It’s been another expensive month what with car MOT/Service, some project work in the garden and me just taking my eye off the ball budget wise in general if I’m honest. I’ve been mega busy and that’s no excuse but luckily we had a good amount come in from side hustles to prevent any catastrophes.
These are all fairly self-explanatory costs but I’m going to explain some of the higher ones as, like I said, this was an overly expensive month for us.
You will notice that all these numbers are in $ instead of £’s this is because I use the EveryDollar website to do my budget and it’s meant for the US and Canada, the numbers are all the same so you can just ignore the $ prefix.
Income
Rollover, Charlotte/Dean, Everyday Rewards – If you want to know a bit more about these you can have a look at my first Budget Report
Side hustles – I managed to top Mays Side Hustle earnings by a little bit which was nice. The breakdown of the £501.04 is – £200 from our craft business (BebeMakes), £73.74 was from Matched Betting and £227.30 was from the blog.
Transfer from Car SF – Our sinking funds are held in separate bank accounts so if we need to use the money it has to be transferred into this account (which makes it an income line in EveryDollar) I had to transfer this in this month as the MOT and service was due on the car.
Housing
OVO – I think I’m going to have to look at switching suppliers as this is still much higher than it should be even with us paying back a small deficit.
EE – This probably won’t be going any lower for a while as I get to upgrade soon and I had hoped to go to just a SIM only contract and keep my current phone but it’s just started playing up. If I do choose to upgrade I will make sure I get the best deal possible from them obviously.
Envelopes
Dogs – I had to pick up worming and flea treatment for the dogs this month and it was cheaper overall to buy it in bulk to cover the next 3 months so that’s why that’s so high.
Misc – I’ve looked back through the transactions for this and a large chunk was for vitamins and supplements (we’re trying to be healthier/take care of our bodies more) from Amazon and the rest just seemed to be little spends here and there.
Lifestyle
Cleaner – Still got a cleaner, still love her to bits, still not bothered about other peoples opinions on it (so please don’t email me about it), in fact I’d quiet like it if she could come twice a week at the moment!
Insurance & Tax
Dog Insurance – This went up a little bit this month due to annual premium hikes but it’s still the lowest we can get for the cover we need for the girls.
Debt
Barclaycard – Not as much as I’d hoped to have been able to pay towards it but still a good chunk and the balance is coming down either way.
Zopa – This is the standard monthly minimum payment.
Savings
These are our Sinking Funds, they stay pretty much set at the same amount every month – have a look at my first Budget Report for a bit more info.
Rollover
Our payday at work isn’t until the 15th so this ‘Rollover’ amount is what needs to be left in the account at the end of the month to cover the payments coming out until the 15th of the next month. This will be changing soon! From August onwards we will go from getting paid mid month to getting paid on the 30th of each month, it might make nexts months budget a bit more challenging so we’ll have to see what happens.
Gym
Misc – This was for some decorators caulk and some filler, there are a few more expenses to come next month but after that the gym is 100% done!
Garden
Garden – The garden is the next big project for us to tackle but it won’t be happening until next year. In the meantime we need to try to keep it as under control as possible weed wise so we decided the best way to do this was to cover it in weed suppressant membrane. Do it look pretty? No. Does it do the job and mean it’ll be easier come next year? I hope so!
Car
Service & MOT – Thankfully the car passed the MOT fine, the main bulk of the cost came from the service. We are planning to drive this car until the wheels fall off, to make sure that that’s as far in the future as possible I want to make sure we take care of it mechanically as best we can so I paid for a full service by our mechanic. It won’t need a full service next year because of this so I’m counting it as spend now to save in the future.
I’d like to say I know we’ll have a less spendy month this month but were only 2 days in and there has been some unexpected costs so who knows what will happen for the rest of it. We’ve been working hard on our side hustles though so hopefully there is a decent pay out from those to help the cause – fingers crossed!
