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How I Spent My Money in April

Jasmine Tang

I’m breaking down how I spent my money in April and how it’s changed in comparison to March.

Investing: $500 (down $27.65) 

  • I put the same amount of money into my IRA account as last month. 

  • I cancelled my round-ups for Acorns for this month so that I could be more flexible with my money.

Quality of Life: $2159.14 (up $1150.87)

  • Paid for 2 months of art class instead of one month because my credit card got stolen and couldn’t switch the card on file; since I didn’t want to potentially get late fees, I just paid off the next month as well. This expense was complete planned and saved for from previous months.

  • Bought a bunch of jeans to try on, like 13 pairs of jeans. I will be returning at least 10 pairs of them after I try them on and pick my favorites.

Phone bill: $46.51 (up $5.41)

  • Changed the card on file and somehow got charged with more taxes now since my credit card’s billing address is in California ?? 

Short Trips: $0 (down $233.40) 

  • Bought a ticket home after WFH was mandated at work last month.

Interest and Fees: $253 (up $174.41)

  • Last month, my one year subscription of YNAB was over so I paid for that 

  • This month I applied for 2 credit cards, one being the AMEX gold so that was the bulk of this month’s interest and fees charge.

Rent: $1480 (no change) 

  • Never really changes…

Utilities: $0 (down $48.47)

  • I included my home improvement items from last month as utilities because they don't seem to fit anywhere else. 

  • Roommates were (and still are) wonderful and paid for WiFi and electricity since I’ve been out all month.

Self Care: $17.79 (up $7.79)

  • This is probably some form of vitamins.

  • I can’t really use more money on self care since everything is shelter in place. But I want to go to get a massage and chiropractor as soon as they open up. My back…

Subscriptions: $22.95 (up $14.95)

  • Audible and Spotify 

  • My card was stolen last month (2 times... ) anyways. I paused Audible as I was waiting for my new cards and resumed it this month.

Groceries: $304.98 (up $235.82)

  • I think I really should rethink how I buy groceries… 

  • 2 bottles of wine, 1lb of coffee, 1 quart of milk, 1 bar of chocolate, 2 mangos, 1 pack of cherry tomatoes, 1 bag of kimchi, 6 freshly meals, $43 on imperfect 

  • I did spend $85 on my anniversary day with Eric, we basically did an at-home KBBQ. To put this into perspective, on our last anniversary, I spent $85 on one bottle of wine for dinner. The groceries, along with the soju & sake he bought, covered lunch for us, dinner for us + his mom, and leftover meat for another day. AND a $16 TUB of kimchi. 

Dining out: $130.04 (down $277.15)

  • This is so nice, my dining out was cut down significantly this month. Our family has been making a lot of food - including pizza and bread. 

Transportation: $29.45 (down $47.45)

  • Miscellaneous transportation? 

Total net month to month: up $954.32

  • This really isn’t too bad as most of this is from paying next month’s art class and the clothes that I bought just so I could try on and I’ll return most of them. I would probably end up keeping 2 pairs of jeans which would max be $200. So month to month would be about the same. 

*Rest of the money went to various different savings accounts for my short term goals and emergency fund.

Projections for May: 

Investing: $1000 

Quality of Life: -$650

  • Expecting to get a lot of returns back for clothing

Phone bill: $46.51

Short trips: $0

Interest & Fees: $300

  • Paying my accountant

Rent: $1480

Utilities: $18

  • Averaging utilities between last 2 months and leaving some room for home improvement 

Self Care: $25

  • Refresh on some vitamins; self care is vital in these times. 

Subscriptions: $8 

  • Probably pausing Audible for a month to really focus on actively reading the books I have. 

Groceries: $200

  • I have enough food for the first half of May so I should be able to save a bit for the month. 

Dining Out: $100

  • I’m going to try to stick to this lesser amount this month~  

Gifts: $300

  • Many birthdays this month 

Transportation -> Miscellaneous: $30 

  • This is going to be my miscellaneous budget, it could be for transportation but leaving it up so I can have space in my budget for the unexpected.

Please stay safe and healthy.