It's time for me to take a final look at my spending for January and work out how much I've saved towards my 4 year challenge. Here's Emma being cute playing with her dinosaur and costing me a small fortune this month!
I was married to an accountant for 24 years. He took complete charge of all things financial (big mistake ladies!!) so it has taken me the last 11 years to fully understand how to budget and manage my own money. I still have a few doh moments but on the whole I'm doing ok.
Last month I worked out how much I was spending on house and car costs. For example, looking at my car costs. I pay a monthly amount to the loan company (it includes servicing.) I need insurance. I pay road tax and I pay for fuel. I worked out how much that costs me per annum. But what I didn't take into account was that while I pay my loan repayment monthly, I pay my road tax and insurance in annual payments to save money. Meaning I hadn't averaged the monthly cost of having a car. I had been thinking my car cost me £250 a month when it actually averages out at £329 per month! 💡
I'm trying to keep things as simple as I can so that I know exactly how much spare money I have over the year. I don't want to be surprised in September when my house insurance renewal comes round and I have to use what I've thought are my savings 💰
So, on to January spending. I'm not including the massive vet bill of £1038.50 as I'm taking that out of my savings account from last year. But I am including all the meds and check up visits. Emma has cost £144.28 including food! Tuppence's bag of food cost £8.79 and in return she gives me eggs! The cost of having pets is my biggest luxury!
I had to buy a new kettle and mice repellent plugs. I needed a black ink cartridge for my printer. I did a small Sainsbury's delivery so my son could cook me simple meals while I was isolating. I had a book box delivery that I forgot I had on a quarterly subscription (cancelled now!) I needed to buy a baby shower gift for a colleague that was going on maternity leave. And I took advantage of free delivery on my seeds.
Total spend for January (excluding known house and car costs) was £326.32.
Savings account now has £1012.72.
I won't bore you every month with details 🥱 but thought it was useful to number crunch for the first month.
It's a good start to the challenge. One month down, 47 to go!!
Even if we don't read the fine print recording it monthly may help keep you on track.Best wishes with reaching your goals
ReplyDeleteThank you! I think recording it here will keep me accountable. Every penny spent needs to be justified to myself. I thought I was being quite sensible with my money but there are a few areas that need work!!
DeleteGood to keep a record of your spending. Then you can look back and see where things have to change. Well done for January! I'm sure I spent way more than you.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Every journey/small step. I need to develop these good habits now or I won't be able to retire on my terms
DeleteHelloooo - sounds fAR BETTER than ignorant bliss mind! The one thing that bugs me about car tax ( we've a big ancient £255 taz a year thing that we cannot afford to replace yet ) is that they charge you MORE if you want to pay in halves. That is penalising those that could do with it!
ReplyDeleteThe whole paying things in one payment definitely penalises those without any savings. I pay my house and car insurance, car tax and boiler maintenance in one annual payment as it's cheaper than paying it monthly. I also pay my gas and electricity quarterly instead of monthly as you always ending paying more and being in credit. The system is rigged against the customer!!
DeleteI have been recording all my spending this year...keeping an eye on food prices...could be an interesting year! x
ReplyDeleteAgree! I think things could get very interesting indeed!!
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