June’s income was good. I was able to get a new document review job which helped a lot.

Dividend income came in at $0. None of the stocks in my taxable accounts paid a dividend in July. I’m buying some more stocks and some of them pay monthly dividends so I should have at least some dividend income every month now.

Interest income was $115.99.

I made $177.26 from eBay. Since I was working, I spent much less time on eBay.

I made $28.15 from cash back.

I made $671 from social casinos. One of the social casinos I get daily money from is closing so this amount will probably be down a little this month.

I made $34.80 from surveys.

I made $293.04 from sportsbooks. I keep thinking the promos are all gone, but then more come along.

I made $1930.30 from document review jobs. I started with a new document review company, but their first project only lasted 2 1/2 days. I then got an offer from my old employer that I hadn’t worked for since 2022. I’m now working for the old employer, and it looks like they have steady work for a little while at least.

I made $5 from a class action and $46.75 from a gas tax refund.

This month’s income should be even better since I will likely have work for the entire month, and I have some bank bonuses coming payable this month.

How was your month?

July’s expenses were a little high due to paying some annual and semi-annual expenses and paying off my car tires. Expenses should get closer to a normal level this month. I do have to prepay for the propane we use for heating this month so expenses will still be a little higher than I’d like.

Entertainment expense was $0. Amazon Prime was free after applying a free gift card to my account. I also have 1 year of Apple TV free from one of my credit cards.

My transportation expense consisted of $54.97 for gas, $215 for six months insurance on my car, and $600 for maintenance. The maintenance expense was for the remaining balance on four new tires I purchased in May.

Food expense was $376.96. That is divided between $314.88 for groceries and $62.08 for restaurants. Any month under $400 is a good month. This month should be about the same.

Travel expense came in at $0.

Utilities came in at $236.17. Internet was $40 and electric/water was $161.17. Three months of trash service cost $45. I was surprised the electric bill wasn’t higher. The big bill from A/C usage will probably hit this month.

Household expense came in at $176.20. This was mostly for miscellaneous household stuff. I also made a couple of payments on my dad’s prepaid cremation plan.

I spent $218.86 for phone service. That was the usual monthly amount of $20 for my wife’s phone plus the annual payment for my phone.

The $51.63 spent on health for a doctor visit and one OTC medication.

I paid $248.79 on my student loan. The loan had been paused since 2020, but they resumed requiring payments again last month. I’m considering switching to the RAP repayment plan. It would save me a lot of money based on my current finances. However, the student aid website isn’t currently giving me credit for the years of payments I’ve made through IBR even though everything I’ve read states that they should count towards the RAP forgiveness timeline. If I don’t properly receive credit for my IBR payments, I’d be paying for 30 more years rather than 8 more years which would make the RAP plan much more expensive. For now, I’m waiting for them to update the website before I decide to switch.

This month’s expenses should be a little lower. How was your month?

June’s income was good. It was higher than I expected it to be without any job income. I had 12 sources of income during the month.

Dividend income came in at $227.36.

Interest income was $100.40.

I made $878.32 from eBay.

I made $13.39 from cash back.

I made $739.51 from social casinos.

I made $30.71 from surveys.

I made $150 from sportsbooks. I thought the promos had dried up, but there were quite a few new ones for the World Cup, so this source of income isn’t dead yet.

I made $62.22 from other selling.

I made $12.45 from Amazon Merch, $6.42 from a class action, $5 from a mystery shop, and $7.15 from DoorDash.

How was your month?

June’s expenses were unusually high due to having to pay an insurance deductible. Expenses should be back to a normal level this month.

Entertainment expense was $4.33 for Amazon Prime. That was my balance after applying a free gift card to my account. I also got 1 year of Apple TV free from one of my credit cards. I don’t plan on signing up for any other TV services for a while. These plus YouTube provide me with way more stuff than I can watch.

My transportation expense consisted of $148.66 for gas, $79.81 for 2 years license on my car, and $184.82 for maintenance. The maintenance expense is for an alignment and a partial payment on 4 new tires. I was able to finance the tires for 6 months with no interest.

Food expense was $219.28. That is divided between $170.16 for groceries and $49.12 for restaurants. That was abnormally low. Grocery expense was helped by us stocking up at the end of the previous month and having a free $25 Walmart gift card. Restaurant expense was low due to having a free McDonald’s gift card and using some Paze promos.

Travel expense came in at $0.

Utilities came in at $220.90. Internet was $40 and electric/water was $164.91. I also paid $15.99 for the first month of a new trash service. This expense will be higher this month since we will be using the A/C more.

Household expense came in at $1866.31. The big bill was $1700 for my part of our insurance deductible that was used to fix our roof after hailstorm damage. The rest was for miscellaneous household items and flowers, plants and other items for the yard.

I spent $20 for phone service. That was the usual monthly amount plus $5 for extra data.

The $150.79 spent on health for a doctor visit.

I paid $248.79 on my student loan. The loan had been paused since 2020, but they resumed requiring payments again last month.

This month’s expenses should be much lower. How was your month?

May income was good. It was higher than I expected it to be without any job income. My income was well above my expenses which is always good.

Dividend income came in at $110.85.

Interest income was $112.73.

I made $758.89 from eBay.

I made $40.93 from cash back.

I made $655 from social casinos.

I made $55.87 from surveys.

I made $25 from sportsbooks.

I made $700 from bank bonuses.

I made $4.15 from Amazon Merch and $288 from unemployment.

How was your month?

May’s expenses were a little higher than I’d prefer. I’m hoping I can reduce expenses about $200 this month. .

Entertainment expense was $18 for an annual subscription to NYT Games. I probably shouldn’t have spent that since I have a lot of free entertainment options, but I do play them daily, so it isn’t a bad value. Amazon Prime and Hulu were covered by credit card rewards and a free gift card.

My transportation expense consisted of $144.06 for gas and $120.13 for maintenance. We should travel a little less this month, and gas is starting to get cheaper, so I hope this expense will be lower this month.

Food expense was $512.42. That is divided between $437.56 for groceries and $74.86 for restaurants. We’re well stocked on groceries, and I got another free McDonald’s gift card so this expense should be lower this month.

Travel expense came in at $0. I hope that will be the same this month.

Utilities came in at $195.20. Internet was $40 and electric/water was $155.20. This expense will be higher this month since we will be using the A/C more.

Household expense came in at $319.69. The big bill was $110 for my CLE. The rest was for miscellaneous household items and flowers, plants and other items for the yard.

I spent $20 for phone service. That was the usual monthly amount plus $5 for extra data.

The $24.41 spent on health was for OTC medicine, my blood pressure medicine, and a supplement.

This month’s expenses will probably be about the same. How was your month?

April income was good. It was much higher than I expected since I only had one paycheck.

Dividend income came in at $8.33.

Interest income was $111.14.

I made $836.66 from eBay and $90 from other selling.

I made $182.19 from cash back.

I made $672.87 from job income. I’ve been having a difficult time getting placed on projects this year so I’ve ramped up my side hustle income.

I made $532 from social casinos.

I made $19.14 from surveys.

I made $125.87 from sportsbooks. The promos are beginning to dry up. This source of income will go down unless I can figure out another way to profit from the sportsbooks.

I made $96.56 from class actions, $4.15 from Amazon Merch, and $1148.97 from capital gains. I sold all stocks in my Robinhood and Webull accounts and used the proceeds to contribute to my Roth IRA. This will result in my dividend income being lower the rest of the year. Next year, I’ll turn 59.5 and will be able to take income from my Roth IRA tax-free. When that happens, I’ll count the dividend income from my Roth as income.

How was your month?

April’s expenses were about what I expect will be normal, now that I have the monthly rent payment.

Entertainment expense was $0 since credit card rewards covered the Peacock and Hulu expense and a free gift card covered the Amazon Prime expense.

My transportation expense consisted of $124.88 for gas. That was helped a bit by a discounted gas gift card. We’re traveling more this month, and gas has gotten even more expensive, so I expect this expense to be higher this month.

Food expense was $369.51. That is divided between $352.65 for groceries and $16.86 for restaurants. The restaurant expense was much lower than normal due to using a free $100 McDonald’s gift card. The gift card is almost used up so food expense will probably be higher this month.

Travel expense came in at $49. That is for my IHG gift card which gives me one free night a year. Ideally, I use the free night when I would otherwise have to pay a lot for a hotel night. I messed up on this last year. I delayed using the free night trying to get the most value out of it and then almost forgot about it all together. I ended up using it for a hotel night on a trip where we would otherwise have just gone and come back the same day.

Utilities came in at $257.57. Internet was $40 and electric/water was $149.59. There was also a quarterly charge of $67.98 for trash. This expense should be slightly lower this month since there won’t be a trash bill.

Household expense came in at $585.93. The big bills were $251 for A/C repair and $100 prepay for my dad’s cremation. This was for miscellaneous household items and flowers, plants and other items for the yard.

I spent $20 for phone service. That was the usual monthly amount plus $5 for extra data.

The $10.43spent on health was for some over the counter medicine. This expense will be higher this month.

This month’s expenses will probably be about the same. How was your month?

I’m doing very poorly on my weight loss goal. Based on past experience, this isn’t much of a surprise. I started off the year well. I lost 5 pounds in January. I spent most of that month in Thailand and I find it easier to lose weight there.

Since January, I have gained weight. I’m only down a couple pounds for the year. I’m not sure how to do better on this goal. I have occasionally tracked my food. I need to increase my protein and fiber intake. Knowing what I need to do and actually doing it are two very different things. I’m still hoping I will figure out a way to eat better and stick to eating better.

I’m doing ok on my second goal. I’m at $2195 in bonuses so far this year. That is behind where I should be at this point to be on track for meeting the $8600 goal. I can make quick progress on this by doing some credit card and bank bonuses so I’m not too worried about making this goal. I’ve actually made most of my Roth IRA contribution for the year since I wanted to take advantage of the stock market dip earlier this year. The money from the bonuses will be used to reimburse for the contributions rather than being used to directly make the contributions

I’ll check in again on these goals at the end of Q2 and I hope I will be able to share better progress then.

March income was okay considering the lack of job income.

Dividend income came in at $280.53.

Interest income was $117.62.

I made $644.26 from eBay and $44.63 from other selling.

I made $148.72 from cash back.

I made $160.70 from job income. I’ve been having a difficult time getting placed on projects this year. I need to find a different job or ramp up my side hustle income.

I made $322.09 from social casinos.

I made $9.98 from surveys.

I made $150 from sportsbooks. The promos are beginning to dry up. This source of income will go down unless I can figure out another way to profit from the sportsbooks.

I made $111.35 from class actions and $10.02. Those are both random sources of income that I probably won’t get next month.

How was your month?