April Budget Review
Monthly Review: April 2021 - 97% Savings Rate
Lets quickly hit the notable moments from April:
Took My Pizza Hobby Professional
Journeyed Back to Mississippi
Did a Paddle-board Group Trip
GOT A PROMOTION
Visited My Best Friend in Dallas
While I probably (financially speaking) should be the most excited about my first promotion in the outside world, I really think having a successful venture into the professional pizza business was the star of the show.
How about those names?
It was also great getting back home to see my family, getting two chances to see my lifelong best friend in Dallas, and finding a group of paddle-boarders to meet up with regularly.
Those all go to show that the money is secondary. It’s just a tool to make these types of moments more frequent. Those moments are really what matter.
Now it’s time to dig into how someone possibly has a 97% savings rate. To be fully transparent, it was actually 96.8%
As always, read on for the details.
After-Tax Income: $19,780
This month’s income, like last month’s, was certainly not standard. On top of my regular income I had my new promotion pay kick in for the second half, got an $1,800 tax return, received a solid commission check, got $1,208 in 401k matching, and of course the $330 in profits from my pizza venture.
I’ll never get used to numbers like this.
On to the expenses
Expenses: $626.35
This number is just nuts and you know I’ll be fully transparent as always. This is actually the third month in a row where I had a weird circumstance that dropped my expenses.
This month I received a $372 refund on a flight that was cancelled during the peak covid times. We also sold a kayak so I received my half ($150). The way I run my books, you can’t spend the same dollar twice.
I already counted the flight and the kayak as an expense in previous months. Now that that expense has turned into cash, I can use it to cancel out expenses in my current month. Then everything works out as it should.
Even with $522 worth of “credits”, I’m still very proud of this month and I also prepaid most of May’s activities while I was at it.
Let’s breakdown the expenses in detail.
Going Out: $152.91
We certainly go out to eat more in Austin than we ever did in Boston. This happens for a few reasons.
Happy Hours (They were illegal in Boston…Crazy I know)
Fantastic Weather
We live downtown
Food is better
Things are cheaper
With all that being said, we still only try to eat out when it’ll feel special. A place we love, a place we haven’t tried, or a place with friends.
We don’t just grab a sack full of food for dinner or get lunch delivered. We’re all about the experience that comes along with Dining out.
My dining out expenses have been averaging 3x what my grocery bills have been, but I don’t care. My savings rate is amazing and I’m having fun.
The total break-down for eating out this month was:
Carolines: $10.33
Parliament: $12.82
Armory: $42.50
Haymakers: $5.87
Cidercade: $2.60
Deep Eddy: $5.37
Beerberg: $13.50
Copper $14.50
Lichas: $23.50
Whislers: $21.00
Gas Station: $0.92
Groceries: $56.78
My grocery expenses always freak people out, and that’s understandable. I don’t have any specific food requirements, I don’t buy many snacks or soft drinks, and this is just my half of the grocery bill.
I also was back home for a week and that generally means I don’t have to buy myself groceries during that time.
The star of the show this month though was my pizzas. At the start of the month I was getting better and making some delicious creations.
It might seem crazy that these were some of my first pizzas and that I decided to do two nights of selling to the public just a couple weeks later but I felt good about the taste and my speed.
The one above was at Leslie’s request. Red onion / Balsamic base, mozzarella, goat cheese, Brussels sprouts, bacon, and a little honey.
Below we have a mistake that turned into cheese bread alongside my pizza creation. It had a green pepper sauce base, cheddar cheese, roasted corn, seasoned chicken thigh, cilantro and ranch.
I almost miss how poorly shaped these pizzas were. It made them look more unique but also a little unpredictable. I have my stretching much more under control now.
Full grocery cost breakdown:
HEB: $6.23
HEB: $11.79
HEB: $7.20
HEB: $31.57
Bills: $484.43
Cheap rent and a few monthly memberships. This is the category that makes those sub $1k total expenses possible. Keep your housing low and cars paid off and you’ll give yourself a fighting chance.
The outlier this month was my annual Amazon subscription. I’ve considered cancelling so many times but just never have. I need to do a cost benefit analysis for next year.
The full set of bills were:
Rent - $275.00
Internet - $10
Spotify - $10
Car Insurance - $54
Cidercade: $16.24
Netflix: $4.87
Amazon Prime annual: $119
Travel & Entertainment: -$277.98
If
JT’s Southern Slice Takes Off
When I decided to attempt my first night selling pizzas, it was supposed to just be one night. It was also supposed to be limited to 10-15.
Well fortunately/unfortunately the word got out and preorders started to fly in quicker than I expected. Then I decided I’d do a small test run Wednesday that turned out to not be that small after all.
In the end I did 20 pizzas on Wednesday night and 22 pizzas Thursday night. I was a one man show but everyone left happy with their pizza and the wait times.
Overall, after giving back 15% to the lodge and having some food waste. My profit margins were 57%. They’ve asked me to come back and said that if I did, I wouldn’t need to donate the 15% and I could charge $15. That drives my profit margins up over 70%.
Not bad for my first run!
Even though I made 42 pizzas, I actually only got to eat one slice. But Mississippi had plenty of calories waiting on me anyways.
The classic greasy spoon type diner called The Pit Stop is one of my favorites. Their fried tenderloin is always solid. This full meal that comes with chocolate gravy is only $7.
Yes, I said chocolate gravy. Theirs doesn’t hold a candle to my moms but still a nice treat. There were also visits to The Hillbilly Wing Shack and a seafood spot I’d never been to. Gotta love shrimp n’ grits.
The not so happy news while I was home came from the farm. One of dad’s cows injured its leg somehow and wouldn’t stand up.
When cows stay down like this, they lose circulation and often never get up. Fingers crossed for this one.
The final highlight I’ll list here is a good ol’ auction. Me and my mom have frequented a ton of auctions over the years.
This one had a different vibe. Instead of individual sellers coming in with non-stop randomness, there was just the auction host selling. The items were all new-ish products.
Amazon returns, food nearing expiration, or things with cosmetic damage.
Mississippi never disappoints!
Now time to talk about burning off all those fried calories.
Paddle Board Meet Up
Facebook causes a lot of problems and I often wonder why I even have it. Then things like this happen.
I found a group of paddle-boarders across central Texas who put together meet-ups frequently.
We drove out to Canyon Lake and got some experience on a larger body of water. The wind was a little rough but we had a good time and met some friends that’ll hopefully help us continue to find more great places to take our boards.
Now for the list of travel expenses I hit this month. You may notice that all the expenses are pre-paying future events. There was also a big negative expense aka refund for a flight to Portugal/Amsterdam.
The full list of expenses for travel and entertainment were:
Hardy Concert: $41.97
Copper Chief Concert: $12.83
American Aquarium Concert: $39.42
Flight Refund: -$372.20
Miscellaneous: $93.22
Last month I got to work on a workstation for the Ooni. This month I took a big step towards completion.
I had a very large piece of butcher block back home that I’d gotten second hand for $30 when I lived in Boston. I cut it down to size while I was home.
I’ve also added doors, sides, floor, handles, and magnet closing fasteners. The plan is to paint all but the butcherblock black which should make the natural top and gold handles pop.
There were no fun pictures but most of my expense actually came from maintenance to the Ford Fusion. I’ve had the car since 2014 and it was time for a couple new tires and shocks.
This category also has a large negative expense in the form of the kayak sale. That helped cancel out things nicely.
Here’s the complete list of random purchases this month:
Shocks: $103.06
Dirt Cheap: $1.27
Marshalls: $4.28
Tires: $125
Home Depot: $9.61
Sold Kayak: -$150.00
Gas: $117.00
The big increase in gas this month came from the long haul back to Mississippi. I was riding solo so I also didn’t split any of that.
Big Picture: Net Worth Increase $51,921 to $840,367
If you would have told me back at the start of my journey in 2015 that I’d have $51k net-worth increases. I would have thought you were insane but that’s the beauty of compounding interest.
This month I saved $19,154.55 while the market gained me $32,767.22 for a total net-worth increase of $51,921