Income and Expenses
In this post I will talk about my income and expenses. This is for my current situation working full time. Obviously this will change once I go on maternity leave and have reduced pay and probably different expenses, but I will do another post on that later.
Income
I have 2 sources of income: a full time job and a side hustle. My full time job is working as an engineer in an office in Brisbane from 9-5 Monday to Friday (40 hours per week). My side hustle is running an Etsy store (sewing things) which I mainly do for enjoyment but I do want to grow it.
- Day job: $2,080 per fortnight after tax and compulsory HECS repayments, excluding super
- Etsy store: this year I have made $545 in revenue of which about 80% is profit, so about $50 profit/month
I am not counting interest from my savings account or dividends from shares as I reinvest these.
Expenses
My main expense is rent. I am renting an apartment in inner city Brisbane with my partner/baby daddy and my share of this is $250 per week.
Below I list all my expenses. If you don't want to read all that skip down to the visual.
- Rent: $250/wk
I choose to live inner city because it saves me so much time commuting to and from work and that is worth it for me. - Food (eating out and coffees at work): $100/wk
I don't eat out as much now and I try to only buy coffee a couple of times a week as a treat. I'm pretty happy to buy a few meals out per week because I enjoy that. Uber Eats was a killer for me until recently. I try to only do one Uber Eats order per week now if I have to. - Groceries: $140/fortnight (we take turns each week)
This is about how much it costs us each week for groceries. We do one shop each week at Coles. That reminds me, I have about $450 saved up in Flybuys dollars... any ideas how I should spend that? - Car parking at work: $250/month
I have a monthly car pass to a secure parking lot right where my work is. This is actually pretty good value considering I work near the city and parking can be up to $40/day. It works out around $11-12 per day depending on how many work days are in the calendar month. Considering the time I save compared to public transport, it is worth the cost for me. Also I am almost 6 months pregnant and honestly I can think of nothing worse than shuffling through crowded sweaty buses everyday. - Internet: $60/month
I pay the full share of internet but my partner tends to buy more meals for me so it evens it out. - Clothes and miscellaneous purchases: $50/month
I don't buy clothes often but I might buy a new pair of comfortable shoes for work every few months for example. I recently bought some generic stretchy skirts and dresses for my growing belly (trying to avoid maternity wear so I can still wear these items after baby). - Mobile phone: $32/month
I recently downgraded from a $45/month plan to this one as I wasn't using the data I was paying for. I went down from 30GB to 10GB. I may decrease this further but I'll see how close to the 10GB I go this month. - Electricity: $120/quarter
Our combined electricity bill has been about $240/quarter for the last year. - Hot water: $100/quarter
Our hot water bill has been about $200/quarter. - Etsy expenses: $15/month
Mainly includes cost of materials (fabric, thread) and subscription to photo editing software. - Netflix: $14/month
Ok, this isn't a necessity but it provides entertainment for us which we use regularly. - Makeup and grooming: $50/quarter
Hello, I'm a woman. I don't buy 'experimental' makeup anymore and just stick to the necessities (foundation, concealer, powder, eyebrow powder, mascara, eyeliner usually need replacing every 3-4 months). I also don't cut my hair regularly as I'm growing it (once a year maybe), and I don't get my nails done. I don't get facials or cosmetic injections. - Tax: $150/year (have had to pay this amount for the last few years)
Maybe my employer isn't taking out enough from my pay?
The chart below shows you this information turned in to a $/fortnight figure. Blue is my income, orange are my expenses. Net savings each fortnight are around $1,000.
Income and Expenses Per Fortnight
This is a savings rate of 49%. My goal until I go on maternity leave is to maintain this. My goal during maternity leave is to maintain a >10% savings rate. What's your savings rate at the moment?
