As my usual late year topic, here is a breakdown of my expenses and savings in the year of 2021.
EXPENSES:
Grocery+cleaning+ personal care products: $4,022
This sounds reasonable to me. It is also around $1,200 less than 2020. Perhaps I had hoarded a lot in 2020 (due to the pandemic), which were consumed this year. I am pretty sure this is the case.
Eating out (myself): $21
Cab: $152
Junk food: $2,623
Clothes/shoes: $312
Medication and healthcare related expenses: $543
Dining out with others: $667
Gifts and donations: $500
House maintenance-related expenses: $312
Foster cat expenses: $1,160
Some of the expenses are lower than in 2020 (like healthcare related expenses. I believe it is because of the eye care and change of lenses and glasses every 2 years – this year I was spared of these extra expenses).
I cannot believe I have spend over 600 bucks in dining out with others, during the pandemic. This needs to stop. I am 100% sure that they all were work related functions, but still….
I am happy to make contributions to the care of my foster cat Mona, but I was surprised how much it totals over time 🙂 Nevertheless, she is worth every penny
And the Junk food…. my eternal enemy… Years after years I pay a significant sum to it…… Together with getting slimmer, getting rid of junk food in my life has been an almost life-long objective. I am fed up with it…….
INVESTMENTS:
TFSA + RSSP: $15,500
Not bad. I have been consistently trying to maximize my TFSA and RRSP rooms every year. I had also borrowed from my RRSP my down payment, which needs to be paid back – I have been doing that, too. So things are going really well in terms of how well I can save and invest and pay my mortgage.
MORTGAGE and PREPAYMENTS:
I paid around $32,000 of my principal this year. It was also a good year in terms of prepayments: I made a total of $15,000 prepayment. It is awesome. I think the highest pre-payments I have ever done in my home-ownership saga.
OVERALL NET WORTH
Overall, my net worth has increased by $59,231.
PLAN for 2022
The pandemic is helping me to save money, by reducing my transportation, dining out, and work related expenses. I wish though we were out of this pandemic so that we can feel kind of victorious over it.
I would like to continue as before, having a frugal life style, save, and invest (or make prepayments). I plan to pay of my mortgage this year, if that can happen. My term is ending and I have some investments that do not earn much money, so it is better to use these investments to pay the mortgage fully. I am actually very excited about this idea. My mortgage was the highest debt I have ever had, and cannot wait to be debt-free!! I will also be paying off my home-buyers plan (aka the money I borrowed from my RRSP for my down-payment) this year.
I hope I will be able to achieve these in 2022.