It’s payday today which means time for this month’s Income/Expenses!

I think it’s important to keep track of your income/expenses every month as it allows you to spot trends and areas for improvement. I find it really useful to track the spending changes each month, and really motivating to see the networth improvements. Sometimes it can seem like financial independence is so far away, but by watching your networth steadily increasing you’ll know you will reach that point eventually.

A pretty uneventful month. I challenged myself at the start of the month with a 45 mile hike which showed to me the power of setting yourself a good solid goal. Other than that; it was pretty much just work work work. Fortunately I’m very privileged to have a job which I enjoy and find constantly challenging. With all my travel paid for and excellent career progression.. it should really help the finances.

Google Analytics tells me we’ve had 6,300 pageviews from 1,270 users. Another decent increase and thank you to everyone who reads, comments or links to the site. It is humbling to know so many people out there are following my journey and I hope many of you continue on it with me. If you’ve been following for awhile but yet to comment.. please do! Or just drop me a line saying hi and a bit about yourself. I love chatting to others who are on similar journeys and am always looking out for new blogs to follow.

 

On to the report:

Income

Salary: £2027.94

Pension Contributions: £506

Ebay sales: £48.10

Total: £2582.04 (+2.2%)

 

Expenses

Mortgage/Bills: £718.01

Groceries: £242.47

Petrol (Gas):  £0

Maintainance/DIY: £0

Eating out: £123.30

Healthcare: £0

Entertainment: £71.75

Other: £67.73

Total: £1223.26 (+14.34%)

 

Big news on the income front is that my company now PAYS ME to have a car! By picking a vehicle below the allocated allowance; they pay me the difference. As all of my petrol is covered as well.. i’m literally getting paid just to drive to work, it’s pretty awesome. I still think my tax code is wrong, so more phone calls to HMRC are in the pipeline.

A expensive month though, with big increases in groceries and eating out. I made the mistake of mis-timing my next batch of homebrew and as a result have had to fork out some hard earnt cash for booze. We also ate out a couple of times more than usual this month; family birthdays and a couple of takeaways while in hike recovery (that’s the excuse at least!). Overall though, not too bad.

A savings difference of £1358.78 which is 52.6%.

 

Networth

House Equity:  £29,513.08

Cash in bank: £3,427.54

ISA Investments: £5,053.27

Pension: £20,154.45

Total Networth: £58,148.34 (+3.9%)

 

Really pleased with the networth increase this month! Mostly due to a large increase in pension fund value and ISAs. House equity continues to rise at an almost uniform rate as I continue making £500 overpayments each month, the latest statement from the bank shows we are on track to knock 12 years off of our 25 year term! Next year we will have finished our current fixed rate so will be looking to remortgage at a better LTV and thus better rate, leaving more cash to go into overpayments.