In , I went through my annual ritual of carrying around a notebook and keeping track of every time I spent money, with an eye to making sure my spending is sustainable under my deliberately limited income.
I took the numbers from what I explicitly spent this month and then added in a few more items: estimates for my utility bills based on those from previous months, and some regular expenses that I didn’t happen to spend anything on this month but that I do spend money on throughout the year and so I felt I should include in the tally. Here is what I found from this year:
| Category | Daily expense | Monthly expense |
|---|---|---|
| Total | $38.29 | $1,165.41 |
| Rent | $18.55 | $575.00 |
| Food (groceries) | $7.20 | $219.01 |
| Utilities & internet | $3.99 | $121.38 |
| Cat stuff | $3.42 | $104.00 |
| Commercial beer/wine | $2.67 | $81.41 |
| Coffee | $1.23 | $37.45 |
| California state taxes | $0.61 | $18.58 |
| Miscellany | $0.27 | $8.07 |
| Transportation | $0.23 | $6.87 |
| Homebrewing | $0.13 | $4.07 |
| Food (eating out) | $0.00 | $0.00 |
(The numbers may not all add up quite right due to rounding. Also, I adjusted the 31-day October totals to correspond to the average 30.4-day month.)
Here’s how my current burn rate compares with past years (I’ve had to rejuggle the numbers a bit so that the categories remain the same from year to year; and in many past years I didn’t account for sales tax separately, which probably messes up the numbers a bit):
| Category | average | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly total | $1,168.00 | $1,165.41 |
| Yearly total | $14,016 | $13,985 |
| Rent | $502.30 | $575.00 |
| Food (groceries) | $191.96 | $219.01 |
| Miscellany | $205.39 | $130.65 |
| Coffee/tea/beer/wine/booze | $105.92 | $122.93 |
| Utilities | $49.94 | $113.85 |
| Internet (hosting) fees | $15.23 | $7.53 |
| Transportation | $63.87 | $6.87 |
| Food (eating out) | $34.35 | $0.00 |
Not included in any of the above totals were any business expenses (since I write these off against my business income), my health insurance premium (which, as a self-employed person, I can also write off), or any medical expenses that I paid for from my pre-tax Health Savings Account. I started separating California state sales tax into its own line item, and I have combined that with my expected California income tax bill (I don’t resist my state tax, just as a matter of picking my battles).
A $13,985/year burn rate is quite sustainable given my current technique of staying below the tax line by keeping my adjustable gross income below $17,750.
Here are the results from years past, if you’d like to compare:
