Credit Card Enlightenment: Hobbies Are Expensive!

December is generally a higher expenditure month given the holidays and tempting sales galore.  I would ideally like to keep my personal credit card bill in the $1,000-$1,500 range, with $2,000 as the upper limit.  After $2,000, I feel like I'm wasting money because that just seems like an awful lot to spend on things beyond housing costs.

I decided to start tracking my monthly credit card expenses to mainly make sure there aren't any egregious fees that I know nothing about.  For the past 10 years, all I've been doing is eyeballing the total amount, and if it was below a certain threshold, I would pay the bill and move on.

As my desire to save more money grows, it's good to be a hawk-eye when it comes to my second biggest monthly expenditure.  Furthermore, as a personal finance blogger, why not make some content out of the figures and learn something in the process!  Those who seek early retirement might want to give this exercise a go as well.

DECEMBER 2011 CREDIT CARD STATEMENT

EXPENDITURE HIGHLIGHTS 

Hobbies: Tennis is expensive.  The cost of $549.39 is around 25% of my total bill.  The two tennis racquet purchases are considered one-off since I play with the same tennis racquets for 3-5 years on average.  I need two because I play competitively and strings break during matches all the time.  In fact, I just broke two strings the other day while, which will cost about $80 to re-string since I can't be bothered to string them myself.

Transportation: Given I take the bus to and from work every weekday, my gas bill is relatively small at $67.88, despite Moose's V8 engine.  If I didn't go up to Tahoe for a mini-snowboard vacation, I probably would have only spent about $10 bucks on gas.  The snow has finally arrived, so I plan to go up this week and twice a month on average for the next three months.

Shopping: I went a little nuts (for my standard), shopping for myself given places such as Barney's and Banana Republic had 30-45% off sales.  I really didn't spend money on anything I really wanted, just work shoes and clothes since they wear out e.g. socks, pants, shirts.

Food: From the 11 entries, it does seem like I eat out a lot.  However, given you can eat out around 90 times a month, eating out 12% of the time isn't that bad is it?  $130 a month for groceries for two is pretty good.  You are only seeing a portion of my food bill since I'm constantly taking clients out for dinner and lunch as well on my corporate card.  Combining business with pleasure is actually a great way to save costs.  You've got to eat anyway, might as well build relationships with clients over a great meal.  If you love to golf, you might as well take a client out golfing as well.

PUTTING THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE

I'd love to spend less money, but I'm not sure exactly where to cut.  It does look like I eat out a lot, but in the scheme of 30 days and 90 expendable meals, I don't think my food expenditure is that much.  Professional cooks are infinitely better and quicker at preparing food than I can.

For January and upcoming months, I won't be buying any personal gifts or clothes for myself.  Hence, the upcoming credit card bills should go down by an average of $500.  That said, I do plan a trip overseas and have budgeted about $1,000 for some tailored clothes.  I also bought a last minute airplane ticket for vacation, so actually, February looks like it's getting up there as well!

In addition to my corporate card,  I also have an online business credit card which pays for other expenses such as internet and mobile charges.  If you haven't thought about starting a business, there are definitely some benefits that help subsidize your normal living expenses e.g. food, travel, electronics.

I spent about $300 in cash this past December, or about $70 a week on random things such as parking, tennis balls, snacks, and taxis.  I try to carry as little cash as possible, since cash cannot be replaced and I get rewards points on my credit card.

Finally, I will continue to pay off the credit card bill in full and save 100% of every other paycheck, which equals a minimum of 50% savings of my after tax income for the year.  If there is a year-end bonus, I will save or invest at least 90% of the bonus as well.

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