Expenses

I thought it would be interesting to write down in black and white what the actual fixed expenses I have are. This is all in my excel budget spreadsheet as well but I suspect that I'm so used to looking at that, I don't really see it any more.

Rent - 560
Gas/electricity - 35 (usually get a little bit back after the annual readings are done)
Pension - 150
Bus/train ticket - 55
Home phone/internet - 26 plus whatever I spend on calls

Annual expenses (divided by 12 and rounded to give monthly amount)
House insurances - 17
Travel insurance - 7
Bahncard - 18 (gives me 50% discount on train travel)
Choir - 12
Rental association - 5

Total (not including servicing debt): 885

That's quite a bit really. I also try to put about 15 a month aside for preserving supplies. Still being fairly at the beginning stage of preserving my own stuff I need to build up a bit more of a stash of jars as well as replacing lids as necessary. Not to mention someday I would like to get a pressure canner and a much bigger dehydrator than the one I currently have.

My aim this month is again to spend as little money as possible so that I have a good amount left at the end of the month - I would like to be able to transfer at least 100 extra to my credit card. However, I do need to pay two dentist's bills so will need to keep to a strict budget to achieve this. I still have a few things I need to finish from the freezer and did buy some cheese, apples and veg at the weekend so I really shouldn't need to buy anything more along the lines of food for at least a week. And will perhaps only need some more cheese and milk at that stage.

I wanted to do a two-day detox over this weekend but haven't done so. I did have some chocolate on Saturday but that was the last of it and apart from a couple of biscuits left over from Christmas that I found yesterday (thank goodness for tupperware - they were as good as new) I ate nothing sweet yesterday. I still have a few biscuits left and just had a couple with a cup of tea so hopefully that will stave off any sugar withdrawal headaches. I have a pile of leeks to make soup with, a bunch of chard which I plan to add to a tomato-based pasta sauce and that will give me lunches and dinners for the rest of the week with bread and cheese and chutney to keep a bit of variety going as well. I'll see if the stress of month end (which means billing needs to be done in work) makes me long to reach for chocolate and potentially buy some good dark chocolate to get me through that without eating too much.

Now, I did very little of what I planned to do yesterday. I bought ten folders on Saturday and was determined to do all the filing that I have essentially been ignoring since I moved here. I have a suitcase full of stuff on the living room floor and I am sick of looking at it. I had promised myself that I would do it yesterday no matter how long it took but I didn't even start it. So my reward of spending today reading my library books and with only the ironing as a chore is out the window. I am going to do the ironing now (it's not something I actually do very often but I'm getting sick of needing to be up a few minutes early every day just so I'll have something ironed to wear to work). Then I think I'll see how it goes. It is another gorgeous spring day and a nice walk in the park, although it was supposed to be part of my reward for having finished the filing yesterday, might still need to happen just to get some fresh air into my brain!