June 2023 Budget

Yes well, June didn't exactly go as it should have this year.  We did do a little more travel this month, including going down to see family in Devon, which did play a part but mostly we have just been a ittle bit too lax when it comes to our spending this month.

Most of our general bills have remained the same but we did over spend by quite a bit more than we had budgets for on our groceries and take-aways.  We did go away on the first weekend of June so that I could go and see the wool museum in Dre-fach Felindre and also spent quite a bit of money on restocking our food cupboards when we were in Plymouth with products we use a lot in our cooking but which we are struggling to find here.  However, the rest was just on us not paying attention on what we were getting and buying little snacks here and there which do all add up.  I did manage to reduce my mobile phone bill though, by about half.  It's not exactly a huge saving, but it all counts and over time it'll add up to a nice little amount.

As we were expecting the fuel has gone up quite a bit, especially with the trip to Devon, but there's nothing we can do about that.  It's just something we'll need to keep an eye on and might mean that we need to reduce spending elsewhere in the future if we need to.  I did also put some money into my own personal pension as well as I noticed from my last two wages that my work hasn't taken any money out for my pension.  This is probably because I'm only a temporary staff member, so I'll keep an eye on that in the future and keep adding to it if I need to.  

One of the good things about being with Nationwide is that we do get money back from them on a regular basis and this month has been a very good month for that.  This has been particularly helpful this month as June is always a big month when it comes to spending on birthdays.

And now for the really bad bit which was our own personal spending.  We did spend a lot more than we should have, a whole lot more.  Some of it was on things that we needed, like I needed to buy more sports bras and there were a few things that we needed for the house which I decided to just get in one go as I knew we could afford it.  We also spent money on some cricket tickets that will take place later this year but which we wanted to get now.  However, even with that we have spent way more that we should have and it's something we need to keep an eye on again so that we can put more money into our savings to reach our financial goals quickly.

Talking about savings, and ending on something positive at least, we were able to put more money into our four months savings.  This has taken us over the half way mark I had planned for us to be at by this time.  It's really good news and we might actually be able to reach our goals for the year early.  However, even if we do that I think I'd like us to keep saving as much as we can so that we can reach this big goal sooner.

So that's one really good thing we managed to do, but we do really need to control our spending as had we been good this month we have been able to put another £300 into savings.  It does make a big difference.  The problem is we can afford the spending at the moment which means that there is less of an incentive to not spend, not helped by the fact that it is quite enjoyable.  However, to reach our long term goals and be able to spend money on things we'll enjoy long term we need to curb this.  I need to find away to make these goals more prominent in our minds so that when the urge comes we can be reminded on what we'll be missing out on in the long run.