Financial Review of April 2020

Hi everybody,

So you’ve all seen my weekly spending diaries for April 2020, but I thought I would do a review of the spending in that month as a whole.

Some months I can spend up to £700 just on things for myself, which is weird as I don’t have a £700 disposable income each month, so it just goes to show that over the course of a month your spending can run away from you.

Compared to my most expensive months this one has been slightly lean. I still spent more than I believe I should have, especially due to lockdown.

Anyway, here goes.

DISPOSABLE INCOME SPENDING

HEALTH £6.80

This is the mail order sanitary towels I bought online. They’re from a company called TOTM (Time of the Month) and they seem nice.

GIFTS £53

This was my share of a work colleague’s birthday present, plus sending money to my 4 nieces and nephews and my sister. I like to send money at Easter time to my nieces and nephews, and it was my sister’s birthday during April too.

HOBBIES (BOOKS) – £42.94

This didn’t seem like a lot when I was buying them individually but it goes to show that things add up. This was 2 poetry books written by my friend, a book on launching a blog and a few cheap kindle books.

BEAUTY £21.22

In real life I should be looking to spend what I did on Books this month on beauty instead, it will help me be able to budget for all my desired beauty expenses. Typically I don’t spend anywhere near that amount of books each month, it’s just that I felt like treating myself because it had been my birthday. My beauty buys were face creams and washes, moisturizer and a body scrub.

HOBBIES (MAGAZINES) – £6

I signed up to a 6 month cheap subscription to Runner’s World magazine. I love magazines and always try and get the best deals possible for them.

BUSINESS/MISCELLANEOUS – £11

This is what it cost to change the domain name on my blog.

SOCIAL – £71.50

2 tickets to see Manic Street Preachers in December. I hope the concert still goes ahead.

CHARITY – £31.39

Lots of my friends are doing fundraisers for various causes and events, so I donated to a lot of them in April.

STATIONARY – £9.99

I bought myself a new notebook as I am beginning to get through my previous stash of notebooks at an alarming rate!

TOTAL DISPOSABLE INCOME SPENDING – £253.84

FOOD AND HOUSEHOLD SPENDING – £291.35/£145.67

My half of the food and household spending in April was £145.67

Therefore the total amount of money I spent in April on things other than bills was £399.51

Not bad, but I’d like to see if I can get it down this month.