December turned out to be my biggest spending month of the year..... by some margin. I didn't realise it during the month, but my monthly average has just risen over the £10,000 a year average of £833. I'm disappointed by my lack of awareness. My initial thought was to push on in January and February to make up the full 12 months and get it below the £10k mark. However, my plan for 2015 is to invest more in my development, and in income producing assets so this total might be difficult to achieve now. I must take comfort in the fact that if I wanted to achieve it, I could. The daft truth is that if I didn't buy that bloody He-man fancy dress and my fancy dress for the Masquerade ball this month, I would have made it! It's a shame, but it's not the end of the world. :-)
My Mortgage/House Bills went up £15 to accommodate a couple of increased costs. We also made the decision to increase our contributions to the Food Account up to £60 per month. We're asses how we get on with those adjustments over the next few months.
Mobile and petrol were standard, it was my sisters Birthday this month, and my groceries were in line with last couple of months. My fast food was a little higher than normal.
My alcohol spend shot up this month. I had a wedding, a Christmas party, and a New Year's party. On top of that I bought some alcohol for myself during the festive period.
Fancy dress reared it's head again! My office's Christmas party was a Masquerade Ball. I bought a mask and cape. I once again went a little overboard on the outfit but I had a 'cracking' night (literally). So good in fact, I split my suit trousers dancing during the second song of the night. The cape REALLY came in handy! I kept my dignity, but I need a new pair of suit trousers. I could just wear the cape for all formal events.....
I added £20 to my clothing spend this month. Nothing fancy, just a pack of boxer shorts.
The Home Insurance bill, Christmas presents and Secret Santa gift for the office are all regular fixtures to December spends. The three items totaled over £250. (I was hugely reliant on my Bills account for this month!)
The last line covers my new venture for 2015 - Creating & Selling Kindle e-books. I enrolled in an online course on how to publish e-books for Kindle. I outsourced the writing and cover design, and I now have a book ready to sell. Unfortunately, I need to complete a W-8BEN form before I'm able to launch it. (This will enable me to earn royalties from an american company - Amazon). In order to complete the form I need to have a Unique Taypayer Reference (UTR), which I don't have. I've now registered for a self assessment form via the HMRC, and I should receive the UTR in mid-January.
The book creation cost me £36.53 so far for the one book I created in December. Although there is an expense to it, this cost is an investment in my eyes as I'm planning on receiving income from it, potentially forever..... I will report back on its returns once it's up and running.
I'm not planing on writing in any more detail about Kindle publishing just yet, as I don't have a lot to share on the money making side of it. I've almost completed the creative process but I'm yet to market it. I'm very excited about this opportunity and I'm planning on creating at least 50 books this year to see if this is a viable option to increasing my income or not.
Once I've launched the book and marketed it, I will share the process I took, the income I receive, and general thoughts on it as an income generator.
Expense Goal
I have a goal for 2014 which is to keep my expenses below £950 per month, averaged out over the year. Here are my total expenses to date:
My average spend at the end of November was £813.16. After my biggest spending month of the year, I've increased my average to £837.05 (£23.80 increase). As I mentioned earlier, I'm a little disappointed about not keeping it below £833 per month (£10,000 a year), but I know that I could have achieved it if I had wanted to bad enough. Fancy dress, Kindle publishing, and alcohol could have all been put on hold or reduced if I chose to go for that total. My goal for 2014 was to keep expenses below £950, which I've managed comfortably. I am pleased with that result.
I'm not planning on having an Expenses Goal for 2015. I've proven to myself that I can keep a budget below £10,000 with my current lifestyle. I want to focus on increasing my income instead and I don't want to be influenced by reducing my spending on personal development or giving money to charity to keep my expenses below a certain amount. The act of having a target and publishing it made a huge impact on my total spend. I'll continue to live frugally, but I want my focus to be on generating significantly more income to invest with.
Can I achieve the same success with income generation that I have experienced with low expenses?
| Expenses - 2014 |
| January | - |
| February | - |
| March | £856.36 |
| April | £922.86 |
| May | £966.20 |
| June | £585.54 |
| July | £833.15 |
| August | £859.99 |
| September | £766.17 |
| October | £815.20 |
| November | £712.99 |
| December | £1,052.01 |
| 2014 Total | £8,370.47 |
| 2014 Average | £837.05 |
Savings Rate
I have a goal to save/invest at least 50% of my income every month for the remainder of 2014.
I saved and invested 65.3% (£1,363.59) of my income this month. My average for the year decreased to 69.6%. The percentage has steadily dropped over the last five months, and I was trying to cling onto the 70%. If you round the number up I hit the 70% mark, but if I'm being honest I was a little gutted to fall below the '70'.
Thank you all again for supporting me and for taking the time to read about my month.
How was December for you? Was it the most expensive month for you? Did you meet your goals for the year?
