Expense Tracking - The "Before" Picture

(Yes, we Australians have a society based on 'Monopoly Money', LOL)

I’ve just finished collating my receipts for March.

Ouuchhh!

Okay, I’m going to have to come clean. I mean, I don’t want to admit these figures (they are horribly embarrassing!) but given that I’m hoping this post will serve as the ‘before’ shot of my own personal little challenge to reduce our household expenses, I guess I must. Sigh.

I’m only going to list the variable expenses, for the sake of simplicity. You know, the stuff that you can actually reduce if you put a bit of effort into it (which, plainly, I need to). I also won't list the myriad of sub-categories I track either. And I won’t list the mortgage, but to paint a picture, March’s home loan interest was 2/3 again on top of our principle. So we’re not quite paying 50-50 principle/interest, but close enough.

As for the rest, be gentle. Constructive criticism only please! LOL.

Electricity.....$ NIL (quarterly bills - no bill this month)

Gas.....$ NIL (quarterly bills - no bill this month)

Water.....$ 137.10 (quarterly bills - due this month)

Council Rates.....$ NIL (quarterly bills - no bill this month)

Telephone - Home.....$ NIL (quarterly bills - no bill this month)

Telephone - Cell x 2.....$ 26.00

Internet.....$ 39.95

Work Related Expenses.....$ 57.18

Groceries.....$ 1,346.75 (don't even ask...!)

Car & Transport.....$ 75.00

Leisure & Entertainment.....$ 333.57

Education.....$ 181.44

Clothing & Shoes.....$ 235.82

Gifts.....$ 94.31

Household Repairs & Maintenance.....$ 92.80

Insurances.....$ 184.03

Medical.....$ NIL

Personal Grooming.....$ NIL

Christmas.....$ NIL

Travel & Holidays.....$ 392.00

Allowances.....$ 47.50

Okay, so some things I’m not particularly fussed with – for example, we enjoy the speeds we get with our broadband so that stays. And though our Electricity, Council Rates, Gas and home phone were zero this month, it will only be next month or the month after that that they’ll get a big surge. Travel & Holidays represents the fares we paid in March for our smallish family holiday coming up in April (with April’s totals to include accommodation and food for that trip). We didn’t get sick this month, and as I cut the rest of the family’s hair myself (and didn’t need a trim for my own hair), those categories remain at zero also. Car & Transport includes Public Transport costs for me to zip around town (I don’t drive) and that could do with a bit of tweaking by buying multi-trip tickets and not going out so much. Leisure & Entertainment includes all takeaway food (DH's work lunches when he buys them), the cost to bring in the respite worker for Date Night, cinema costs, restaurant costs, DVD rental and leisure equipment (such as sleeping bags, which we had to purchase recently for our trip away next month). Lots of little things can be done to improve the items that are lower on my list of priorities.

Without a doubt, the biggest slap-in-your-face-how-can-you-let-it-blow-out-like-that expense is Groceries. Now, by way of a little explanation, I knew this month was going to be extreme. I knew it and I kept on spending anyway, with the view that this would serve as an ‘as bad as it generally gets’ kind of control figure. Ideally – and remember we are talking Australian prices here, LOL – I’d be happy bringing this down below the $1k mark for the month, or $250 per week. It’s not perfect even at that level, but that’s the first aim. This means around a $350 decrease over March! Eek. But I haven’t been following my menu plan as closely as I could have, and I’ve been buying far too many treats and commercial snackfoods, so that’s the first thing to work on.

Oh, and a small clarification – I include just about everything you could buy at the supermarket under Groceries, whether I actually get it from there or not. So along with the usual food items, I also include wraps, toiletries, smaller household items (like batteries and light bulbs), stationery, non-prescription chemist items (like paracetamol and sunscreen), washing powder and so on. Most of the time I’ll buy nearly everything at the supermarket (or applicable specialist store like the butcher or bakery), but if I happen to grab a packet of pens at the newsagency, I’d still include it under stationery in Groceries. I guess if I took all the non-food items away from the other stuff the figure would look a lot more pretty, LOL, but they’d still need to be bought wherever I slot them into the budget. Keeping it all in Groceries makes it simpler.

So, some priorities to work on for April:

* Keep to the menu plan.
* Bake more, rather than relying on commercial snack food.
* Minimise day trips – only when necessary (not only do these cost me a bus fare, but
inevitably, ten times that in food and bits and pieces, LOL)
* Borrow more DVDs from the library.
* If I must get food while out doing errands, eat cheaply!

It should be an interesting few weeks – we go on term holidays for two weeks from the 13th, so that usually signals a higher-than-average spending period as we fill in our days with activities and day trips (we all suffer from cabin fever during the holidays, LOL).

Fingers crossed!

P.S. I’m hoping to do updates on, or around, the 1st of each month (okay, sometime during the first week of the month at least!) Come back then to see if I’ve done any better next month!

Cheers,
Lizzie