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Net Worth Review: May 2012
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Here's one way to start the week- doing a review of last months finances and our net worth. While it's only a snapshot of our finances, doing the monthly reviews allows us to look back and see if there are any trends that we need to tweak and adjust or continue.
Our Spending Habits in May
Here are our 3 biggest family related expenses last month as calculated by Mint:
- Housing (Mortgage, Escrow, HOA, etc): $1,158.75
- Food (Groceries and Eating Out): $391.83
- Auto & Transport: $369.13
Checking & Savings
Glad to say that savings grew a bit last month, even with a big vet bill. Our cat needed to get a prescription refilled and his annual check-up with some labs completed. We also had to renew registration for one of the cars.
Based on how well the cash only spending experiment went in May, I'll be continuing it this month.
Retirement Accounts
While the balances have fluctuated over the last month, we're still making contributions to the accounts. Focusing on our long term plan, we'll keep up the automated deposits. I think once we finish our financial goals for this year, we’ll reexamine our retirement accounts.
Cars and Auto Expenses
We still have 3 cars – the plan was to take advantage of it while one of the cars was inspected and repair, but that hasn't been done yet. Well, now we have to get that done. once that's complete we'll know for sure which one of the cars to sell – either the Jetta or the Celica.
Whatever money we get from the sale will go into the car fund to cover maintenance and seed money for whenever we need to replace a car down the road (hopefully years down the road).
In case you’re wondering how I calculate the vehicles’ values, I used Kelly Blue Book. Every quarter I’ll update the values to account for depreciation.
House and Mortgage
It's been a couple of months since I shared our progress on the mortgage. Basically our neighborhood is finishing up on building the last set of town homes. Another set of town homes nearby were recently finished and they are staring at $190s.
Here’s where we stand today with the mortgage:
- Total Loan Amount: $106,249.45
- Interest Rate: 5.00%
- Loan Term: 30 years, fixed rate
We're hoping once the neighborhood is complete we'll see the value of our property go back up to where it was earlier this year.
Student Loans
We’re chugging along with paying down the student loan. I’m looking at projects to take on and increase income a bit so we have more to contribute towards this goal.
Monthly Summary
Now that everything has been summarized, it’s time to look at the numbers. Here’s our net worth from the spreadsheet:
Net Worth (as of May 31, 2012): $61,081.09 (+$1,809.62)
Wow I wish our food expenses were that low. We REALLY need to work on that.
Thanks Michelle! I think what help was the full month of produce deliveries which has cut back on shopping trips.
I agree with Michelle! We would love for you to do a blog about how you keep your food cost down.
Thanks, I think I might do that in the near future, once I make sure we can maintain that level. For now, I share some of our food and money tips over at marriedfood.com.
Glad you’re expenses are staying low and you’re moving in the right direction.
Thank you Jeff!
Well done showing an UP month in one of the worst stock market month’s in recent memory!
Why do you have 3 cars? Great job on moving up in what was a TERRIBLE month for the market
Short answer Evan- too lazy to get the Celica in the shop and inspected so we know which to sell.
How do you keep food costs so low? We are usually at about $500 for the month and there’s only two of us….
Wow, a 106,000 house loan plus student loans and you are still still +1K in net worth… thats great!