Below you’ll find all my finance details for May 2020.
I spent the entire month in Tbilisi, Georgia.
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 | € 6,130 | $ 6,809 |
Total Expenses | € 3,209 | $ 3,564 |
Profit/Loss | € 2,921 | $ 3,245 |
🤑 Income
Affiliate income (see below) | € 5,748 | $ 6,384 |
Patreon 1 | € 176 | $ 196 |
Flight refund: Valencia to Sofia (x2) 2 | € 156 | $ 173 |
eBiz Weekly Tip Jar 3 | € 27 | $ 30 |
Book sales (via Amazon) | € 23 | $ 25 |
Total Income | € 6,130 |
$ 6,809 |
Previous Month | € 4,284 | $ 4,683 |
I was expecting my income to be about $5000 for the month, so May turned out better than expected.
👍 Affiliate Income
Affiliate payments in May came from…
Here’s a progress chart for affiliate income since starting eBiz Facts…
Note that, to keep things simple for myself on a day-to-day basis, I practice cash accounting rather than accrual accounting.
“Under the cash method of accounting, sales are recorded when cash is received, and expenses are recorded when cash is sent out. It’s straightforward and intuitive. The problem with the cash method, however, is that it doesn’t always reflect the economic reality of a situation.” – Accounting Made Simple
The economic reality of affiliate marketing is that some companies pay their affiliates every month, while others have irregular payment schedules. As a result, my affiliate income looks more inconsistent month-to-month than it actually is.
💸 Expenses
🍽 Food & Drink
Groceries | € 330 | $ 366 |
Eating out / Takeout | € 194 | $ 216 |
Total | € 524 |
$ 582 |
Previous Month | € 376 | $ 411 |
🏡 Housing & Utilities
1 month at Tbilisi apartment | € 360 | $ 400 |
Cleaner | € 17 | $ 19 |
Total | € 377 |
$ 419 |
Previous Month | € 366 | $ 400 |
💪 Health Care
Doctor visit | € 101 | $ 112 |
Medication | € 89 | $ 99 |
SafetyWing travel insurance (2 months) 4 | € 67 | $ 74 |
Total | € 257 |
$ 285 |
Previous Month | € 35 | $ 38 |
🛫 Travel & Transport
2 days rental car in Tbilisi | € 73 | $ 81 |
Taxis in Tbilisi | € 27 | $ 30 |
Fuel for rental car | € 25 | $ 28 |
Electric scooters in Tbilisi | € 3 | $ 3 |
Total | € 128 |
$ 143 |
Previous Month | € 34 | $ 37 |
💻 Business Expenses
Outsourcing 5 | € 1,142 | $ 1,268 |
PayPal fees | € 164 | $ 182 |
US LLC renewal 6 | € 113 | $ 125 |
Surfer subscription 7 | € 54 | $ 60 |
US LLC annual report filing | € 47 | $ 52 |
Ahrefs subscription 8 | € 24 | $ 27 |
Patreon fees 9 | € 23 | $ 26 |
Kinsta web hosting 10 | € 20 | $ 22 |
Skype credit | € 18 | $ 20 |
Transferwise fees | € 16 | $ 18 |
Zoom 11 | € 14 | $ 15 |
FlexJobs 12 | € 13 | $ 15 |
Dreamhost domain renewal 13 | € 12 | $ 13 |
YouTube Premium 14 | € 11 | $ 12 |
Adobe Photoshop monthly subscription | € 10 | $ 11 |
Google Drive storage (1TB) 15 | € 9 | $ 10 |
ManyChat 16 | € 9 | $ 10 |
Virtual Post Mail 17 | € 9 | $ 10 |
Phone credit | € 7 | $ 8 |
Copycall 18 | € 5 | $ 6 |
Amazon Web Services (storage) 19 | € 4 | $ 5 |
ClickBank fees | € 2 | $ 3 |
Upwork fees | € 1 | $ 1 |
Sendy 20 | € 0 | $ 0 |
SocialBee 21 | € 0 | $ 0 |
Teamwork project management software 22 | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total | € 1,728 | $ 1,919 |
Previous Month | € 867 | $ 948 |
🎁 Gifts & Donations
Gift for a friend | € 37 | $ 41 |
Effective Altruism Fund 23 | € 9 | $ 10 |
Monthly Love & Courage podcast donation 24 | € 5 | $ 6 |
The Guardian | € 5 | $ 5 |
Flowers | € 4 | $ 5 |
SamHarris.org subscription 25 | € 4 | $ 4 |
Patreon: The Blindboy Podcast 26 | € 3 | $ 3 |
Patreon: Úna-Minh Kavanagh | € 3 | $ 3 |
Total | € 69 |
$ 77 |
Previous Month | € 91 | $ 99 |
📚 Books
Principles | € 13 | $ 14 |
Obviously Awesome | € 1 | $ 1 |
1984 | € 0 | $ 0 |
The Better Angels of Our Nature | € 0 | $ 0 |
The Handmaid’s Tale | € 0 | $ 0 |
Lost Hills | € 0 | $ 0 |
Start From Zero | € 0 | $ 0 |
True Fiction | € 0 | $ 0 |
Wool | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total | € 14 |
$ 16 |
Previous Month | € 9 | $ 10 |
I used Amazon gift cards and a free trial of Kindle Unlimited for some of those books.
- See my book ratings and what I’m currently reading over at Goodreads
👕 Clothing
Total | € 0 |
$ 0 |
Previous Month | € 0 | $ 0 |
🤷♂️ Miscellaneous Expenses
Toiletries | € 27 | $ 30 |
Clothes rack | € 24 | $ 27 |
Sunscreen | € 18 | $ 20 |
Kitchen supplies | € 15 | $ 16 |
Netflix subscription | € 11 | $ 12 |
Monthly banking fee (Hong Kong bank) 27 | € 8 | $ 9 |
Glovo subscription 28 | € 4 | $ 4 |
Laundry | € 3 | $ 3 |
Monthly banking fee (Dutch bank) | € 2 | $ 2 |
Glue | € 1 | $ 1 |
Total | € 112 |
$ 124 |
Previous Month | € 111 | $ 122 |
💸 Expense Summary
Business Expenses | € 1,728 | $ 1,919 |
Food & Drink | € 524 | $ 582 |
Housing & Utilities | € 377 | $ 419 |
Health Care | € 257 | $ 285 |
Travel & Transport | € 128 | $ 143 |
Miscellaneous Expenses | € 112 | $ 124 |
Gifts & Donations | € 69 | $ 77 |
Books | € 14 | $ 16 |
Clothing | € 0 | $ 0 |
Total Expenses | € 3,209 |
$ 3,564 |
Previous Month | € 1,889 | $ 2,065 |
I was hoping to spend less than $3000 for the month. Went a bit over, which isn’t a big deal. Need to be careful of lifestyle creep though with my income on the rise.
😢 Biggest Regret?
Nothing significant. I accidentally let my FlexJobs subscription renew but that was a minor expense.
2020 So Far
Here’s how I’m doing this year in terms of profit and loss:
January | € 1,734 | $ 1,924 |
February | € 1,948 | $ 2,149 |
March | € 1,085 | $ 1,196 |
April | € 2,394 | $ 2,618 |
May | € 2,921 | $ 3,245 |
Total | € 6,614 | $ 7,284 |
📊 Where That Leaves Me
I had €13,378 / $14,626 to my name at the end of April.
Taking into account all my May 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 €16,546 / $18,377. 29
🔮 Outlook For June
Expenses should be about the same overall. I’ll aim to keep it under $3500.
Income should be close to $7000.
📲 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.
Just came across your site after considering the ‘wealthyalliliate’ programme. Saw your very honest review and saved myself some dollar I think.
Love the income reports, I find these great and motivating as I only started my blog last month. The design of the site looks great too!
Hello Ndoherty, thanks for sharing your financial reports. I really loved the way you set up your website and your honesty and professionalism in your contents.
I’d love to know about the tools you use in your website creation. I’d also want to get the Authority Hacker course.
Hey Mrbiizy, thanks for the kind words. The main tools I use to build this website are WordPress + Astra + Elementor. I have a few other tools listed on this page.
Some great book purchases this month! The Better Angels of Our Nature is a fascinating concept but it was such a long, quite academic read that I never finished it.
The Handmaid’s Tale and 1984 are also brilliant classics that deserve their status in the literary canon, so you’ll enjoy those if you haven’t read them before!
Looking good man! Do you think you will be crossing $10,000/ month by end of the year? It seems like your traffic and conversion rate is pretty steady and increasing?