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Food, Frugal, Intentional Living, Money Tracking

How I Spend $120 A Month On Groceries in Amsterdam

July 19, 2022 4 Comments
woman holding chips

When you think of Dutch food, what comes to mind? Maybe the “caramel cookie wafers” some airlines hand out– known to Nederlanders as stroopwafel? Or perhaps you’re obsessed with Trader Joe’s cookie butter, based off of the Dutch treat speculoos. Aside from knowing about a couple of desserts, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect […]

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Expense Reports, Intentional Living, Money, Money Tracking

Every Dollar I Spent in 2021 As An Expat In Amsterdam

March 11, 2022 12 Comments

In 2021 I moved from Santa Barbara to Amsterdam and made it my goal to spend more. This report will go into detail about every dollar I spent in 2021.

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Expense Reports, Money Tracking, Travel

How Much I Spent Living in Amsterdam This Summer

September 4, 2021 16 Comments
woman posed on dutch bike in amsterdam

Summer appears to be rocketing by at light speed. Here in Amsterdam we had a mild summer, with a few nice weeks of sun but still a lot of rain. I packed July and August full of activities, including a vacation to Croatia, Pride Week, dog and cat sitting, kayaking the canals, hosting guests at […]

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Expense Reports, Intentional Living, Money Tracking

Every Penny of $20,000 I Spent in 2020

January 1, 2021 26 Comments

I’m positive that 2020 will be a bookmark year, one that we can flip to easily in our minds and remember exactly what we were doing when the whole world shut down. For me personally, 2020 brought on lots of change and forced flexibility. I moved from New York to California, worked from home the […]

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Expense Reports, Intentional Living, Money Tracking

The Most I’ve Spent In A Month So Far: July 2020

August 4, 2020 20 Comments

I blinked and July disappeared. At least, that’s what it felt like. The news cycle blares bad news and rising COVID-19 cases every day, and I sometimes feel like a straight-faced duck– calm and serene above the water but paddling like crazy underneath. As you know by now, we moved cross-country and spent a good […]

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Frugal, Intentional Living, Money Tracking

How Much Does It Cost To Adopt A Cat? A Comparison of Three Families

April 27, 2020 9 Comments

It’s been 6 months since Mr. Mechanic and I adopted MechaniCat, so it seems like a good time to do an assessment of how much money we’ve spent on our first pet. As with everything, we went the frugal route, so it will be interesting to see if we spent more or less than expected. […]

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Expense Reports, Money Tracking, Spending, Travel

How Much I Spent in a Month Of Solitude – February 2020 Expenses

March 3, 2020 7 Comments

I’m so curious to see what a month of (mostly) solitude did to my spending in the month of February. 

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Expense Reports, Frugal, Money Tracking

Ringing In The New Year By Spending $777 – January 2020 Expenses

February 12, 2020 2 Comments
table covered in glasses and confetti

Wow, I just realized that I completely forgot to write up my expense report for January. I had to wrack my brain a bit to remember what we did! Mr. Mechanic had a rotation in surgery which meant that I didn’t see him much. I didn’t see much at all, really, as it started getting […]

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Expense Reports, Money Tracking, Spending

How I Spent Just $15,000 Last Year

January 6, 2020 23 Comments

It’s the time of the year for reflection, and looking back on my expenses for the year reminds me of all of the adventures I’ve had. This year I said goodbye to friends and family in Portland, Oregon and moved with Mr. Mechanic to upstate New York.  Note: some links in this article are affiliate […]

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Expense Reports, Money Tracking

Airbnbs Hosted By Clowns and Other December 2019 Expenses

December 31, 2019 3 Comments

This month was perhaps one of my favorites of the year. We Adopted a Cat In October, we started fostering a kitten. I wrote about the experience in November, and December 16th was the date we had to decide whether to keep him or let him go up for adoption. We ended up adopting MechaniCat […]

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The Mechanic

I'm a mechanical engineer turned programmer with a pretty big DIY project: save enough money to become financially independent. Financial Mechanic is all about frugality, career climbing, and investing.

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Recent Posts

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