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Thursday, September 01, 2016

Keeping track of money - August 2016

So, following my lengthy explanation post of some of the workings of my budget spreadsheet, here's how the totals look for August.

Banking section (euro/% of salary/% of total income):
  1. Rent 590 / 60% / 19%
  2. Private pension/investments 50 / 5% / 2%
  3. Various charities 65 / 7% / 2%
  4. Transfer to Irish account 225 / 23% / 7%
  5. Basic income supporter - nothing this month
  6. Annual expenses (incl. holiday savings) 340 / 34% / 11%
  7. Transport 39.40 / 4% / 1%
  8. Other house related 0
  9. Dental insurance 36.80 / 4% / 1%
  10. Visa (my old Irish credit card) 0
  11. Phone/internet 41.61 / 4% / 1%
  12. Mastercard 227.36 / 23% / 7%
  13. Misc. (food etc.) - cash 140 / 14% / 5%
  14. Misc. (food etc.) - debit card 44.74 / 5% / 1%
  15. Bills (not including phone) - 40.00 / 4% / 1%
  16. Tax account 300 / 30% / 10%
  17. Bank charges 0
  18. One-off out 896.38 / 91% / 29%
  19. One-off in 2,057.94
Lots of one-off stuff this month. Outgoings were for: BahnCard annual charge, choir subscription, payment for a networking event I attended in July, choir rehearsal weekend in October paid for, annual carsharing membership, work-related magazine subscription, repayment to social welfare due to earning too much in my last month of unemployment. The one-off incoming money included payments for several translation jobs that I did in June and July, the partial refund of the deposit from my old flat and reimbursement of expenses from work.

Cash section (euro / % of salary / % of total income) - this should equal the totals for mastercard, cash and debit card above. It never has yet.

  1. Transport 69 / 7% / 2%
  2. Food - necessities 37.31 / 4% / 1%
  3. Food - luxuries 133.05 / 13% / 4% (I ate a ridiculous amount of crisps and chocolate this month but this does also include two takeaways (which provided me with food for four days))
  4. Canteen food 17.10 / 2% / 1%
  5. Toiletries 0
  6. Gifts (incl. postage, card and wrapping) 31.88 / 3% / 1% (one wedding and two birthdays - the rest of the cost for these were on the mastercard after 10th of the month so don't show up until September)
  7. Clothes 11.85 / 1% / 0% (y'see now I'm thinking I shouldn't have changed the percentages to rounded numbers)
  8. House/garden 106.04 / 11% / 3%
  9. Medical 0
  10. Other (lotto, etc.) 107.23 / 11% / 4% (I really need to take lotto out of this description, since I almost never play anymore)
My unaccounted for difference between the banking and cash sections of the spreadsheet this month is 56.36, which is very high. I suspect I have an error in a formula but will wait until the end of September to see how a second month of tracking goes before trying to figure it out.
There you have it. I don't know if I'll post actual totals again but I don't mind doing it really. I know some people find it useful or interesting to see exactly what amounts we're talking about. If you have any questions or are curious about any of my spending or the figures given, leave a comment.

2 comments:

  1. It is really interesting to see the breakdown of costs. It's funny but I can't think in euros at all - I keep looking at the amount and thinking dollars, then being amazed at low the prices look. So it's handy to have the percentages.

    I love looking at spending records from other places because it makes me question all my assumptions. For example, your transport costs are so low. Typically in Australia we cover large distances daily in cars and even public transport costs are high. We take it so much for granted that it's only when I read overseas blogs that I even think about it.

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  2. The percentages always interest me. I remember when I first started blogging and becoming interested in local eating people would quite often bring up the fact that years ago, people would spend well over 50% of their budget on food and these days we are so unwilling to pay for decent quality of life for animals, for example, because we assume food shouldn't be expensive. At the moment I'm really not making enough to be able to be too selective but even prioritising organic food still never left my percentage of spending on food anywhere close to 50%.

    My transport costs are basically the monthly ticket I get for bus/trains/trams in my area. During the week it covers my city and in the evenings and on weekends extends out to cover a lot of the surrounding area and allows me to bring up to four other people, too. It is good value and even better value for me as it's subsidised by work. Otherwise it'd be 5.20 just to get to and from work, with no possibility of stopping off anywhere to shop or go to the library or anything. I do love the flexibility of having a monthly ticket. When I visited my sister in Sydney I was constantly surprised at how expensive everything was, including transport, not to mention the need to have a car if you lived outside the city centre.

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