Monthly Roundup - October 2018

I managed to finish the month in credit this month, but once again most of the budget areas were overspent. Here are the details:

Food - This £400 budget was overspent this month by £59.44.  I did buy a few bits and pieces towards Christmas though, which will account for some of this, but not the majority.

Household - The £50 budget for this category was overspent by £33.20 this month. I did buy a few extra toiletries and household items for everyone to keep us stocked up, so this wasn't too bad.

Miscellaneous - The £50 budget for this category was actually underspent this month by £10.96, so that was a bonus.  I did have a birthday gift to buy and post off too this month, but other expenditure was minimal.

My Personal budget of £25 was overspent by £62.18, which was pretty self indulgent really. Amongst other things, I bought some tights, a skirt, a cardigan, and some perfume from Primark and  a top, a waterproof jacket, a skirt and some costume jewellery from CSs.

LB's budget of £25 was also overspent this month, but by just £14.48. I bought her some toiletries she wanted, four very inexpensive school skirts (£8.50 in total), some new bras, three inexpensive tops and she had a fringe trim too.

The Home budget of £20 was well and truly busted by £45.94 this month, mainly due to buying two new cushions for the living room, a new laundry basket which was on offer at work and cost a mere £15 which was a bargain.  I also bought a plant, some Xmas baubles, a calendar for next year and a wicker skirt for the Christmas tree.

Finally, my travel budget for work was spot on the £40 I budgeted.  It should have come in at less due to my taking a week off work, but I lent my spare Oyster card to someone at work and then the next day I forgot I'd left mine in my coat pocket, so had to buy yet another one for £5. So annoying. I'm amassing quite a collection of them at the moment.

One last thing to mention, is that I set aside £300 for buying Christmas presents this month. However, I only ended up spending £186 on gifts and a few other bits for Xmas, this included LB's main presents, so I've made a reasonably good start.  I'll probably do the same thing next month and try to get some presents for other people bought.