March 2020- How I Spent my Paycheck

Every month in 2020, I have been summarizing how I spent my paycheck between my Needs, Wants and Savings.

In March, my Wants category % was cut from 20%, in February, to 10% in March. Most of this was due to COVID but also because I had some one-time costs that didn’t repeate this month.

The largest cost that didn’t repeat was was $600 for my daughter’s school tutoring fee. This was in my Wants category last month and therefore my wants was significantly less this month.

Some of the savings from that Wants not repeating this month were spent on higher utility bills (in my Needs cateogry), but the rest were invested. As such, it helped keep my savings rate stay above my goal of 30%.

My fixed expenses are still high but because I have some wiggle room in my Wants, I kept my Savings rate high again this month.

Below is an interest chart of all my expenses as a percentage of my paycheck. The blue shade are Savings and the white is a mix of Wants and Needs.

Needs , 40%:

Mortgage 29% of paycheck ( continues to be 23% of gross)
Car payment and insurance are the next highest at 5% of paycheck
Utilities, 4%.
Groceries were 2%
Donation to my local church 2%

Wants, 14%

Health & Fitness, 4% gym charged me this month and I’m working on getting it reversed since I haven’t gone. I started seeing a therapist for accountability this month as well,
Braces for my Daughter (NEW) , 2%
Family Cell (parents and me) 2% – the cell itself isn’t a want, but the unlimited plan we have is, and me paying for my parents is.
Shopping, 0% sold my dining room table & a west elm spool side table, no shopping for me!
Eating out, 3% had takeout and celebrated a lot this month for my daughter’s birthday
Gardener, 1%
Learning, 1% bought 2 courses this month to learn how to flip electronics lol always looking for a side hustle and supported another DFC member with another purchase.

Savings 47%

Savings in LIMBO – 18% figuring out what to do with this money. so far it’s in a Real Estate sinking fund (like a savings treatment).
Index Funds 12%, invested in index funds as usual
NEW – added my first REIT into the portfolio. This is my first non index fund stock, 6%
Extra to my mortgage, 10%
Roth 2019, 0%- Finally maxed that out.

To see how this compares with February check here.

Related Posts

How I spent my paycheck- June 2020

February 2020 – How I Spent my Paycheck

How I spent my paycheck (January 2020)

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