Category Archives: Spending update

June spending review

Posted on by Standard Reply

I’ve spent a lot of today trying to get my budget and spending tracking spreadsheet in a better shape for the second half of the year. It’s no secret that I’ve been dating someone who lives on a different continent the last few months and this new romance plus the challenge of maintaining communication when we’re not together has taken precedence over everything else in my life. I decided last month (and shared the news with some of my colleagues) that I’ll be moving away from London at the end of the year. This has prompted a desire to get my finances in top shape for the move – more on that in my next post – which means I can share my June spending with any voyeurs out there.

Screen Shot 2018-07-05 at 17.05.46.png

Continue reading

My luxuriously thrifty 2018 budget

Posted on by Standard Reply

One of the reasons I was very pleased with how my January spending review turned out was because I experimented with living January the way I wanted 2018 to go. I didn’t do an uber frugal month. I socialised (frugally), did tons of sport and ate really well. I came in at £1696.24 – excluding support, debt and £135.23 of travel that was enabled by the side-hustle income that I made of £150. In a recent post, I reviewed a couple of other options that I could pursue other than early retirement because 6 weeks into the year and I’m not sure that I can keep my discretionary spending at the level that it needs to be to retire within the timeline that I desire. As a result, here’s the budget that I’m working with this year.

Screen Shot 2018-02-16 at 17.44.04

Reforming spendthrift 2018 budget

Continue reading

January spending & goal review

Posted on by Standard 2

I survived! January felt really long. This was mostly because the pay cycle was about 6 weeks long. Why, oh why, do we get paid before Christmas? It’s the end now and I got to do the very exciting task of reviewing how this first month of the year went. I initially thought I’d be doing the Uber Frugal Month challenge but then when I started looking at 2017’s budget – more on that in my next post – I figured that I had set some unrealistic targets for last year and wanted to use January as a template for what I really want my 2018 spending to look like. Let’s see how that went

Screen Shot 2018-02-02 at 08.48.29

Continue reading

Money diary #1

Posted on by Standard 9

I didn’t track my November and December spending daily like I’ve got accustomed to over the last year or so and I can see the difference in spending for those weeks relative to the rest of the year is rather high. For one thing, I went for at least 2-3 weeks at a time eating every single meal out. I shopped indiscriminately and didn’t really set a budgeted amount for Christmas shopping. My spending was not very intentional. To help me get back into the habit of recording daily and provide more accountability, I’m going to try to keep a discretionary spending money diary post going for at least a couple of months.

Image of the lake at Hampstead heath

I took a walk round Hampstead heath . It was awesome and free!

Continue reading

November spending review | A concession that I need to budget better

Posted on by Standard 1

This is a rather shamefaced blog post. It’s over halfway through December and I’ve only just got round to doing my spending review for last month. I’ve also been very bad at documenting my daily spending, keeping track of my discretionary spending envelopes and have generally been behaving rather badly the last few weeks. I’d like to blame it on the festive season but I know it isn’t really that. I think that I’ve got a little bit too caught up in today, instant gratification and the a little less bothered by the things that should matter i.e. paying off debt and saving toward the lifestyle that I [think I] want to live. Here’s the dirty on November.

Screen Shot 2017-12-18 at 20.51.11

Continue reading

September spending update | A woeful example of a lack of control

Posted on by Standard Reply

The last week of September was weird because I busted my knee and ankle and had to spend the better part of a week resting, icing and elevating my left leg at home. I didn’t see many people or do many things and I got lulled into a false sense of [spending] security. Today, I went through the books and here are the findings on my spending last month:

Screen Shot 2017-10-03 at 23.04.27

Continue reading

August Spending Update | An exhibition of the benefits of frugality

Posted on by Standard 2

I was torn between reviewing August and reviewing how frugal my recent Berlin trip was. The August review won because I really need to get a handle on my spending for the rest of the year. This month was super important for two reasons. Firstly, it’s been a year since I started tracking my spending and trying to control my money. Secondly, I was able to make a decision (since I now have savings) to go home to see my ill dad albeit for only 3 days. How did August go?

Screen Shot 2017-09-02 at 23.52.25

Continue reading

July Spending Review | Getting discretionary spending in hand. Woo!

Posted on by Standard 1

Work has been busy or my time management has been very poor over the last couple of weeks. I think it’s more the latter. This is the first morning that I’ve woken up feeling rested and the first time I’ve had a bit of time to relax and do important stuff this week. I won’t lie, I’m very excited about some of July’s numbers so let’s get into those.

Screen Shot 2017-08-05 at 11.07.49

 

Continue reading

May spending update | Pretty ‘spendy’ with a dash of frugal

Posted on by Standard Reply

I was super late for and had a pretty large suitcase that meant that walking in the 20 minutes it would take to wait for the bus was not an option. I thus decided to take an Uber. This will be the third Uber entry in my June spending tracker (since my months run from payslip to payslip). May was rather spendy – relative to my aspirational spending plan although it’s a lot better than it was a year ago. Therein lies the problem. I’m still being kind to myself because compared to the hot mess that I was a year ago, my spending looks good.

Continue reading