August Budget Review
Monthly Review: Aug 2019 - 82% Savings Rate
Lets quickly hit the big events from August:
Pedaled down rail road track in Portsmouth, RI
Deep Sea Fishing
Free Rooftop Cooking Class
Free Outdoor Movie Downtown Boston
Cody Jinks Concert
Bought awesome electric bicycle
$12 George Straight / Blake Shelton Concert
Free Brantley Gilbert Concert
Free Mountain Biking / Transport to Trails / Party via REI
Took Cody (The FI Show Co-Host) to Mississippi
Now it’s time to get into the details:
Soaking up summer in Boston
Income: $11,427
Well things are a little higher here for a reason. I sold back 30 vacation days which were valued at around $4k.
Expenses: $2,072
This month was jam packed with cool experiences that were luckily either free or extremely low cost. The only thing that really pushed the total up was buying the electric bicycle.
Even that was a pretty cheap upgrade because my nice road bike was stolen. I took the insurance money I received for that and put it towards the purchase of the bike. So the $1250 bike only cost me $245.
I also got a lot of accessories for it like bluetooth helmet, pannier bags, cell phone mount, and lights.
Let’s break things down in detail
Going Out: $89.69
Total Wine $26.19
Gillette Stadium $21.50
Harpoon $20
Loretta’s $22
Oh and of course plenty of free food. This was the first time I got to share some with Cody as we made our way down to Mississippi.
Groceries: $56.18
After falling off the wagon last week, things are back on track
Stop n shop $1.99
Star Market $2.84
commissary $17.30
Stop n shop $2.68
Star Market $1.74
Star Market $12.50
Market Basket $17.14
These are my half of the grocery bills and only include food. Other household items would be in a separate category.
Bills: $1063.82
New addition this month Rock Climbing Gym.
Rent
Car Insurance
Internet
Cell Phone
Brooklyn Boulders
Travel: $39.75
This month was slammed with activities but most were either paid in other months or just free:
$34 Air BnB
$5.75 Parking
So Much Country Music
I’m cheap but I do love live music. This month I got to see three very different style country concerts for a grand total of $68.
Cody Jinks -> $55
Brantley Gilbert -> $0
George Straight / Blake Shelton -> $13
Cody Jinks played in a tiny old school theatre in downtown Boston. If there’s a ton of interest in a show you’d like to see at a small venue I highly recommend getting tickets right away.
If you wait too long to get them the prices will skyrocket and if something comes up and you can’t go, you can sell them and make a nice profit.
Brantley Gilbert tickets were free because a friend got all three tickets for $15 on Vet Tix and gave me mine for driving.
George Straight and Blake Shelton are both huge names in the industry whether you like them or not. I was shocked to see the tickets were only $13 including fees. So we loaded up the truck and got their early for some tailgating.
I recommend using an app like Gametime because it allows you to quickly scan prices and it has transparent pricing with the fees included.
Biking, Hiking, Eating via REI
If you’ve never heard of Recreation Equipment Inc (REI), it is a huge retailer for all types of hiking and outdoor sports gear.
I got an email listing all the free stuff they were doing to celebrate a new store opening in New Hampshire and planned a weekend around it.
The first thing was mountain biking. They had several options to choose from. After asking some personal preference questions, they got us set up and on the trail. We had an hour with them free of charge!
Then we took advantage of the super nice free bus out to do several hikes. One of the stops we watched some climbers work their way down a huge drop off.
Lastly we headed over to the Chacos and Tacos party. This event was sponsored by Chaco and included free tacos, beer, and live music.
Railroad Pedaling and More
There were a few other cool things we got to do this month. The most unique was certainly our trip to Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
The Air Force had an offer to bus us down to Rhode Island. There we could explore the city for a couple hours before heading to Rail Explorers.
Rail explorers is the company that has these two and four person carts that ride along the railroad and are powered via bicycle pedals. We got some great views of the water and even had s’mores at the half way point while watching the sunset.
Miscellaneous (including an E-Bike): $760
Just the random stuff that doesn’t fit into a category, but the bike is the star of the show
My nice Specialized Allez road bike got stolen and USAA saved the day as always. When I went outside and saw it was stolen I was sick at my stomach.
But then it hit me that my renters insurance might save it from being a total loss. All it took was a short phone call to USAA and a quick online form with the local police to get my claim in process.
A few days later I was notified that I’d be getting $1205. Actually it was $1005 because I had a $200 deductible. When you make a claim, make sure you think about all the accessories and itemize it. Lights, trip computer, water bottle, etc… it really adds up fast.
Now in the market for a bike and knowing I’d probably start working downtown, I decided to search for an electric bicycle as my daily commuter.
I wanted something under $1500 that would go at least 25 miles on a charge and would get up to 28 mph. I was able to hit all those specs with a lot of extra mileage via the Aventon Pace 500. I was swayed to this model after finding a Facebook group with real owners giving honest feedback.
I got the bike for $1250 so after using my insurance money, I was out $245
The Rest of the Random
Shipping for a watch I left on vacation plus a tip - $25
Car Tag - $173.65
AWS - $7.65
Pannier Bags - $60
Bike Light - $25
Oil Change - $52.73
Bike Helmet (Sena R1) - $118.99
This thing is awesome. Bluetooth, FM radio, intercom and you can take phone calls on it and the person won’t even know you’re on a bike
Cell Phone mount - $15.85
Rear Bicycle Rack - $24.98
Gas: $62.89
Few longer trips back and forth to concerts.
Big Picture: Net Worth Increase $3,241 to $358,566
Always good to have an increase but it was held back due to my investments being down $5,825. You can’t fixate on the losses though because it’s not a loss until you sell.