Budget/Cash Flow
Biggest thing to say this month is to give huge props to my wife, who is killing it in the work-from-home game. She’s been grading standardized exams, teaching English to none-native speakers via Skype, and watching another toddler for a few hours a week. All this on top of keeping our apartment from falling apart and raising our awesome almost-two-year-old. She’s almost quadrupled her earnings as her teaching gig has picked up steam.
It’s the holiday season, which means buying lots of gifts! All things considered it doesn’t look too bad; Christmas presents make up only a portion of that $823, and we are fortunate enough to have a lot of family that we want to give gifts to.
Another big hit to the education column, plane tickets to Las Vegas and a deposit for 4 nights in Caesar’s Palace for a conference in January. All should be reimbursable.
Still eating out more than I would like, and a lot of it is fast food. I don’t mind spending money at decent restaurants, but impulse food buys are still something I’m struggling with. Taco Bell breakfasts….
Finally, still seeing a negative trend in that expenses are consistently exceeding income. As I’ve said before, this is probably okay as long as I can actually find a job. Still, kind of sobering to think that even our current lifestyle (which feels pretty modest!) wouldn’t be sustainable on the median US household income (which is essentially what we make).