I, and probably every single other person in the world, expects
this to be an expensive month with Christmas and New Year.
Having 2 weeks leave from work and filling this with family
days out only increases this. We made a conscious decision to enjoy ourselves
though and not let my desire to save every penny put a grey cloud over our
festive season.
Did we have a great time? For sure. We saw almost my entire family
(spread around the UK) and had multiple days out with the kids as well as a
couple of lovely meals out. We even managed to squeeze in some kid-free time –
which we used to go and see the new Star Wars film (good if you ask me, but I
think they overplayed the similarities with the old films).
So, did we stick to the budget?
·
Nope. In total we were £420 over budget.
If not, why not?
·
Actually £180 of this was due to a water bill.
·
Christmas extravagances were kept to a handful,
but an expensive handful at that. £170 on family meals out, £50 for the tree
and and £88 present to myself – a chainsaw.
Any positives?
·
Grocery shopping was £58.82 under budget. The
third time in 4 months we’ve been under budget. Particularly happy with this
given the amount of food and drink we bought and consumed. Can never get enough
Smoked Salmon and Budweiser!
·
This was the first month on new Electricity and
Gas provider. Reducing our monthly cost by £28.
Lessons / thoughts?
·
About a year ago we moved to monthly direct
debit Gas and Electricity payments. This has helped hugely with budgeting and importantly
removing the bulky quarterly bills. Although water is cheaper, and therefore
did not get the same focus, I’m still going to move us onto monthly payments
for this very reason.
Expectations for next month?
·
My trusty ’07 Focus has also come down with an
illness. For the first time in the 3 years I’ve owned it I might add. The
bonnet mechanism is broken so it can’t be opened, an regular issue with this
model apparently. Still expectation is it’ll be around £200 to fix.
·
Spend far less on days out / treats.
·
Think we may have another water bill due.
·
Savings might take a hit too. We plan to pay for
our new fence and potentially book up our summer holiday.
·
Car MOT & Tax plus TV licencing is all due
too.
Oh dear this could be a very expensive month or two.
Effect on overall finances?
·
Student loan – £336 was paid off direct from
payslip. Total remaining now is £8,139
·
House loan – £298 was paid off direct debit.
Total remaining now is £9,229
·
Credit Card -
£72.34 was paid off. Total remaining now is £7,162
·
Savings actually increased by £X . A significant
amount due to a rebate from our Electric and Gas provider (we had been
overpaying for quite some time) and the first instalment of cashback from the
Quidco/Gambling idea.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Total Debt = £24,530 (Student Loan is £8,139; House
loan is £9,229 ; Credit Card loan is £7,162)
Total Savings = £1,168
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