Last month, I decided there probably isn’t a whole lot of value in sharing my net worth ups and downs with you. If you want to put yourself in my shoes, here’s a basic synopsis of my account holdings. I have a little over $200,000 in net worth. About half of that is in retirement accounts. A quarter is invested in a condo. The last quarter is cash and other assets that are lot more liquid.

Each month, I look at how I much money I had the previous month and how much I have today. The quick look this month shows that real estate has a minor upswing in Boston where my investment condo is. I use Zillow to keep track of prices, because it’s very accurate for my condo. Since it’s one of around 200 identical units – there are enough similar recent sales to get a good trend.

My retirement accounts rebounded slightly this month. I’d like to take a lot of credit for it, but other than asset allocation, I simply let the market go where it wants to.

The real part that control is the liquid portion of my account. It’s this area where I can see gains from my alternative income, reducing my spending, and other day-to-day money matters. This last month wasn’t a particularly stellar month for me as far as that goes. The biggest expense was eating out. Though it was probably fewer than 5 times for the month, we’d probably be better off with our health and our wallet if we stayed home and cooked almost all the time.

The other expense was a surprise gift of jewelry for my wife. She had been eying a particular piece for some time. She has been extremely understanding of my increasingly frugal nature and it was time to show that being frugal does have it rewards.