Stepping back for a macro look at my spending



JD over at Get Rich Slowly recently detailed his discretionary spending for 2008. I keep track of all of my spending, but rarely add it up for the entire year or break it down into larger groups. (Instead, I focus on individual expenses on a monthly basis.) I thought this time I would add my discretionary spending up for 2008 and see how I feel about the totals. Do you do anything like this? If so, do you find it helpful? I rarely look at things on a macro level, so this will be a switch for me.

I had a hard time choosing which categories to call “discretionary” in the first place, because to my way of thinking most of them are. (Or at least portions of most of them.) But I went with the categories below because I believe that most people would consider them discretionary, with the possible exception of pets. So here is a summary of my 2008 discretionary spending:

Books & Magazines – $81.52
Clothing – $519.59
Dining out – $1866.78
Entertainment (Movies out, Netflix, concerts, plays) – $343.15
Gardening – $726.57 (this is unusual because the entire gardening total is mostly one-time start-up expenses, including having a tree planted)
Haircuts – $330.50
Health club – $19.34 (this is out of proportion because I prepaid for 2008 in 2007; 2009’s number is $294.20 for 15 months)
Hobbies – $494.30
Pets – $583.65
Snacks – $156.86
Travel – $796.46

Grand total? $5918.72

That’s…a lot. Hm. Maybe I should consider doing this exercise regularly! I guess this is a good example of “the little things add up”. What’s annoying is that I can’t imagine how I spent $81.52 on books and magazines, since I almost never buy books and only had two magazine subscriptions. I must have bought an expensive book, but I don’t remember what it was. And $494.30 on hobbies? A good portion of that is the rifle I bought (that I still haven’t tried out), but for the rest? I have no idea. The dining out total seems horrific to me, but it’s actually within $5 of my monthly goal so I guess it’s not. And I do really enjoy dining out.

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Posted in Spending money on Jan 26, 2009

4 Responses to “ Stepping back for a macro look at my spending ”

  1. # 1 Stephanie Says:
    January 26th, 2009 at 8:10 am

    When we took Dave Ramsey FPU we decided our eating out budget was for fun and not out of necessity. In other words, no more eating out because we “don’t feel like cooking.” We have a bunch of ready-to-go meals in the freezer for those nights. Instead, dinners out are great social times with friends or a nice date. So no regrets here, either!

  2. # 2 Craig Says:
    January 26th, 2009 at 12:22 pm

    Good approach, I don’t look at spending on a yearly basis. Granted I have only began budgeting a few months ago. I think it’s difficult to look at such a long time period, needs to be broken down in a shorter time period.

  3. # 3 bluntmoney Says:
    January 26th, 2009 at 6:30 pm

    Craig, it was actually pretty easy to do. I think it took me five minutes, but then I have a long history of tracking.

  4. # 4 TStrump Says:
    January 26th, 2009 at 8:25 pm

    Your expenses are pretty decent. You seem to have a firm grasp of where your money goes.
    My problem has been entertainment.
    This is also a great idea for a blog post …

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