The Money Diaries: The 27-year-old product designer who tracks her finances a little TOO closely

The Money Diaries: The 27-year-old product designer who tracks her finances a little TOO closely

10 comments — written on December 10th, 2009 (6 hours ago)

Today is another post in the Money Diaries series, which is based off New York Magazine’s Sex Diaries. We’ve collected stories from real people about their spending habits over seven days, anonymized them, and posted them here.

Today’s post is by a 27-year-old woman who lives in San Francisco without a car, and commutes by train to work. She tracks her spending extremely well. But does she ignore the Big Wins to focus on smaller savings?

* * *

Day 1
7:30 a.m.: Saturday. Wake up around the time I get up for work. A little annoyed but I can’t fall back asleep so I get up and get coffee at the specialty coffee shop down the street. They are a little expensive, but really good so I try to limit myself to one a week. Spent $3. On my way out I pick up a check at the front desk. I rent out my parking space and it’s the beginning of the month. Gain $250.
10:20 a.m.: Resisted the urge to buy breakfast while I was out, thinking I could whip up something at home. I have bacon but don’t have eggs. I don’t have anything to make for lunch next week either…so I decide it’s time to go grocery shopping. I get some ham, eggs and hotdogs and the rest is all frozen pre-made food, which I know is bad but I promise myself I will try to eat some fruits and veg this week as well. $2 for the bus, $47.21 at Trader Joe’s.
12:30 p.m.: No plans today so I’m just staying home and cleaning up my apartment and other tasks that I’ve put off all week. I get on my computer and check email and various blogs, and then the I tally up what I’ve spent this week and enter it into a Google spreadsheet. I track every penny I spend. It sounds a bit weird to most people but I really rather enjoy it and finding out how much I spend on stuff. I usually try to enter it as soon as I get to a computer, but sometimes receipts just pile up. For purchases without a receipt I make a note on my iphone. It’s really just informational for me since I make enough now to cover anything I could want to buy, but I started doing it when I was a poor grad student to make sure I wasn’t spending more than I brought home. Since the beginning of the month I add up my expenses for last month. Without counting rent, I’ve spent a total of $1967.30 for the month of September and it breaks down as follows: $117.75 for transportation; $235 for health care; $140.29 eating out; $153.18 for alcohol/wine; $757.83 for household things (including a couch off craigslist for $680); $12.05 for toiletries; $134.76 for electronics (bought a GPS); $34.97 in entertainment (tickets to museums, movies, shows etc; Netflix subscription) and $32.94 in misc stuff. Some of the things I split with my boyfriend, like the couch and the Netflix subscription. For those curious, my rent is $2,020 a month for a one-bedroom in San Francisco which I split with my boyfriend. I also look up how much I’ve spent on my phone minutes. I don’t talk on the phone a lot so I’m on a T-mobile pay-as-you-go plan on an jailbroken iPhone. September’s phone minutes cost $14.03. I get data from wherever there is open wifi access. I get the mail and Wired mag has sent me yet another renewal notice. It’s actually close to renewal time so I decide to finally do it. $20 for a 2-year subscription.
2 p.m.: I get a couple of emails from various financial intuitions about successful money transfers. I schedule nominal amounts (~$150) of money to be pulled out of my checking to my savings and an index fund after every paycheck, just so I’m saving and investing but I don’t have to think about it. The start of a new month is always an interesting time for my finances, but now everything is in order and I can get off the computer. Phew!
4 p.m.: For the rest of the day I putter around the apartment while streaming Netflix. Total spent today: $72.21. Total gained: $250

Day 2
9:30 a.m.: Sunday. Get up, shower and make myself a nice breakfast of eggs, ham and toast and a cup of Earl Grey tea. I park myself in front of the computer while I eat and read the news. Unemployment is at 9.8% now. Thankfully we both still have our jobs. I chat with boyfriend on skype. He’s out of the country and coming back on Wednesday.
12:20 p.m.: I take the bus to meet up a …