Working the numbers 2019 style

mark55man

A good day today on the MSE front, saving money on AA and insurance renewals. Plus did some decluttering, and was joined by DS1 (in a big way) and DS2 (reluctantly).

Even more joyously DS1 also drove the car down to the tip to dispose of the waste

mark55man

Monthly report for December

• Car bit over budget - another couple of small fixes and one annual tax disc
• Cash back under control only £50
• Clothes - bit under budget - some party clothes for OH
• Coffee £50 over budget - have been indulging a little in the lead up to xmas and being at home
• Crafts bit over budget
• Entertainment well under usual budget - as we continue to be very, very!, boring, did have nice family meal with FIL
• Grocery was horrendously over budget but included a load of xmas food and some presents so will close my eyes and live with it
• Holiday - my annual holiday costs came in this month so, not so much over budget as the budget was increased by quite a lot. Will still have subsistence costs when we are on leave, but hope to be tight without spoiling the holiday !!
• Kids have been the major source of disarray this month, with repairs and insurance for DS1 who is trying to move from self employed to a full time job and just needs a bit of support. DD2 has needed some rent support so this was well into 4 figures, hence some unravelling of my good year to date
• General day to day life costs are quite up, but this time due to my poor kitty becoming ill and then passing. Sad, and we are not replacing for a bit as we are so busy this year

mark55man

I gave a soft review of the year a few posts above - but here is the hard number totals for 2019 - a year of numbers.

I haven't included debt repayments or gone into a lot of detail on money for my 4 little cost centres. I've always been a bit shy about putting absolute numbers, here, but looking at it, it seems comfortable without being extravagant. I know others have less but this is me and mine and I will be able to use this analysis next year to tweak my budgets so I recommend a level of scrutiny to you all

• Car - So all in (tax, insurance, petrol, repairs and parking) I have run 2 cars for £6K over the year of which half was for work and covered by expenses
• Cash - total £1K drawn out and used for miscellaneous - so not bad, but am trying not to use cash to improve traceability
• Charity - £500 in regular donations. Which is not enough, but will have to do for now. I once read you should give 2% of gross salary, and the church would have you pay a tithe (a tenth).
• Clothes - about £1K for the year, covering my and OH working clothes and OH social. I get my new clothes as presents
• Coffee - £2K for the year about £150 a month for all social and business coffees out about 3 a week on average. This is a lot but I can live with it (or rather won't live without it)
• Entertainment - £4K - mainly a family dinner out and a friends dinner out every month (big family!) plus assorted cinema, and day trips
• Grocery - ended up on average of £800pcm covering pretty much everything, but we have started to trip this down.
• Holiday - little more expensive this year as we had our big cuise that FIL paid for plus our usual weeks by the coast plus a few weekends away. So reasonably happy with £4K for the year
• Utilities - phones, internet, insurances, power and water all comes in at £8K
• Kids - a lot, let's leave it at that shall we, except that the passage of time may make next year's total somewhat smaller
• General life - about £1.5K on small household and personal things and about the same on a small number of big things
• Amazon - £1K - how did that happen - will be doing something about that this year as I look to prefer local businesses

In total my spreadsheet for 2019 had 2231 entries, which includes all sorts of fun and games moving money around, savings, etc. The volume also represents a decreasing use of cash, but on balance I think I will be trying to spend less often and continue simplifying internal bank account/CC transfers.

Its been really good to have you all along for this year, and although I will be focusing on my new diary from now on, I will still keep an eye on this one and finish off any chats that emerge

HAPPY NEW YEAR - may it be better, cheaper and more fulfilling than last year.

Peace and Love