Monthly Roundup - February 2018

It's been a couple of months since I did a post of this kind, mainly because Christmas got me off track a little and things were messy.  Besides, I was also bored of reporting large overspends in most areas of the budget, so I imagine you guys were too.

Although, expenditure isn't perfectly in line with the budget, things are back on a better footing.  The holiday, has had an impact in both positive and negative ways, but hasn't set me back too much, as spending money was budgeted for. 

By the way, I don't include things I buy on holiday or money I spend on holiday in my monthly expenditure, as I don't want to have to record everything whilst on holiday, I just want to relax and spend my money on anything I please, without having to feel accountable.  We all need a break from counting the pennies every now and again.

The holiday has, however, dominated this month, partly because it's a short month and partly because of the time spent preparing for it and recovering from it. I'm almost back to normal now though, just some more laundry and ironing to catch up on.

So, here goes with this month's budget report:

Food - I overspent on this budget by  £36.58.  Due to us being away for a week, I made this budget £300 instead of £400 this month, but still overspent a little. There is still quite a lot of food in the house though, so I probably could have eeked the month out within budget if I'd made more effort.

Household - Again this £50 budget was over by £26.86, although I have to say that I have stocked up on quite a few things this month i.e. mouthwash, toothbrushes, makeup, etc.  Perhaps I'm still overcompensating for not spending in some areas by spending more in others, but I think this behaviour is slowing down as I gradually get used to spending less each month.

Miscellaneous - This budget, also set at £50, came in over by £8.59, which wasn't too bad. I did buy a few gifts and birthday cards this month which accounted for most of this and had a few postage costs for the items I sold on eBay.

My personal budget of £25 also went over this month by £25.33. This was mainly due to buying a few small bits and pieces here and there, such as a book and some bits and pieces from the CS. As regular readers of this blog might notice, this has gone down dramatically compared to previous months, where I was sometimes over budget by  £200. This would seem to suggest that I am indeed curtailing a lot of my personal expenditure, which is a good thing.

The final budget that came over by £13.97 was the Home budget, which is set at just £20.  This month I bought two new fitted sheets and four pillow cases, two candles, a couple of tea towels and a couple more very small items.  I was happy enough with this though, as the main items were on my wish list.

The remaining two budgets came under, namely LB's which was under by £23.01. I very rarely need to buy anything for her these days, as she gets pocket money and now earns some money on YouTube every month, so she happily buys stuff herself.  I do put £50 in a savings account for her every month though, for when she goes to University. I will be increasing this amount as the budget allows.

The last budget to come under was Travel for work.  I set this at £40 this month due to being away from work for 10 days, and I only actually spent £30 on travel, so this budget came in £10 under.

On the whole, I'm pretty okay with this month's expenditure.  I was in the red by £9.68, although strictly there were funds in the account to cover this.  In a month when we went on an expensive holiday, I'm reasonably happy about this. The overspends are a lot lower than they have been in the past, so I think I'm making progress towards living within my means.  In addition, I have been putting aside an extra £50 each month in savings since the beginning of the year and I hope to increase this as my spending decreases.

Did your budget go to plan this month?