Incoming (all figures are after tax):

$3,719 salary
$800 housing
$277 misc
Total: $4,796

Outgoing:

$557 car payment, gasoline, tolls, parking
$101 cable, broadband, phone
$39 cell phone
$270 utilities
$2,175 housing
$175 student loan payment
$100 clothing
$292 dining out
$149 groceries
$92 household
$225 education - textbooks
$50 gift - friend's house warming
$28 company store - gifts
$301 auto insurance
$166 credit card interests
$24 train rides to/from airport
Total: $4,744

Net:

Difference: $52

* As I began my MBA classes, I shelled out about $250 for textbooks.

* Food expenditures seem to be on the rise, totally about $450 this month.

* Looking forward to big bonus in February, probably enough to wipe out CC3 and part of CC1. Also, the federal tax refund would help as well.

After a month of shopping and eating, the time has finally arrived to tally up the staggering expenses. This is also a good month for income, as there are three Friday paydays.

Incoming (all figures are after-tax):

$5,558 salary
$800 housing
$50 misc
Total: $6,408

Outgoing:

$483 car payment, gasoline, tolls, parking
$101 cable, broadband, phone
$40 cell phone
$97 utilities
$2,175 housing
$275 student loan payment
$80 cash withdrawal
$84 clothing
$153 dining out
$230 groceries
$106 contacts, medicine
$173 household
$457 leisure - Christmas gift shopping
$122 company store - Christmas gift shopping
$34 post office - shipping those gifts
$19 train rides to/from airport
$483 plane tickets to

Text is Houston and Link is houston.sidewalk.com

Houston
Total: $5,112

Net:

Difference: $1,296

* December is unusually due to the higher income and expenses (now every month has its reason to be unusual).

* About $600 was spent on Christmas presents. Mostly for parents and myself :-)

* About $500 was spent on Christmas travel, including plane tickets and train tickets. For some reason, travel this time costs more than before. I guess plane tickets have been going up.

* The extra money left over will be most likely going toward credit card loans.

Uh oh, it's middle of December already and I am just posting my November cash flow. Why have I been slacking? Well, first, I'm finally done with holiday shopping today, both online and offline! Second, work has been hectic. There're samples needed for a public relations (PR) event in Asia-Pacific region, yet circumstances
keep coming up to delay it and I'm the one needs to resolve it. I was truly in a panic mode yesterday.

Incoming (all figures are after-tax):

$3,668 salary
$800 housing
$374 misc
Total: $4,841

Outgoing:

$466 car payment, gas, tolls, parking
$101 triple play - cable, broadband, phone
$40 cell phone
$142 utilities
$2,145 housing
$211 student loan payment
$140 cash withdrawal
$125 charitable donation
$13 clothing
$237 dining out
$71 groceries
$7 household
* $635 insurance premium
$173 leisure - black Friday shopping
$20 gift - pet toy
$12 post office - stamps, packages
* $337 travel - plane tickets to Chicago (

Text is MDW and Link is www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/flyfaaindex.jsp?ARPT=MDW&p=0

MDW)
$91 misc - bars, clubs, dry clean
Total: $4,966

Net:

Difference: ($125)

:: Three months after starting a new job, my income and expenses are gradually stabilizing into more predictable numbers.

:: This month, November that is, the income is within 10% of previous month.

:: From expenses categories, it seems like about $300 on food (groceries and dining out) and I also eat out a lot more than cooking. Approximately half of the cash withdrawal went to eating out? It's hard to track when everyone just put in cash.

:: The one-time insurance premium would not be present for December, and the one-time trip cost would not be present, that's about $970 toward positive cashflow.

Although November ended slightly negative, December is looking good!

On Sunday evening, I took a little time and tallied up all my incomes and expenses.

Incoming (all figures are after-tax):

$3,668 salary
$800 housing
$110 misc
Total: $4,578

Outgoing:

$488 car payment, gas, tolls, parking
$101 cable, broadband, phone
$45 cell phone
$54 utilities
$2,145 housing
$200 student loan
$180 cash withdrawal
$100 charitable donation
$175 clothing
$174 dining out
$233 groceries
$75 household
$290 car insurance
$73 credit card interest
Total: $4,350

Net:

Differentce: $228 => credit card payment?

With my living arrangement right now, I write checks for $2,145 each month while getting $800 paid back. In short, I spent $1,345 on housing each month. The $290 car insurance is quarterly, so it won't show next month. The $175 clothing shouldn't be there next month :-)

In November, I look forward to cutting back on dining out, clothing, and random cash withdrawal. Good news, no black hole this month!

Since I started the

Money Crunch blog, I learned that one important thing is to manage the cash flow. I spent some time and tracked down my incoming cash and expenses for September. I hope this would give me a more revealing picture of my finances. I welcome your suggestions and comments as well!

Incoming (all figures are after-tax):

$4,200 signing bonus
$5,769 salary and misc
Total: $9,969

Outgoing:

$645 Automobile - car payment, gas, tolls, parking
$2,492 Bills - housing, utilities, cell phone
$560 Cash withdrawal - probably goes to dining out
$171 Clothing
$150 Dining out
$262 Groceries
$141 Household - things to make the place clean and tidy
$402 Leisure
$201 Vacation - plane tickets, hotel to a wedding in

Text is Austin and Link is austin360.com

Austin,

Text is Texas and Link is traveltex.com

Texas
$900 Misc - black hole
Total: $5,924

The numbers are not typical, since it includes:
* one-time signing bonus (after scary 40% combined federal and NYS tax rates)
* one-time security deposit
* one-time moving charges

I expect income to stabilize around $4,500. Since I get paid bi-weekly, some months have 2, some have 3 paychecks. I expect expense to drop to about $3,500, well, assuming I'll eat out and play less.

My goal is to put $1,000 to $1,600 into savings each month!

I'm going to tally up the income & expenses for month of October (October cash flow), then post it here soon. In the mean time, I'm going to write a bit about financial things. Stay tuned!