This is the 2nd in a series of expense reports summarizing my spending for the month. I’ll cover what happened quantitively, and then qualify those numbers with details about the month. Finally, I’ll conclude with what I’ve learned, and what I plan to do in the future. I’ll respond to any questions or comments you have. Thanks!
Important Going-Ons in November
- On November 18, 2013 my father opened his third restaurant, Rain. For some of the pre-opening coverage, check it out here. Short-term financials-wise, what this meant for me was taking that trip back to Albany for the opening.
- In November, we celebrated both my favorite holiday (Thanksgiving) and least favorite (Black Friday). Amy and I took a wonderful trip up to San Francisco to eat, drink and celebrate the former, and did absolutely nothing for the latter :). A big part of not getting caught up in the Black Friday/Cyber Monday madness has to do with 1. not having a TV, 2. never reading local news, 3. being too freaking busy to think about shopping and all the money I could “save” by spending.
- Started tracking the metrics of the blog with an eye towards growing readership and email subscribers — I’ll get into those details below.
- I cycled 10 out of 13 working days this month, for a total of 72 miles and 6.37 hours spent on the bike.
Fixed Expenses
- Rent: $688
- Internet: $30 [wireless + domain hosting]
- Gas (Utilities): $8
- Electric (Utilities): None (we’re billed every 2 months)
- Renter’s Insurance: $10
- Car Insurance: $77.50
- Cell Phone: $50
- Netflix: $5
Variable Expenses
- Groceries: $107
- Gas: $72
- Drinks: $20 [“drinks” almost always means afterwork, with others who work in Hollywood]
- Lunches: $62 [again, work related lunches]
- Going Out: $250
- Miscellaneous: $60
- Travel: $120
- Gifts: N/a
- Business Expenses: None
Total Expenses = $1,559.50
Breakdown
- Groceries: Amy and my goal has been to keep our combined grocery bill under $300 / month, which we did here, largely due to the fact that I was gone for a week this month, plus our long Thanksgiving weekend out of town.
- Gas: the $72 spent on gas this month was spent driving to and back from San Francisco. I bike-commuted 10 out of 13 work days, and didn’t refuel at all this month. For those who don’t live in Los Angeles, yeah, that’s an (freaking awesome) anomaly.
- Drinks: I budget $100 / month for drinks, and only spent $20 this month for one set of drinks. No, this is not good. It means I’m not networking enough. I was away a good bit this month, and focused on side projects at night, which partly explains the sharp drop off. But drinks-networking should be something of a constant. I think it pays dividends in the long run if you’re consistent, and provide value to people whenever you can, anyway you can.
- Lunches: I budget about $80 / month for lunch, and spent $62, which is solid (considering I was away so much this month).
- Miscellaneous: Holiday decorations and household items!
- Travel: I needed to bump up my Albany flight a day early due to a death in the family. After some serious conversations with the folks at Delta, they waived the rebooking fee and got me a reduced fare, of $120.
- Gifts: For a couple birthdays and some holiday gifts — don’t think including the costs is appropriate 🙂
What I Learned This Month
- Read this awesome breakdown of where Bridget’s monthly paycheck goes on Money After Graduation — and how she’s using this analysis to increase her net worth by $25K a year.
- After a long conversation with four different Delta representatives, we came to the mutual conclusion that they were overcharging my changed flight fare by $140 for a total cost of $290. Which reminded me that your willingness to engage to uncomfortable conversations is proportional to your long term wealth. Saving that $120 was a small win. The big win was firmly but politely holding my ground, despite having to speak with four different people — I see these conversations as “practice” for more difficult conversations, e.g., salary negotiations, talking about money with loved ones, big purchase negotiations, firing people, etc.
- The opening of the restaurant, Rain Modern Chinese in Albany, NY was a fantastic experience. We had a packed dining room and a line in the bar our first Friday, despite no advertising or marketing besides the coverage in the Albany Times Union. The takeaway: you have to be patient. The word of mouth and the buzz surrounding the restaurant was a process that took 5 years, when we first opened Shogun in Delmar. Patience, patience, patience.
- I mentioned last month that I’d start learning more about earning travel miles using credit cards, and Amy and I are already more than halfway towards earning our first 50,000 free miles.
Blogging Lessons Learned This Month
I worked on this blog quietly for one year, telling very few people about it. My goal, before I started sharing it with anyone, was to make sure I provided content that helped others. Having accomplished that, I’m setting monthly goals to push myself out of my comfort zone and start earning more readers and subscribers.
- In the month of October 2013, with no marketing, no SEO, and telling almost no one about this blog, there were 269 page views. I set a goal for November 2013 to reach 300 page views.
- In the month of November 2013, with direct asks for Hollywood assistants to look at the site, Fighting Broke received 281 page views. This is 19 page views short of my goal, but exceeded October by 12 page views, which is a WIN in my book!
- Regarding the use of page views as my metric – yes, the metric of “page views” is not accurate. Yes, it’s a little arbitrary. I realize all of this. The question is — “Is an arbitrary metric better than no metric at all?” I believe, “yes,” IF in driving up that behavior, I commit to a specific desired behavior that benefits my end goal, e.g., earning more readers and subscribers and writing more content. What’s important here is the behavior and the journey, not necessarily the outcome.
- I’m not going to earn more readers and subscribers without asking more people to read and subscribe, and writing more. Increasing page views is an imperfect way of tracking how many people I ask to read, but it’s better than no method of keeping myself accountable.
- So for the month of December 2013, I want to earn 350 page views.
To everyone who’s been reading along thus far — thank you so much! Truly. I know how busy everyone is, not just those of working hard in Hollywood to carve out our niche but in whatever industry or city you’re in. Even committing to read that one extra email, or one extra blog, is not a commitment to take lightly, so I’m grateful if you think I’ve earned that place in your inbox and reader.
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Photo Credit: Martha Chapa95
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