April Finances

April is over; one third (one third!) of the year is behind us. I have tallied the receipts and am ready to share our household numbers as I continue to track our 2018 spending on groceries (food and household items such as detergent) and eating out.

April contained extra expenditures that I will comment on where they fit. As I mentioned in March, there was a trip to Mayo Clinic, and that always adds additional expenses to our month. We had an end-of-Symphony-season reception at our house, another expense. My dear friend Katrina came for that weekend, insisting on buying reception items (including food) and meals out, and that had a positive impact on our bottom line. (I don't count gifts into our overall expenditures as no money comes out of our pockets.)

In April, Warren and I spent $160.94 on groceries (food) and $29.55 on household items (such as toilet paper and laundry detergent) for a total of $190.49. That figure is higher than the $175.00/month that I'm aiming for in 2018, but lower than the $200.00/month that I consider my cap. The first four months of 2018 averaged come to approximately $160.00 each month, so I think hitting $175.00 a month is well within reach. There was one grocery trip that Katrina went along and insisted on buying. It was not a huge trip, but it still kept those dollars out of our overall expenditures.

Back in March, I estimated that we could pull off the reception for $75.00. We spent $32.03 buying items (some food and a lot of paper items). Katrina arrived in Ohio and insisted on shopping at Costco en route to Delaware and I arrived home from an all-afternoon training to find the fridge full (Tuxedo cake! A veggie tray! Prosecco!), my counters full (Rolls! Napkins! Plates!) and my dear friend grinning at me. I don't know how much Katrina spent but, again, as a gift, her dollars did not roll into our estimates. (Note: I still think I could have pulled the reception off for under $75.00, especially since I would have not bought Prosecco.)

Our eating out expenses, apart from the Mayo trip, were $22.13.  Again, there were some meals out that we did not count: one on a gift card from a grateful friend for some support at a difficult time, a lunch and then a dinner courtesy of Katrina. The $22.00 is what we spent out of our pockets, excepting the Mayo trip.

I have tallied the Mayo trip separately, just to give you an idea of what it entails. The Mayo Clinic is located in Rochester, Minnesota, which is south of Minneapolis. It is 660 miles from here to there, so the round trip is 1320 miles. Because we drive older cars, we have started renting cars for the trip. The trip requires at least one night in a hotel in Rochester. And, of course, there is gasoline, as well as meals. We go to Mayo quarterly , so this is just a built-in expense for which I now plan and set aside money.

This trip was a little different because we had two hotel stays: one in Rochester and one in Beloit, Wisconsin. We almost always break up our trip by spending a night, either coming or going, in Madison, Wisconsin, with family, or sometimes a night at a family-owned condo in Oak Park, Illinois. This trip, though, because of the oppressive viral infection I was struggling with and the accompanying acute discomfort, we ate with our family in Madison and then drove on down the road.

Here is the breakout on the Mayo trip:

• Car rental: approximately $303.00 (Warren prudently insists upon buying the collision rider, and that adds to the final figure)
• Hotel (2 nights): $197.35 (This could have been lower had we preplanned the second night and reserved it earlier, but we put it off hoping I'd be better and we'd stay with family)
• Gas: $111.13
• Food (Thursday through Saturday): $49.35 (Why so low? Because on Thursday, when we drove straight through to Rochester, we ate a hasty breakfast at home before leaving at 5:00 a.m., ate a packed lunch on the road, and then ate dinner with family (our treat; we split an entree and I am counting that cost only in this figure). Breakfasts were free with hotel. We bought lunch at Friday in the Mayo cafeteria, we ate a home cooked meal with family Friday night in Madison, and bought a lunch on Saturday, being home in time for supper. Supper may have been something out of the freezer.)
• Gifts: about $94.00: $37.79 (chocolates for Madison); $53.00 (dinner Thursday night treating family, less our shared entree, figured in above)

Total road trip cost: $758.00 more or less.

So that was April. I have reset the counter for May and I'll revisit this topic again the first few days of June.