Our Budget: January 2012 Budget vs. Actual

Wrapping up the January budget figures:

Expenses:

(click on image to make larger)
(approx: £1375=$2165 )

Additional expenses:

From out travel fund - Holiday parking (£98.80), holiday insurance (£19.08) and deposits for Rome and Portugal (£922) Yikes!! Sunday evening I found us a great deal on hotels for both trips and after discussing it with hubby (and my daughter and son in law who are coming with us in September) we went ahead and booked.

January Financial Goals:

• Stick to the No Spend Challenge, Nearly! I spent £5.15.
• Keep our grocery bill below £180. Nearly! I spent £184.67
• Make at least £300 in extra income. Yes. January was my best month so far and after keeping back money for taxes and making a donation, I was able to increase our mortgage overpayment. 
• Make a £2,000 payment to our mortgage. Yes! We made a payment of £2,216.21! Yay! 
• Contribute at least £700 to our travel fund. Yes - but I spent it!

That's it for this month. I worked extra hard on my focus this month and it paid off. Carla's challenge and the support of all my blogging friends really helped, so thank you. Your support means a lot to me. Now lets attack February with the same focus and determination!

'Tell me, what do you plan to do with this one wild and precious life?'
                                                     Mary Oliver - The Summer Day

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Menu Plan Monday (Menu planning the whole month)

I'm attempting to keep my grocery spending at £150 for February and to improve my chances I've taken inspiration from copied saving for travel, and tried to menu plan the whole month....I've done this before, with little success, so we shall see how it goes! ;)

Meal plan for the next 7 days;

Monday: BLT's without the L Sandwiches!
Tuesday: Soup and Seeded Bread
Wednesday: Pasta Bolognese
Thursday: Chow Mein Noodles with Broccoli
Friday: Chicken Balti & Rice
Saturday: Shepherds Pie & Veg
Sunday: Leftover Shepherds Pie

For further menu planning ideas please visit I'm an Organizing Junkie

What's on your menu this week? Have you tried monthly menu planning? 

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Weekly Spending Update #4 (January 2012)

Weekly Spending:
Monday:
No spend day
Tuesday:
£11.77 Grocery
Wednesday:
No spend day
Thursday:
£9.00 Window cleaner
Friday:
£2.00 Library*
Saturday:
£30.40 Grocery
Sunday:
£62.85 Airport Parking (£9.43 cash back due)
£19.08 Travel Insurance


Lots of spending this week, but only £2.00 in the January No (Low) Spend Challenge - I loved doing this challenge and my personal spending for January was £5.15?!? Yay!! Thank you so much Carla and my fellow Challengers for keeping me focused! :)


Grocery budget: My January goal - to keep the grocery budget below £180 (Normal budget £216.67)
After doing the shopping yesterday (I went to Aldi and Morrisons), my grocery spending for January comes to £184.67 - a little over budget, but not drastically.....

....now to see if I can stick to £150 in February...eek!!


Other spending: 

I took advantage of the 15% cash back available on airport parking for our April trip - It's usually 10%,so it made sense to do it today, rather than wait for February. I paid £62.85 but will receive £9.43 cash back in a couple of months. I also booked our travel insurance for the same trip.

Okay that's it for January - I'm finalising our budget figures tonight, after hubby has left for work (he's away until Wednesday). How did you do? Did you take part in the challenge? Are you looking forward to the February Challenge?


*The £2.00 library charge was for reserving two of the three Hunger Games Trilogy....which I think I'm going to love!

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Saturday Link Love (28th January 2012)

Good morning! What plans do you have for today? I'm working this morning and then visiting a friend this afternoon...which will be then followed by a quick trip to the supermarket. I also need to finalise the budget for January and set the budget for February, but this will have to wait until tomorrow!

Okay onto the last of the January links that I have saved in my reader.

• How to Win at Monopoly and Real Life at Money Talks
• So What Do I Want To Do? at American Debt Project
• Good Words for Wednesday at Frugal Beautiful
• On Taking Financial Risks: Living on the Road at Budgets are Sexy
• 2012 - The Plan at Mutant Supermodel (have you tried this exercise/way of making plans?)
• Get Out of Debt in 2012: How Much Do You Owe? at Yes, I Am Cheap
• Chocolate Covered Raspberries at Debt Free By 30....because I ♥ raspberries!

Have a great day and I'll be back tomorrow with a spending update.

PS. Have you joined Carla's brilliant February challenge yet? :)

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