Monthly Roundup - July

It's been a busier than usual month, so expenses have been a bit higher than I would like, but there have been some compensations such as actually being paid to work at the CS (although I haven't received any wages yet).

Anyway, here's the damage, which is quite a bit worse than the last couple of months:

The Food budget went over by £9.39, mainly on account of my not being very careful on my last shop of the month and throwing a few inessentials into the trolley. They will get eaten, even if it's not this month.  I haven't, however, bought much to go in the freezer, as it was my intention to empty and defrost it before we went away at the end of the month, which I did.

The Household budget was well overspent this month by £47.16. This was mainly on account of my stocking up on natural makeup and beauty products via a My Pure order this month and also due to stocking up on a few other toiletries in Home Bargains at the beginning of the month.

The Miscellaneous budget was also overspent by £50.25. This was exclusively due to travel expenses for my new job, which amounted to around £60. I will be factoring these into next month's budget, so it shouldn't cause the same problem next month.

My personal budget was overspent by £16.15. This was mainly due to unplanned expenditure on a few clothing items for my new job.

LB's budget was over spent by £27, as I treated her to a new blanket for her room from the CS, I got her fringe trimmed and I needed to buy her a shortie wetsuit for an up and coming trip away with some friends.  The amount I'd actually budgeted, was all spent on a new school bag for September.

Finally, the Home budget was also overspent by £6.70 due to ordering some new ice cube trays from eBay, which I'm still waiting for and a little unplanned splurge at TK Maxx on some new kitchen towels. They were both on my wish list though, so I'm not too concerned.

In spite of all the overspending I did still manage to put £135 towards my overdraft, which was £15 less than I'd hoped.  The reason I still managed this, yet was overspent everywhere, was that this month I received two child benefit payments, which was just how it fell, as it is paid every 28 days, so I received a little more income than I expected. I had also, for the first time, allowed a bit of room in the budget for overspending. Nevertheless, a sizeable dent has been made in my overdraft debt, which you can see on the update to the diagram I made last month. There's still a way to go though.

I'm still not sure if I will receive my wages at the end of this month, if I don't, OH is lending me the money until I do and then I'll pay him back at the end of August when I do finally get paid.

Next month, I have some extra expenses, namely more school uniform to buy for LB and a 21st birthday present to buy for my niece. Other than this, there's just the added travel expenses for work to factor in.

As we are spending a week in Yorkshire, I will probably spend a bit of money on booking a few classes at local leisure centres and I will probably also spend some money in one of my favourite local shops (Boyes), as I'd like to get some underwear from there and maybe some more skinny jeans, which I've bought there in the past and like the fit of. I also want to replace the umbrella that I left and lost in the Nike shop the other month, as this was originally purchased from there. Other than these things, I'll be buying wish list only items if I can manage to stick to it for yet another month.

I am aiming to pay at least another £100 off my overdraft next month, but this may increase depending on whether I get paid this month end and potentially have some surplus cash.

On a positive note, expenditure has gone down this month, income from investments has gone up very slightly and after receiving a pension statement for my civil service pension, my overall estimated future pension payments have also gone up, which is encouraging. I'm hoping to get monthly spending down further still over the coming months and keep it at a much lower level going forward.

I'll keep you posted of future progress.