May Expenses

I know that it's been a little while since my last post. But I do have some updates. We tracked our expenses during the month of May and I loaded them into Excel and subtotals various categories. Ugh - a whack of expenses on stuff that is unnecessary. But here they are:

House (includes mortgage, property taxes, insurance, oil, and furnace lease) - $2,669
Lawn/Garden (includes soil, sods, and equipment to lay sod in back yard AND lawn maintenance) - $858
Bills (payments on credit cards) - $1009
Lunch/Dinner (lunches, dinners, and coffees) - $365
Groceries (food and toilettries bought at grocery store) - $1,076
Transportation (car payment, gas, and bus) - $815
Loans (student loans) - $430
Utilities (water, electricity, cable, internet, phone, and cell phone, etc.) - $386
Daycare - $600
Gifts - $140
Miscellaneous (includes clothing, lotto tickets, service charges, membership dues, alcohol, donations, toys, and "treats") - $671

This doesn't include $2,100 I paid for my recent work trip expenses.

It's hard to believe that we can be spending this much. There is certainly room for improvement. At least we now know where our money is going.