What I Spent in February 2024: Monthly Reset

What I Spent in February in NYC and How I'll Change My Spending Habits in March

If you read what I spent in January and thought I spent way too much money for someone who had recently gotten let go from their corporate job, then hopefully you’ll be satisfied with this month’s spending! My spending went down this month by over $500.

I definitely cut my spending down this month, but it wasn’t fully intentional. It’s a cold, short month, and I had less plans this month. I did make some intentional choices to try to center plans with friends around less expensive activities. I also spent way less on groceries—I realized I spent way too much in January, and I still had so much in my cabinets and freezer I hadn’t eaten yet.

My fixed costs stayed the same—$2,450.20 on rent and $100 on wifi and utilities.

My spending this month was broken down into nine categories this month—I included one new category since last month, clothing. Without further ado, here’s the breakdown:

1. Dining Out: $104.20

   This was higher than last month, but half of it was treating my old boss to lunch, since she treated me to dinner last month. I went out to eat two other times that I paid for with friends, plus a few times with family that they covered. For New York City, I think this is pretty good, especially considering that I spent $0 on takeout and delivery.

2. Groceries: $319.29

   This was an improvement over last month. This included a few runs throughout the month at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and my local smaller grocery store, plus two baguettes at my favorite local bakery. My fridge is stocked right now, so I’m hoping to have this number be even lower in March, to $250 or below.

3. Transportation: $147.34

   I spent $24 on one cab this month, the rest was all trains, subways, and buses. I also took the ferry a couple times, but I was still covered by my ten trip pack I bought over the winter. I took the commuter rail twice to visit family, and those $2.90 fares add up on the subway.

4. Coffee out: $83.52

   This covered 11 coffees, so they were less than $10 (unlike the name of this publication). These were spread throughout the month and all enjoyed with friends or while I was writing, so I’m happy with this expense.

From one of my many coffee shop visits, this one for journaling with my sister.

5. Drinks out: $235.95

   Still seems like a lot, but this is actually a decrease from last month. I do have some regrets in this area, though. There were a few beers here and there with friends (and two on a second date!) but the bulk of the spending was from a night out when my friends and I went to a comedy show. I spent over $100 on drinks that night, and I wish I had skipped the rounds at the most expensive place ($59). I didn’t need to drink that much; I would have still had a lot of fun!

6. Health: $522.45

   The bulk of this expense was $413 towards another 20-pack of spin classes at my favorite studio. This will last me at least until the middle of the summer, and while it’s a ton of money, I know it’s worth it to spend money on my health. I’ve picked up running recently, so I might change my schedule to just 1-2 spin classes per week, plus at least 1 run, plus 1 pilates class. My Classpass (where I get my pilates classes) also renewed at $89, plus a small medical bill made up the rest of this category.

7. Household: $82.51

   This included my rental insurance, money for the laundry machines in my building’s basement, and some random soap and other household things I needed that I ordered online from Walmart. Lots of necessary, boring purchases.

8. Hobby/experience: $345.17

   There were a lot of purchases that went into this bucket this year. I consider this the bucket of things that really make me happy—this month, it included a donation, tickets to Broadway shows (I’m so lucky that I saw three this month, including two from winning the lottery!), a ticket to a concert, and contributions towards creators I enjoy watching/reading to see more of their work.

Photo taken at Hamilton, the first Broadway show I saw this month. I bought these tickets for my family for Christmas back in November.

9. Clothing: $61.68

   I bought one clothing item this month: a sports bra from Lululemon. I’ve been trying to run more, and need more supportive sports bras for this. Now, I have two really supportive ones.

Total Spending: $1,902.14. Including rent and utilities, $4,452.34.

I thought about doing a low spend month in March, but I’m honestly pretty happy with how my spending panned out this month. I do want to make sure I stay intentional with my dining and drinking budgets in particular—as the weather gets warmer, I’d rather partake in free or cheap activities with friends, especially outdoors. And I fear that if I restrict myself with a low spend month, I would spend too much the following month.

Also, you might have seen my last post, I Invested $4,296.13 in Myself. The majority of that money was spent this past month on my initial inventory for my party game company. All the expenses I track in my monthly resets are personal—my business expenses are kept separate, since I’m registered as an LLC.

Thanks for reading my monthly reset! Like last month, I’d like to end with what I want to start, stop, and continue next month:

START: going for morning walks again (I’ve fallen off the wagon with these!)

STOP: scrolling on my phone, especially when I wake up, even if it’s on my business accounts

CONTINUE: working out, both outdoors and at classes

Comment below your start/stop/continue for March!

Thanks for reading, and subscribe to Ten Dollar Latte to know how I spend my money this month!