Frugal September

Late post for what looks to be a not so frugal month. Let's dive into the details.

Auto & Transport: -91% compared to last year. Coupled with the boost of not having a car payment, we also had some costly service done at Midas last year.

Bills & Utilities: Utility costs were down 25% this year. 

Entertainment: No expenses this year, while last year, we took a trip to Metamora, bought a new video game, and went to a game bar. 

Fees & Charges: I got dinged with a $1.00 account maintenance fee for one of our debit accounts. I thought I had set-up an automatic transfer to avoid a fee like this, but I guess I was wrong.

Food & Dining: Overall, spending was down 20% this year.

Gifts & Donations: Last year, we took my parents out for my mom's birthday. This year, we made her a cake since we weren't going to have as much time to celebrate. We did actually attempt to go out to eat, but we got held up in some awful Chicago traffic, so we had to scrap those plans. 

Health & Fitness: Last year, I returned a pair of eyeglass frames. No expenses this year.

Home: Rent.

Pets: We spent 44% less this year.

Shopping: Here 's where things start looking not so very frugal. Our expenses were up 463% this year. This was due to two main factors:

Clothes & Accessories// Expenses in September included some fleece-lined leggings from Kohl's, Soma bras and underwear, Skecher's Go Walk shoes from Macy's, ponchos and water shoes from Dollar General, and new socks and a pair of shoes from L.L. Bean for Francisco. The shoes he got made up about half of our clothing expenses for the month, but they should be a long-term investment. There were some other clothing items purchased, but I'm not counting returns or planned returns.

Electronics & Software// This is what's driving the high expense. We've been testing three different cameras. Two have already been returned, but one of the returns didn't go through before month-end.

Travel: Since we did not have any travel expenses last year, we obviously spent more this September when our trip to Paris and Iceland began.

Summary: With a not so frugal month, we spent 14% more this year than last.  Thankfully, some of the shopping costs will balance out once all of the returns are accounted for.  I would take the time to do a 3/4 year update, but my to-do list is kind of running over right now, so I'll probably just wait until I have the end of the year results.