Last month I was crossing my fingers and toes that the borders would stay open, and here I am cancelling our booked holiday. Oh how things change, and although we are disappointed we are thankful we haven’t lost a cent as we booked fully flexible flights. The end of June marks the end of the first half of the year so I’m going to do a 6 month recap of our expenses at the end of this post to determine our average spend per month.
To view all previous expense review tagged posts click here.
Top 5 Expenses – June 2021
- Renovations = $3,396.81
Notes: This month we demolished our laundry, bathroom and toilet downstairs as part of our plan in turning our downstairs into a self contained Airbnb. The demolition costs were extremely low as we did it ourselves, and borrowed equipment from our neighbours. The major renovation costs in June were new furnishings, electrician (1st fix), and bathroom fittings. In July we expect to spend even more as we will be paying our contractors to finish the work (estimated at about 9k including supply and install of items). We expect costs in this category to reduce from August onwards.
- Health and Medical Items = $1,206.26
Notes: Our medical and health category normally averages around $500 – $700 a month so this month was a bit of an expensive month. My husband had two scans as part of his cancer surveillance ($400 after Medicare benefits), and I broke my prescription glasses ($150). My glasses costs are after Private Health Insurance rebates, and included two sets of frames (regular glasses and sunglasses).
- Food and Alcohol = $1079.95
Notes: I feel like this amount is the new normal for our family. My eldest son is 13 going on 14, and is eating us out of house and home. My youngest is 10, and he has finally found his appetite after years of fussy eating. It’s funny how quickly things change. We keep our costs as low as possible and as a result shop predominately at Aldi. That said our food costs are more expensive as we have to cater for my husband who is on a Gluten Free and Lactose Free diet. In June we spent $45.50 on my husbands special bread alone, and this is a cost we can’t reduce. We are so thankful for having an Aldi around the corner from us as this amount would be at least 50% more if we were shopping at Coles or Woolworths (no amount of rewards program points could make it financial viable to switch back).
- Mortgage = $994.40
Notes: June was a normal month for our mortgage, and this amount was just our regular minimum repayments. We have opted not to pay extra to our mortgage at this stage, and focus on investing and renovations (personal preference). Mortgage is variable, and payments depend on the number of weeks in each month. June had 4 payment weeks in us.
- Utilities = $719.54
Notes: We did slightly better with our utilities in June than May thanks to a lower than expected water bill. This category includes our Electricity, Gas, Water, Rates, Internet and Phones. We review these expenses yearly (or more often if we see a better deal). If you want to save money on your electricity feel free to read up on our tips here in our article – 5 simple ways to save money on your electricity bills.
Year to Date Comparison
We spent $9,513.94 in June which is an decrease of $2,690.21 on last month. We spent $317.13 per day in June which down from last month’s high of $393 per day, but well above where we would like to be.
Other Expenses (% of total expenses) – June 2021
Restaurants, Eating Out and Activities
Eating out accounted for 1.76% of our total expenses in June, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have fun.
- Hubby and I had a lunch date at my favourite pub.
- I enjoyed a fancy lunch for a co-workers birthday at the Art Gallery.
- Family dinner at Fasta Pasta after the power in the house went out.
- Treated our kids (and me) to ice cream after school.
- Purchased coffee for our fantastic tradies when the power was turned off.
- Multiple networking coffees at work.
The total for the month of June on this category was $167.15 compared with $243.26 in May.
New Expenses (June)
No new expense categories were added.
Changes we’ve made this month (June)
No significant changes to our regular expenses.
Changes to expect next month (July)
Next month we expect the following changes.
- My wage reconsideration request wasn’t approved in June, however on the 3rd July I’ve heard back from HR who have said it will be paid shortly. It will result in approximately $1000 in back pay (maybe slightly more).
- With our holiday cancelled we are still planning on taking the time off work, and will have a staycation. We expect the costs of this to be under 1k including hotel costs, and activity costs. Far less than our estimated 5k spend on our now cancelled interstate holiday.
6 Month Expense Overview ($)
Total Spend 2021 (To Date) = $48,134 or an average of $8022 a month for 2 Adults and 2 Children (Aged 13 and 10)
Investment Rate 2021 (To Date) = 41%
Our goal investment rate at the start of the year was 60%, however we created this goal before I took a 30k (after tax) pay cut in March. Given the massive pay cut and the renovations we are doing this year I’m happy with where we are at. More importantly we are still tracking to our current goal of hitting financial independence by January 2029.
Notes: I track my Income and Expenses via my tracker available on my Etsy Store Link Here .
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Frank on FIRE 