moving twice and not owning the furniture, electronics, household goods etc. for our own place
    2. Travel – 345% increase due to several once-in-a-lifetime trips including a week at Disney and the Starcruiser hotel and a trip to Turkey
    3. Entertainment – 182% increase due to buying tickets to more expensive events like seeing Kevin Hart perform
    4. Bills housing/utilities – 59% increase due to moving into our own place and not splitting rent costs with another person
    5. Bills phone – 15% increase by moving to a higher plan on T-mobile in order to maximize the purchase of two iPhones this year
    6. Misc – 225% increase
  5. Notable decreases in spending from 2021 to 2022 include:
    1. Health- 56% decrease from not re-upping on some vitamins I had been purchasing in the past and sticking with the one that makes the most difference in my gut health. I only went to a doctor one time and an eye doctor one time so no large medical bills
    2. Fitness – 16% decrease from using gift cards to purchase classes and using my Ambassador funds from working at one of the studios
    3. Gifts – 80% decrease because of how I calculate and what I determine to be a gift.
    4. Groceries – 18% decrease
    5. Transportation – 9% decrease due to lower car maintenance costs in 2022 (my partner and I have one car and share expenses)
  6. I did not meet my LLC goal of earning $5,000, but was able to earn just over $4000 for the year
  7. I still have $10,000 in my emergency fund but since my bills have increased, if I need to use that to live on it won’t go as far

The next  charts show my net worth split categories:

16% increase in my assets from 2021 to 2022
76% increase in my assets from 2020 to 2021
53% increase in my assets from 2019 to 2020

2021 Asset breakdown

2022 Net Worth and Monthly Spending Update

by in Rachel Barnard and tagged , , , , ,

Here are some charts I made to compare my monthly spending over 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018. I included taxes and my HSA withholdings in my most recent 2021 chart as well as my Roth IRA contributions. The purpose of these charts is to show changes in spending over time (across different categories).

Here are a few more fun numbers:

  1. I increased my spending 12% from 2020 to 2021, while increasing my income 2.5% (I increased my spending 4% from 2019 to 2020 while increasing my income 3%)
  2. I bought a house in May of 2021, which became 13% of my monthly spending as averaged by 12 months of the year, effectively doubling my ‘housing’ spending category to 26% of my earnings
  3. The house I bought increased in value 20% since I bought it according to Zillow/Redfin
  4. My credit score increased by 3.8% (28 points)
  5. My investment portfolio changed because I had to sell some general investment stocks to have enough cash to afford my house purchase
  6. Notable increases in spending from 2020 to 2021 include:
    1. Fitness – 736% because I switched studios and was paying cash for classes instead of using trade money
    2. Eating out – 128% increase (my partner and I decided to switch to me paying for groceries and him paying for eating out midway through the year)
    3. Groceries – 25% increase (see eating out above point)
    4. Bills-housing – 8% increase when we moved
  7. Notable decreases in spending from 2020 to 2021 include:
    1. Health – 37% decrease since I am more crafty with my supplement purchases
    2. Household and clothing – 32% decrease as I’ve been able to use Amazon gift cards for a lot of these items
    3. Bills-Transportation – 19% decrease since our car is between mileage maintenance milestones
  8. I met my LLC goal of earning $5,000 and will be putting everything except taxes and expenses and $1000 for 2022 expenses into my 401k when I get the go-ahead from my accountant
  9. I had to gather almost all of my cash, savings, emergency fund, and stocks that weren’t retirement-allocated in order to come up with the cash necessary to buy my house so my emergency fund is now below $10,000 and I’m building it back up.
  10. My emergency fund is only worth 2 months’ spending since my spending increased with the additional house expenses and I decreased my emergency/savings fund to buy the house

The next two charts show my net worth split categories:

To note: I had a 53% increase in my assets from 2019 to 2020 and a 76% increase in my assets from 2020 to 2021.

To note: My investment portfolio increased 52% from 2019 to 2020 and 10% (without the real estate value) from 2020 to 2021 (or 323% if you add in the value of the real estate but don’t subtract the mortgage)

2021 Asset breakdown

2021 Net Worth and Monthly Spending Update

by in Rachel Barnard and tagged , , ,

Here are some charts I made to compare my monthly spending over 2020, 2019, and 2018. I didn’t include taxes or my monthly HSA withholdings from my paycheck. But you can see where I spend the most of my money. This pie chart only accounts for 42% of my gross income. The rest of it goes towards taxes, HSA paycheck withholdings, investing, and savings. The purpose of these charts is to show changes in spending over time (across different categories).

Here are a few more fun numbers:

  1. I decreased my spending by 28% from 2018 to 2019 while increasing my income 16%
  2. I increased my spending 4% from 2019 to 2020 while increasing my income 3%
  3. I increased my total net worth by 73% from 2019 to 2020
  4. 40% of my spending was in “health” in 2018, 28% in “housing” in 2019, and 26% in “housing” in 2020 as my largest spend categories
  5. Eating comprises my highest spend category after housing in general. 22% in 2020, 30% in 2019, and 16% in 2018. As a non-fixed cost, this is quite high and if I were to cut back on spending this would be the ‘easiest’ category to cut back in. Even though I meal plan and have almost no food waste, I don’t budget this category and it’s my most indulgent spending throughout the year.
  6. My credit score took a dive in January of 2020 (I think because they changed how they calculate) by 7% and recovered 3% throughout the year.

Here is another way of looking at my spending categories over time. Note that I broke out my ‘writing’ category in 2020 and it’s now captured not as personal spending/income but in my business expenses so you don’t see it here in 2020.

The next two pie charts show my net worth split categories:

2019 – November – What I Spend in a Month in Seattle

by in Rachel Barnard and tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

I only have three non-changeable living expenses per month: Rent at $700, car insurance at $145, and my phone bill that is usually around $150 but was discounted for this month. This comes out to $995/month or $248.75/week.

I have monthly discretionary expenses that could be reduced in the future: $393/month or $98.25/week

  1. Financial education at $150/month
  2. Massage from Hand & Stone at $69.95/month plus tip (I already canceled my membership and will only be getting occasional massages next year)
  3. Supplements at around $130/month
  4. Patreon support at $20/month
  5. Entertainment at $23.05/month for AMC A-list membership

After canceling my massage membership and finishing up my financial education, next year I will be spending $173.05/month or $43.26/week

I have monthly discretionary expenses that vary:

  1. Gas for the car (I budget $100/month and the range is $25 – $202 per month)
  2. Maintenance on the car (usually twice/year there is maintenance done on the car and I budget $100/month for those costs. The next car maintenance at 40k miles will cost $1500 so I will have to increase my budget to accommodate this expense.)
  3. Transportation (includes Good to Go, Uber/Lyft, etc that I budget $25/month)
  4. Food from the grocery store (varies from $220 to $595 per month and averaged $398/month or $94/week. I budgeted $250/month for next year or $62.50/week)
  5. Food from eating out (Ranged from $154 – $890 per month and averaged $350/month or $82/week. I budgeted $150/month for next year or $37.50/week)
  6. Gifts (I budget $100/month and this includes shipping costs, games, and gift cards)

I have expenses that come up every so often that aren’t always monthly

  1. Travel (I spent $2618 this year on travel related expenses, equal to $218/month or $51/week. I traveled to Florida and Disneyland in 2019. I budgeted $100/month in 2020 for this category of spending.
  2. Housing and consumables (I spent $371 this year on clothing and household items which is equal to $31/month or $7/week. I budgeted $25/month in 2020 for this category of spending)
  3. Writing (I spent $241 last year on writing-related expenses, which is equal to $20/month or $5/week. I budgeted $75/month in 2020 for this category of spending because I want to go to the Romance Writer’s Conference in the area next year).
  4. Dance and fitness (I spent $579.45 total this year, to equal $48.29/month or $11.14/week even though I budget $100/month. I budgeted only $75/month for this category of spending in 2020. )
  5. Taxes and tax prep (Since I have my own side business, I have to pay quarterly taxes and pay for additional tax preparation help every year)

Here is the breakdown of everything I spent in the month of November:

Date Purchase Category Amount Day
11/3/2019 Kitchen Istanbul restaurant Food – eating out -$52.00 Sunday
11/4/2019 Patreon: PSGR, Ksenia Anske, Katie Wismer Charity/Art Support -$15.00 Monday
11/6/2019 Imperfect Foods Grocery Delivery Food – groceries -$25.75 Wednesday
11/7/2019 Hand & Stone Massage Health -$69.95 Thursday
11/8/2019 BIBI Mediterranean restaurant Food – eating out -$41.15 Friday
11/8/2019 QFC Grocery Store Food – groceries -$38.27 Friday
11/8/2019 The UPS store Gifts -$48.13 Friday
11/12/2019 NaNoWriMo Donation Charity/Art Support -$30.00 Tuesday
11/12/2019 AMC movie theatre popcorn Food – eating out -$10.54 Tuesday
11/12/2019 Trader Joe’s Grocery Store Food – groceries -$5.99 Tuesday
11/12/2019 Supplements Health -$90.77 Tuesday
11/13/2019 Pizza week Seattle pizza slices Food – eating out -$10.00 Wednesday
11/13/2019 Grocery Outlet Grocery Store Food – groceries -$8.94 Wednesday
11/15/2019 Gas from Costco Car Gas -$36.65 Friday
11/15/2019 Safeway Grocery Store Food – groceries -$30.99 Friday
11/19/2019 AMC movie theatre concessions Food – eating out -6.92 Tuesday
11/20/2019 Imperfect Foods Grocery Delivery Food – groceries -36.51 Wednesday
11/20/2019 GROCERY OUTLET Grocery Store Food – groceries -17.42 Wednesday
11/21/2019 IJ Sushi Burrito restaurant at the mall Food – eating out -27.7 Thursday
11/22/2019 Safeway Grocery Store Food – groceries -63.7 Friday
11/22/2019 TMOBILE*AUTO PAY 800-937-8997 WA Phone -18.68 Friday
11/24/2019 AMC movie theatre concessions Food – eating out -3.62 Sunday
11/25/2019 Safeway Grocery Store Food – groceries -$66.65 Monday
11/25/2019 Bartell Drug Grocery Store Food – groceries -$4.99 Monday
11/26/2019 Auto insurance Car Insurance -145.12 Tuesday
11/26/2019 Financial Coach Education -$150.00 Tuesday
11/26/2019 Pagliacci pizza restaurant Food – eating out -$28.61 Tuesday
11/27/2019 Gas from Costco Car Gas -$17.01 Wednesday
11/27/2019 AMC A-list Entertainment -$23.05 Wednesday
11/27/2019 Whole Foods Grocery Store Food – groceries -$8.33 Wednesday
11/27/2019 Trader Joe’s Grocery Store Food – groceries -$8.97 Wednesday
11/27/2019 Wa Secretary Of State LLC application Side Hustle Expenses -$200.00 Wednesday
11/29/2019 Holly Jolly Market tacos food truck Food – eating out -$16.00 Friday
11/29/2019 Local Market: lip balm, candle, scrub Housing/Consumables -$28.00 Friday
11/29/2019 Amzn Digital book purchase for review Writing -$11.00 Friday
11/30/2019 Rent payment Rent -$700.00 Saturday

My typical monthly spending will not include a payment to the WA secretary of state as this was a one-time expense. Future monthly spending will not include the $69.95 for a massage. I might have more expenses related to transportation, fitness, and gifts. I am working to reduce my monthly spending on food. I combine the category for housing and consumables and this category includes clothing, personal hygiene, laundry soap, etc. I’m able to keep these expenses close to $0 because I earn gift cards throughout the year that I can use to purchase these items.