| Category | 2015 | 2016 | Comments |
| Mortgage Interest | 0 | 0 | If we had a $400,000 loan at 4%, we would have paid $16,000 in interest (!) |
| Property Taxes | 1411 | 1895 | Massive house price increases in my neighborhood come at a cost (prices have doubled in 4 years). |
| Food and Dining | 7,400 | 6,807 | |
| Groceries | 6,232 | 5,980 | A warehouse store opened up in town, within biking distance of home. This reduced grocery costs a little as I shifted more purchases there. See article: Killing your $1000 Grocery Bill |
| Wine/Beer | 627 | 321 | Fewer large parties this year (boo), plus we cut down our glass-of-wine-or-beer-with-dinner habit (yay!). But many people have been giving me free boxes of beer in exchange for helping them with stuff, which probably makes this cost artificially low. |
| Restaurants, Coffee Shop | 541 | 506 | Mrs. and Little MM started ordering fancy pizza deliveries every time I'm out on a trip. |
| Medical | 3,733 | 10,868 | Here's where the costs went way up this year. |
| Doctor Visits | 0 | 3807 | My poor little lad broke his arm on December 30th (fell from a play structure while playing with me!) |
| Health Insurance | 3,000 | 6720 | A new Kaiser health insurance plan. (A downside of the ACA for those with higher incomes) |
| Dentist | 256 | 256 | |
| Pharmacy | 42 | 0 | Aspirins, bandages, toothbrushes, and such included under "groceries". Thankfully no prescriptions for any of us this year. |
| Physical Therapy | 435 | 0 | |
| Auto and Transport | 945 | 490 | |
| Gasoline | 332 | 105 | 1 snowboarding trip, plus assorted errands in the van. |
| Insurance | 357 | 449 | Cost increased in September due to newer car (Nissan Leaf). |
| Still fantastically cheap thanks to Geico | |||
| Registration & Testing | 169 | 75 | |
| Express Tolls and Uber/Lyft | 0 | 70 | Still taking Uber/Lyft to the airport instead of driving. Much cheaper than driving/parking, especially if you have some referral credits. |
| Service & Parts | 88 | 0 | Both vehicles in top shape this year, no scheduled maintenance intervals reached. I'll definitely be buying some windshield wiper blades in 2017 though. |
| Public Transportation | 0 | 0 | Nothing against the bus, Bikes are just faster |
| Utilities | 1652 | 1,575 | Electricity, Gas (heating, cooking), trash/recycling, city park fees, etc. |
| Cell Phone | 539 | 600 | 2 smartphones with data on Google Fi and Republic Wireless |
| Internet Access | 692 | 540 | I negotiated a lower rate for part of the year, then ditched Comcast for Longmont's amazing Gigabit Fiber service ($50/month for 1000 Mbit/S access! - Nerdvana!) |
| Home | <120> | 1696 | |
| Home Renovations | 120 | 1696 | Finish materials for my house and the homes of some friends/family. Does not include the $30k detached Studio I built. |
| Home Insurance | 0 | 0 | Still self-insured for the primary house. Please don't complain about this in the comments section ;-) |
| Gifts/Donations | 1,747 | 2000 | Does not include donations made by the business. |
| Crossfit/Yoga | 230 | 150 | |
| School Tuition | 0 | 0 | Little MMM was back to 100% public school this year, due to increased confidence/toughness in getting over anxiety. Go little man! But we also do a shitload of learning at home, because it's fun. |
| Misc | 3095 | 2,564 | |
| Shoes & Clothing | 754 | 622 | Lots more fancy stuff for the gang from Gap, Old Navy, etc. |
| (my clothes are mostly free stuff, thrift shop or included in grocery receipts from Costco) | |||
| Sporting Goods | 0 | 98 | Sweet Compound Bow and arrows! |
| Shopping Misc | 1,274 | 1000 | Mostly at Amazon - household/kitchen goods and computer parts |
| Books, games, gifts | 488 | 383 | |
| Other | 580 | 422 | Stuff I am too lazy to sort out. If something is not listed, assume it is here. |
| Travel | 2,376 | 2,335 | Flights to Florida in January, Canada in July and December, |
| TOTAL | $23,941 | $30,193 | Adding in our artificially high medical costs is what did this budget in. |
| Subtracting Tuition, Donations | 22,194 | 28,196 | |
| Subtracting travel, crossfit | 19,588 | 25,861 | |
| Subtracting organic/luxury food | 17,531 | 23,614 | Assuming a 33% increase on groceries due to organic + meat. |
| Subtracting home renovation expense | 17,411 | About $22,000 | This is what our "no frills" living cost would be (although you could subtract another $6,000 if we had a lower income and qualified for the health insurance subsidy) |