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August roundup

July was a bit of an aberration, thanks to my birthday. August was plain out of control, what with T starting work and the extra expenditure on groceries for lunches, gas, and work expenses. And clothes – while he gets a uniform, he still has to supply his own pants, and he was in dire need of some other new things. I’m serious when I tell you that he has probably no more than four items of any kind of clothing at one time. And most of them – tees, singlets, shoes – are worn out, damaged or lost in a quarterly rotation, by which time we have to hit the shops again.


Anyway. I finally had a chance to sit down and take a look at our accounts. While in some respects we did better than I thought, in others….

HIGHLIGHTS

Clothes: I’ve touched on that. He still needs a fair few more things, but he’s got the essentials for now.

Debt: Paying me back for the Visa. I guess once that’s done and dusted, it’ll be time to aggresively tackle his very last debt.

Dining: Doing good on eating out! Just haven’t had the time or energy lately. T has his own spending money, but sometimes eats out on the joint account. I’m not sure whether to categorise that in ‘dining out’, or relegate it to the status of extra “fun” money (like I did this month). I mean, if I buy lunch on that card, I call it dining, but I don’t have separate blow money. It probably makes the most sense just to call it dining out from now.

Fees: this month were high, thanks to the six monthly Visa and True Rewards charge

Groceries: A five week month, yes, but jeepers! Still, I did say we might ease our limit a little. We definitely bought a lot of spices this month, a few non-food items, plus more food for work lunches, and things like cheeses etc.

Home: Bought an external hard drive, finally. Plus a planter box and some plants.

Mystery shopping: A meal and drinks out, plus shaving cream and a face mask from Lush. The latter smelled luscious but inflamed my skin after a second use. (I thought their products were pretty natural, but I’m still seeing glycol and stearic acid listed…hmmm?) Thankfully didn’t pay out of pocket for that.

Saving: With T back in work, I managed to save $1000 from my day job, plus another $461. (This number’s never right due to the way I manage my cashflow. And I don’t count his savings into this picture.)

Vehicle: UGH. We paid almost $150 for six months of registration, plus something like $300 on repairs and the rest on gas / my bus fares. Our poor car is still falling apart – the damp issue is still an issue, we may need a new battery, and the backlights on the dash aren’t working.

Extra income: I netted $629.30 this month, mostly thanks to my tax refund (the rest came from tutoring, mystery shopping and a cheque from Smilecity). Most of that I saved (or put towards our hard drive). I’m also still waiting on some outstanding invoices to be paid…and really wish they’d hurry up! My travel fund (and bills account thanks to recent car troubles) could use the boost.

3 thoughts on “August roundup

  • Reply Jessie September 14, 2010 at 07:05

    You may have touched on this before, but I’m curious. How come T has his own spend money and yours isn’t separate…and on the same note if he has his own account – why use the joint as well for his lunches?

    Jordan and I are just gearing into this joint/separate business…everyone does it so differently.

    • Reply eemusings September 14, 2010 at 11:31

      Lunches, and well, all the work expenses came out of the main account this month, due to the delay between starting the job and the first paycheck. (Also, we had to get an eftpos card set up for his account, etc, which took a little while.) Now we’re on a roll, lunches fall under his jurisdiction, and I might ease him into taking care of gas, too.

      I’m just not really a spender, so I don’t feel the need to have a set allowance. Anything I do buy comes out of the main account – which for so long really has just been MY account – and would rarely be more than maybe $20 a week. (Things like clothes I usually pay for out of extra income I make).

  • Reply Serena September 14, 2010 at 09:36

    It’s never easy to combine finances, is it? I’m very interested in how you’re making it work with your significant other, since my bf’s always hinting that he’d like for us to live together sometime. And it might fix my finding-inexpensive-housing situation … well, it’ll certainly come up on my blog when the time comes. But I think you two are doing well, being two people with somewhat different mindsets working together. Hope your errant extra paychecks come in soon, and the old car keeps going (that’s my hope, too)

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