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For Business Insider's "Real Money" series, he shared how much he spends on food and fuel, and how he's saving money for his next vacation.
Want to share a week of your spending? Email your money@businessinsider.com.
At this point in my financial life, my money strategy is simple: kill debt to build wealth.
After graduating from college with two business degrees, I made a few bad financial decisions and bought a car I couldn't afford. My main focus right now is to eliminate all of my consumer debts including my car loan and two personal loans. After knocking those out, I will focus on knocking out my $6,000 in student loans, increasing my cash flow.
I still manage to save plenty of money every month from my paycheck. I deposit $25 a month into a vacation fund and utilize my credit card points for flights. Last year I used the Chase Sapphire credit card reward bonus of $200 to fly to Miami for free. This year I plan on using my $600 Southwest credit card reward bonus to travel to San Diego or some other place I have not been before.
My daily food budget is still something I need to work on. Not being the greatest cook, I tend to eat out a lot, which is not healthy and generally more expensive than preparing your own meal.
I make about $48,000 a year, but my take-home pay varies based on my side hustle income. Here's what I spend in a typical week.
My brother, cousin, and I live in a house my mom owns. The total mortgage on the house is $633. Living with others gives me an advantage over other people who are struggling to eliminate debt.
My student debt is $6,000. Most of my education was paid for by grants, but I took out a small loan to cover housing one year. This loan has been with me for almost a decade now. Time to break up with Sallie Mae!
I spend 19% of my monthly budget on car expenses. Here's how the rest breaks down:
No matter what, I spend my money on gas; I cannot get to and from work without it! I also spend a good amount of money eating out as I'm not a great chef.
On Friday, I was running a little late so I was unable to fix breakfast at home. Instead, I stopped by the Racetrac convenience store to grab some breakfast.
I grabbed an orange juice and a southern style chicken biscuit for a total of $4.71
While on my lunch break, I went to Walmart where I purchased a new USB charging cable for my phone, some Dasani water, and Febreze spray for a total of $18.40
Later on during the day, I grabbed some cinnamon apple Nutrigrain bars and some gummy snacks from Family Dollar for a total of $5.25
On Saturday Morning, I went to the movies during matinee hours to see "Avengers: Infinity War."
After going to the movies, I grabbed lunch from Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers. A three chicken finger combo with fries cost $7.12.
Once I was done with lunch, I remembered I had to put some gas in my car. I was riding around on a quarter tank of gas. To fill up my tank, I purchased $33.19 worth of gas. I now had a full tank but my car was dirty, so I headed to Benny's Car wash where I spent $6.
Sunday was a very light spending day for me.
After picking up a couple Uber passengers, I stopped at Whole Foods to pick up a slice of Chantilly cake. This is one expensive but delicious piece of cake. It cost $3.50!
Monday was another light spending day for me.
One area I struggle to save money in is my food budget; I eat fast food probably three times a week.
Today I purchased a small shrimp Po’ boy from Nola Cajun Seafood with fries and a bottle of lemonade for $5.81
On Tuesday I forgot to pack my lunch again.
Once again, this is poor planning on my behalf. I opted to buy an 8-piece chicken nugget meal from Chick-fil-A instead for $7.21.
My only other purchase was later during the day. I picked up a Hershey's milk chocolate candy from the convenience store for $1.10.
On Wednesday I woke up to brush my teeth and noticed the toothpaste tube was empty.
I replaced the toothpaste and bought some Listerine from the dollar store for $5.25.
For lunch I decided to get a Calzone from Rotolo's Pizzeria because it was $5 Calzone Wednesday. With tax, the total ended up being $5.50.
After eating at Rotolo's, I went to the gas station to purchase a fountain drink for $.75
On Thursday I decided to purchase a Stouffer’s frozen spaghetti dinner for lunch.
Perhaps it is time to learn how to cook, because it was disgusting. In addition to purchasing the gross spaghetti, I purchased oatmeal raisin cookies for the break room at work. The total cost of purchasing these items was $7.90
