October expense review

For the month of October we had $3,237.85 in expenses. Below are our itemized expense categories as they compare with the previous month and some thoughts.

• We spent 8.91% more in October from the previous month, however, we are extremely excited because we really had our best month thus far. In October we had to pay for our home insurance policy renewal, but we were expecting to have to pay this out of our cash reserves held at ING Direct. However, since we were able to get the price down and had such a great month expense wise, we are going to be able to absorb this cost without having to tap any of our emergency reserves.



• Entertainment expenses were brought back down to normal levels as predicted.



• Grocery expenses should be closer to the $200, but I do not think this will be any lower in November because of Thanksgiving.



• Our electric and water expenses were at our annual peaks and now should begin to decrease dramatically. We’ve had the home air conditioning turned off since October 6th and have rarely watered the yard since then. We expect these expenses to be cut in half next month.



• We’re looking really good right now and with our cruise trip coming up in a week we’ll have seven less days of consumption to worry about this month since the vacation is already prepaid.