October 2010 Monthly Cash Flow

I have started posting our monthly cash flow analysis given how tight things are these days with our downshifting to a single income and starting a family. I believe we need to continue to pay closer attention to our cash flow while we get through this tight period of our journey to financial freedom.

So here an update with our October 2010 cash flow:

Here is our monthly update:

Income - I've tweaked the withholding at my employer as I'm expecting we will be due a tax refund. As a result my net pay was bumped up a bit.
Food - Was a better month for food expenses, but likely due to our 6 day vacation with the food covered by the cost of the cruise.
Vacation - Includes the remaining expenses from our cruise vacation beyond the cruise tickets purchased in May.
Utilities - Covers our electricity, gas, internet, and cell phones.
Misc - We continue our management of major purchases via monthly cash flow. Our major purchases for October included (~$350) in home improvement expenses associated with remodeling our master bathroom.
Healthcare - A lower than average month.
Auto - Had several major expenses in October including 2 car repairs ($378, $300) and a speeding ticket ($139).
Cash flow took a new low this year as we actually spent more than we earned from our day jobs. If we didn't have our investments and other income streams I'd be hitting the panic button about now.

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Comments (2)

Glad you guys enjoyed the cruise. Money well spent!
I work for one of the big banks, and my health care expense (myself and my son, not including my husband) is ~400 a month. your monthly healthcare of whole family is unbelievablly low...
Perhaps I should have taken the IBM job years ago, darn it!

Posted by Rachel | November 24, 2010 11:12 AM

yup, realized that what you posted under healthcare isn't the health insurance exp. For some reason, that's what came up my mind when i first saw it. Probably just wasn't happy with my health insurance cost LOL.

Posted by Rachel | November 26, 2010 2:33 PM