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.