January 2024 Budget

This first month of 2024 has been a pretty good month when it comes to our finances and we have managed to reduce our spending in the way that we had planned we would by changing some of our behaviours, and not necessarily specific behaviours connected directly to finances.  We did have one big event this month which made our spending a little unusual for this month, which was our nephew's 18th birthday.

For my own health, I've decided to greatly reduce the amount of sugar that I have been consuming throughout the week.  I've not cut it out completely, it's nice to have some treats, but I no longer have it every day.  Reducing my sugar has meant that we no longer do regular trips to the shops to get it and this has ended up reducing our shopping bill by about £40.  Which is ridiculous when you think about it.  I've also made our meal plans a lot simpler so that I can meal prep all our workweek meals on Sunday.  This has meant that we now eat a lot healthier, it saves money on our grocery bill, and as it's already made we are a lot less tempted to order take-away.  We knew that we would be spending a little bit more in the last week as that's when we'd be travelling for our nephew's birthday, but what we weren't expecting was to both be ill which did mean that we ended up spending more on food than we originally hoped.

Due to how we've set up our bank account now, we were able to buy our TV license for the year in one go.  This was quite a big expense but it was also nice to know that we don't have to worry about it for the rest of the year.  This is something I'd like to set up for the other bills in the future, but that's once we've reached our saving goals first.  The rest of the spending has been pretty similar to previous months.

Our personal spending has also been down this month, mostly because we've been a lot more mindful about spending.  I've made a list of things I would like to buy in the future and the amount they'll probably be so I know how many weeks I need to save up first before I can actually get them.  Ed is also doing the same thing, so this should keep our spending in budget throughout the year.  We've also managed to put a good amount towards our Christmas sinking fund and saving goals, which always makes me happy.

So it's been a good start to the year and our new habits are doing well.  We plan on carrying on these for the rest of the year and, if we do, we should be able to reach our financial goals pretty quickly.  In the past, we worked out to set up the base for our finances, and now that means we can build on them.  Hopefully, by the end of this year, we'll have gotten much closer to being able to fully enjoy the money we earn. 

May 2023 Budget

May was a slightly unusual month in the fact that there were five weeks instead of four, at least in the way our financial weeks goes work at the moment.  This meant that we did spend a little bit more money than we would have done on other months.  It was also the first month in a while where we both got a wage and that was a nice feeling.

As I had hoped at the start of May, we've actually done pretty well this month when it comes to our spending.  Our food bills, both when it comes to groceries and eating out/ take-away, have come within budget (slightly over in groceries but the same amount under in eating out).  I know that we could save a little bit more if we reduced or stopped the eating out, but it is something that we enjoy having as a treat on the days we do actually get to spend time together so I really don't see us stopping this unless we really have to.  One thing that I have noticed has gotten quite high now is my mobile phone bill, but I've put some work into that this month, looking at different plans etc, to reduce this in the long run and that should come into affect over the next couple of months.  It's not huge amount monthly but the accumulation over the year should make a tidy amount.

We have been a little over on our personal spending.  A few of weeks on my spending does seem high, but one was some craft items that I had already put money aside for and so actually didn't come out of this month's earnings.  The others were because I had to buy a number of items for work, which of course all deteriorated at the same time so the cost couldn't be spread out, and we'd decided to stay away the first weekend in June, which was another £99 off.  When these are taken into account we both managed to underspend when it cames to just buying random things, which is a good change in our behaviour.  We just need to now be more organised when it comes to saving up for trips, etc.

One thing that has become higher than before has been the fuel.  The actual price of fuel is a lot cheaper here than in Devon, but we've had to do a lot more driving now as neither of us can get to work through walking or public transport.  My husband's shift work also means that there are quite a few weeks where the car is being driven seven days a week.  This change in expense is something we can't really do anything about so we're just going to have to accept that our budget on fuel costs will need to go up to £300.  Thankfully, our budget can take this increase so it's not something I'm going to worry about.  There's not going to be anything in the pension sections this month (or for the next few months) as this is now something that gets paid straight out of my wage by my employer.  I am going to increase the amount that comes out of my wage though to the 12.5% I had planned for this year.  In all likeliness I'll get this money back at the end of my contract and I'll just put all of that straight into my own pension.

We did manage to put money into our four months savings as well, which makes me very happy.  It's nice seeing a good chunk going in and now that all the other sinking funds have been completed we can just concentrate on that for the rest of the year.  I'm hoping that, as most of the other months are four weeks long, we should be able to put even more in over the coming months and possibly even surpass this years goal.

So not a bad month and the plan is to carry on with the improvements for the rest of the year.  There will be a couple of months which will be a bit of a blip as we do want to do some touristy things and it is important that we balance being sensible with getting to have experiences.  However, I think we are going to do pretty well when it comes to our financial goals this year and that is a good feeling to have.

April 2023 Budget

April was a bit of a mixed month, but as we were expecting that this time round, what with it being Tue end of the tax year and our anniversary month, there were actually no surprises this time round.

Firstly, I did my tax self-assessment this month and, as it turned out that I didn't really earn enough to pay a large amount of tax, I was actually able to put some of the money I had been putting aside for taxes each pay day towards our sinking funds instead.  That has meant that we now have a fully funded Christmas fund, car fund, surf lessons fund, and my crafting fund (which I have now completely spent on products I need for the projects I have coming up for the rest of this year).  We were also able to put about £1000 into our three month emergency fund.  [A little side note on this, after looking at the additional costs we now have, such as paying off the car, and the rise in the cost of living we realised that our needed emergency fund has gotten quite large.  We decided that we felt a lot more comfortable putting it down to three months instead of four, which works out to be about the same as our original amount.  This is based on the months being five weeks long instead of the usual four to cover those longer months so that does give us a little extra leeway.]

Most of our general bills have now come out, though we won't see a council tax payment until May, and it looks like these are going to be roughly the same as to what we were paying in Plymouth.  Our gas and electricity is a pay as you go so I decided to just put in a lump sum at the beginning of the month and it seems to have lasted us quite well (possibly because we were away for a week).  If this turns out to be roughly right for us on a monthly basis then that means that our fuel bill has only gone up by £5 a month, which isn't too bad considering we're now in a house and gas is more expensive.

We actually managed to underspend on groceries this month, but we did overspend on take away/ eating out.  However, we knew this was going to be the case as we were celebrating our one year anniversary and were planning a meal out together and also with my parents.  The only thing really unexpected was that my mobile was a little high this month and I need to check why that is as I don't remember doing anything odd with it.  I also need to look at a way of reducing that a little it as well and I know that there might be an app I can use for that so that's something I'll look at in May.

We've also managed to keep our fuel within budget as well.  But, as expected, I haven't been able to put anything into my pension again as I haven't been earning any money.  The company I will be working for, starting in May, has their own pension scheme so I'll be putting money into that and then I'll transfer that over to my current pension plan when my contract is over.  Apart from the crafting items I brought using the money I had saved for taxes, we've managed to keep mostly within our spending limits on our own spending as well, which is good of us.  Hopefully we continue to get better at this habit from now on.

April does feel like a month where we've been able to reset our spending habits after March and get back on track for the rest of the year.  We'll see how things go when I go back to work next month, but hopefully things should get a lot easier and we'll be able to keep putting money into our savings account for the rest of the year.  It looks like our days off will be a little out of sink again as well and that means there will be less opportunity for us to spend as we tend to only really do that when we're together.

February and March 2023 Budget

I did think about writing two separate blogs about our February and March budgeting but then decided that I'd much rather write about other things and so they are going into one together. It is a tale of two months with one going pretty well and the other completely falling off the wagon.  In our defence, we did move in March so we had other things to make decisions about and there was some overlap in the properties we were renting which meant we had to pay two rents, pay a deposit for the new property and cover things like heating etc when we'd already paid by direct debit for the old flat.  

We did get some of the money back and we should be getting our old deposit soon. One of the biggest expenses was hiring a van (which with a mess up from the company we originally hired from ended up being a lot more expensive than we had originally budgeted for) and covering the fuel costs.  This all meant that we had to take out most of the money we had saved into our four months emergency fund, which we decided to do over our own emergency funds, but that is what that's there for.

February was quite a good month.  We stayed within our budgets for groceries, eating out/ takeaway, fuel, and personal spending.  I also put a good amount into my pension as well.  We had money to put into our Christmas sinking fund, but I forgot to transfer it in February so did it in March instead.  We didn't put any money away into our four month savings but by the end of February I knew we were moving and so decided to leave all the money in our main account.

Then March came along.  We actually didn't do too badly on the groceries spend, but the eating out/ takeaway budget went out the window a long with spending on household goods are we settled into the new place.  There isn't a lot of storage space here so I had to find items that would help with that.

Fuel was another expense that went up as we travelled to and from Wales a couple of times and had to pay for fuel for the van (which was an extra £100).  As the car should mostly be travelling the same distances it did down in Plymouth now we're expecting that the cost should go back down to what it was before.  I also wasn't able to put more money into my pension after the first week of March as I wasn't earning any income to put that into.  I am job searching at the moment so that should hopefully change in the not so distant future.

Our general spending wasn't actually too bad, though there were some major costs that we couldn't have saved up for as we didn't know about them until this point, such as the van rental and buying some new clothes for my husband for his new job.  The only point where we'd both been quite naughty was our one year anniversary gifts we got each other.  We had a budget, neither of us kept to it. 😂

So, what are the plans for next quarter?  Obviously I need to get a job and we need to get back to keeping within our budgets again.  I will be doing my tax returns next month and that should mean that we get a little bit extra coming in to put back into the savings.  I have worked out that if we want to still reach our goal of a third of our four months emergency saving by the end of this year we need to put in £280 a month for the rest of the year.  I'll need to see a couple of months spending, especially with out fixed monthly bills, before I can see how realistic this is going to be, but it's good to have it to aim for for now.  

January 2023 Budget

It's been a pretty good start to the year when it comes to our finances.  We've still had a couple of slip ups, but nothing big and we've been able to make up for them pretty quickly.  The most important part of this month has been starting to form the habits that we're hoping to carry on for the rest of the year to reach the financial goals we have for 2023.

Our general bills did go up a little last year and we've had to take that into account along with the addition of the car payment of £220 a month.  Due to this we've decided that we do need to start being a lot stricter with our spending elsewhere - especially when it comes to our personal spending.  With that in mind we have been good with our groceries spending, keeping that in budget for the month despite including household spending and the fact that we're no longer using cash.  I think having a few months where we could only use cash broke our habit of just constantly spending on food and now we're able to keep that going whilst using our cards.  If we ever find ourselves slipping again we can always go back to cash.

We didn't do quite so well on our takeaway and eating out budget, but we pulled back on the spending in the last couple of weeks and managed to finish the month in budget.  Also, despite the amount of driving we did this month trying to see as many English Heritage properties as we could we actually managed to stay under budget for January, so the hybrid is definitely helping us save on fuel in the way we hoped it would.  It doesn't quite make up for the monthly payment we have to make for the car, but it helps pay towards it.

Even though I'm now paying less money into my pension then I did last year, taking it down to 12.5% of my pay, it's still quite a good amount and more than I originally thought it would be.  Any money going into my pension is good, especially as I recently did a calculation of how much money I would have after I retired based on what I have so far and it really wasn't good.  

As with the takeaways we did have a couple of blips with our personal spending, which is meant to be £25 each a week, but some of that was on having to get my engagement ring fixed and we also pulled that back across the month by reducing our spending later on.  So we've managed to end the month on budget with this as well.  Having the budget has been a good check every time we think about spending some money and we really think about whether we really need or want to item before we get it.  We also discuss our spending with each other a lot more, which is good as it makes me feel more like we're working towards our financial goals together now.

Lastly is our sinking funds and savings.  We were able to put in our first £75 of the year into our Christmas sinking fund and the last payment we needed to get our car repair sinking fund back up to the £500 we wanted (something we hopefully won't need to spend any time soon but good to have just in case).  We still need to work on our other sinking funds, though the sailing lessons sinking fund is on the back burner for now, and our four months savings funds but it's a start.  I'm expecting us to get better once we get more into the swing of things.

All in all, it's been a pretty good start to the year.  We didn't get as much saved as we would have liked, but this is a five week month and I'd accidentally planned for it to be a four week month so we've actually done pretty well.  We'll see how things go with February, which is actually a four week month - I've double checked.  One of the good things we found out this month is that we're not actually that bothered about not spending money on things and we do really enjoy the free activities we did throughout January.  Hopefully this is something we can carry on for the rest of the year.

December 2022 Budget

So this is the last blog of 2022 and it's definitely been an 'interesting' year to say the least.  I guess it's sort of fitting that my last blog is a financial one, seeing as everything has been about finances this year.  The December's budget went better than I was expecting seeing as Christmas was involved and having our Christmas sinking fund definitely helped with that.  This fund is something we'll look to build up again next year.

Apart from one week we've actually been pretty good when it came to spending on groceries and eating out.  It shows that we can do it just fine and I plan on carrying that on to next year as well.

In November we did have to do quite a bit of spending on the car which ultimately led to us having to get a new second hand car.  This time we had to get the car on finance, which we'll need to factor into our budgets over the next few years.  This month has been much better when it comes to the car and we did get our car tax for the previous car back again, which I put straight back into our car repairs sinking fund.  This month hasn't really been the best month to determine how much we're going to save on fuel with our hybrid car, so it will be interesting to see that in the future.  Another positive is that I managed to pay a full year of my pension in, the first time I've been able to do that - go me!

Our spending has also been pretty good this month, but probably because we've been so busy sorting out other things as well as presents for other people that we haven't had a chance to spend on ourselves.  Looking back over the year it's pretty obvious that we not particularly good on that front so that's something we'll need to think about budgeting next year as well.

We're also ending the year with no credit card debt and our own emergency funds still in order so I'm very happy about that.  Unfortunately the four months saving didn't exactly go to plan, but at least the money was there when we needed it which is kind of the point of it in the first place.

And that's it.  This year has definitely shown us how important having the sinking funds and savings have been when it comes to helping make things less stressful.  This adds a bit more of an incentive to get them back up and running next year so that we're ready for the next set of problems, or hopefully just reading for Christmas 23.  

Happy New Year everyone.

November 2022 Budget

November has been a pretty pricey month, mostly because we have done a whole lot of Christmas shopping and have had to get a new car after a few problems with the old car, including a breakdown.  Thankfully we do have sinking funds for these, but it's still unpleasant watching them go down.  Probably because I know we will have to build them back up again.

Of course, if we're being honest, we have also spent more than we should in other areas - like things for the flat from charity shops and IKEA.  I also brought a refill for my perfume, which was pricey but should laste a few years, and we've spent quite a bit on eating out.  Ones of those times is when we went to see family, which also put up our fuel bill a little bit.  We did keep within our budget for groceries though, so I'm going to count that as a win.

On a plus we've managed to keep our own emergency funds where they are and I've caught up with my pension payments so I'll now be able to go back to £50 a week for the rest of the year.  I'm not going to say anything about the four months emergency fund though, which I'm just going to gloss over this month. 😂

In all honesty it's been a bit of a disaster month when it comes to money.  However, the Christmas shopping is now complete and the issues with the car fixed.  We're also not going to be travelling anywhere in December so it should be a much cheaper month then November.  Now we just need to start saving up our sinkings funds and four months savings again - oh joy.

October 2022 Budget

Well October shot by fast.  Is it really November all ready? At least things are starting to get back on track when it comes to our finances.

As always our own emergency funds and credit cards are where they need to be and we where able to put just over £700 into our four month emergency fund, which I'm very happy about. It might be building up slowly, but at least it is going up.

We did have a slight hiccup, especially one week where I forgot to take cash out so we used our cards instead, when it came to our groceries.  It definitely shows what a difference using cash instead of just swiping your card makes to how you spend your money.  The eating out is also connected to some family time and we're happy to spend money on that.  Despite that we have managed to mostly keep to our budget so I'm happy with it despite that.

One positive is that fuel has been been quite low this month, despite the actual cost of fuel not being, mainly because I haven't needed to drive as far for work this month.  We've also been pretty good on our spending, though again family time and there has been a start to Christmas shopping which does feel a little bit early but there we are.  My pension payments have been a little higher this month as I've been trying to catch up on that week I missed.  I should only have to do it for another month and then it can go back to normal.  Obviously I'll need to keep an eye on this though, as it may be that we just can't afford it.  

So October hasn't been quite as good as we could have made it, but still better than previous month's and we're getting onto the habits that will help us work better with our money.  Only a couple months to go now and, apart from a little long weekend we have planned, I plan for us to be well behaved on those months.

August 2022 Budget

I have to admit that I didn't really want to write this blog as we haven't done particularly  well this month at all.  We were already starting this month on the back foot we hadn't been able to build back up the baseline of our joint account to £1000 which covers our regular bills.  I also lost one weeks pay as we went on holiday this month.  Thankfully my husband still got paid for the days he took off, but it still made a noticeable difference not having that one payment.

The other thing was that, even though we knew that this month was going to be tight,  we still spent way more money than we should have done.  Ironically this wasn't actually during our holiday, as we had expected, but mostly on items that will allow us to do more free activities in the future.  Theoretically this is good, but maybe not for this month.

As I knew that the money would be low during our holiday I didn't pay one weeks pension or pay off some purchases I had made with my credit card.  Then there was the week I was off and not earning to I wasn't able to pay these again on that week.  I will need to find a way of catching back up on these two items and if I could do that by the end of September that would be very useful.

That being said, we haven't done too badly on the groceries and eating out spending which I was expecting to be much higher as we were on holiday.  Obviously the fuel was quite a bit more this month from all the driving we did when we were away.  We have still had to move money over from our savings again to help pay our standard bills, but this is a habit we really need to break.  However, by the end of the month we were able to bring the balance of our joint account back to where we want it and put just over £200 back into our savings.  Have to take the wins where we can.

Despite all this I don't regret us going on the holiday as we needed the break and we got to go to a place that I love and have a family connection to, but which Ed has never been to.  We also got to get in a great walk as well, but more on that in a future post.

However, it's now time to get serious again about our financial situation now.  We've known for a while now that it is pretty unlikely that we'll reach our savings goal by the end of this year and, if I'm being honest, that did dishearten me a little bit and put me into a 'why bother' mentality.  I did try and fight it, but sometimes you have to sit with those emotions for a bit to actually get through them.  Now the time for wallowing is over.  We may not reach our savings goal, but we can get closer to it and that's still a good thing to hold onto.  I also now made a visual representation of our savings that I can look at on a daily basis and that should also help.  So, bring on September and whatever that month has to throw at us.