Well, I'm now half way through May and as mentioned in a previous post, I've been a bit spendy so far this month, which has not really been ideal. There were quite a few things I just couldn't resist buying at the CS at the beginning of the month, but thankfully my impulses have now calmed down and I'm managing to resist temptation a lot more.
Having said this, I did have a small splurge at Home Bargains this week to buy lots of toiletries and a few other bits and pieces, which did just about max out my remaining budgets.
There were a couple of unexpected expenses that arose this month. LB needed a scientific calculator for an upcoming Maths test and with her GCSE's coming up in the next couple of years, it was a good time to just buy her one. It only cost £9 though, which wasn't too bad.
In addition to the extra £15 school trip that I needed to pay for this month, another trip was arranged that cost another £10. These two trips, LB's calculator and a couple of other things I bought for her has meant that her budget has gone way over this month, but this couldn't be helped and it has come under for a few months now, so I'm not too worried about it.
I won't, however, be able to buy any of her school uniform for next year this month, as I'd hoped, but it will wait. To budget for this, I may start putting any future excess from her budget into a separate account, until there's enough money to place an order with the uniform company.
Aside from spending on LB, I also needed to purchase a couple of expensive toiletry/make up products for me this month, as in addition to running out of perfume, I ran out of both shampoo and foundation. As I use natural products, it was costly to replace these and although I bought a small travel size (15ml) of the foundation to try to get me through the next few months, it still set me back £13.50 and the shampoo I use costs £10.
Some of these expenses, combined with this weeks trip to Home Bargains, where I stocked up on mouthwash, distilled witch hazel, small packs of tissues and cotton pads, served to take care of the rest of the household budget for this month. I may go over a little, as I will probably need to buy some more dog food and toilet rolls before the end of the month, but hopefully, it will just be a matter of a few pounds over.
With two weeks to go, my personal budget is overspent by £8.77, LB's is over by £18.44 and the Home budget is £2.14 overspent. I still have most of the budget to buy OH's birthday/belated Xmas present this week. He's decided on a new pair of trainers, plus some small cycling items, so we'll be going to check out the local Nike and cycle store for those and I've bought him a few other bits too.
There's just over £2 left in the Misc budget and 36p left in the Household budget, and I've got at least £60 left each week to spend on food, so things aren't too desperate. I may even be able to claw back some of the overspends from the food budget if I'm really careful. I'll let you know the final tally in my monthly roundup.
Bread and jam then for tea!
ReplyDeleteI think you are doing really well with your budgeting and I am impressed the way you have broken the budget up and are trying to keep each area within its own limit. It will be interesting to see if you continually overspend in the same categories or if it is different depending on demand at the time. I remember when my two daughters were quite young and money really tight just when I thought I was going to make it to the end of the month with some spare cash along came a school trip!
Yes, it's a bit like that. There isn't too much flexibility built in, but then I've done that on purpose as if there is too much room, it will probably get spent on unnecessary things.
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