May 2016 Budget

This month is going to be a very tough month. May is a big month. May always seems to be the turning point of my year. By May, I already have a feel for what the year is going to be like and May also determines how the rest of the year will be like. This month, for the first time, I have my budget ready on time.

1 Namibian Dollar (NAD) = 0.069 US Dollar (USD) as at 25-04-2016

We are going to a wedding at the coast. Traveling expenses, accommodation expenses and entertainment expenses go up. I’ve budgeted $750 for our trip to the beach which is this coming weekend.

May means the end of the English Premier League season (and most European football leagues). I made a couple of bets with some friends and I need to account for the losses I could potentially take on. I know I should have made a provision for this earlier this year, but it really looked like I wasn’t going to lose the wager. Lesson learned.

It’s my wife’s birthday this month, so I need to budget for that as well. Even though I should actually pay for her gifts with the next paycheck, but I get that paycheck a day before her birthday. I need more time to prepare for her birthday. So my savings fund is going to take a big hit this month. Hopefully I can refill it over the coming months.

My budget for other expenses is really tight this month. A lot of the expenses like food, entertainment, personal and mobile expenses are lower than their average monthly actual in the first quarter of the year. I have no choice but to keep it tight this month because I am already taking $1200 from my saving just to make it through this month.

I expect to come into some cash later this year, so even though my savings is going to plummet, lowering my net worth, it will pick up later this year. Also, my wife and I’ve been saving for a trip to Durban, South Africa with her family, but it seems the trip might be called off. We have an extra fund of cash for any emergencies now. Maybe we might decide to go on holiday after all with that money, but I like knowing there is extra cash if s*** hits the fan.

Well, this should be an interesting month, not only with regard to money. This month marks the end of the football season, the start of my school exams and the end of a financial year at work. I hope I can survive May.

Until next time. Thanks for reading.

 

February 2016 – Budgeted vs Actual

Finally I get to post my February results. Even though February was only two days ago, I’ve actually closed off February because I get my paycheck on the 25th. It just complicates things if I don’t close off the month before I get new money in because who’s to say what expense belongs to the previous budget and which expense belongs to the new budget.

I had to steal time from work to get this done. My time away from work is dominated by school and my wife, so my finances get neglected. I hope my boss doesn’t find out.

I am not going to go into too much detail here, just give a short summary. I am going to create a page for each month and you can find it under the menu item “Finances”. A link will be posted.

February 2016 Budget vs Actual results

Summary:

Overspent categories

Entertainment:  These two expense items took a major hit. My entertainment budget was blown on the same day I received my paycheck. It’s been so long that I didn’t have money in the bank, so as soon as I got it, I went out for beers with my mates. Totally worth it.

Food:  The food is higher than I thought it would be. About 70% of the food budget was snacks. There are two outliers, the time my sister, my wife and I went for frozen yogurt and the other time I bought biltong (aka beef jerky). Hopefully there won’t be a repeat of that, but I’ve adjusted my new budget.

Underspent categories

Transport: I didn’t use the cab as much as I thought I would. My wife uses the car cause she needs it for work to run a couple of company errands, but she drops me off at work in the mornings. In the evenings I take a cab to school and then back home. I budgeted a little extra if I have to catch a cab to anywhere else beside school and home. I lowered this budget in the new month.

Donations: I feel bad that this category is underspent. My wife and I didn’t go to church in February, well we did, to another church, but not to our church. Therefore I didn’t spend what I set out to. I’m definitely going to church this Sunday.

Personal: This one is a bit of strange. I usually spend a lot on myself. I guess I didn’t as much this month. Whoop whoop.

Savings: I can’t remember when I posted about the Bank Your Change, a savings initiative from my bank whereby every time I use my debit card to purchase something at a store, the bank deducts an extra amount over and about the purchase price and then puts that money into my savings account. I didn’t reach my budgeted savings for this initiative because I forgot one crucial detail, I don’t do the grocery shopping anymore, my wife does. So I’m not saving as much as I would. I could’ve just transferred the money I didn’t save by using my debit card, but it’s easier to save when you know you aren’t saving.

Well that’s it for February. Not a bad month after all. The Volleyball Tournament my friends and I played was a huge success. No categories have been grossly overspent and my net value is moving in a positive direction. More on that soon and I’ll post my March budget as well.

Until next time. Thanks for reading.

Weekly update (13-01-16)

I started with my budget for December/January 2016. I used to draw up a budget every month but lately I’ve just been winging it. I would spend a lot of money the first week after I receive my paycheck then hit the breaks on my spending for the 3 remaining weeks of the month.