Welcome to my November - December expenditure review.
I review my expenditure monthly as part my tracking progress towards Early Retirement.
The main reasons I track my expenditures are
- To keep my frivolous expenditures to a minimum, on such things as take-out food, coffee and beer.
- To track my income to expenditure ratio each month - the higher a percentage of your income you can save, the earlier you can retire!
- To make sure I'm getting value for money on my expenditures on - I can compare what I spend on insurance for example with the best rates available and change as necessary.
- To keep an eye on 'relative returns' for each expenditure category - I don't mind spending money on something that brings me a decent return - for example my mortgage expenditure is high, but I get a rental income from my house.
November - December Expenditure Review
- Total expenditure = £1485 in the last month, excluding investments.
Expenditure break down:
I've tried to colour-code everything so it's in 'similar themes'
- Blue = main house in the UK (of course I get most of that back in income!)
- Red = house rental and related bills here in Portugal
- Yellow = car costs
- Pinky purple = one off costs for this month
- Green = all other regular monthly outgoings.
Analysis
My expenditure for the last 30 days has been remarkably similar to the previous 30 days, which is pretty much what I'd wanted and reflects the fact that I've hardly had to spend anything on 'extras' in December.
It's been a real 'limbo month' for expenditure - I've set a couple of things in motion which will lead to MASSIVE spending probably next month, such as a land purchase and my car matriculation (which may never happen, but we'll see), but as far this month is concerned all I've really done is stayed in my cabin and made the odd trip into town for food and pastries - what you might rightly call something of a blessed life.
The only real 'other expenditures' were admin costs associated with opening a new bank account here in Portugal (15 EU for a debit card, wankers!) and a few other bits, besides that it's been a very light month!
I've also found out my insurance costs are a bit lower than I'd thought so I've been able to reduce those.
Happy days!
If you need help reducing your expenditure then you might like this post: a motivational tool for reducing your expenditure!