Oct-16 Comments Rent $765.00 $750 for rent + $15 in fees for Plastiq in order to pay via credit card Internet $60.92 Internet is kind of expensive out here in the boonies Cell Phone $32.88 $30 + taxes/fees for 5 GB of 4G data through T-Mobile Natural Gas $0.00 No gas bill this month due to timing. Electricity $0.00 No electric bill this month due to timing. Water $42.48 My actual water usage is only about $5, but my town tacks on so many fees that the bill comes to $40+ every month!...

Sep-16 Comments Rent $765.00 $750 for rent + $15 in fees for Plastiq in order to pay via credit card Internet $60.92 Internet is kind of expensive out here in the boonies Cell Phone $32.88 $30 + taxes/fees for 5 GB of 4G data through T-Mobile Natural Gas $18.38 About average gas use for the month. Electricity $62.54 Two months’ worth due to billing timing. Water $40.51 My actual water usage is only about $5, but my town tacks on so many fees that the bill comes to $40+ every month!...

I thought it would be interesting to compare my expenses against the “Average Joe”, to see how different my lifestyle really is from the norm. It turns out that the Bureau of Labor Statistics collects data on this sort of thing every year as part of the Consumer Expenditure Survey. And, lucky for me, the most recent data sets for 2014-2015 were released only 2 weeks ago. So, I dug in....

Since this blog is new, here is my most recent financial snapshot. In the future, I will post these on the final day of every month. Aug-16 Comments Rent $765.00 $750 for rent + $15 in fees for Plastiq in order to pay via credit card Internet $60.92 Internet is kind of expensive out here in the boonies Cell Phone $32.88 $30 + taxes/fees for 5 GB of 4G data through T-Mobile Natural Gas $37....