Here be all my finances for January. I spent the entire month living in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
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 | € 2,828 |
$ 3,048 |
Total Expenses | € 3,496 |
$ 3,768 |
Profit/Loss | € 668 |
$ 720 |
Income
30DBC 1 | € 1,392 | $ 1,500 |
Freelance web development 2 | € 586 | $ 632 |
3M1K 3 | € 438 | $ 472 |
Chase Sapphire Reserve credit 4 | € 233 | $ 251 |
Google Adsense payment 5 | € 78 | $ 84 |
Coaching / Consulting 6 | € 74 | $ 80 |
Book sales (via ebizfacts.com) 7 | € 15 | $ 16 |
Book sales (via Amazon) | € 12 | $ 13 |
Total Income | € 2,828 |
$ 3,048 |
Last Month | € 4,140 | $ 4,355 |
I was aiming to pull in at least $2.5k in January and beat that easily enough.
Expenses
Food & Drink
Eating out | € 136 | $ 147 |
Groceries | € 239 | $ 258 |
8 Total |
€ 375 |
$ 404 |
Last Month | € 410 | $ 431 |
Housing & Utilities
2 months coliving in Las Palmas 9 | € 773 | $ 833 |
Cleaner for Las Palmas apartment 10 | € 40 | $ 43 |
Total | € 813 |
$ 876 |
Last Month | € 236 | $ 248 |
Health Care 11
Total | € 0 |
$ 0 |
Last Month | € 108 | $ 114 |
Travel & Transport
Flights: Gran Canaria (LPA) to Tenerife (TFN) round-trip 12 | € 84 | $ 91 |
Taxis in Las Palmas | € 8 | $ 9 |
Rental car 13 | € 4 | $ 4 |
Buses in Gran Canaria | € 2 | $ 2 |
Total | € 98 |
$ 106 |
Last Month | € 196 | $ 206 |
Business Expenses
Outsourcing 14 | € 766 | $ 826 |
2 months coworking a CoworkingC 15 | € 300 | $ 323 |
Teamwork project management software 16 | € 240 | $ 259 |
MemberMouse 17 | € 199 | $ 215 |
Consultation with US tax attorney 18 | € 139 | $ 150 |
UpdraftPlus Premium 19 | € 88 | $ 95 |
ActiveCampaign mailing list software | € 45 | $ 49 |
PayPal fees | € 19 | $ 20 |
Irish business credit card annual fee 20 | € 19 | $ 20 |
Domain registration: cheapflightchecklist.com 21 | € 13 | $ 14 |
Book: The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck 22 | € 12 | $ 13 |
TransferWise fees 23 | € 11 | $ 12 |
Phone credit | € 10 | $ 11 |
Virtual Post Mail 24 | € 9 | $ 10 |
CoworkingC Pitch Night 25 | € 5 | $ 5 |
Gumroad fees | € 2 | $ 2 |
Postage | € 2 | $ 2 |
Google Drive storage (100GB) | € 2 | $ 2 |
Amazon Web Services (more storage) | € 1 | $ 1 |
Total | € 1,882 |
$ 2,029 |
Last Month | € 814 | $ 856 |
Gifts & Donations
Food for homeless dude outside supermarket | € 3 | $ 3 |
Total | € 3 |
$ 3 |
Last Month | € 81 | $ 85 |
Books 26
Tools of Titans ***** | € 15 | $ 16 |
At Home *** | € 12 | $ 13 |
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World **** | € 11 | $ 12 |
El Principito 27 | € 2 | $ 2 |
Total | € 40 |
$ 43 |
Last Month | € 34 | $ 36 |
Clothing
Shoelaces | € 2 | $ 2 |
Total | € 2 |
$ 2 |
Last Month | € 51 | $ 54 |
Miscellaneous Expenses
Spanish lessons 28 | € 127 | $ 137 |
Ticket for CoworkingC carnival party 29 | € 70 | $ 75 |
California Sports Club 30 | € 40 | $ 43 |
Toiletries | € 17 | $ 18 |
Tinder Plus 31 | € 14 | $ 15 |
Netflix subscription | € 10 | $ 11 |
Monthly banking fee (Dutch bank) | € 2 | $ 2 |
Laundry detergent | € 2 | $ 2 |
Kitchen cleaning supplies | € 1 | $ 1 |
Total | € 283 |
$ 305 |
Last Month | € 215 | $ 226 |
Expense Summary
Business Expenses | € 1,882 | $ 2,029 |
Housing & Utilities | € 813 | $ 876 |
Food & Drink | € 375 | $ 404 |
Miscellaneous Expenses | € 283 | $ 305 |
Travel & Transport | € 98 | $ 106 |
Books | € 40 | $ 43 |
Gifts & Donations | € 3 | $ 3 |
Clothing | € 2 | $ 2 |
Health Care | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total Expenses | € 3,496 |
$ 3,768 |
Last Month | € 2,145 | $ 2,256 |
I was aiming to keep my expenses under $2.5k for the month so I failed miserably there. It was a conscious choice though to pay for a few things in advance in exchange for discounts, which saves me money in the long run. All of those advance payments added up to about $1k.
Biggest Regret?
The client project I bought UpdraftPlus Premium for feel through, so that was a waste of $95. Hopefully I can use it on other projects. Also forgot to cancel my Irish business credit card and got stung with the €19 annual fee.
Where That Leaves Me
I had €9,780/$10,288 to my name at the end of December.
Taking into account all my January 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 €9,582/$10,329. 32
Outlook For February
I’ll aim to keep expenses below $2.5k again, which should be doable. Income should be close to $4k from freelancing alone, so I’ll aim to $5k total.
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.
Curious as to how I track everything I earn and spend? Check this video…
Hi Niall. How you getting on? Just found your YT/website today. Have you thought about adding your Kindle books to createspace to sell paperback versions?
And any luck on Tinder? haha
I deleted Tinder a couple of weeks ago!
And yeah, I’ve considered doing the createspace thing but really don’t think there’s much of a demand for paperback versions of my books. I think I’ve only been asked about that twice over the years.
Hey! It’s my first time in this page. I’m just wondering what motivates you to publish all your personal and business data to the public.
I’m also a web developer and have similar expenses as you.
Hey David. Publishing all this data keeps me honest and accountable. I can’t lie to myself or anyone else about how much I’m spending or how I’m spending it. And it also pushes me to try earn more. Can’t say that there’s any downside really, apart from the time it takes to put these reports together!
There is usually a grace period for getting your annual fee back if you cancel your credit card. Call and ask…the last time I didn’t it was 90 days
I didn’t see any income post for the cheapflight checklist. Did that start in Feb.
As always fascinating to see how you manage to make it all work. Thanks
Thanks, Nancy. Yeah, the payments haven’t come through for the Cheap Flight Checklist yet. You’ll see them in the next report 🙂
Hey Niall, what about youtube? Do you monetize your videos? How good is that for online income?
Hey Markus. I have ads on my videos but that generates about $1 per 1000 views, so $1k for 1 million views. Most people making big money on YouTube aren’t doing it via the basic YouTube ads. More through sponsorships. And I don’t have nearly enough subscribers to land a sponsor yet.