Today, I am kicking off a new series, Money Matters, where I will talk about anything and everything personal finance.

To put things into perspective, here’s a little bit about me: I am a 27-years old engineering manager living with my wife in Atlanta, Georgia.

In this series, I will discuss with you folks about my spending reports, savings and investments, credit card strategies, deals/coupons hunting, travel hacks, and anything else you’d like to hear about.

Let’s kick it off by doing a mid year check-in where I walk you through my spending habits so far in 2024.

Gas — 1.1%

To my surprise, Gas has taken only 1.1% of my total expenses in 2024 so far.

Given I work from home, I don’t have a daily commute. Most of my daily drives consist of grocery runs, and trips to cafes and bookstores. So, it would make sense if I don’t spend too much money on gas.

However, I did 3 road trips so far in 2024 — Nashville, Chattanooga, Columbia (South Caroline).

Despite that, my gas expense has been very low, which is impressive.

This goes to show how little attention I should put in any gas multiplier when designing my next credit card strategy.

Entertainment — 1.2%

I have intentionally kept this category very broad. Depending on my changing interests and life situtions, what I find entertaining changes quite often.

Some things that went into this bucket so far in 2024 include:

Movie tickets

Sport tickets

Aquarium / Zoo / Museums

Concert tickets

Golf / Bowling / Tennis

Netflix / YouTube Premium

Even though you would think costs of movie, sport and concert tickets can go north of $500+, wherever possible, I try to use credit card points instead of cash.

That’s why my overall spend towards this category hovers at around 1%.

Again, similar to the Gas category, there’s not a ton of upside optimizing my credit card set up around the Entertainment category.

Transit — 2%

This is yet another category that hovers around the low single digit percentages.

Some things that I like to include in Transit:

Uber or Lyft rides

Parking Fees

Shuttle or Bus services

Before I purchased my car in February 2024, I was spending a stupid amount of money on Uber and Lyft. After that, my Transit expenses have plummetted.

Now that I have my car, I don’t expect this category to be of any significance. Because of that, I will most likely remove Transit as a category starting 2025.

Grocery — 4.7%

My biggest surprise was how little of my money goes to groceries.

I have always actively thought about cutting my grocery expenses. Whenever I am at a grocery store, I do some mental gymnastics to save a only a few dollars.

Clearly, that’s the wrong spot to optimize.

That said, I expect my grocery expense to increase over the coming months, now that as a couple we have switched from eating out more often to cooking at home.

Given grocery spending is at 4.7%, and is only going to increase moving forward, this is the first category where it makes sense to maximize the rewards I get through credit cards.

Travel — 5%

Because I heavily subsidize all flight and hotel costs with credit card points, I was surprised to see my travel expenses take as much as 5% of my general spending.

After I took a deeper look, it became obvious: even with credit card points, travel is not really free.

Whenever I am traveling to any big cities, there are always costs that cannot be covered with points, such as:

Car Rentals

Hotel Valet Parkings

Mandatory Destination Fees at certain hotels

Taxes and Fees for international flight tickets

These don’t happen often, but when they do, they tend to be larger purchases compared to both Gas and Entertainment.

Other — 5.1%

Anything that does not fall into predefined bucket (even after getting very creative with each category), falls through to the Other category.

Here are some expenses that fall into this bucket:

Haircuts

Shipping fees

Plumbing Contractors

Legal fees

Shopping (Clothing / Accessories) — 8.3%

Most of my wife’s spending falls into this category.

Everything in this category tends to be discretionary spending. Here are a few things that are included in this category.

Clothing

Cosmetics

Spa / Nail Salon

Shoes / Bags / Accessories

Bills — 11.2%

From discretionary spending to essential spending, I don’t have a ton of flexibility when it comes to reducing my bills.

To give you some perspective, the majority here goes to:

Monthly car payment

Car insurance

Utilities (Electric, Water, Gas)

Internet

Mobile Phone

Gym Membership

I have done all I can to optimize my mobile phone, internet, gym membership and car insurance.

From time to time, I still look for better alternatives, but most likely I am already on the most cost-effective plans for each of the above.

Dining — 12.3%

Ah, here’s my guilty pleasure — eating out!

I can proudly say that I never pay the upcharge on delivery or takeout orders. All the spending you see here goes to dining out with friends and family.

I am a huge foodie! Whether traveling to a new city or finding hidden gems in my local area, I am eating out at least once (most weeks twice) every week.

It’s always been a struggle cutting expenses in this category. I think I have finally accepted that this is my way of treating myself. I am not someone who likes to buy things. Instead, I like to spend on food and other experiences.

I am sure if tough times arrive where I am needing to cut out all discretionary spending, I can significantly cut this down. However, right now I am privileged enough to keep going.

Shopping (Other) — 12.5%

I recently moved from Toronto to Atlanta, which means a whole lot of house expenses.

Whether it’s buying furnitures or kitchen appliances, most expenses in this category were unavoidable.

Now that my apartment is furnished, and both of us have everything we need, I expect this category to go down significantly over the next few months.

There’s one expense in this category that I am keeping a close eye on — books!

Both my wife and I are serious readers! We finish 1-2 books every week. It’s a very expensive hobby!

I have already found the best credit card for bookstores, so I know I am getting the maximum rewards in this category.

Over the next few months, I will keep an eye on this. If it’s taking significant portion of our shopping budget, we will seriously consider relying more heavily on buying used books and renting from libraries.

Rent — 36.6%

Finally, the big daddy expense every month — rent!

There’s not a ton to discuss here. Everyone gotta live somewhere!

One thing to mention though — I make sure I am earning credit card points on my biggest monthly expense by using the Wells Fargo Bilts Mastercard credit card.

Even though it takes ~40% of all my expenses, I am happy with what I pay for rent right now. I am not planning to buy a house anytime soon, and the flexibility that renting gives me is unparalleled.

Closing Thoughts

Okay folks, that’s all for today.

If you have read it so far, thank you for your time. I hope you found it valuable.

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