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.  

March 2022 Budget

Another month and another illness.  This time vomitting, for about a week.  I'm not sure why I keep getting I'll, but it's really not helping with the finances especially as my partner has been unemployed for most of this month.

Unfortunately, this has meant that we've had to take about £800 of our savings to cover our monthly expenses.  It's not good for us building up our savings, but that is what those savings are there for and I'm glad that we have it.  It's definitely made our lives less stressful so it's done it's job.  We have managed to put about £340 back in, but we still have a long way to go.  We've also managed to get our joint account back up to the our planned base, which we've struggled with before, and this should help us cover the main April bills.

This is the last month where we get a break from paying a Council Tax and Water Charges.  This has been a god send for these two months of me being ill.  Unfortunately this won't be the case as of this month so we need to plan for these.  March was also one of those months where all our general bills comes out twice, so it does look a little bit worse than it actually is.

I haven't been able to put the amount into my pension as I had planned either.  Just £200 instead of the £250.  This means that I'll need to increase my payments from now on to reach my yearly goal.  I'm not sure how well that's going to go as I do have a honeymoon coming up next month.

On the plus side, I've managed to pay off all of my credit card so we can put any spare money just into paying up our savings.  We haven't had to use any of our sinking funds as well, which I'm very happy about as the car has been a problem in the past.

We have been better at not spending as much money on takeaways, probably helped by the fact that I haven't been able to eat properly even after the illness had gone.  It's taken a while for my stomach to he able to take food again properly.  I suppose that sort of a good thing.  We've also been better at spending on just general things as well and hopefully we'll be able to keep this going from now on.

Thankfully we already have the wedding and honeymoon money in savings so we don't need to worry about that and can just enjoy those events without the stress of money.  However, we do still need to think about our spending and saving money as my partner won't be getting paid until the end of April, and only for about two weeks.

All that being said, under the circumstances of unemployment and illness we have done pretty well this month to have paid off debt and built up our joint account.  We could have done better and spent less than we did have, but I'm going to take this win.  Especially as I'm still struggling to eat properly at the moment so any win is good for me.  Fingers crossed April will go a little better.