March '15 Income/Expense

It has been a long time since I posted. This was of course due to my big trip to New Zealand. I had hoped to post my monthly updates for March before we left but things just got too crazy with planning the trip and wrapping things up at work. After I finish my March updates I hope to talk a little bit about New Zealand. But first, my income and expenses for March.

Expenses:
My expenses are listed to the side. On each line I have the budgeted amount per month, the actual
amount spent for the month of March.

My total expenses were just over $3,847, which is way over my planned expenses.
So, what went right?
My Groceries and Dinner/Drinks budgets were fantastic for once, usually these are the two that hurt me. I guess I was too busy to go out much and my girlfriend must have bought all the groceries this month. Also my clothes budget was negative (as in I "earned" money) due to buying some clothes online last month that I returned in March.

What went wrong?
My Other and Travel budgets were very high. My Other budget was due to a $813 tax bill. My travel budget was obviously high due to booking hotels and activities for my New Zealand trip. I hate to see what April turns out to be as that was when the trip actually occurred. On the positive note, my girlfriend and I will split the cost and I paid for most items so I will be getting some money back.

INCOME:
Paycheck: $5,110. Not too bad, nothing like the blockbuster month I had last month though but I will take it.

% Expenses = 75%  of income. Terrible, horrible, no good very bad month. But I hope to turn this around, I plan to pay for my vacation with OT so slowly but I surely I think I can improve this.

Dividend Income:
This month I earned $236 without lifting a finger, not bad. With 11 companies paying dividends in March this was easily my best month ever. This brings my dividends for the year to $563. The following companies paid me this month:

3/2/2015 AFL 48 0.39 $18.72 3/2/2015 HP 34 0.6875 $23.375 3/2/2015 INTC 94 0.24 $22.56 3/2/2015 WFC 48 0.35 $16.8 3/6/2015 MAT 59 0.38 $22.42 3/10/2015 CVX 15 1.07 $16.05 3/10/2015 JNJ 17 0.7 $11.9 3/10/2015 TGT 31 0.52 $16.12 3/27/2015 NOV 35 0.46 $16.1 3/31/2015 DLR 74 0.85 $62.9 3/31/2015 IYY 20 0.42961 $8.5922

I have very happy that a couple of my discretionary budgets came in way under for the month but I definitely did not plan for that $813 tax bill, I need to see if I can come up with some strategies to reduce that next year. And of course my vacation budget seems out of control at the moment but soon I will have a finally tally for what NZ cost me and I can plan better how to make up those expense.

How about you? How was your March?


-Nick

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