Man, 2015 was a crazy year! God blessed us insanely. WE BOUGHT A FREAKIN HOUSE!!!
Just like last year, here is a breakdown of this year compared to last year!
| 2014 | 2015 | Difference | Comments |
| Income $73,500 | Income $82,325 | $8,825 | Huge jump from last year! My amazing wife became a Supervisor at Costco which is where 99% of this came from. |
| Auto & Transport: Auto Insurance $829 | Auto & Transport: Auto Insurance $1,165 | $336 | The reason for the large jump had to do with switching from month to month to every 6 months. We did this switch late in the year so part of it will roll into next year. |
| Auto & Transport: Gas & Fuel $3,543 | Auto & Transport: Gas & Fuel $2,374 | $-1,169 | Woot! Lowered gas prices and not driving to Seattle as much as last year helped this out. |
| Auto & Transport: New Car $200 | Auto & Transport: New Car $600 | $400 | In 2014, we started saving up for used car but then decided to use the money to pay off debt. This year, the $600 actually went towards investing in Elio which I hope pays off in the long run :) |
| Auto & Transport: Service & Parts $1,138 | Auto & Transport: Service & Parts $2,706 | $1,568 | This year we did a lot of upkeep on our cars that we have been putting off due to lack of funds. That and my wife’s car broke down a few times… |
| Bills & Utilities: Internet $760 | Bills & Utilities: Internet $538 | $-222 | We went the last two months without any internet. And we almost died. This will probably go back up close to what it was in 2014 since we had to switch internet providers and this one is a little more expensive. |
| Bills & Utilities: Mobile Phone $759 | Bills & Utilities: Mobile Phone $760 | $1 | Still keeping things low here. My wife is still on Republic Wireless but I have switch to Google Fi. More on this later… |
| Bills & Utilities: Television $1,055 | Bills & Utilities: Television $1,490 | $435 | I need to watch this more… This increase was due to forgetting to cancel a sports package that I only needed for 2 months and also all the moving of the my dish that our apartment complex made me do. I should write up a blog post about that soon. |
| Bills & Utilities: Utilities $1,196 | Bills & Utilities: Utilities $1,348 | $152 | Now that we are out of the apartment, I am hoping this starts to go down. Last year for December, we had an electricity bill close to $300 due to the apartment having leaks everywhere and super old baseboard heaters. This last month our bill was just over $70. I like that. |
| Bills & Utilities: Web Hosting $132 | Bills & Utilities: Web Hosting $120 | $12 | I think the difference was due to a domain name purchase. |
| Business Services: Mick Business $0 | Business Services: Mick Business $488 | $488 | A new category this year for some of my side hustles. Sadly, I have very little to show for this. I used it to buy some products to resell and am still trying to resell them… |
| Education: Student Loan $6,705 | Education: Student Loan $3,816 | $-2,889 | We were paying double on this last year. This year, we were only paying a little more than we needed to. |
| Entertainment: Apps $155 | Entertainment: Apps $85 | $-70 | I switch providers for one of my monthly apps. Saved a butt load! |
| Entertainment: Dates $1,277 | Entertainment: Dates $1,400 | $123 | I’m ok with spending more to hang out with my wife :) |
| Entertainment: Furniture $222 | Entertainment: Furniture $829 | $607 | We bought new couches and a chair! |
| Entertainment: General Expenses $2,036 | Entertainment: General Expenses $1,188 | $-848 | Last year I said “Ouch… we need to do better about this next year.” and we did, woots! |
| Entertainment: Lindy allowance $769 | Entertainment: Lindy allowance $605 | $-164 | She had less time to work some of her side hustles this year. |
| Entertainment: Mick Allowance $2,974 | Entertainment: Mick Allowance $655 | $-2,319 | I can’t remember if I got one bonus check this year or none, either way that lowered this a lot. On top of that, I was done selling things for my parents on eBay. |
| Entertainment: Rodeo $176 | Entertainment: Rodeo $80 | $-96 | Haha! We bought that tickets super early, but didn’t end up going. Instead we rented a car with a buddy of mine and drove to Idaho for a few hours to see an awesome wedding and then drove straight back. Crazy but awesome. |
| Entertainment: Sporting Events $2,892 | Entertainment: Sporting Events $2,908 | $16 | About the same as last year. |
| Financial: Debt Killer $917 | Financial: Debt Killer $0 | $-917 | Boom. A full year with no Credit Cards or personal loans. |
| Financial: General Savings $2,107 | Financial: General Savings $3,060 | $953 | Much better on the savings side. However, most of this went to paying our taxes… |
| Financial: Lindy’s Ring $572 | Financial: Lindy’s Ring $0 | $-572 | Paid off her wedding band last year. Woots. |
| Financial: Prosper Loans $5,993 | Financial: Prosper Loans $2,112 | $-3,881 | My goal at the end of last year was to have this paid off by 2016. We paid it off before June of 2015! |
| Financial: Prosper Investing $0 | Financial: Prosper Investing $175 | $175 | Because we paid off our Prosper Loans, I started to invest in Prosper. Helping people out and making money. I’m down with that! |
| Financial: Roth IRA $120 | Financial: Roth IRA $195 | $75 | I really want to increase this more in 2016. |
| Financial: Standard Stocks $10 | Financial: Standard Stocks $195 | $185 | Bumped this up a bit from last year. Hope to increase it a little more next year |
| Financial: Tithe $7,044 | Financial: Tithe $7,056 | $12 | Same ole Same ole |
| Food & Dining: Alcohol & Bars $360 | Food & Dining: Alcohol & Bars $135 | $-225 | Bought less scotch this year… But I also found The Knot which is amazing. |
| Food & Dining: All Food/Coffee $1,290 | Food & Dining: All Food/Coffee $1,399 | $109 | Not too bad compared to last year. I still need to eat out less… |
| Food & Dining: Stims $266 | Food & Dining: Stims $249 | $-17 | Zipfizz and Lindy’s coffee budget. Not too bad. |
| Food & Dining: Groceries $5,023 | Food & Dining: Groceries $4,596 | $-427 | Spent less on groceries this year. Woots? |
| Food & Dining: Mick’s Groceries $401 | Food & Dining: Mick’s Groceries $307 | $-94 | Even I spent less on the groceries I buy when it’s my nights to cook! |
| Food & Dining: Take People Out $448 | Food & Dining: Take People Out $618 | $170 | Looks like we got out of the house more this year and interacted with people… |
| Gifts & Donations: Charity $456 | Gifts & Donations: Charity $481 | $25 | This is Lindy’s Compassion child she has been sponsoring for a long time. |
| Gifts & Donations: Christmas Gifts $618 | Gifts & Donations: Christmas Gifts $797 | $179 | Christmas is expensive yo. |
| Gifts & Donations: Gift $1,299 | Gifts & Donations: Gift $1,844 | $545 | Fewer weddings means fewer wedding gifts :) |
| Gifts & Donations: Trusting Jesus $1,761 | Gifts & Donations: Trusting Jesus $2,637 | $876 | Yeah! I like seeing this go up each year. Even though we aren’t increasing this each month like we use to, we also don’t worry if we go over our set amount each month. God’s got our back. |
| Health & Fitness: Dentist $70 | Health & Fitness: Dentist $0 | $-70 | Stopped budgeting for this since we opened my HSA. |
| Health & Fitness: Doctor $12 | Health & Fitness: Doctor $3,238 | $3,226 | I highly recommend not tearing your ACL and Meniscus… |
| Health & Fitness: Eyecare $43 | Health & Fitness: Eyecare $0 | $-43 | Same with the dentist, we stopped saving for this due to having an HSA |
| Health & Fitness: Gym $0 | Health & Fitness: Gym $334 | $334 | We got a gym membership at the end of this year and then promptly got a house right afterwards. I have only been able to go a handful of times, but that will change once we are done with the holidays. |
| Home: Mick’s Furniture $65 | Home: Mick’s Furniture $105 | $40 | This is mostly electronic goodies. |
| Home: Home Insurance $231 | Home: Home Insurance $308 | $77 | This only went up a smidge. |
| Home: House – General $0 | Home: House – General $846 | $846 | We have a house now! And since we didn’t have a mortgage this month, we used a chunk of that money for things we needed around the house. |
| Home: House – Lindy -$0 | Home: House – Lindy -$405 | $405 | Budging out things we personally want for the house. My wife got an extra check from work that went towards this budget also. |
| Home: House – Mick $0 | Home: House – Mick $308 | $308 | My cut of the pie. Mostly spent on Christmas decorations… |
| Home: House Savings $0 | Home: House Savings $3,358 | $3,358 | More like home spending, am I right? |
| Home: Mortgage & Rent $11,230 | Home: Mortgage & Rent $11,338 | $108 | This number will go up more next year but it will be a mortgage instead of rent! |
| Shopping: Clothing $511 | Shopping: Clothing $655 | $144 | I’m told we need this. |
| Shopping: Cosmetics/Toiletries $555 | Shopping: Cosmetics/Toiletries $629 | $74 | And we need this too. |
| Shopping: Electronics & Software $34 | Shopping: Electronics & Software $0 | $-34 | Canceled Xbox Live :( |
| Travel: Vacation $2,811 | Travel: Vacation $3,019 | $208 | Not too bad of an increase. |
And that’s a wrap!
How did 2015 treat you?