“Wine improves with age…we improve with wine!”
My “partying” days are pretty much over these days, I probably go out once a month on average, usually into Manchester city centre, with a small group of friends for food and drink. However, as it was my birthday this month, I went out on two big weekends (with work friends, then with non-work friends). Suffice to say both my liver (too much alcohol!) and my wallet (expensive drinks and taxis) suffered. I’m glad I don’t feel the pressure to have to go out every weekend, my body and bank balance wouldn’t be able to cope – certainly not my body as hangovers definitely get worse as you get older!
Anyway, Huw of Financially Free By Forty made a detailed post about his monthly budget planner which is great and obviously works for him, helping him achieve an awesome savings rate of over 70%.
So where’s my budget planner?
If I had a monthly budget planner, it would probably be just as detailed as his and like him, I too would constantly tinker with the amounts depending on goals and needs at the time. Therein lies the problem I believe – I know what I’m like and I will spend far too much time tinkering (obsessing and stressing) and changing the amounts on my spreadsheet.
So for now, I think it’s enough for me to check my bank and credit card statements regularly and keep an eye on my cash spending and set up direct debits/standing orders to pay into regularly investment and savings accounts.
At some point, I’m going to have to do a proper planner but I just don’t feel inclined to do so right now.
I was going to start tracking my spending this month but it’s not been a ‘normal’ month – in fact, my months aren’t going to be normal until around September…!
Savings
In between the two outings, I’ve kept my spending to a minimum – no takeaways or fast food at all this month (not that I have many in any case) and I’ve remembered to bring my own lunch in to work every day, so no spending extra in the work restaurant.
Also food shopping has been well down as I’ve been making the most of the stuff that’s in my freezer – it needs defrosting so I need to eat what’s in it or throw it all away. Plus, nights in watching the World Cup have been cheap, especially as I haven’t added any money to my online betting account!
Anyway, I finally managed to save 50% of my net income! Woo hoo! Just about scraped it but “Go Me”!
This month’s total savings has been boosted by
£10 from a bet with a colleague who finally paid up (
he bet that Liverpool wouldn’t beat Newcastle on the last day of the season),
£200 from rent received and
£12.87 from
TopCashback.
My goal is actually to save an average of 50% over the year and since I didn’t hit 50% the last two months, I need to be saving more than this to get the average – I’m currently averaging only 42.8% but I should get there slowly but surely!
I might (in fact, I
will) struggle over the next few months with my savings, as I’ve just ordered a new oven (£400) which I will pay for with emergency funds but I’ll have to put back into said funds by instalments. The old oven hasn’t been working for a long time. I’ve made do with the mini oven but now that’s stopped working too. After phoning around, I found that the model couldn’t be repaired as it was too old (over 20 years old).
This is also the month my house and car insurances have renewed. And my road tax too but fortunately, this is only £30 due to my car’s low CO2 emissions.
Oh and August looks like it’s seriously going to derail me off my savings tracks – I’ll do a post on this later.
I knew saving wasn’t going to be easy but I shall do my best to rise to the challenge!
Anyway, update on my portfolio to follow.
I obsess over my spreadsheets and budget. Probably too much, but I like doing it!
Well done for achieving 50%+ 🙂
Wow 50% is massive. Well done. I've been glued to the World Cup. I've been watching from home, it's much cheaper that way.
Hi DBC, thanks. It's not going to be easy to get 50% again but I think it's a good goal to go for if I want to save seriously.
Yep, I only watched one World Cup match in a pub (I was out in any case) but the rest, like you, I've enjoyed from the comfort of my own sofa – cups of tea are cheaper than drinks from bars!
Hi Laura, thanks! I tinker about with my investment spreadsheets, which at the moment are a bit unwieldy. Perhaps when I've simplified them a bit, I'll be ready to obsess over a budget spreadsheet too!
Hey Weenie,
Congratulations on hitting the 50% saving rate! I'm chuffed to bits for you, as I know you've been unsure whether you could get there previously.
I had a lot of annual bills in May, so I can feel your pain there. It's not nice knowing you HAVE to spend a lot of money in upcoming months. I hope you're able to ride the storm and get back to the 50% soon.
Keep up the good work!
Huw
Hi Huw, thanks! Of the goals I've set myself, this one is the hardest one I think to achieve so I'm really happy that I've done it, which means I should be able to do it again. The next few months will be very rocky, but yes, I hope it doesn't take me too long to be back on track! Thanks again for your continued support!