The Annual Budgetary Math Geeking
Jan. 12th, 2008 12:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjThis isn't the income tax session -- nothing so practical as that. This is the annual "since I keep track of what I spend and make to the penny, I might as well run the numbers and see what I'm doing with it" geek session.
All in all, with the exception of spending a lot of money on home improvements, I managed to stay more or less aligned with my projected budgeting.
Interesting decreases in spending from 2006 (defined as a total decrease of more than $100 for the year):
* out of pocket medical expenses (no major dental work this year, no major veterinary expenses)
* office expenses (which includes computer-related stuff) in every sub-category, but especially computer hardware and shipping/mailing
* automobile categories in general (repairs, rentals)
* personal insurance (an illusion due to cancelling my renter's property insurnace because it's now covered by the home policy)
Interesting increases as defined above:
* food, both in the grocery and eating-out categories (this after having succeeded in cutting them significantly in 2006 -- and see below for more food-related stuff)
* books and clothing (although the "clothing" category item is mostly due to a single indulgence in jewelry shopping); actually if you don't include the academic books bought at Kalamazoo (which are technically classified as "off-budget") I came quite close to keeping within my official book budget for the year
* for perfectly understandable reasons (i.e., the aforementioned home improvements) the categories of "durable household expenses" and "misc. household expenses" were both way over my target budget as well as significantly increased from last year, although now that I look closely, I've included the fees for my tax preparer in the "misc." category because I wrote the check out of my personal account, but it more properly belongs in the business accounts (an entirely different project) since I only used them due to the complications of the house purchase; otherwise big-ticket items in the "misc." category are almost all gifts for other people
* travel-related subcategories of air travel, bike maintenance (i.e., I did some), gas (the road trip), and hotels, but all travel-related categories taken together remained fairly steady from last year
Because I've been focusing on food for other reasons this year, and because it's a category I've been particularly trying to get under control, here's some more detailed food-related data.
Actually, the cafe management is giving me the ol' stink-eye for having finished my coffee and scone a long time ago and still occupying a table, so I'll do that part later. (Actually, they aren't. I made that part up. But I just noticed that there are a couple of parties waiting for tables, so I'm going to Do The Right Thing.)
All in all, with the exception of spending a lot of money on home improvements, I managed to stay more or less aligned with my projected budgeting.
Interesting decreases in spending from 2006 (defined as a total decrease of more than $100 for the year):
* out of pocket medical expenses (no major dental work this year, no major veterinary expenses)
* office expenses (which includes computer-related stuff) in every sub-category, but especially computer hardware and shipping/mailing
* automobile categories in general (repairs, rentals)
* personal insurance (an illusion due to cancelling my renter's property insurnace because it's now covered by the home policy)
Interesting increases as defined above:
* food, both in the grocery and eating-out categories (this after having succeeded in cutting them significantly in 2006 -- and see below for more food-related stuff)
* books and clothing (although the "clothing" category item is mostly due to a single indulgence in jewelry shopping); actually if you don't include the academic books bought at Kalamazoo (which are technically classified as "off-budget") I came quite close to keeping within my official book budget for the year
* for perfectly understandable reasons (i.e., the aforementioned home improvements) the categories of "durable household expenses" and "misc. household expenses" were both way over my target budget as well as significantly increased from last year, although now that I look closely, I've included the fees for my tax preparer in the "misc." category because I wrote the check out of my personal account, but it more properly belongs in the business accounts (an entirely different project) since I only used them due to the complications of the house purchase; otherwise big-ticket items in the "misc." category are almost all gifts for other people
* travel-related subcategories of air travel, bike maintenance (i.e., I did some), gas (the road trip), and hotels, but all travel-related categories taken together remained fairly steady from last year
Because I've been focusing on food for other reasons this year, and because it's a category I've been particularly trying to get under control, here's some more detailed food-related data.
Actually, the cafe management is giving me the ol' stink-eye for having finished my coffee and scone a long time ago and still occupying a table, so I'll do that part later. (Actually, they aren't. I made that part up. But I just noticed that there are a couple of parties waiting for tables, so I'm going to Do The Right Thing.)
