May Budget Review
Monthly Review: May 2021 - 88% Savings Rate
Let’s quickly hit the notable moments from May:
Trip to Big Bend / Marfa
Hardy Concert
Copperchief Concert
Spartan 10k
Paddleboard Camping Trip
****As always, every category depicts what I spent, what I made, and how my net worth changed. Just me, not our household****
With Covid, international travel is still fairly limited. Even before that was true, I haven’t gotten to do a ton of trips outside the United States. I’ve done Australia, Iceland, Canada, Mexico, and some Carrabian islands but most of my trips are domestic.
Sometimes I get a little disappointed in myself for that but other times I realize just how amazing and diverse our own country is. I know I’ll get to globetrotting soon enough but until then, I’ll be filling these recaps with the beautiful USA
The Stars of BIg Bend
I was also lucky enough to finally complete our 10k Spartan race. This race was supposed to be in California last year…but Covid. So we had to complete this one in Texas instead.
Got concert season kicked off with a bang and got some further use out of our paddleboards.
As always, read on for the details.
After-Tax Income: $16,493
This month’s income, again, is not standard. On top of my regular income, I had some stock vesting, some 401k match, and a referral bonus.
Always crazy to see a full year of expenses wiped away in one paycheck.
On to the expenses
Expenses: $1,982
Uh oh, big spender alert!
This month came with higher than average costs in dining out, travel, and gas. This is a good reminder that I do not budget. I simply track my expenses. I don’t see this month as good or bad. It just is what it is.
This month I also prepaid for several events (flight to LA, two live AEW (wrestling) shows, a scenic flight tour, rental cars, tickets to ACL, birthday presents for Leslie, additions to my bourbon collection, and some good meals with friends.
Let’s break down the expenses in detail.
Going Out: $356
This section was heavily influenced by our time in Marfa. If you haven’t heard of Marfa, TX, it is this strangely bougie town in the middle of absolute nowhere Texas. It has gotten so much attention that even Beyonce came for a visit.
We also did a mini happy hour tour in East Austin and had some great Texas brisket and local beers with friends who were visiting.
I, unfortunately, did a terrible job with taking photos so we only have a pic of one of our favorite spots in Austin.
And if you are curious about the bourbon collection (as of May 2021), I got some 1792 Full Proof, Weller Special Reserve, Eagle Rare, a local bourbon from Still, and even found an old bottle of bookers (2017) that had ended up at a friends house.
The total break-down for eating out this month was:
Fallafel Truck: $3.25
Peche: $24
Roosevelt Room: $22.69
Bourbon Collection: $75.25
Hotel St. George: $10.80
La Pasado Milagro: $4.80
Sentinal: $19.14
Terlingua Ranch Lodge: $11.63
Revolver: $10.77
McDonald’s: $2.55
Glow: $21.80
Terry Blacks: $22.34
St Elmo: $14
Still: $58.50
Swift: $12.00
Kinda Tropical: $8.40
Sawyer and Co: $3.00
Buns n Roses: $6.00
El Presidio: $22.10
Groceries: $50
This is yet again another month where the expenses seem crazy low and that’s somewhat due to the lack of time actually spent at home.
We spent several days in Big Bend, on the road at the coast of Texas, and camping for a paddleboarding trip.
But that didn’t stop us from a few memorable meals… cue the shrimp with ricotta stuffed shells and kale salad.
If you’ve been reading the last couple of updates, you probably also could guess the next featured dish.
Pizza
On our way out to Big Bend, we met up with our other friends in San Antonio who were traveling with us. We ended up cooking five pizzas I believe. Three dinner pizzas and two breakfast pizzas. What a beaut.
Full grocery cost breakdown:
HEB: $33.11
HEB: $17.59
Bills: $349
Yep, our rent is still crazy cheap. I’ve covered why this is in previous posts but basically we put in a bunch of sweat equity to renovate the place that is family owned and in return, we cover all costs (insurance, HOA, utilities).
This is month nine in the little apartment and we’ll probably be here until the end of 2022.
The full set of bills were:
Rent - $275.00
Internet - $10
Spotify - $10
Car Insurance - $49
Netflix: $4.87
Travel & Entertainment: $898
It’s important to keep in mind that I list the expenses that I incur in a given month. Even if I’m prepaying for something in the future. But I only really highlight the trips I’ve gone on this month.
Can you really highlight a trip if you haven’t gotten to take pictures yet?
Big Bend - Who Knew Texas was this Beautiful
I was outright shocked by how awesome Big Bend was. Parts of it almost reminded me of the mountain range views of the west but with this very unique desert piece as well.
In the picture below, I’m actually touching Mexico. There’s something about walking from one side to the other that really puts into perspective that we’re neighbors, even if we aren’t always very neighborly to them.
I can’t wait to return to Santa Elena Canyon with our paddleboards someday or do a multi-day river raft trip.
When we first booked this trip, the plan was to camp inside the national park. These would be backcountry locations that required you to hike in all necessary supplies including water.
We were devastated with just a couple of days before we were set to leave, we received a notice that our reservations had been canceled. Ongoing issues from a wildfire had caused part of the park to be closed.
We pivoted nicely though and found some campsites on AirBnB not too far from the entrance.
It actually turned out to be a blessing because we had some really cool spots while also being able to bring in all the supplies we’d want without fear of it being too heavy since we could park right next to the site.
If you look closely, we even have our own port-a-potty nearby haha. This location did have an indoor bathroom and shower available. It also had Wi-Fi at the entrance and their very own miniature burrow named Sampson.
While in the park, we did some fantastic (and very difficult) hikes. One hike was 15 miles that included a lot of elevation change and a lot of heat. Luckily, some of our best views came with a little less sweating.
We booked an hour flight out of Terlingua that took us all across Big Bend and some other local state parks. Like our helicopter tour in Hawaii, I highly recommend flight tours.
After leaving Big Bend and roughing it for a few days, we headed to Marfa and checked into our hotel.
I did a terrible job at getting pictures but Marfa was great. I was afraid it would be too overly commercialized, and some locals still may feel that way, but we thought it was just busy enough but still small and unique.
I highly recommend making the LONG loop of Austin->Big Bend->Marfa->Austin
Destroying The Body
To answer the question of the great musical piece from Space Jam, we were indeed not ready for this.
In late 2019 and early 2020, we had trained and trained for what was to be a half-marathon length Spartan race in California. It was set for March of 2020 and was canceled the night before we boarded our flights to go race.
Fast forward to May of 2021 and we finally hit the date of the event we rescheduled to. The only problem was that we did not keep up that training. Luckily, we dropped down to only a 10k, but it was still brutal for someone who hadn’t been running regularly.
But we finished it and I don’t regret doing it one bit. I’ll never be someone looking to do these every month, but I do enjoy a good obstacle race about once per year.
Concert Season Begins
I probably sound like a broken record but I’m obsessed with live music (pun intended). The older I’ve gotten though, the more I appreciate a smaller venue.
Stadium shows normally come with bad audio and you find yourself watching a screen which I can do at home.
First on the docket was Hardy. He is from Mississippi and a big Mississippi State fan!
#HailState
He’s starting to make a bigger name for himself but he’s already written several big hits for other artists. I tend to gravitate towards musicians who are also writers instead of only performers.
The next concert up was at a tiny venue outside of San Antonio. The band is this local group that really gets after it. Their name, Copper Chief.
If you want rowdy, guitar-shredding, southern rock type music. These are your guys.
Make sure you click the artists’ names to take you over to Spotify.
The full list of expenses for travel and entertainment were:
LA Flight: $41.97
AEW Austin: $12.83
AEW Dallas: $39.42
Resident Evil game: $63.95
Bird Scooter: $20
Camp Reservation: $19
Austin Parking: $10
Airbnb: $12.01
Airbnb: $25.53
Marfa Hotel: $46.63
ACL: $299 -> Big Concert Festival in Austin
Big Bend Flight: $135
Miscellaneous: $293
My pizza prep station/storage cabinet is complete!
If you read last month’s article, you could see the progression I was making on it when it was almost complete. And I actually showed where I had it framed out in the March article.
So it took me a bit longer than I really wanted but very happy with the outcome. I had purchased this huge sheet of butcher block for $30 in Boston for a different project that never happened. So when I went back to Mississippi last month, I cut it down to size and brought it down to texas.
I replaced the old plywood top with this nice butcher block top. Then I used some Home Depot credits from my American Express platinum to get primer, paint, hinges, and other supplies to finish.
The handles were actually some extras we had leftover when we overhauled our apartment after moving in.
On top of that, there were several purchases getting ready for Leslie’s bday and some other random purchases.
Here’s the complete list of random purchases this month:
Paint Brushes: $2.44
Les Bday: $18.77
Stadia Bundle: $10.81
Les Surprise: $22
Transcript: $10.25
Shorts: $23.86
Les Bday: $129.88
Planting Pots: $23.54
Les gift: $46.90
Tasker App: $5
Gas: $35
We definitely spent a ton of time in the car this month but it was with a friend and we haven’t received the charge yet from them so we’ll see that tallied next month.
Big Picture: Net Worth Increase $20,538 to $860,906
Another solid jump this month. This time the market was a little less out of control and only gained $6,027.
On top of that, I saved $14,511 for a total net-worth increase of $20,538.
