July 2015: Income & Expenses

     July has been what I would consider to be a good month, beautiful summer weather for the most part and great times with family and friends. Also brought in a new high mark of dividend income, as well as working a fair bit to boost my work income and got a couple of deposits from the Government. All of this income resulted in my highest month of income that I have gotten outside of a triple payday month that occurs about twice a year.


    This July also marks my 1 year anniversary of tracking and posting my income and expenses. With my very first Income & Expenses post in 2014, I've definitely come quite a long way. Now I am using tables, categorized income and expenses, which get explained and compared against my now tracked history of spending! Although I am rather envious of past me's much lower monthly expenses and higher savings rate (49.4%!), although the present me is certainly enjoying the freedom of having moved out even though it means a much higher rent than when I was living with my parents. C'est la vie.

Income	$
Work	1301
Other	226.46
Dividends	208.35
Total	1735.81

    This month I worked pretty hard at finding additional shifts to make up for my lack of scheduled ones, which literally paid off in a higher work income, which also in part boosted my Other income through more tips. In total I received $65.8 in tips, which is pretty good and was in part higher due to three payouts of tips being done within the month. Also within that category I got $160.66 in tax rebates and benefits from the Government, which is why its always good to do them on time, especially if you have a low income. Make sure you apply for and get every deduction, tax credit and benefit possible, take advantage of your situation and get the most of it. If you are not confident with your ability to do that, then hire an accountant, it is easily worth the $30-50 to get it right, especially if you need previous years to file as well.

    Besides additional work income, July's higher income was pumped up by my new record high for dividend income, which I posted about here. What I really love about the dividend income is that its a passive source of money, which is automatically saved by being in my brokerage account. Not only that, but most of those companies have a strong history of raises those dividends providing me with little raises throughout the year. And as I add additional stocks to my portfolio the dividend income will keep on rising as well.

    For July, my dividends alone represented 12% of my months income. It is kind of like tipping myself for $208 for making a good series of decisions in the past.

Expenses	$
Rent	750
Phone	28.25
Travel	164.85
Groceries	91.41
Restaurants	39.88
Entertainment	51.9
Other	63.25
Total	1194.59

   
     Expenses were fairly in line with my usual level of spending, actually only $1.2 higher than my year to date average. Pretty much all my expenses ranged at the average level, groceries were a bit lower which is due to my slightly higher grocery expenses from last month due to a larger shop at the end of June. Travel costs were up a bit higher mainly due to using more bus tokens going to and from work, seeing friends who live further away and a short train ride to visit family. Overall pretty normal costs there, although higher than average.

    Restaurant and Entertainment costs were lower than usual as I try to continue to keep that area of expenses under control. Especially since it is very easy to spend on eating out, treats and alcohol during the summer, cold beer and rum, gets me every time. My Other expenses this month were primarily paying the $33 that were not covered by my insurance for a dentist check-up, and gel-pads for my work shoes, plus a couple other small items. Overall pretty low, and having health/dental insurance is a definite plus of working at Starbucks compared to other retail jobs, the tips are nice as well.

    Overall, with higher income through working, dividends and the Government, keeping costs down to my average, I managed a savings rate of 31.2% this month. Albeit lower than the 2015 goal I set for myself of 40%, its still a great amount of money saved that will be put to work in the near future. I am also amazed that my dividends, had I needed them would have covered 17.4% of my monthly expenses!