April '15 Income and Expenses

It seems like just yesterday I was posting my March update usually its because life is rolling  at hyper speed but this time I was just very slow to post my March update. But now April is over as well. April was an epic month for me because I was in New Zealand for the first half of it. Now that the trips is over and the final damage has been tallied it is back to the grindstone.

Oh and Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! My girlfriend and I celebrated this weekend by attending Seattle's annual Taco Truck Challenge. We have been going for the last 3 year and we have always had a good time. This time was not as fun as previous year though, due to the popularity of the event. All of the food trucks had huge lines and even started to run out of food and in the beer garden it was the same story long lines and they started running out of beer and margarita mix. Given the crowds and the amount of cash I dropped on that one day we'll have to see if we go again next year.

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 April.

My total expenses were just over $2,369, which is just under my planned expenses.

Most of my categories were pretty good but my Groceries and Other categories were fantastic.

My Travel budget was high, but not as high as I was expecting. I spent the first half of the month in New Zealand and all expenses during that time went into my travel budget. But what saved me is that my girlfriend paid me back for her half of the expenses, bringing my travel expenses down.

INCOME:
Paycheck: $4,676. A little lower than the last couple month due to a lack of overtime while I was on vacation.

% Expenses = 51% of income. Not fantastic but not bad. It well definitely help me get back on track but I need some fantastic months in order to reach my goal for 2015.

Dividend Income:
This month I earned $142 without lifting a finger. Not a great month but hey its money that I didn't have before. The following companies paid me this month:

4/1/2015 KO 36 0.33 $11.88 4/1/2015 BAX 30 0.52 $15.6 4/7/2015 OHI 65 0.36 $23.4 4/8/2015 MRK 43 0.45 $19.35 4/14/2015 BBY 1 0.74 $0.74 4/14/2015 KIM 90 0.24 $21.6 4/17/2015 CIM $9.53 4/27/2015 GE 86 0.23 $19.78 4/29/2015 BNS 36 0.56454 $20.32

This month turned out MUCH better than I had expected, while it was not good enough to put me back on track for the year, it is still a step in the right direction.

How about you? How was your April?


-Nick

Photo Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net