January 2016 Income/Expense Report
Hey guys! You’re here because you’ve signed up to receive our monthly income & expenses reports.
The primary goal of these income reports is to give you an idea of how we manage our online endeavours, and to give you an indication of how much it costs to live and travel in the countries that we do. We figured they will also be a great motivator for us to keep striving towards bigger numbers in terms of income at the end of every month.
If you’re new to the blog, you’ll see that our main source of income is our content creation agency that we built-up from scratch back in late 2012. You can read more about how we make money online here.
Anyway, let’s get down to business…
The report below is a breakdown of our total income for the month of January 2016 as well as a rundown of our expenses and it also states the profit or loss figure after all is said and done.
If you’d like to see our past Income reports then head on over here to check them out!
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| INCOME | EURO € |
| Content Business | €7,334 |
| TOTAL INCOME | €7,334 |
| EXPENSES | EURO € |
| BUSINESS | |
| Writers | €5,432 |
| TOTAL BUSINESS EXPENSES | €5,432 |
| MONTHLY BILLS | |
| Accommodation/Rent | €693.15 |
| Phone/Internet | €55.10 |
| Hostgator | €23 |
| Bluehost | €8.15 |
| Freshbooks Accounting subscription | €37.20 |
| Netflix | €9 |
| Google apps account | €12 |
| Crowdfire App subscription | €9 |
| Mailchimp | €14 |
| Clicky Pro subscription | €9.10 |
| Dropbox Pro | €10 |
| TOTAL MONTLY BILLS | €879.7 |
| FOOD/DRINK | |
| Eating Out | €525.60 |
| Groceries | €249.90 |
| Cafes | €126.55 |
| TOTAL FOOD&DRINK EXPENSES | €902.05 |
| EVERYDAY EXPENSES | |
| Fuel for Car | €120 |
| Entertainment | €92.40 |
| Clothes | €377 |
| TOTAL EVERYDAY EXPENSES | €589.4 |
| TRAVEL EXPENSES | |
| Transport | €456.45 |
| Travel Insurance | €332 |
| Flights | €144 |
| TOTAL TRAVEL EXPENSES | €932.45 |
| MISC EXPENSES | |
| Nights out | €391.50 |
| Medical | €25.50 |
| Gadgets/Tech | €65 |
| Personal Care | €19 |
| Family Gifts | €465 |
| Car in Italy | €1,500 |
| Florence Personal | €584.50 |
| TOTAL MISC EXPENSES | €3050.50 |
| TOTAL INCOME | € 7,334 |
| TOTAL EXPENSES | -€11,786.10 |
| PROFIT/LOSS FOR THE MONTH OF JANUARY | -€4,452.1 |
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Comments:
INCOME
€7,334 in total income for this month.
Compared to our record breaking month of December, this seems like a HUGE drop in income, and it is.
However, going by the last two years, both January and February are always quiet/expensive months for us.
In saying that, there’s certainly nothing wrong with bringing in €7,000+ in the month. It’s those expenses that chopped away at our bottom line.
Having hit five consecutive months of €10,000+ in revenue, we’re going to have to work our way back there.
It could happen in February, or it may not happen again…..who knows!
EXPENSES
We spent €11,786.10 this month.
This is the first month since February 2015 that we’ve spent more money than we made.
Obviously, not all of these expenses were necessary, although some like the car we bought in Italy are for a little future plan of ours!
You may notice that we paid out over €5,000 to our writers, yet only took in €7,000+ in income. This was due to a few writers who had taken on a chunk of work in December for us, but opted to get paid in January. So that skewed those figures a little bit.
Here’s a few notes about some of the expenses we incurred throughout the month:
- 2007 Peugeot 207 (€1,500) – went 50/50 with Carlo’s dad for this car.
- North Face Jacket (€170)
- Super Dry Jacket (€100)
- Flights (€144) – Dublin to Bucharest
- Chromecast (€40) – Should have gotten one of these things ages ago! Brilliant piece of kit!
- Mailchimp (€14) – Increase in payment plan as our subscriber list has grown over the 500 mark 🙂
- Poker Tournament (€60)
Looking at the figures for our food expenses, we’ve noticed that we do spend quite a lot on food in general. Nearly €1,000 in January which is a combination of eating out, buying groceries, snacks, and sipping coffee in cafes!
Negative Month
We leaked –€4,452.1 from our balance in January.
Overview
This month is actually a good month to highlight the ups and downs of a freelance lifestyle.
As we’ve been saying over the past few years, nothing is guaranteed in the freelance world.
February is probably going to be a shaky month as well by the looks of it so far. The reason for this is probably due to our clients waiting for budgets for the year to be released etc.
We had a pretty decent 2015 and managed to bank some decent money during it, so we’re looking forward to getting back in gear and hopefully smashing it in 2016 as well.
These reports are definitely working in that they keep us accountable and on our toes.
NextStopWhoKnows in 2016
We’re looking forward to 2016 big time and have a ton of new countries planned to visit this year.
We’re currently in Romania and hope to travel through 10 new countries this year – including France during the European championships!
Business wise, we’d love to have another year like we did last year….we’d be delighted with that.
We’d like to invest in a property soon….an apartment or house specifically. All going well this year, then that goal will come to fruition.
Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks very much for following our journey and for all the emails and words of encouragement.
We’re active both on Facebook and SnapChat a lot these days.
You can find us at NXTSTOPWHOKNOWS on SnapChat as we are uploading plenty of daily snap stories about our travels.
We just visited Bran castle today…which is where Bram Stroker based his fictional character “Dracula” on!
What are your thoughts?
Think there’s something we can improve on with these reports? We’d love to hear from you with any suggestions.
To get in touch, you can send us an email to:
info@nextstopwhoknows.com
And finally…
We wouldn’t be able to do these reports without the very cool and easy to use YNAB software. Using YNAB and incorporating it into our everyday life has literally changed the way we budget, spend and save our money. For the full lowdown on just how great it is, you can read our full review here.
