December Budget Review
Monthly Review: December 2021 - 72% Savings Rate
Let’s quickly hit the notable moments from December:
Brought home my new F-150!
Spoke at my High School Alma Mater on Finance
Three weeks in Mississippi
Christmas Carnage
Big Bend
Marfa New Year
Big Country Concert
****As always, every category depicts what I spent, what I made, and how my net worth changed. Just me, not our household****
She’s here!
Leslie is probably even happier than me so that I can stop talking about getting a truck and instead start actually enjoying it.
Originally, I was going after the new Ford Maverick which is a 4-door hybrid truck that costs less and gets 42mpg. That all sounds way more rationale.
The problem?
I test drove an F-150 and fell in love
I believe I can drive for a year and see almost zero depreciation
I got it for 3% below invoice and the supply chain issues are making that a great deal
I want the ability to pull a camper so we can put our house on Air BnB periodically
I actually flew to Philadelphia and drove this beauty back to Mississippi for Christmas. That seems like a long way from Austin (oh…it is) but it saved me over $5k and I had a great experience with the dealership.
That wasn’t the only big thing that happened this month though. As I said above I spent weeks in Mississippi which included speaking at my old high school and an insane wrestling event. My dad and I did a huge bourbon trail trip. Then, we headed south and spent some time in Big Bend National park followed by a New Year celebration in Marfa.
Want to see how this month shakes out? Well, keep scrolling for the full breakdown.
After-Tax Income: $16,538
This month’s income was normal pay plus a nice little chunk of my Restricted Stock Units vesting. These are shares of your companies stock that are given to you but don’t become tradeable or truly yours until you’ve held them a certain amount of time.
Generally, these shares are slowly handed over to you quarterly. If you have multiple allotments, then you could be receiving them every month if those cycles aren’t lined up.
If you’ve been following along, you’ll know I actually just got some last month, and have more coming up in Feb and March.
On to the expenses
Expenses: $4,526
I’m not sure how many months it is going to take me to be ok with these large numbers but I know I can turn these off if I ever really want to. We can (and will) use Air BnB to offset our housing costs.
And worst case… we sell it.
Then there are also a lot of random expenses that come when you combine major vacations, new vehicles, and Christmas.
I’m confident I’ll be able to wrangle my expenses back to a more sustainable number.
Let’s break down the expenses in detail.
Going Out: $423.55
This category is a bit weird this month.
The total seems really high even though I actually barely ate out at all.
That’s largely because I always put alcohol purchases in this category even if it’s not out at a restaurant.
And when you go on the bourbon trail in Kentucky… You bring home a lot of alcohol.
I did have some meals out however including this massive burrito at the Corinth,MS staple, Mi Toro.
Pictures don’t do this thing justice and it’s filled with various fajita-style meats (shrimp, steak, chicken, bacon, chorizo) all for only $16. Shout out to my mom for this dinner.
I mentioned earlier that I flew to Philidelphia to get my truck and with that came a long layover in Denver. I was more than happy to see that on the itinerary because that meant I got a stop at the Amex lounge to load up on free food and drink.
Ok, ok… So I haven’t actually mentioned a single meal out that I paid for yet but I promise they existed. Here’s a beautiful duck pizza I got at Pizza Grocery back in my hometown.
The total break-down for eating out this month was:
Comrade Brewing: $22
The Get Set: $9.85
Bourbon Collection: $350.90
Kermit’s: $10.33
High Sierra: $10.05
Pizza Grocery: $17.25
McDonald’s: $3.17
Groceries: $59.29
I actually barely spent anytime at home this month so I’m a little surprised I even spent this much on groceries but here ya go.
Full grocery cost breakdown:
HEB: $15.95
HEB: $43.34
Bills: $1,867.90
Still so weird seeing my standard bills being higher than my total budget has been most of my life but that’s part of this housing experiment we’re going through.
The good news is that we are building equity and the estimate is already up $40k on the house sense we purchased.
The full set of bills were:
Mortgage: $1,473.29
Internet: $10
Spotify: $10
Utilities: $82.61
Travel & Entertainment: $473.48
The big expense for this category was the $332 for the Air BnB in Marfa along with the $45 distillery tour also in Marfa.
That’s the majority of the expenses but is only the tip of the iceberg as far as experience goes.
Let’s break down Big Bend, Marfa, Bourbon Trail, Wrestling, Concerts, Philly->MS road trip…. ok, that’s a lot but here we go.
Big Bend + Marfa -> Lookin’ Good Texas
If you told me a few years ago that there were beautiful mountain filled areas of Texas that made you feel like you were in Utah… I would have been shook an probably laughed.
But it’s true!
Nestled on the Mexico border, Big Bend National Park is an incredible place and comes without the over-saturation of people you’ll find at Zion, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, etc.
Don’t get me wrong, I love those places too but there’s something about enjoying nature and it still feeling secluded.
The little town on the edge of the park, Terlingua, is also a fun little spot. Marketed as a ghost town, it does have a tiny population but has plenty of fun little bars to service the community.
It’s also home to the largest longhorn I’ve ever seen.
From Big Bend, we headed up to Marfa which is an enigma of a town for sure. Located about 5 hours from anything, this little town has turned into a magnet for art of all forms.
Even Beyonce has been to Marfa y’all.
The crew and I took in all the nature, art, and good eats that west Texas had to offer. These are both very remote locations but I couldn’t recommend them any higher.
Kentucky Bourbon Trail
So this new bourbon hobby is quickly becoming expensive but at least I’ll have a nice glass of it to console me when I look back over my spending.
As always, I did a good bit of planning and scheduling to make the most of the trip.
The distilleries we hit were
Willet
Buffalo Trace
Woodford
Bartons
Four Roses
Wilderness Trail
Glenns Creek
We even found a bottle at Wilderness Trail that my dad fell in love with. That’s the awesome thing about bourbon. It brings people together to compare what they like and sample each other’s collections.
Plus, there’s the thrill of the hunt. I scored a few bottles that I could easily flip and make a profit or set aside for special occasions.
I also now have a lot more respect for bourbons that are aged or 10, 15, 20+ years. The evaporation alone leaves some barrels completely empty. Imagine waiting 20 years only to open up a dry barrel….
Live Music & Good Causes
The funny thing with this section is that I didn’t even change the header. Last month I was talking about a concert and a cancer benefit.
This time the two areas were combined.
There are these events across the country called Acoustic Christmas. They’re country concerts that are stripped down and the proceeds go to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.
Some of the artists featured include:
Parker McCollum
Russel Dickerson
Michael Ray
That’s not the only good cause I feel like I helped this month though.
I had a chance to go back and tell my story to the graduating class of Biggersville High School in north Mississippi.
The very same school I graduated from with no clue that the life I’ve built was even possible. It’s hard to really break through to teenagers at times but my hope is that one person will take one nugget and that makes it all worth it.
My niece was even in the class… I’m getting old.
The full list of expenses for travel and entertainment were:
Uber: $6.50
Marfa AirBnB: $332.26
Big Bend Gas: $9.02
Big Bend Motel: $31.36
Distillery Tour: $45.00
Miscellaneous: $1,572.96
Think goodness I saved a lot off the price of my truck because I’m sure sinking more into it ha.
I paid to get a ceramic coating for it and some nice fitted floor liners. I’m hoping these upfront investments help keep the truck at a premium value as long as possible.
While those are the biggest random expenses along with Christmas presents, they’re really not that interesting.
What is much more exciting (to me at least) are some of the wood projects from December.
The pic above may not look that intriguing yet but come back next month to see the finished product hung on the wall and I think you’ll be pretty impressed with the transformation.
Speaking of transformation. My whole life, my mom’s utility room has had nothing but cardboard walls.
So for Christmas, I decided to recover them for her.
I still have a few pieces I need to install next time I’m home and add some trim boards to cover up the gaps to give it a nice finished look but it’s a huge improvement.
Woodworking is quickly becoming a big hobby of mine. Add that to the long, long, list of hobbies.
Here’s the complete list of random purchases this month:
Ceramic Coating: $816.75
Floor liners: $221.44
Wash Buckets: $12.81
TJ Xmas: $30.73
State Woodford Bottle: $30.73
Dad Xmas: $191.52
Car Wash Setup: $109.10
Sister Xmas: $4.23 (after $50 rebate)
Fabletics: $49.95
Cutting Boards: $5.70
Work Table: $100
Gas: $129.55
Driving back to Texas from Mississippi is the biggest driver for the gas spike. It’ll be curious to see how the truck changes what we spend in gas but I did average almost 27 MPG from Philly to Mississippi in the F-150!
Big Picture: Net Worth Increased $17,335 to $1,097,244
October brought the big move into the 7 figures and now I’m glad to see a little breathing room.
The only thing I can really control is my spending. The market is going to do what the market is going to do. (I really need to remember that)
With all that being said, I saved $11,911 while the market through in $5,424 for a solid increase of $17,335.
I have this sneaking suspicion that the next couple of months won’t be so kind….
