Income / Expenses & James Bond Moments - January 2015

For starters, my dividends for January were almost twice the amount of my monthly average for 2014. Good start!

I received a larger than normal payment from Ebay. I sold my 'Frank N Furter' outfit from the Rocky Horror Show. I'm sad to see it go, but for most of the people seeing me in it, it's a great relief. 

I have three new categories for Income this month. The first, Poker Winnings, is fairly self explanatory. I mentioned in my recent Goal Update that I hosted a poker night for our January 'Guy's Only Night'. We hit the poker table with our 'Archer's and Lemonade' straight after we'd done our nails and straightened our hair. I lost the first game but won the second, which put me up in total over the cost of both games. We had a lot of fun and we plan on playing poker again in the future. 

Mid way through this month I had one of those great moments as a Blogger. If I had a cat, I would have held it in my arms, span around in my new office chair and said "Hello Google Adsense, I've been expecting you". I love writing on this Blog. It's a lot of fun, I've met some amazing people and it's helped my finances and investing no end. I don't Blog to make money, as the effort involved and the return I'm currently getting is not worth the time (to make money that it). However, if I'm able to make a bit of money on the side, while enjoying the process I'm onto a winner! I had my first payout for the Blog at £61.24. £60 is the minimum threshold you need to reach to get a payout. I started this Blog back in March 2014. Like I said, it's not a money making venture! For those interested, I've averaged between £25-£30 a month since November 2014 to now, so this amount is steadily becoming a nice earner for me! Prior to that I was languishing on £2-£4 for several months. There isn't much I can do to bump it up apart from continuing doing what I'm doing and hope my audience increases over time. I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to you all! That money will easily cover the cost of creating a Kindle Book, my groceries for a month or a ridiculous fancy dress costume (yet to be confirmed). 

My final 'new' income stream was the interest I earned from my First Direct Regular Saver. I was paid 6% per tax (5% after tax) on £300 monthly contributions. I thought it was a solid investment last January, although my DGI might get a higher return, I liked the idea of having a fixed guaranteed return and a lump sum so I went for it. I won't do it again as I think I can earn more than 5% by investing in shares. I would still recommend it to others who are looking for a more conservative investment option. 

To summarise, my January was very good for a 'January'. When I look back at what I earned each month in 2014, and if I discount what I received for selling my car (as a large one off), it was £2,033 per month. So, January is bang on average. To hit my £50,000 Goal this year I need to increase it to £4,166 per month. Literally more than double. Now that I fell short this month I have even more to earn........ Great!

I'm pleased to say my charitable donations were much higher than normal, and they nearly hit the total I contributed for the period I tracked my expenses last year between March and December. If I knew how to put in an embarrassed Emoji in these posts, I would put one right here!

There were more 'gifts for work' than any other month last year. There were a 'few birthdays and a wedding' (not quite a film title - shame). 

I 'borrowed' a bottle of ketchup from my neighbour. We ended up finishing off the bottle. There wasn't a lot there, and he said to keep it (which I refused initially). I know I didn't have to but I bought them another bottle to say thanks more than anything. For those of you that are wondering, I didn't do the downgrade supermarket challenge on this item, I just bought exactly the same bottle as he had passed onto us. I won't force my frugality on anyone. 

I eluded to me final spend in my James Bond villain moment, but for those of you that didn't catch on I bought a new spinny, faux leather, office chair. Prior to setting up our office, I've been writing on this laptop in the front room. In the evening's it can be quite distracting as Miss FFBF is watching TV at the same time. Now I can close myself off in my own space and get busy. With work, to clarify. 
The chair was bought from Ebay. It was a self assembly jobby, and it was delivered to my home address. It's very comfortable, and I like the look of it. I searched every charity shop in our local town for an office chair before committing to buying a new one. There were plenty of options, but nothing that catered for my back/posture, and comfort needs. I would eventually like to buy a bigger desk for the office and perhaps a whiteboard. Then I'll know I've made it! 
The chair purchase signified more than just having a chair. It was an important step towards being productive in my own space. I've noticed the difference for having it already. I'm sure this will compound significantly over time too. 

I don't have an expense goal for 2015, but I receive a lot of questions about my expenses, perhaps more than most other things I write about. I thought  would keep tracking them as people are interested, as am I. Whilst I was tracking the average for that, I thought it would be worth doing the same thing for Income, as it's equally important and for my goal's this year, even more so!

	2015	Expenses	Income
	January	£728.45	£2,030.19
	February
	March
	April
	May
	June
	July
	August
	September
	October
	November
	December
	2015 Total	£728.45	£2,030.19
	2015 Average	£728.45	£2,030.19

Overall, a solid start to the year, still a lot more to achieve, but generally very happy. Have a great February all!

How was January for you? Did you have any James Bond moments? Or were you also left disappointed with lame film titles like me?