What I Spend In A Week As A 30 Year Old In Miami

I love the trend on YouTube where creators show how much they spend in one week. 

It’s especially fascinating to see how different the videos are, depending on geographical location.

I live in South Florida, which has a high cost of living, especially when compared to the midwest. Florida is not Los Angeles or San Diego, but it still raises eyebrows.

REGULAR EXPENSES

Before we get into the good stuff, here’s a quick break down of our bills:

Charity & Tithe: 

$1,750 per month | 437.50 per week

This consists of our tithe to our local church, a missionary family that we support in Argentina and Leandro the boy that we sponsor in El Salvator. 

Mortgage: 

$1,649 per month | $412 per week

We recently bought our home in August, click here to see a house tour!

Insurance:

$1,352.77 per month | $388.19 a week

This includes: 

• Auto insurance

• Health insurance

• Homeowners insurance 

• Property taxes 

We decided not to escrow our homeowners insurance and property taxes because we like to have a sinking fund and earn interest on it monthly in our high yield savings account. 

Utilities:

$239.77 per month | $59.94 per week.

This Includes:

• Cell phone

• Water bill

• Electric bill

Subscriptions: 

$106 per month | $26.50 per week

This Includes:

• Spotify

• iCloud

• YouTube Premium

• Patreon 

• Adobe

Lawn Care: 

 $70.00 per month | $17.50 a week. 

Lastly is lawn care. This is one that Jayme and I have gone back and forth on investing in a lawn mower. With how much he travels, the last thing he wants to worry about is cutting the grass in the humid Florida heat when he gets home from a long gig. 

Total bills:

$62,010.48 per year | $5,167.54 per month | $1291.89 per week

I wasn’t joking when I said I lived in a high cost of living area! 

OUTSIDE OF BILLS

Now for the fun part! Here is what I bought day by day throughout the week: 

Sunday: 

• Nike: $74.89 – Jayme was in desperate need of new sneakers for work. We headed up to the Palm Beach Outlets to go to the Nike Store. They were having a great sale and we were able to snag new sneakers for a steal!

• Gas: $24.58 – 

I redeemed my free Diet Coke reward for using the Cumberland Farms Smart Pay app!

• Aldi: $63.29 – The groceries for the week were under $65! This included meal prepped lunches for work, as well as dinners. We’re not breakfast eaters, so I’d say this is well below average for a ‘normal’ family. Both my gas and Aldi receipts were uploaded into Fetch Rewards to earn gift cards simply by scanning our receipts! 

Click here to download Fetch Rewards and use code QHKBH to earn 2,000 points ($2) when you upload your first receipt! 

M1 Finance: $400 – Purchased 4 new stocks

•$100 Disney (DIS)

•$100 Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VOO) 

•$100 Target (TGT)

•$100 Amazon (AMZN)

 M1 Finance is a super easy to use investing platform that is great for beginners allows fractional shares which means you can put in small amounts to get started. 

Total: $562.76. 

Monday: 

• Haircut: $0 – My friend Ellen cuts my hair (typically in our work locker room) in exchange for budget coaching or a massage. Fun fact: I went to massage school! 

• Dentist: $0.00 – I had my routine teeth cleaning and had no cavities – hooray! Dental Insurance FTW

• Ross: $29.25 – Ross has a huge 59 cent sale every January. This year they started it early and I was able to snag clearance Christmas items, UnderArmor shorts, New Balance fleece, and a blouse! #score

Total: $29.25

Tuesday

• Amazon: $63.59 – I purchased a heating pad because it is always FREEZING in my office. Yes I live in South Florida and it’s currently 73 degrees in the middle of January – but office buildings blast the AC. I also purchased Ultima Electrolyte Hydration Power and KetoScience Real Ketones Powder because they are both keto staples and help me to get my minerals in. 

• Blogger Awards Ceremony: $25.00 – Freedom In A Budget was nominated as the Best Finance Blog by The Blogger’s Union! I am beyond excited for this huge honor – this will be a great networking event for me!

Total: $88.59

Wednesday: 

Wednesday was a great day. I didn’t have to spend any money! 

Total: $0.00

Thursday: 

• Tri-Rail: $10.00 – I took the plunge and took the local train into work. I commute 72 miles a day and it’s been harder on me than I expected when we bought our home in August. I’ve been wanting to try the train for a couple months, but was nervous about the logistics. It was much easier than I expected. I do have to leave the house 30 minutes earlier… so it’s not a time saver –  but it is less stressful, is less wear and tear on my car, and is more environmentally friendly. It costs on average $6 per day for me to drive my car, so it was a little bit more expensive. However, they have a 12 day pass for $62. I’ll be purchasing that next week which will equal out to $5.16 per day. 

• Amazon: $20.99 – I purchased this dress through Amazon. It was recommended to be by my friend Maureen at The Magical Mundane Life. I’m starting to attend more “Influencer Events,” so I’m excited to have a nice, bright summer dress.

Total: $30.99

Friday: 

Hair Color: $201.00 – Every 6 months I get balayage highlights. Yes, I know that you’re supposed to update them every 3-4 months… but girl – they are expensive! One way I am able to stretch the time for my highlights is to opt for  balayage, which uses a technique to tease your hair before adding the bleach so that you don’t get the harsh line. Basically, the hair grows out gracefully. 

Total: $201.00

Saturday: 

• Blogging Event: $6.94 – I attended a super fun blogging event at Lime Mexican Grill in West Palm Beach. It was a wonderful networking and educational event.

• Date Night: $27.54 – One of my goals for 2020 was to have monthly date nights with Jayme. As much as we would love weekly date nights, that’s just not realistic for us with how much we travel. I decided to break keto and go to Pei Wei. We both enjoyed Honey Seared Chicken with Lo Mein. So good! 

Total: $34.48

That’s a wrap! 

This week I spent a total of $2,238.96 

I’m honestly surprised at how fast everything added up. There were a couple of times that I purchased without even realizing it, and then had to go back and film it for you. 

I check my accounts every couple of days to log my purchases in my excel budget so I never miss a purchase. 

Wow how my life has changed in the past couple of years!

It’s so cool how your life can be when you are out of debt. We are able to give freely, attend events that help grow our businesses, and splurge on clothes and hair highlights. 

If you don’t already track all of your spending, I HIGHLY encourage you to have a written budget and track all of your purchases .

Click here for the excel budget that I use and here is a spending analysis spreadsheet that I have created to help you set up that budget and all of the categories. 

Ways I save money:

Here at Freedom In A Budget, I am all about saving money! Here are some of the EASY ways that I save money:

• Billshark negotiates lower prices on your monthly bills to save you time, money and hassle.

• Fetch Rewards is a free grocery savings app that rewards you just for snapping pictures of your receipts. That’s it. Really. Free gift cards on groceries on thousands of products every day, no matter where you get your groceries. 

Just scan your receipts and get gift cards from retailers like Amazon, Target, Ulta, Applebees. Use code QHKBH to earn 2,000 points ($2)!

• Credit Sesame offers Credit Score and Monitoring, Savings Recommendations and Identity Theft Protection. ALL FOR FREE.

• CIT Bank offers high interest savings accounts and CDs to provide a safe, secure way to GROW your savings.

• Gabi is a full-service, online advisor who compares all your insurance options to find you the right policy, all in under two minutes.

• M1 Finance is an easy to use brokerage platform that allows you to invest in Fractional Shares and auto reinvest!

• Webull Get 2 Free Stocks on WeBull when you deposit $100 (Valued up to $1400).