Time to get personal with you clan. Let’s analyse my spending breakdown from 2019. How could I be credible if it turned out I was living paycheque to paycheque, or had an outstanding credit card balance. Not that you’re screwed if that’s your situation now — we shall persevere and conquer!

I’ve spent heaps of hours ever since I graduated school researching how to best save money and invest money. Likewise, I’ve since been optimising my life for the highest savings percentage I can achieve without sacrificing too much pleasure.

Getting down ‘n’ dirty with the results:

I tracked my expenses for all of 2019. This gave me a beautiful collection of data to evaluate at the end of the year so that I could make goals for 2020. Having this spending breakdown handy at all times was monumental for my habits. I actually did well because I was conscientious about my spending from the get-go: forcing myself into the tracking habit honestly did wonders — I cannot stress enough. Accordingly, what I noticed from my 2019 spending breakdown was that a lot of the excess restaurant dinners and alcohol pickups that had plagued me through 2018 were absent.

The only stand-out splurges were during my winter semester; however, they were all nights out with the Mohawk Technology Eco-car team. Either at our campus pub for trivia nights and karaoke, or down the street for hockey games and grub. It was well worth it overall: we worked hard as oxen that semester and those nights refreshed us for grinding through days of toil.

Food:

Above is a clear breakdown of the largest categories of my spending from 2019. What can evidently be seen is the big three that plague us all stay consistent with me: housing, transportation, food. These are the three factors that can drag us down the most if we don’t pay attention.

Realistically, I should include ‘Eating out’ as part of my total Food category: this means I spent a whole extra thousand dollars on food and it was my highest expense of the year! I like to focus on just groceries as ‘Food’ and then containing ‘Eating out’ to restaurants, alcohol, fast food. As a result, this gives me two separate places for scrutiny and improvement. I can say that just groceries cost me around $200/month and that I spent almost $80/month more on eating out. These are not great numbers; for just one person this is more than I want to be tossing out.

I’m not quite sure how cheap one can get by on while eating well, but it’s definitely below $200. Adding $80 to that total every month just for the convenience of someone making the food for me is also not cool. Sure, going out once and a while for a relaxing evening is great, the problem is that this was averaging $80 every month. If it had been $80 every 2-3 months, that would make more sense. Comparatively, think of the things one could buy or invest in with an extra $80 every month that could prove more rewarding long-term. Plus, I had 65 entries in Eating out! That in itself is a warning sign that habits need to be worked on for the future.

Housing:

Next up is the housing. I’ll admit I am very privileged with my situation. Nicole and I live in the basement apartment of her grandparents’ home. This saves us huge costs that we would incur renting somewhere else or if we decided to buy a home.

Depending on your situation you could also find a good way to live cheap. Living with relatives for little to no rent is a beautiful situation that allows for maximum savings. Or if that option isn’t possible, look for another opportunity like house-sitting or providing services for rooming. Hostels often offer room and board for dedicating a small number of hours per day to helping out. If you put the effort in, something will reveal itself. It doesn’t have to be long-term; even just a few years of low living expenses while working will bring up our savings massively, which can then be leveraged to buying our own home without then drowning in payments.

At this point, we are very happy with our housing situation and content to pay the family-discount rent instead of sacrificing our situation for something possibly cheaper.

Vehicle:

Car expenses. Oh how I’ve learned to sympathise for those trapped by their cars. It is a sneaky machine. Honestly, the majority of my car expenses are just the insurance. I had to fill up around once per month for the first half of the year, then once I began working close to home I got into the habit of biking every day. Since then, I only had about a half a tank to fill each month. What a relief. I truly feel for those who are driving enough to need gas every week, oil changes frequently, etc. That’s why I write these posts: to aid you with ideas, opportunities, and motivation to create your own freedom. We’ll find a way out of the money-sucking chasm.*

Health/Wellness:

On to the ‘Health’ category. This was a good eye-opener for me about how helpful a benefit plan with employers can be: I had a $464 dentist appointment in 2019 that shocked me into this realisation. There were a few physio appointments in here as well. The remainder was mostly “well-being” spending. Such as a few camping trips throughout the year and the $400USD I took out in cash for my Jamaica trip last spring. Huge health benefits.

Sports:

The sports spending is my addiction to Crossfit. It is a tough membership to commit to and exponentially tougher to leave. The challenge, camaraderie, and autopilot workouts made it such a rewarding place. It’s no discount gym though and that’s why it’s up in my list: I paid $100/month for only two workouts/week!

Gifts:

I’ll finish off with gifts. At the end of the day generosity matters more than money. If there’s a gift that will make a person’s life better, it is worth giving. Of course, only if we are financially safe to. If we are in debt or struggling, tell the person and plan something low- or no-cost for them. It will feel better to give something important to the recipient than giving something because it fits within our budget.

My 2019 Spending Breakdown results are in:

Overall, I spent $15,000 in 2019. This is $1,250 per month. It is not bad — likely lower than most people in my scenario (last semester of school, living away from home, beginning full-time work in August); however, I do plan on making improvements to hit better numbers in 2020. It’s all about having this data so that a game plan can be made for the future. Hence, I will have a more successful 2020.

*This depends on your situation of course. If you are a student and commuting makes much more economic sense than renting in-town then it’s a worthwhile sacrifice for the time being. For those who are working full-time, the long-term commuting time plus cost of transportation is not usually worth it: life will be much better if a local job is found (even for less money) or we move to our city of employment.