Our net worth is up again, if only slightly. We have been very fortunate most months, and have had very few where we end down. This month is no exception, and we ended in the black $885, ending with a net worth of -$4,732.76.
This month was a little crazy with eating out and other fun spending, we were over budget by $91 – and there’s really no excuse for it other than having fun and being lazy with cooking.
We were also over budget on groceries ($11 – even with eating out) and gas ($43 – although I did take a trip to see some college friends the first weekend, and this is over by the cost it took to get there and back) but well under for miscellaneous expenses ($140- which makes up for almost all of the overages). Unfortunately this means our Fun Fund, currently set at 5% of our income, plus any carry over from previous months, is still in the red. Its proving to be much harder than we thought to cut back and get that balance up, we consistently spend between $250 and $300 on fun stuff even when trying to cut back.
We were able to get alternative income flowing again, and pulled in over $440 for August. Our investments were also up for the month, by +3.42%.
Here are the details:
Investments Update: +3.42% for August, +19.03% YTD
Alternative Income Update: +442.01 for August, +3,132.46 YTD
The full spreadsheets with all the information can be seen here:
- Alternative Income Breakdown – Fully updated as income is earned throughout the month.
- Monthly Budget Breakdown – August Edition
- Full Net Worth breakdown – August Edition
Here are blank versions the spreadsheets we use; you can download them if you are interested in using our templates:
- Where did the money go? A spread sheet we use to track individual expenses, both fixed and variable. Each purchase we make is added. We normally use credit cards so we can update this at the end of the month with all purchases, but if we pay cash for something it is added the same day. You can see the 5% Fun Fund in use here – we budget 5% of all income towards fun purchases.
- Monthly dashboard A spreadsheet that shows how our net worth has changed from month to month. It is also used to record the value of all assets (liquid and illiquid) as well as expenses and the current net worth.
Don’t forget to enter for chances to increase your own net worth by winning a prize in the Shuffle for a Shuffle going on with the College Money Network.
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