Monthly Round Up - November

Another pretty disastrous month on the financial front, but hardly surprising with Christmas around the corner.

I didn't really budget very well for the festivities this year, partly due to unexpected events and partly due to overspending during the course of the year. Oh well, can't be helped. You just have to tot it all up, pay it off and get on with it, making sure you're more careful in future.

At least my personal budget came in under this month, although only by £6 or so.  I didn't intend to spend as much as I did on myself, but a few spontaneous purchases at the CS got the better of me.

Another budget that came under this month was the household budget which was £36.52 under. This is the best it's been all year I think. (I have to say, though, that it will probably be over budget next month, as I'm placing a couple of orders for natural hygiene and household products, as we are running low.)

It was excellent news in the home budget this month, as nothing got spent in this category and it came in at £50 under budget. I do need to buy a couple of things in the forthcoming months, so am hoping to wait until the January sales and get them then. I am going to write a list to remind me of what we need, so I don't randomly purchase other stuff just because it sounds like a good deal.

LB didn't need much buying for her either, especially with Christmas and her birthday on the horizon, so another £33 under budget here.

You may be thinking at this point that things went pretty well, which when you look at the figures, they did really, but the Miscellaneous budget was totally busted, as I overspent by £73 here, mostly on Christmas presents/cards/postage and transport related costs, so nothing that I could have avoided.

The final category that got overspent this month was the food budget.  I don't quite know why, but it was nearly £150 overspent.  I really can't figure out how I came to overspend so badly here, but there you go, it just got out of hand somehow.  Some of it was due to eating out on days out or buying wine for social events, but the rest was just extra food in the cupboards.  I definitely need to rein this budget in this month, in spite of it being Christmas.  I've already made my Christmas food shopping list and I'm hoping to stick to it and not add anything else on, as we really don't want to over indulge too much over the festive season. We will be away visiting for a few days towards the end of the month, so this should help.

In all honesty, I'm expecting another disastrous month next month and then to hopefully get back to some semblance of normality by February or March, which is a bit of a depressing thought, but that's the reality of it.

I hope your budgeting outlook is far more positive than mine.