The expense report is in, and after our recently learned lesson, we did pretty well. We are back over the 50% savings rate, even with some expensive purchases, like a dishwasher. Hopefully we continue to see that savings rate grow.
Here’s what we spent in May:
| Rent | $1,200.00 | This is our new monthly rent amount. It's around $520 cheaper than what we were paying in Newcastle and we are in a much bigger place. This is a win for us! |
| Internet | $59.80 | Unfortunately, this was the cheapest internet we could get in our area. It's about $10 more expensive than our previous internet provider in Newcastle. A small price to pay so we can keep blogging! |
| Utilities | $300.56 | This includes some cancellation/reconnection fees. Hopefully from now on our utility bills will only be consumption. |
| Groceries | $502.36 | We are quite happy with this amount, considering it was our first month of grocery shopping that includes Poopsie's children. Now that we are a little more used to it, we really hope to get this down to about $400. |
| Car Costs | $456.46 | We tried not to use my petrol guzzling Rav-4 as much this month, which slightly reduced fuel costs. We are in the process of selling it so pretty soon, we'll be a one car family in a small, fuel efficient, used car! |
| Kids (child support, school fees, etc.) | $1,482.12 | Child support costs fluctuated this month as it was finalised who would be living where. One of Poopsie's children was going to live with us full time but has decided not to anymore. We will have a combination of his kids every second week. We had to purchase school uniforms and clothes for them to keep at our house. This won't be an ongoing cost so I expect to see this a little lower in the future. |
| Mobile | $58.63 | Standard for us. |
| Household | $761.07 | We bought a dishwasher which should be the final thing we need for the new house! We also bought some supplies for the garden. |
| Miscellaneous | $88.47 | Poopsie had to renew his liscence and I had to pay a small work related fee. Neither of these should come up again for a while. |
| Eating Out | $199.45 | Quite high. Some of this was laziness, to be sure. We are working on it! My grandmother also gave us (for free!) her outdoor setting, so we took her out to lunch to say thank you. Well worth the cost! |
| Travel | $257.10 | Poopsie and I are off to the USA in August. When we booked this trip, we lived in Newcastle so booked to fly out of Sydney (a three hour train ride from Newcastle). Now that we live in Brisbane, it was going to cost us $1300 to change our flights to leave from here. As such, we booked flights to Sydney using Qantas Frequent Flyer Points and booked a hotel for one night. This was an unexpected expense, but much better than $1300! We also purchased Brisbane train cards which cost $30 each. |
| Gifts/Donations | $42.50 | All gifts this month, including Mother's Day for our wonderful mums! |
How did you go with your spending in May?
