| January | February | March | April | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No-spend days | 17/31 | 18/28 | 22/31 | 21/30 |
| Fuel | $151.55 | $210.00 | $25.00 | $180.00 |
| Groceries | $229.09 | – | $113.85 | $110.80 |
| Kidkid | – | $1481.85 | $154.87 | $10.00 |
| Yearly | Car rego: $330 Car insurance: $626.50 |
– | – | – |
| Other | $422.27 | $244.95 | $1562.67 | $262.34 |
| Total | $1759.00 | $1935.90 | $1856.50 | $622.81 |
Here is a documentation of pretty much every penny I have spent over the last quarter. A bit horrifying don’t you think? I aimed to reduce my spending days, which I achieved, going from spending on 45% of days to spending on 29% of days (can you tell I love math)?
However, I have failed in reducing what I have spent – it’s gone up every month! And considering that my essentials make up only a tiny amount of that, what went wrong?
January was my best month. The big expenses here came from my yearly car related things. I had little other spending in comparison, mainly things like $40 for an entry price into a Cherry Picking farm, random food out here and there, and some leftover Christmas costs.
February was also a low spend month, despite what it looked like. I took a leap into providing Distance Education materials for KK, and that cost me $1301.90. Some ice creams were bought and that was about it.
March fell apart. There were a number of great deals on Lego, and I snapped up rather a large quantity of it to put in storage for KK’s birthday in May. Additionally, it was GD birthday – the requested present was a surround sound system base priced at $430 + cables. Ouch! GD doesn’t request much though, so I jumped for it and got it at a further discounted price because the model was going out of season. [Note: don’t buy cables from Harvey Norman – they are severely overpriced and you can get better ones from your local computer or electronics store]. If I spend, it’s spend big.
April Things are awesome this month. I controlled my other spending, and maintained a high level of no-spend days. My biggest spend was petrol.
The ‘other’ spends included three new pairs of shoes for me, because my old pair are starting to fall apart. I picked them up from DSW online, and will still need to pay for postage eventually. I love these shoes though, and I’m on my second pair. I also picked up a new pair of swimmers for $85. Not a bargain, but they are Speedos. My last pair of Speedos that I’ve had since, uh, 2004?? are finally beginning to wear out. I’m pretty sure that’s a good investment.
For the next month, I’d like to aim at keeping those spending days low, and trying to maintain that super low $$$ amount.
I’ve included the cost of my psychiatrist visits and prescriptions under ‘other’ even though they are really an essential spend for me. My psychiatrist can cost anywhere between $45-100, and prescriptions are usually $6. ‘Other’ also includes my gym membership (~$70/month) and DMH and I’s phone plans (~$25/month).
Something to note is that I’ve picked up 3-9 hours of casual work a week, on top of my regular income. Technically I guess that means I have more money, but I am squirreling it away for my house buying (which will hopefully happen in July!!)
What else shall I aim for now? Well, now I have an additional source of income, so that was why I took up the gym membership. I have another 2 birthdays to cater for, including KK’s, which is a dangerous spending time for me. I shouldn’t have any other huge expenses. I’ll continue to aim to reduce spending (no more big purchases!!!) and reduce my spending days further. I’d love to aim for a month of no-spend days, but I know that’s highly unlikely with petrol and psychiatrist visits.
Has anyone else started tracking their spending habits this year? Share and link with me – let’s try reduce our spending, and save more for those big goals.
Do people want to see an update of my budget next month? Should I wait until the mid-year mark? Let me know 🙂
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