Another fortnightly update

The 2nd half of March didn't go as well as the first. I really didn't expect to be over my budget by so much.

There are still a couple of days left in March, so will post a monthly summary and update my credit card list etc later this week, but this is a update for the previous fortnight (up to Saturday 28th March).


Rent: As expected.

Household: Over because I bought a $49.99 TV. Still consider this a good deal so not too concerned.

Food: I think reducing my food bills is going to be an ongoing challenge this year. At least I had a bit of money left over from my first fortnight in March, but will still be over for the month. I still throw out food and buy too many snacks.

Medical: If I keep getting massages I may need to increase this category. Maybe I should just stop getting massages!

Public transport: Over, but this includes 2 x 10 trip savers bought last week which I haven't started using, so they will last me for a while.

Mobile phone: Bill not due until next month.

Clothes: Shouldn't have bought that dress from the markets, particularly as I need to buy winter clothes

Study expenses: This put the largest dent in my budget, and this doesn't include the textbooks from Amazon I bought yesterday. Hopefully won't have many more expenses for the rest of semester.

Gifts: Under, this was an Easter egg for my Mum.

Miscellaneous: I bought a $3.00 Scratchie.

Spending: Over by a little bit, but was under last fortnight.

Pay break-down + gym fees

I get paid again on Thursday, but my pay slip is available online now. This is the first pay where my gym fees have been taken out (I salary sacrifice them) and I was interested to see the impact it would have on my pay.

The gym fees taken out were $19.82 for the fornight. Considering at my last gym my fees were $37.50 a fortnight, that's a big discount already. My tax has also gone down $8 as a result. So essentially, the "cash" cost of my gym fees are $11.82 per fortnight - much cheaper than I originally expected.

In my budget, I had listed my anticipated pay as $1,550, but it will be $1,567. Every little bit extra helps!

Actual versus budget

It's now been two weeks since I posted my budget. I get paid fortnightly and my budget is fortnightly. So in the past fortnight, how did I go?


Considering I spent $243 on airfares, which I hadn't budgeted, I'm surprised I'm on $41 over my budget for the fortnight.

Rent: right on target, no surprise
Household: over budget. This included some monthly bills I paid with my rent this week, so should be be under budget by the end of the month.
Food/groceries: Under budget for once! Still not entirely happy as I didn't go grocery shopping this week, but still managed to spend almost $20 on snacks/junk food.
Medical: A little left over and considering I had prescriptions filled I am happy with this.
Public transport: Under. This was one train fare. In January I bought some ten-trip savers which I have been using on buses, so I expect this to be quite low until I use them up.
Mobile phone: I have to check this. My bill for the month showed my account was $2 in credit, and I paid $100 last month rather than $50. I thought I had only paid $50, but will need to go back through my bank statements.
Clothes: Under, but as I need to buy a few winter clothes I doubt it will stay this way for long!
Study expenses: Nil but I need to buy a textbook next week which will be way over my budget!
Gifts/miscellaneous and entertainment: all under.
Airfares: Need to work out how to budget for these. They are airfares to visit home (two different weekend trips) but maybe I should be considering these holidays and budgeting money into a holiday fund.

Budget

I think part of my problem in January and February was that I didn't have a budget to stick too. Since I'm now getting paid regularly, that is going to change.

This is my fortnightly budget. Not that as my first pay was for 2 and a half weeks of work, I still don't know precisely what I will get after tax each fortnight. I'm also sacrificing membership fees at the university gym, which will come out of my pre-tax salary.

But basically, my budget each fortnight will be:

Now comes the hard part. Sticking to it!