I didn’t think I’d see the day when the stock market hit 8,000 for a long, long time. However, much to my surprise it has despite overwhelming economic data that suggests. I strongly advice you to look into reverse ETFs such as SRS, RSW, and SDS. These are at unbelievably low prices right now. It’s jaw dropping.
Watch My Spending Habits
In this blog, I have opened up my pocketbook for all to see. While I intend to provide money advice on this site, I will primarily write on my personal spending habits on a daily and weekly basis. I will also journal on my different income streams and my quest for finding additional ways to make money.I recently received a bit of expected good news. The blogging company I write for has bumped my pay from $50/month for writing 1 blog to $375/month for writing 2 blogs. This is great side income. I also received $75 from an advertising purchase on another one of my self-blogs as well as secured a $15 one month buy-in for advertising on yet another of my blogs. So the money is coming in which is always good.
Of course, my web costs continue so I must try to become even more efficient in my operations.
I bought $28 worth of gas today. I also had a $1.50 breakfast taco. I have no viable source of breakfast at my house and desperately needed the nutrition so I really do need to go to the store. I paid for convenience here.
I’ve made over $400 in web business operations over the last week, but this has all been reinvested into the operations.
Today, I received a free chipotle burrito while attended a presentation at school. I was also fortunate enough to take another free one home as they had ample left over. This accounted for my breakfast and lunch.
Nothing purchased today.
Today I spent $27.49 total on gas. The first segment was from the $2 I had in my one wallet. I could not find my credit card at the time so I had to get what I could as my car was almost out of gas. I later found my wallet and poured in another $25.49 to fill my tank @ 1.679 a gallon. This was the extent of my spending.
Also, although I have not gotten paid yet, my accounts receivable is expecting payments of $171 and $200 for web work. I build websites and either sell them or attempt to make money from them through ads or affiliate products. I have found that the service and ad money comes in bunches when it is there. So far this week has been very good as far as income. However, my online business also comes with costs associated with maintaining these sites such as time, web host renewals, and domain renewals. I will use most of this web money to pay these costs.
I also blog for an internet company which right now provides $50/month but I expect that amount to increase in March.
No money spent today.
$8.00 gas
$6.48 Chipotle Burrito
$40 payment for web work done
Today I went to the grocery store and bought a domain name to forward to this blog. Attached is my grocery receipt. As you can see, I stuck to generic brands with the exception of orange juice which only 10 cents more than the store brand. The store brand of gallon water was a very cheap .5 cents per ounce so I bought the last two available. I also purchased 6 microwave pizzas which I find are very tasty and a great feature to any quick meal as they provide a nice boost of calories and protein. Although the SouthBeach Diet pizzas cost 29 cents more than the Lean Cuisine , I bought 3 apiece. Both have unique tastes which I enjoy. The increase in price is somewhat justified because SouthBeach Diet pizzas have 12 more grams of protein. I utilize these after workouts so I feel this offsets the additional 29 cents per box.
Heb Grocery Reciept
Total Spent today:
$36.19 – Groceries
$7.19 – Domain Name
Looking Ahead:
My car is on empty. Tomorrow will be another day of costs. Hopefully I come away with $30 or under.
$7.19 Domain Name
I again managed to avoid sending out any cash today. I ate at home for breakfast and dinner and received some pizza as a snack in between at a school volunteer event. I really enjoy the fact that I’m so limited in my outward cash flow.
I heard news that the auto industry again had its hand out, asking for more money. It sounds as if they will be met with more money from the US Government once they show they have “restructured” or whatever buzz word they’re using. Supposedly now they’re slashing jobs and cutting costs to become more profitable.
That’s great but it’s too late now. The time to become a profitable and solvent company was when they cut the ribbon to open up the plant. Not after they’ve lost billions upon billions of dollars. Now the auto industry is becoming yet another drain on the taxpayers – one that we should not have to pay.
Question: When are the taxpayers ever going to see this money come back? Answer: Never.
Question: Were the auto companies ever going to pay any of their profit when US citizens needed money? Answer: No.
The financial bailouts, plans, and solutions have become overwhelmingly frustrating. The populus of the United States isn’t large enough to support these giant, debt-filled companies. We didn’t make the decisions that lost billions of dollars and drove them insolvent.
I didn’t create this site until 11:25 in the evening, but I figure it’s ok to reflect on my day’s spending without officially starting on a fresh day. The interesting thing is I didn’t actually shed any dollars today. I did have 2 chicken burritos for $5.95 apiece at Chipotle, but I had a gift card I had received for Christmas to tender the payment.
Eating at Chipotle twice isn’t a normal routine for me, but it was convienent for me today and I had the gift card so I went with it. The activities of my day consisted of going to school, visiting my girlfriend, and reading my homework so other than visiting Chipotle I have remained out of any consumer relationship.
No money out today. We will see what tomorrow brings. I’ll also start posting some of my personal finance stats.