Another month down. How did you go with your spending?
We had a very expensive month- predominantly due to an unavoidable, child related $5000 expenditure. This should just be a one off, but it certainly impacted our overall spending this month.
We also finished paying for the remainder of our upcoming USA holiday. Boy, can things be pricey. The biggest cost (besides airfares which were purchased last year), has been our accommodation in New York City. We are only staying for a week, but it costs a lot!
We’re leaving the Australian winter for the USA Summer!
Also this month, we spent over $200 purchasing tickets to a river dinner cruise. My grandmother is turning 80 and to celebrate, she wanted the entire family to take this cruise with her. While we love frugality and saving money, we don’t want to become cheap and so ensure we do spend money when it comes to wonderful family celebrations like this one.
Here it is, our expenses!
| Category | Amount | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | 1200 | Standard. This is about to change. More details coming soon. |
| Internet | 59.8 | Definitely needed, otherwise we wouldn't be able to blog! |
| Utilities | 96 | Our monthly electricity charge. This is a standard charge and if we use under this, we are reimbursed. Of course, if we use over, we receive another bill. |
| Groceries | 443.34 | This month, we spent $344.34 on actual groceries which we were very happy about. Poopsie uses protein powder as part of his workout routine and he purchased another 5kg this month for $99. This is only purchased every three months or so. Hopefully we can continue to see our normal groceries at well under the $400 mark. |
| Car Costs | 321.41 | Fuel, insurance and tolls. |
| Kids (child support, school fees, etc.) | 6172.85 | Ouch! Some unexpected fees to the tune of almost $5000 pushed this one up. Hopefully it's a one off! |
| Other | 550 | I'm not revealing what this item is, as it will be covered in a coming blog post. More soon! |
| Mobile | 56.76 | Two mobiles, our standard charge. We are exploring some cheaper options, so will provide details if we decide to make the switch. |
| Household | 109.69 | Poopsie has recently taken up cheese making as a hobby. This involved the purchase of some intial supplies. |
| Miscellaneous | 790 | A large government related, one off fee. Ouch. |
| Eating Out | 47.9 | Most of this was a result of Giving Advice to my little brother. |
| Entertainment | 30 | I purchased a ticket to attend the ballet with my mother in September. It's rare that we have an entertainment line item in our spending. |
| Travel | 2730.66 | The remainder of our bookings for our upcoming trip to the USA. A lot of this was accommodation costs in New York City. |
| Gifts/Donations | 263.02 | This includes two (rather expensive) tickets for a river dinner cruise for my grandmother's 80th birthday. That's what she wanted to do for her party, and who are we to argue with an 80 year old! |
How did you go with your July spending?
You keep dropping little teasers – can’t wait to read about whatever it is that is upcoming! It sounds exciting. We had an expensive month, because we had a short, luxurious break down in Tassie. It was wonderful. We could probably have done something at half the price, but it was totally budgeted for, and totally worth the expense. Now we begin the long haul saving for a trip to England & Germany.
Oh, and please can we have a blog post on cheese-making? I like the premise, but have no idea what is involved.
Hi Mrs ETT! Sounds like you had a great time in Tassie. I can’t wait to head back (quickly for a wedding in December), it’s a wonderful place. England and Germany sounds awesome too. I have only spent a couple of days in both, so am keen to head back!
Great suggestion on a cheese making blog post, I will get Poopsie onto it!
I hope you guys have a great trip to the USA and the river cruise – sounds awesome.
Kids and the Govt haven’t been kind to you this month, ouch! Hopefully they are once offs.
A rent and ‘other’ teaser, very interesting to see what this is. Looking forward to it!
Tristan 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, Tristan. Heard about your blog through Mrs ETT and look forward to reading it when we get back to Australia!
Pingback: We Bought a House! | Adventures with Poopsie