April was a bit of a spendy month.
Enjoyed a couple of social outings, one of them being the Manchester FIRE pub meet last Friday.
Also, unusually for me, I intentionally went clothes shopping. I haven’t done this in a long time as it’s not something I particularly enjoy doing, but with my preferred hipster/low-waist jeans back in fashion, I had to pick up a couple of new pairs to supplement my old ones (still fitting me from the 90s but looking rather shabby!).
I know many people these days just get their clothes online, but I’m old-fashioned and prefer to try before I buy. The only time I buy clothes online is if I’ve tried the exact item previously instore. Plus, I can’t be faffed with returning items which don’t fit.
It’s the first shopping trip I’ve been on in a long while and the first items of clothing I’ve purchased since the Marie Kondo 50% cull of my wardrobe in 2021 prior to my house move (with the exception of gym wear/underwear).
During Easter, I went on a traditional bank holiday outing to B&Q and took advantage of the gorgeous weather to paint all my garden fences (front and back). As well as paint, I also came away with a plant (more on this later) – B&Q is one of those places where you inevitably always end up buying something that wasn’t on your shopping list! However, I deliberately didn’t get a trolley or basket so there was only so much I could carry – the 12L tub of paint was heavy on its own! The tricks one must do to stop ourselves from spending needlessly, haha!
Anyway, some good news at work was that I received the maximum performance-related pay rise offered by my company, which was 5%, the same as last year. Again, nowhere near inflation-busting, but still, I’ll take it for what it is, since annual increases are not guaranteed.
This new bit of extra pay will just get swallowed up by bills as it looks like everything has gone up for me, apart from water and tv licence.
Right, enough waffle, how did I get on in April?
I saved 17% of my net salary. The above includes £41.78 from doing Prolific surveys and £20 from matched betting profits.
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