August was another very expensive month for us. We got our lowest savings rate of the year!
Oh the shame.
Yes, that’s right, lower than July!
August marked the one year anniversary of when we bought our house! This meant that our yearly house insurance was due. At a smidge over $500, it certainly made an impact on our savings rate. We also paid our quarterly rates, which aren’t exactly cheap.
We had another very expensive month for gifts. My little brother moved out of his barracks room and into a big boy apartment. We sent him a house warming gift in the form of a gift voucher, which I’m proud to say he spent very wisely! Poopsie’s mum turned 70 and, with his sister, we sent his parent’s to a luxury hotel for the night.
My nephew turned one. I visited him for his birthday (flights purchased months ago) and so I baked him a cake and bought him a few gifts. Being organised, I also bought my other nephew’s birthday present, even though he doesn’t turn one until October.
Best Aunty ever!
This month, we got a new (to us) car! We had to pay a small fee to change the registration over and we also insured it. Unfortunately the registration is due for renewal in December. We leave the state in January, so this is quite inconvenient. We will probably register for as short a period as possible and change it over once we move.
Poopsie’s license was due for renewal. As we will be able to transfer the full length of his licence over when we get to NSW, we renewed it for five years. I also took advantage of a sale and purchased some new bed sheets and a new pillow. I love my new pillow!
We took ourselves into the city one day, meaning we had to top up both of our train cards. We had lunch out at a delicious Turkish restaurant, before checking out the Gallery of Modern Art. It was a really nice day out and lunch was worth every cent.
Delicious Turkish.
Finally, August was Share the Dignity’s fundraising month. We donated as part of their drive. For anyone looking for a great Australian charity to support, I highly recommend you check out Share the Dignity. By just purchasing a couple of products each time you go to the supermarket, you can make a marked difference in the life of a homeless woman.
Without further delay, our August savings rate:
Certainly not our best. However, we hope to start improving it next month by spending less. While we still saved a lot more than most people we know, in order to reach our early retirement goal, we need to be saving in excess of 50% of our income.
How was your savings rate in August? Have you ever eaten Turkish food?
I have yet to try Turkish food but it looks delicious! Congrats on the one year with your house… we will hit that milestone in October 🙂
Thanks Mrs Adventure Rich. An early congratulations to you too! Maybe you could celebrate with some Turkish food 😉
Wow. I was expecting to see a savings rate of <5% but with all those expenses you both nailed the month. The Turkish food looks awesome too., reminds me of a local Nepalese place that does the best Baklava! So yum!
Oh gosh, I don’t think I could handle a <5% SR. I would seriously have a meltdown!
Nepalese sounds awesome. We had never really tried Turkish before and it was so good. Although, I was a little disappointed with the Baklava to be honest. Everything else was fantastic though.
Such an expensive month, but also a happy one! So many celebrations – congratulations and happy birthday to your family. And yes, bed sheets+pillows. My boyfriend never understood why new sheets gave so much joy until we moved in together and he experienced them himself.
I haven’t heard of Share the Dignity until now. I’ll check them out. You have a big heart. 🙂
Poopsie still doesn’t seem to be on board with sheets and pillows. Such a heathen 😉
Definitely check out Share the Dignity, such a great organisation and very simple to get involved just during your weekly shop!
It sounds like you’ve had a good balance to me. Family, food and fun times (and giving but that didn’t start with f) and still a 33% savings rate!
I could probably do the calculations myself but I’m lazy – what is your average savings rate so far this year? Does it get close to the 50% goal?
Thanks for always pointing out the positive, Miss Balance!
My spreadsheet is at work (and we’re on holidays this week) but I think we’re at about 52% for the year. Definitely good, but we can’t help but want it to be better!
The way you started, I was expecting a savings rate that was much lower. To be able to still achieve 33% is really good! Sometimes I think we are too hard on ourselves. I’m certainly guilty of that.
With the car rego – can you get a new one from NSW in December and just drive that in a different state for a bit? I know there you can do that for a certain period of time when you just move, and since it’s really just a month, you should be able to do that. Of course this might mean going out of your way to drive to NSW to do that but it might be cheaper than paying for rego that you don’t need the full length of?
Thanks Pia. You’re right, we’re definitely hard on ourselves, but I also think that’s part of the reason we’ve been able to do so well with our savings. We force ourselves to by setting high expectations.
I will need to do more research on the rego (and by that, I mean Poopsie will) as I’m sure we can figure something out. Thanks for the ideas!
Still a pretty good savings rate. With the big expenses out the way next month is bound to be better!
Thanks for reading Makin Cents! Yes, we do sincerely hope September is better although, already the expenses are adding up. It’s that time of year I think, bills come due and there are Christmas presents to buy. Fingers crossed we get it back up though.
Sorry for the late comment. Was the $500 for just home insurance, or home and contents?
You are very organised with gifts. I’m hopeless, but am kind of hiding it behind personal finance. The one year old niece got a deposit into the bank account set up by her Grandmother, while the 14 year old nephew got a deposit into the Acorns account set up by his grandfather. Truly slack, but the one year old got a ton of colourful plastic toys, and the fourteen year old only plays computer games which he saves for and buys himself.
Sounds like a fun-filled month, with plenty of good food. I can’t imagine the colour of your nephew after that cake
It was home and contents, but our contents are insured for a very low, nominal amount (maybe $20k…). Most of the contents we’d be devastated to lose are sentimental, which no amount of money could bring back. We may even end up dropping this next year when we’re renters again, we’ll see.
Just today, we purchased Christmas presents for one of Poopsie’s sons and his mum as we spotted them both on sale. I do try to do this as it does definitely save me money. But it also means constantly thinking what to buy people. I was in a real pickle with what to get Poopsie’s mum and then we saw this and knew she’d loved it. We are in Newcastle at the moment, the home of Poopsie’s son’s favourite football team, so we got him a new shirt for Christmas. Given they lost the competition this year, they happened to be significantly reduced and we know he’ll really love it.
My nephew was given a piece of cake just in his nappy, we didn’t want to ruin any of his clothes. He loved it I think and we got some great photos and videos of his sugar high!