How Much I Spent In March 2016 – Way Over Budget
This has been an expensive month, with little extra income. My unusual expenses included 2 sets of headphones, a wired in-ear one for the gym at a hefty $150 and an over-ear bluetooth headphone for … $499. I waned, but didn’t need, to spend $650 for audio digestion. I use the headphones when making my telephone calls so they will be written off on my taxes. I think I have reached a financial milestone when I am not as particular about my expenses.
Here is a quick review of ‘business write-offs’. The terminology isn’t accurate and some have the wrong impression of what it means to write something off. This UCC website is my business, anything I use on this business is an expense. My income from my urgent care job puts me in the 33% tax bracket, therefore I can deduct 33% of an expense against that income. The $650 I spent will equate to spending $429 once my taxes are done. Therefore, writing off doesn’t mean that I can deduct the entire amount of that expense against my income.
I barely prepared meals at home this month, I completely burnt out from cooking at home. There is only so much inedible food I can put in my mouth. March was a gift to my taste buds and stomach (you’re welcome), I’ve been eating out a lot as my Dining Out budget shows. It means having to leave a tip… I’ve been experimenting with leaving bigger tips. Haven’t decided whether I will continue to do so, we shall see.
The next big expense was paying for my shared office space, the deposit, the rent and a small one time “membership fee”. I posted about my new entrepreneurship expense category, which I feel will soon be one of my biggest expenses. This came out to nearly $1,500 for March. My ongoing monthly rent for this space will be $500. I have already been making money by doing extra phone shifts from the space, so far so good.
My condo expenses has a few items, pretty much all furniture. I think this is the last set of furniture items I need for the condo. I will continue to buy some tools and still need curtains and a door handle etc. Hopefully my expenses will be minimal in that category moving forward.