December 2014 Income/Expenses

December 2014 Income/Expenses

It’s the end of the month which means time for this month’s Income/Expenses!

My company has a policy of paying salary before christmas so I have tried to do the calculations ignoring this early payment. This month has seen me neglect my online commitments slightly as I’ve been busy seeing family etc over the holiday season. Tomorrow is a new year and a new challenge to work towards that early retirement!

Google Analytics tells me we had just over 3000 page views last month from 635 users. I think we’re getting hit by a bit of automated spam so I’m hoping to have this filtered out for next month.

 

On to the report:

Income

Salary: £2234.23

Lottery prize: £5.40

Total: £2239.63 (-22.53%)

 

Expenses

Mortgage/Bills: £700

Groceries: £470.18

Petrol (Gas):  £20

Maintainance/DIY: £0

Eating out: £68.74

Healthcare: £0

Entertainment: £34.04

Other: £150.83

Total: £1443.79 (+25.15%)

 

Income is predictably down due to the extra salary received from October last month. Expenses up mostly due to increased grocery spend. I’m actually pretty happy with this because the extra spend is almost entirely down to having friends/family over for home cooked meals and events instead of going out to fancy restaurants. High ‘other’ spending is down to last minute Christmas presents. A savings difference of £795.84 which is 36%.

 

 

Networth

House Equity:  £26414.50

Cash in bank: £3540.17

ISA Investments: £4007.20

Pension: £16,568.03

Total Networth: £50589.90 (+1.9%)

 

A total networth increase of £932.26 or +1.9%. Not as impressive as last month but still steady progress. Hit a little bit by a fall in pension value and the fact that my new company pension hasnt kicked in yet (will do from next month).

I first started tracking my networth back in July when it stood at £43,539.21. Since then, it’s gone up by over £7000! So averaged out at about £14000 a year. Great progress and hopefully something I can improve upon going into 2015! Have a great new year everyone.

 

8 thoughts on “December 2014 Income/Expenses

  1. What’s the lottery winning about? Are you playing lottery on a regular basis or just one of those one off things?

    You’re making great progress in your net worth. Keep up the good work! Here’s to an excellent 2015.

    1. Hello Tawcan,

      I play the lottery every week. While I’m under no illusions of getting rich.. it’s my only form of gambling and is pretty cheap. I include the ticket costs in Entertainment section each month.

  2. The lottery winning is very interesting, one of the first personal finance blogs I have came across to include such a thing. Congratulations on increasing your net worth throughout 2014. It will be exciting to see what 2015 brings!

  3. ERG,

    Another great month. I know that savings rate is a bit off for you, but that’s still WAY higher than the average. You also beat me by a good margin. I had a rough December, due to gift spending and booking a plane ticket for the Berkshire Hathaway meeting.

    Keep it up!!

    Best regards.

    1. Hello Jason,

      I think the savings rate was a little bit low this month, Had some particularly large grocery bills due to hosting alot of events over ours. It’s a hard one to fix though as none of our friends have the room big enough to host much and the alternative would be to go to a bar or restaurant. It’s a problem I’ll need to consider going forward on how best to resolve. It certainly doesn’t feel like I beat you when I still need to get up at 7am on a cold Monday morning to head off to work ;)

  4. I was also wondering about the lottery winnings, but I see your answer above. I sometimes buy a Powerball ticket when it gets over $100 million, just for fun.

    I am impressed you avoid unnecessary expenses. We seem to always buy something we don’t need or unexpected expenses pile up every month. I guess with two kids, its harder to be bare bones budget all the time!

    1. Hi Vawt,

      Considering it’s my only real form of gambling I’m pretty happy with it. My play is all automated each week and the deductions come out monthly. I actually won another £25 at the end of December but the payment has only just came through so will be included on Jan’s income.

      I think with kids things do get alot tougher! I know I’m sometimes persuaded to spend more than I would have normally by my partner.. So Im guessing children would only add more voices to the mix.

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