As we enter 2020, I have decided to try to do a better job of budgeting things and being accountable.  That is why we have decided to track our spending in this January Expense Report.  There are multiple reasons for doing this:

1. To try and see where there are unnecessary expenses
2. Because we are on reduced salary for the first few months of the year because of Lindsey’s maternity leave.
3. We consolidated all of our spending onto our Chase Platinum Reserve to maximize credit rewards.

I feel that we have a pretty optimized life, but it is interesting to see some of the gaps and categories of our spending.

We use Personal Capital to track our net worth and expenses.  Click on the picture below to sign up.  The best thing is that it is free!

January Expense Report

Groceries – $922.19

This is always going to be our greatest expense.  Groceries in Saudi Arabia are surprisingly expensive, especially when they are imported.  We have tried to eat more vegetables, which are fairly cheap, but this actually doesn’t seem to be too extravagant.  Here is a more detailed post about grocery shopping in Saudi Arabia.

Eating out – $392.12

This included all of the eating out that Simon and I did when we went to Bahrain overnight in early January.

This was one expense that I knew was going to go up.  Now having two kids, it seems that it is easier to go get something or order in than cook.  We will try to reign this in a bit, but this cost seems justifiable at the moment!

Amazon/Shipping/Local Shopping – $574.96

I tried to put all of this into one category.  The Amazon order this month was actually pretty light.  Our newborn, Alfie, seems to have a lot of gas problems, so much of this order was Little Remedies Gas Relief Drops to help his stomach and Colica! Gaspassers (I think the picture says it all).  Also thankfully we don’t have to use it, but Calmoseptine is the best think we have found for diaper rash!

There are quite a lot of items on Amazon that do not ship to Saudi Arabia.  Also, family like to send us gifts for the new baby but don’t want to pay a whole bunch of money for shipping.  That is why Shop & Ship from Aramex is ideal.  We have an address in New York that receives packages and then re-ships it whereever we are in the world.  It is a very handy service.

This is perhaps a bit more than we would like to spend, but with a new baby, it is understandable.

Entertainment – $311.17

Even though we did spend the night in Bahrain, we did not pay for our hotel room.  Last summer, we used Raise to buy a $1,000 Hotels.com giftcard for $940.  Raise allow you to buy other people’s unwanted gift cards for a discount.  We have used this regularly when we are back in the US to shop or even go out to eat.  If you are interested, this post provides you with all of the other tricks that we use to save money while shopping.

Baby Bureaucracy – $174.80

This includes getting our marriage certificate attested in two countries and other random baby stuff that we need to do to make this kid legal.  Next month comes the cost for the passport.  Hopefully, we can actually leave the country sometime soon!

Gas – $86.65

We own our car outright, so our only expense is gas.  Luckily, this is pretty cheap in Saudi Arabia!

Total = $2,461.89

January 2020 Savings Rate = 60%

To be honest, this is fantastic especially when considering that Lindsey was not receiving her full salary.  Considering that the average American household has a 7.6% savings rate, we are doing quite well.

We do benefit when compared to the average American household in a number of ways.  First, we have a tax-free salary.  Second, we are not currently paying for housing.  Finally, we have no debt.  Since we aren’t paying rent, mortgage, car payment, or loans back, we can have a huge savings rate.