Spending in 2014

In a repeat of 2012 and 2013 I recorded the bulk of my 2014 spending. These are fairly incomplete records because they do not include expenses taken directly from my paycheck such as health and life insurance. They also do not include expenses paid by my wife such as car insurance.


Here is a chart of my overall spending:

It is virtually indistinguishable from last year's chart.

My spending on food and dining was 13% of my income, identical to last year. Again only 22% of my food spending was at grocery stores. Here were the top five grocery stores I went to by percentage of post tax/deductions income.

1. Sprouts: 1.1%
2. Zion Market: 0.7%
3. Trader Joe's: 0.2%
4. 99 Ranch Market: 0.2%
5. Northgate: 0.1%

This was very little changed from 2013 and 2012 when sprouts were still top, the big new addition being the Korean grocery store Zion Market.


 Here were the top five restaurants by spending:

1. Gen Korean BBQ: 0.3%
2. Chipotle: 0.22% 
3. Yosemite Lodge: 0.21%
4. 85 Degree C: 0.20%
5.  Chamsutgol Korean Bbq: 0.19%

Restaurants seem to be noisy data. I change restaurants a lot more quickly than other expenses.


Here is where I spent money I spent the most on other shopping such as gifts, audiobooks, hobbies, and home improvement:

1.  Amazon: 3.0%
2. AT&T: 1.5%
3. Target: 1.3%
4. Time Warner: 1.2%
5. Pep Boys: 1.1%
6. Apple: 0.98%
7. Lucas Leite BJJ: 0.72%
8. Disneyland: 0.40%
9. Lowe's: 0.30%
10. Laserquest: 0.21%

Amazon crushed Target now that I moved farther from a Target. Also, Time Warner has mysteriously signed me up for better internet service than I asked for pushing them up the list. Another thing I didn't add to that list is that I donated roughly 0.5% of my income to non-profits doing things I approved of. Mostly single issue environmental groups such as Calflora.


I decided to try to determine how much my net worth increased in 2014. My 401(k) increased by an amount equal to 23% of my after tax and deduction income. Most of this from contributions, some from market gains.Another 11% savings occurred from paying down the principal on my mortgage. There was some other appreciation and depreciation and minor changes in balances of accounts or items I bought but could technically sell for some percentage of their value. Ignoring them and saying that I increased my net worth by about 33% of my take home pay is probably accurate enough though.