Hola from Tenerife!
Here be all my finances for August.
I started off the month in Japan, then 4 days in Amsterdam, a couple of weeks in Ireland, and finally arrived in Tenerife on the 24th.
I’ve been tracking everything I earn and spend since January 2011, just a few weeks after quitting my day job. Every month since, I’ve published one of these finance reports.
Sharing this info publicly keeps me accountable and hopefully gives you some insight into how I earn a living online.
Patrons get to see each new report before anyone else.
Summary
Total Income | € 3,287 |
$ 3,921 |
Total Expenses | € 2,518 |
$ 3,003 |
Profit/Loss | € 769 |
$ 918 |
Income
3M1K 1 | € 2,096 | $ 2,500 |
Freelance web development 2 | € 493 | $ 588 |
The Rabble-Rouser’s Guide To Travel 3 | € 271 | $ 323 |
Earnings from Dublin talk 4 | € 140 | $ 167 |
3M1K Scholarship Program 5 | € 134 | $ 160 |
Google Adsense payment 6 | € 79 | $ 94 |
Cheap Flight Checklist 7 | € 57 | $ 68 |
Book sales (via Amazon) 8 | € 17 | $ 20 |
Total Income | € 3,287 |
$ 3,921 |
Last Month | € 3,170 | $ 3,743 |
I predicted $3,300 income for the month so I’m fairly satisfied with the final numbers, especially since I was doing so much traveling.
Expenses
Food & Drink
Eating out | € 212 | $ 253 |
Groceries | € 162 | $ 193 |
9 Total |
€ 374 |
$ 446 |
Last Month | € 589 | $ 695 |
Housing & Utilities
18 nights at shared apartment in Puerto de la Cruz 10 | € 377 | $ 450 |
3 nights at shared house in Dublin 11 | € 105 | $ 125 |
3 nights at the Wolfhouse, Tenerife 12 | € 80 | $ 95 |
1 night at Hotel White City, Tokyo 13 | € 37 | $ 44 |
Total | € 599 |
$ 714 |
Last Month | € 538 | $ 635 |
Health Care
IMG Global Health Insurance 14 |
€ 0 | $ 0 |
Total | € 0 |
$ 0 |
Last Month | € 0 | $ 0 |
Travel & Transport
Flight: Munich (MUC) to Tenerife (TFS) 15 | € 184 | $ 219 |
Flight: Dublin (DUB) to Tenerife (TFN) 16 | € 177 | $ 211 |
Flight: Dublin (DUB) to Moscow (VKO) via Oslo (OSL) 17 | € 177 | $ 211 |
4-day car rental in Tenerife 18 | € 95 | $ 113 |
Train: Dublin to Waterford (round trip) 19 | € 43 | $ 51 |
Train: Nippori to Tokyo Airport (NRT), Japan | € 22 | $ 26 |
Tokyo local trains | € 20 | $ 24 |
Bus: Waterford to Cork (round trip) | € 20 | $ 24 |
Fuel for rental car | € 10 | $ 12 |
Bus: Dublin city center to Dublin Airport (DUB) | € 7 | $ 8 |
Bus: Tenerife North Airport (TFN) to Puerto de la Cruz | € 5 | $ 6 |
OV Chipkaart top-up 20 | € 5 | $ 6 |
Nara local buses | € 3 | $ 4 |
Flight: Moscow (VKO) to Munich (MUC) 21 | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total | € 768 |
$ 916 |
Last Month | € 1,290 | $ 1,523 |
Business Expenses
Outsourcing 22 | € 158 | $ 188 |
2.5 weeks coworking in Tenerife 23 | € 105 | $ 125 |
Conference room at the Academy Plaza Hotel, Dublin 24 | € 100 | $ 119 |
PayPal fees 25 | € 53 | $ 63 |
Gumroad fees | € 38 | $ 45 |
iPhone cable 26 | € 25 | $ 30 |
Dreamhost domains 27 | € 24 | $ 28 |
Phone credit | € 23 | $ 27 |
BuzzStream 28 | € 20 | $ 24 |
Giveaway items for Dublin talk 29 | € 11 | $ 13 |
Currency exchange fees 30 | € 10 | $ 12 |
Virtual Post Mail 31 | € 8 | $ 10 |
Buffer 32 | € 8 | $ 10 |
Skype credit | € 8 | $ 10 |
Amazon Web Services (storage) 33 | € 2 | $ 2 |
Google Drive storage (1TB) 34 | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total | € 593 |
$ 707 |
Last Month | € 601 | $ 710 |
Gifts & Donations
Flowers 35 | € 65 | $ 78 |
3M1K Scholarship Program 36 | € 42 | $ 50 |
Monthly Love & Courage podcast donation 37 | € 5 | $ 6 |
Waking Up podcast donation 38 | € 4 | $ 5 |
Tokyo airport charity box 39 | € 3 | $ 4 |
Deer cookies 40 | € 1 | $ 1 |
Total | € 120 |
$ 143 |
Last Month | € 52 | $ 61 |
Books 41
The Primal Spark 42 **** | € 7 | $ 8 |
Total | € 7 |
$ 8 |
Last Month | € 5 | $ 6 |
Clothing
Total | € 0 |
$ 0 |
Last Month | € 1 | $ 1 |
Miscellaneous Expenses
Owl cafe entry in Nara (x2) 43 | € 20 | $ 24 |
Toiletries | € 12 | $ 14 |
Nara arcade games 44 | € 11 | $ 13 |
Netflix subscription 45 | € 10 | $ 12 |
Laundry | € 3 | $ 4 |
Monthly banking fee (Dutch bank) | € 1 | $ 1 |
Total | € 57 |
$ 68 |
Last Month | € 260 | $ 307 |
Expense Summary
Travel & Transport | € 768 | $ 916 |
Housing & Utilities | € 599 | $ 714 |
Business Expenses | € 593 | $ 707 |
Food & Drink | € 374 | $ 446 |
Gifts & Donations | € 120 | $ 143 |
Miscellaneous Expenses | € 57 | $ 68 |
Books | € 7 | $ 8 |
Clothing | € 0 | $ 0 |
Health Care | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total Expenses | € 2,518 |
$ 3,003 |
Last Month | € 3,336 | $ 3,939 |
I predicted $3,025 for August expenses so I did quite well.
Biggest Regret?
I submitted foolish dates when applying for my Russian business visa and so couldn’t go to Moscow at the end of August as planned. Worst part was that I only realized my blunder at the last minute, when it was too late to cancel my flights. So I ended up paying $577 for flights in and out of Russia that I wasn’t able to take 🙁
I also booked a last-minute flight from Ireland to Tenerife after the Moscow trip fell through, and that cost me another $211.
Oh, and I regret paying $24 to support owl incarceration.
Year To Date
Here’s how I’m doing so far in 2017 in terms of profit and loss:
January | € 668 | $ 720 |
February | € 724 | $ 763 |
March | € 2,704 | $ 2,881 |
April | € 1,023 | $ 1,114 |
May | € 10 | $ 11 |
June | € 1,755 | $ 2,006 |
July | € 166 | $ 196 |
August | € 769 | $ 918 |
Total | € 723 | $ 993 |
Where That Leaves Me
I had €9,502/$11,220 to my name at the end of July.
Taking into account all my July income and expenditure, and the most recent exchange rates – I have accounts in EUR, HKD and USD – my total bank and cash balances now work out to €10,308/$12,295. 46
Outlook For September
After visiting 8 different countries in July and August, it looks like I’ll be staying put in the Canary Islands for all of September, which will be a welcome relief for both my energy levels and finances.
It’s quite possible that I could keep my expenses down around the €2,000 mark, so that’s what I’ll shoot for.
As for income, as usual it’s not very predictable. Sales of 3M1K continue to fluctuate, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I earned $500 or $5000 from that in September. I’ll set the bar low and estimate only $1000.
I’ll bring in a bit more from freelancing and other sources, but all in all I can’t see myself earning beyond $2000 unless I get lucky.
How I Track All This
Curious as to how I track everything I earn and spend? Check this video…
Feedback Welcome
Thoughts? Questions? Speak up in the comments below.
Archived Finance Reports
I’ve been posting these monthly finance reports since January, 2011. You can view all my old reports via this page.
Thanks for sharing with the community! Your transparency helps us all with keeping it real for the rest of us. As I vagabond throughout It helps me particularly in assessing the different places that you visit.
Grabbed a copy of The Primal Spark, it’s a good summary of what keeps dating interesting for sure.
Have you thought of using Mediavine instead of Google AdSense? I haven’t used either of them yet (mostly because I haven’t gained enough traffic for that kind of thing yet). I hear Mediavine pays more for the ads used and goes by a different algorithm or something like that. What do you think?
Hey Leanne,
I actually just heard of Mediavine yesterday. Sounds like they’re a much better option than Google AdSense. However, I make all my AdSense income via ads on my YouTube videos, not from ads here on my site. So I don’t think Mediavine can help me there. I see they have video players that let you host videos on your own site but that wouldn’t have the SEO benefits of YouTube so I’d get far less views.