July 2015 Income/Expenses
It was payday yesterday 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. I’ve created a new page to keep track of total networth, you can find it here.
July was a big month for me. It was the site’s first year anniversary! I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since I was inspired by other bloggers to reach out and start my own site. A huge thank you to everyone who has continued to provide support and guidance over the past year.
July also saw the launch of the new EarlyRetirementGuys forum. Already had some great contributions and discussions on the forums. If you haven’t yet registered and joined in; please do so. If you run your own personal finance site please help spread the word with a mention, article or link to the forums.
Google Analytics tells me we’ve had 8,200 pageviews from 2000 users. I’m still looking to build up my UK finance blog list and might be working on a project related to this in the future so if you run a UK personal finance blog please do get in touch so I can take a look!
On to the report:
Income
Salary: £2050.18
Pension Contributions: £506
Affiliates: £63.16
Lottery win: £3.60
Total: £2622.34 (-3.5%)
Expenses
Mortgage/Bills: £725.01
Groceries: £313.95
Petrol (Gas): £0
Maintainance/DIY: £11.63
Eating out: £44.77
Healthcare: £0
Entertainment: £98.05
Other: £207.57
Total: £1400.98 (-14%)
Big increase in grocery spending as we completed our quarterly trip to Costco. Also high spending in the ‘other’ category which was gifts for partner’s birthday, RAC membership and flights to visit the parents in France later in the year.
Overall a decent reduction in spending from last month, even with the flight costs. A savings difference of £1221.36 which is 46.6%
Networth
House Equity: £31,681.71
Cash in bank: £3,234.36
ISA Investments: £5,503.48
Pension 1: £16,876.42
Pension 2: £3,021.44
Total Networth: £60,317.41 (+1.1%)
ISA investments have started to pick up again following last month’s dip. I’ve had to estimate on the pension values as it seems both reporting sites for these are experiencing technical problems.. excellent timing!
22 thoughts on “July 2015 Income/Expenses”
Congrats and reaching the 1 year milestone!!!
Great work, keep it up. The net worth progression looks good as well.
Thanks Wade! Any chance of your site making a return?
Hi Guy,
Congratulations on the 1 year anniversary. Time flies by doesn’t it!
I’m still yet to visit the forum, I must make the effort to check it out as it’s a great idea.
It looks like your Blog is tracking some great numbers for doing it for a year. I’m also impressed with the affiliate payment this month. Do you mind me asking is that for the Gatorhost ad? Does that represent a ‘normal’ month for you? I’m planning on shifting to wordpress in the next couple of month and I’d like to recommend the services I use too.
It looks like everything is moving in the right direction Guy. Keep up the good work, and I hope to eventually meet you in person in the UK Gathering Down South in Sep/Oct.
All the best!
Huw
Thank you Huw!
The affiliate payment was from Google Adsense, all my banner ads are served by them. Their payment limit is £60 so this is the first payment I’ve had from them and is basically a year’s worth of banner ads… perhaps not quite the high income you were imagining. Still; if I can get £60 a year from the banners it at least pays for the domain name and hosting.
Congrats on hitting the one year mark. Here’s to many more and a solid savings rate over the next twelve months too.
Thanks GF! Looks like you’re well on your way too!
Happy anniversary, Guy! It is amazing how fast time flies!
Great to see you’re managing to keep your expenses low as well. My July was a bit of a heavy expenses month for various reasons. But the general trend is down at least!
I have popped over to the forum but not had time to join or contribute yet. Will do once I get some time to sit down and read through it all. Will try and publicise it with a post as well when I have got the publishing backlog sorted!
Keep up the great work! Here’s to the next year!
Thanks DD, time certainly has flown fast!
Take some time to look through the forums, theres some great stuff on there already and anything you could do to spread the word would be awesome, thanks.
Happy Bloggerversary – congratulations on your first year!
Also well done on getting your first Google Ads payout! I’ve yet to make my first £60, although it’s only been 7-8 months for me since I started with the ads. Like Huw, I’m looking to switch to wordpress at some point (and paid for hosting) so it would be good to have my blog generate a bit to got towards those costs.
Thanks again for setting up the forum – it’ll take a little while for the community to build up but I will continue to read and comment.
Anyway, keep up the great work and here’s to many more years!
Thank you Weenie, and thanks for the forum publicity I know you’ve already generated.
Congrats on hitting your first year blog milestone! I’ll be celebrating my 4-year one very shortly.
Woah, 4 years! That’s pretty awesome to have been regularly updating for that long. I’ll be sure to take a look.
Congrats on the 1 year anniversary. Establishing a forum is pretty impressive. I’ll have to create an account on the forum later.
Thanks Tawcan, looking forward to seeing you on the forums.
Well done Guy, and congrats on the blogoversary!
At first, I thought: ‘WHOA! What a HUGE grocery bill!’, but then I saw that it included a quarterly trip to costco. Just wondering what is your regular spend? And what does the costco stuff include, how long does it last, etc.? We’v ejust started meal planning through Thrify Lesley’s website, and the expenses are super cheap (less than £20/week for two adults which includes ALL meals and snacks too).
Keep up the good work,
Cheers
The Costco trip covers most non-food stuff like loo roll, dishwasher tablets, washing powders etc which last for 6 months to a year. We also splash out on bulk purchases of soft drinks as my partner is mildly addicted.. however its alot cheaper than if she were drinking alcohol so not so bad in comparison.
“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.” Absolutely agree! As I always say, it isn’t enough to develop a plan and then ignore it. Financial/retirement planning is a dynamic, not a static, activity that requires active management. Keep plugging away on building that net worth!
Thanks James!
Almost hit the 50% mark! Awesome work!
ADD
Almost! Would have been there if it wasnt for the flights and partner’s birthday. Still; happy that these are one-off expenses and the overall monthly re-ocurring ones are kept low.
Congrats on your first anniversary! Keep working that net worth!
I love seeing the break down like this, it’s so fascinating. I would hate to see my own breakdown, I am still a little naughty with spending/saving.