Reducing the discretionary spend – August 2020 results

August was less of a failure than July, so that's the good news to kick off with - hooray! Budget-wise, I was expecting a negative cash flow for August, but it wasn't as far in the negative as expected, so that's nice to see. As usual, Food & Groceries was over budget, however in comparison … Continue reading Reducing the discretionary spend – August 2020 results

Reducing the discretionary spend – July 2020 results

Can you hear the cackle of evil, witchy laughter in the distance? I can! It's the Ghost of the Past Financial Year giving me a razzing. Yep, July was a significant failure in the 'reducing my discretionary spending' challenge. However, it did bring into focus something that I kind of knew already, but to which … Continue reading Reducing the discretionary spend – July 2020 results

Savings rate challenge results – June 2020 and overall year

Well, this is it! My twelve months is up - achievement unlocked! This process I've followed of running a proper budget and tracking everything I spend has been a really interesting, if sometimes tedious, exercise. It's certainly brought sharply into focus those areas where I knew I was probably wasting quite a bit of money … Continue reading Savings rate challenge results – June 2020 and overall year

Savings rate challenge results – May 2020

Eleven months down, one to go! Finally, as mentioned in April's savings rate challenge post, I hit one of my financial goals in early May - I now have 6 months' full pay saved in my emergency fund! Boy, it's nice to hit this one. It's interesting how achieving a goal like this significantly reduces … Continue reading Savings rate challenge results – May 2020

Savings rate challenge results – March 2020

Nine months down, three to go - I'm hitting the home stretch! Well, March is just a sea of red when I look at the variance sheet in my spreadsheet. Every expenditure category is over budget (although, to be fair, there are some line items that have no specified budgeted figure because they're so ad … Continue reading Savings rate challenge results – March 2020