Well, of course it's the 21st century and I use more modern appliances to keep track of my money, don't you know. Though just barely.
Not quite as ancient as those boxes made of metal, but as far as what is available today, Microsoft Money is certainly pretty, pretty old. But I wouldn't have it any other way.
I've been using this religiously since the '90s and the files that I currently continually update go back to the year 2001. All data prior to that was lost in a hard drive crash in the summer of that year. I had backup files but being on floppy disk I think they were corrupted or I hadn't backed up in like over a year or something, I'm not sure anymore of the reason, but in any event I decided to just start fresh once I bought a new hard drive. Now I back up to the cloud so I guess there's no danger of that anymore, although, do I backup every week? No.
The basis of my budget is just simply as you can see here, not only tracking expenses, mainly out of my checking account, but also logging projections of anticipated income and expenses for the coming year. Once I step all of this out, I make modifications in real time as projections need to be modified to meet actual income and expenses but usually I'm not that far off since most projections are based on past figures and anticipated increases or other fluctuations. I don't get that super fancy as you can see, it's just basic. And at my income level, why get fancy? This is about as low as it gets folks. These are not high-end finance wheelings and dealings. This is dirt poor existence and scratching to get by on fifteen grand a year.
MAJOR MONTHLY EXPENSES
MOBILE HOME LOT RENT
INLAND RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE SERVICES
dba/ LAKEVIEW MOBILE VILLAGE
Approx. $7,000.00 lot rent for 2025 will brake down to an average of $583 a month. This includes a base lot rent of $513 (reduced by "committee meeting agreement" by $10 from $523) with a 10-month county property tax pass-on pro-rata charge per homeowner of $40.86. Also included: $16 for trash and a fluctuating water charge usually around $8 - $11/mo.
This compares to
2024: $6,472.08 avg. $539.00 /mo.
2023: $5,909.13 avg. $492.43 /mo.
2022: $5,557.00 avg. $463.08 /mo.
2021: $4,668.00 avg. $389.00 /mo.
GROCERIES
VARIOUS STORES
$3,504 for 2025 an avg. $292 /mo.*
ELECTRICITY
DUKE ENERGY
Estimate $1,455 for 2025 an avg. $121 /mo.*
TOTAL MAJOR MONTHLY EXPENSES: $996.00
MINOR MONTHLY EXPENSES
Xfinity Mobile $27.50
Amazon Prime (with EBT discount) $10.00
YouTube Premium $17.00
Ozempic $12.50
Farxiga $12.50
Xfinity Internet $64.96
Geico $43.50
Eric T. Zwayer $5.80
dental $12.50
vision $12.50
gas and car maint. $20
leisure $100
TOTAL MINOR MONTHLY EXPENSES: $338.76
TOTAL ALL MONTHLY EXPENSES: $1,334.76
MONTHLY INCOME
CHARLES SCHWAB RETIREMENT IRA DISTRIBUTIONS
Avg. $1,250.00 /mo.
SNAP EBT BENEFITS
* $292 exactly / mo. (payable only to groceries expense account)
MY HEALTH PAYS REWARDS via AMBETTER
* Avg. $48 /mo. (payable only to electricity expense account)
TOTAL ALL MONTHLY INCOME $1,590.00
MONTHLY AMOUNT UNDER BUDGET: $255.24
Woo Hoo! $255 mad money each month! Well, don't get too mad with it! If for some reason I lose SNAP, then poof, there that goes. If Ambetter decides to get cheap with their My Health Pays rewards, tighten that belt. If something goes wrong... anything really, then, well, you know. And a mere $100 leisure a month ain't gonna cover theme parks or cruises so....well...
So that's it. Pretty tight, I know. If the markets prevail as they have been, I hope to end '25 with still around about $48K in the IRA to carry me into 2026...the year I can claim Social Security.