We didn't do very well at all at tracking the "Cash" category this year. It didn't change very much - from the previous year's $6 357.59, it dropped only a little to $6 423.10. I suppose that means we're consistent!

About $2 000 of this is transit expenses, which should be broken out separately - I will attempt to do at least that this year.

Surprisingly, our second-highest category last year was "Vacation". I should have expected that, since we spent pretty much the entire month of August on the road, touring the eastern end of our fair country. There was quite a bit of good eating that went on, too!

I would compare it to last year, but I'm disappointed to see that somehow last year's vacation didn't get included in the expense categories.

We had saved the money for this year's trip ahead of time. Travel this year will probably limited to visiting family and two out-of-town weddings, so it won't be nearly as high.

As expected, housing remains our biggest expense in a year.

We paid $18 200 against our mortgage this year, down from the previous year's $26 600. We have a variable-rate mortgage, so with the interest rate so low, I chose to invest the extra money instead towards our early retirement.

Next year's will be $18 200 again, unless we change something about it.

Since I'm a teacher, "year-end" around this house is the end of August. Any increase in pay I get starts in September, so it's just easier to consider my year to begin then.

That means it's time to fire up Quicken and ask it to give me all the numbers for the previous year. I want to compare our biggest seven expenses year-to-year.

For the 2008/2009 year:
1. Mortgage, $26 600.
2. Auto, $17 564.59.
3. Household, $8 000.
4. Cash, $6 357.59.
5. Utilities, $3 586.25.
6. Groceries, $3 514.52.
7. Property taxes, $3 000.

I'll be interested to see if, and how, this past year's expenses are different.