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January 2010 = Most Expensive Month of My Life
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February 5th, 2010Budget, Family, Housing, Law School, PF Lessons, debt
Okay, let’s break down why January 2010 was the most expensive month of my life.
- When the person you love the most come with an outstretched hand, you give…to the tune of $15,000.
- There’s a First Time for Everything…Including Towing. Stupid decision to park at my friend’s apartment cost me $100 and a 3:00 a.m. trip to go pick up my car from Alexandria, Va.
- That last law school tuition even after the scholarship hurts. Badly.
- Way more driving…Gas was up due to my drive from home and because I am driving more because of my externship.
- First dinner party resulted in Craigslist purchases of a cutlery set, salad bowl with tongs, dinner plate set, and some unrelated things like an Anne Klein coat!
Dining Set $15
Anne Klein Coat $25
- Cutlery $6
How was the first month of the year for you? Do you think I can repair from the damage I’ve done to my networth?P.S. Thanks to reader “Howard” on MoneyHoneySF’s Blog who explained how to post word tables to a blog!
Tags: Budgeting, January 2010 Expenses, Most Expensive Month
15 responses to “January 2010 = Most Expensive Month of My Life” 
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Wow. That’s an expensive month! Are you planning on cutting expenses in the upcoming months to (try to) even it out a little bit?
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@MeinMillions
I know, it was uper expensive! Most of it was one time expenses like the loan to my parent (15K), tuition for Spring 2010 (9k) and some textbooks ($100ish). So, all that add up to $23,991.48. Everything adds up to $1,339.06. My goal was to have everything under $1k, so I went over budget by $1,339.06. I hope to come in under $1k next month.
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That really is quite a spendy month you’ve had. For some reason I’ve also had the biggest expenses in January but I think mine were more due to my xmas gift spendings on my credit card that were due.
As for your question about the Vanguard foundation..it was very easy to set up…just like setting up any account at Vanguard. What we’re doing with this foundation account is putting money into it each year and allowing it to grow over time. When we’re older and perhaps retired, we’d like to use the money in the foundation for charitable works. And yep, it is tax deductible!
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Jade @ Makingmeamillionaire
Welcome to the blog! The Vanguard foundation seems like something I would love to start after I graduate and get a job. I would love to have my contributions grow and then use the large sum to do something substantial.
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Wow, that’s a pretty expense month you had. I think mine only would total around $5,000.
December and January are always expensive from me…
I think you’ll recover, it’ll just take awhile!
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Ronnie February 5th, 2010 at 11:10
Honestly I don’t think your month was that bad. You clearly had 2 one-time expenses that made up almost 90% of your total expenses. Both should (hopefully) pay for themselves–I say hopefully regarding the student loan. I have to say that I’m glad to see your eating at a more reasonable level; I’ve lived in DC/VA for 8 years and have never considered the food THAT expensive, so I was a little concerned. Clearly you’re still eating though
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January was a reckless month for me as well, but I also didn’t have a budget. So that will take all the blame for now. I need to defintely start thinking about a new excuse for January 2011
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Wow Jane. That $25K in expense scared the heck out of me. But then I realized it was a loan you had lent to Mr. Bum? All in all I think you did pretty well for the first month of the year despite the fact that your car got impounded.
As for my expensive January, should I say that I “peeked” at it? DH and I are headed to Las Vegas for Valentine’s Day so I had to expense for this trip of $550 in January. There were some great deals going to Vegas so I couldn’t pass this up.
Will be blogging out this future trip shortly. So please visit when you get a chance. http://moneyhoneysf.blogspot.com/
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@MoneyReasons
$5k for a family of four with a mortgage sounds good to me. After that mortgage is paid off I am sure it wil be much better!@Ronnie
I am definitely eating better and my food budget is no longer $30. That was totally unsustainable. There is no student loan, I lent my parent $15k to pay off credit card debt.@Investing Newbie
Hopefully, February will be a better month!@MoneyHoneySF
Hope you have a great trip to Las Vegas! The loan to my parent Bum (who is no “Bum” in the conventional sense) and the tuition really pushed my expenses for this month up.
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Ronnie February 5th, 2010 at 15:47
My bad!! *I* took out loans for law school (also in DC), but that’s a huge expense that you’re not going to be incurring again. Now, pray tell, are you taking a bar review course?? That might be another large upcoming expense, even though it looks like you have the savings to cover it, which is awesome.
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@Ronnie
Yup, there’s a bar review course and a short MBE course coming along. There’s no firm to pick up the tab and there isn’t a loan. You’ll have to stay tuned to see how its going to be paid for!
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Anonymous February 5th, 2010 at 23:45
As much as I do not like to admit, Craigslist is awesome. It’s such a great time sink!
I feel ya with the gas expenses too. Spending so much time driving sucks enough ><
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@Anonymous
Welcome to the blog.
There are some great deals on craigstlist and it was a huge help for my dinner party consider I only had two forks and my plates weren’t in such good condition.Gas was really really up this month because I had to drive back from hope. This should go down next month.
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Hey, i just realized you’re in the DC area too! if you ever wanna meet up for coffee or anything, give me a holler. we also do blogger happy hours too so you’re welcome anytime
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@JMoney
Welcome to the blog and thanks for the invite. I am currrently not planning on taking this blog “live.”
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me in millions February 5th, 2010 at 07:32