Another month has ended. Things are getting very ‘real’ financially for me, so I am going to analyse where I have been making mistakes.
Here is a breakdown of my spending in April 2017.
FOOD AND HOUSEHOLD SHOPPING
TOTAL SPENDS IN APRIL = £241.28
This was £41.28 over budget, which is far from ideal. I am going to do a separate post about the food budget so I will leave that for now.
DISPOSABLE AND DISCRETIONARY INCOME SPENDING
SOCIAL
Social spending was an astronomical £210.90 and all I have in the way to offer up as an excuse is that it was my birthday near the end of March. But I wouldn’t say I celebrated it excessively. I did owe the boy money for a ticket to yet another gig, and I did go to ANOTHER gig in April, so maybe no more gigs for a while.
HOMEWARE
Homeware spending was a fairly reasonable £11.75 which consisted of things we did need, and some things we didn’t. I bought a mixing bowl as because I have been getting my bake on a lot recently having one mixing bowl just wasn’t cutting it anymore. I also bought a measuring jug as I broke our one. I also bought a magnetic shopping list, which I guess was style over substance. AND I bought two mason jars with straws and a nice tumbler for my Gin drinks which definitely weren’t needed, but their combined cost was £1.50.
GIFTS
Gifts was a crazy amount, I spent £67.95 in April on things I classified as gifts, but to explain further my sister was doing the London Marathon, and in the past when my brother had competed in a marathon I donated £50 to his charity, so I wanted to do the same for my sister. I also donated money to a work colleague as they are running 4 half marathons this year as they are turning 40, and it is for another good cause. And I was relatively good on a few of the other gifts using vouchers to drive down the costs.
TRAVEL (DAY TO DAY)
£27.20 was spent last month on travelling day to day costs and I have no excuses for it as I did not go anywhere that especially needed to be travelled to, it was just laziness and or a lack of planning that created this cost.
That is nearly £30 that could have gone on my debt or prevented me from being in such a pickle now.
WORK EXPENSE
£4 was spent on milk and other related costs in April, not bad, but then I did start a new job where the tea, coffee and milk are provided. So this cost should cease to exist soon.
TRAVEL (VISITING)
I had to buy my train tickets to go to my Granddad’s 90th birthday in May, which cost me £42.50. Whilst I might have been able to buy the tickets cheaper, I am glad that I am going to spend time with my family soon.
My total DISPOSABLE/DISCRETIONARY SPENDING in April was … £364.30.
This is too much, and was aided by the fact that it was my birthday and I had received birthday money, so I was able to buy things that I might not have been able to otherwise, such as the train tickets, but this is a HUGE amount of money to be spending when you are doing a NO SPEND YEAR and I think I have lost my way a little bit and may do a strict challenge to sort myself out.
Flo's Debt Free Diary 