| Total Spending 2016 | JANUARY | |
| FOOD | 70.72 | |
| PETROL | 121.34 | |
| RATES | 228 | |
| GAS AND ELECTRI | 83 | |
| WATER | 21 | |
| TV | 0 | |
| HOUSE INS | 0 | |
| CAR INS +tax | 0 | |
| CAR BREAKDOWN COVER | 42 | |
| CHARITY | 166 | |
| SAVINGS | 650 | |
| POST OFFICE | 0 | |
| HOLIDAYS | 0 | |
| LIFE INS | 31.43 | |
| MEDICAL | 64.2 | |
| DENTAL | 18.5 | |
| GIFTS | 8.08 | |
| HOUSEHOLD | 23.58 | |
| MISCELLANEOUS | 10 | |
| ACTIVITIES | 0 | |
| BOOKS | 5.94 | |
| ENTERTAINMENT | 3.55 | |
| CAR REPAIRS AND SERVICE | 0 | |
| CLOTHES | 0 | |
| TRANSPORT | 0 | |
| POCKET MONEY | 12.5 | |
| EXTRA CURRIC | 295.5 | |
| SCHOOL FEES | 0 | |
| TRAVEL INS | 0 | |
| TEL+INTERNET | 14.08 | |
| SEPTIC | 0 | |
| GARDEN | 5 | |
| HAIRCUTS | 10.5 | |
| WOOD | 0 | |
| BOILER INS | 0 | |
| UNION | 0 | |
| TRAINING | 0 | |
The above is an extract from our budgeting spreadsheet and shows the total spend in some categories for January. Once I had set up the spreadsheet it is easy to keep track of the numbers in a notebook and then update them once a week. Until this year I did this all on paper using a big notebook and pencil but realised that if I spent the time setting up the spreadsheet then eventually using the computer would be quicker and more accurate ! So it has proved, I have all our spending for January in one place and was able to calculate that we saved 64% of our income. This is very high and more than we are aiming for, but I don't think we will be able to do this every month. January is very light on annual expenses such as insurance and car tax and the only really big spends were on paying for extra curricular activities for Master Shoestring. Now these have been paid right up to Easter so they won't appear again for a few months.
Food was also a very low spending category as I did a big shop costing 90 pounds right at the end of December when I had time and so we lived off what we had in stock. Now the stock is gone and I will have to go shopping today to replace all sorts of basics like cheese and eggs of which we now have none ! The savings listed there are the ones which we do automatically for a pension and then everything else this month went into topping up the emergency fund which we had used to help ShoestringUSA earlier in 2015.
I was particularly pleased that the spending on books and entertainment was so low as this was an area I promised I would cut down on and so far it looks like that resolution is working.
How was your January spending ?
Wow! You had a very frugal January, hats off to you! I too keep my spending in a spreadsheet, and it is a great way to realize just where all your hard earned $$ are going. That is awesome that you were able to save 64% of your income for the month too! :)
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