End of the month finance

April seems to have flown past - and with all that rain we have had, we seem to have spent most of it indoors around the fire, so thank goodness for the woodburner and plenty of free wood.  A friend brought us some enormous and ancient fenceposts from a relative's house in Hunstanton, and the FH chopped them into large chunks, so we have been burning them slowly - one chunk easily lasts 90 minutes or so, so they are very economical to burn and give out a good heat.

Looking at the April line on the spreadsheets, some things are looking on track, and some areas definitely need to be cut back!

• I have found a cheaper supplier for bottled gas (£58 a bottle instead of £75 - result!) so I have been able to reduce that budget by a little.
• Spending on the garden has been halved as we have all the seeds and compost we need for the year, I hope, and still a little money in the pot.
• I had over budgeted for the landline - we seem to be underspending on that each month, so I have brought that down.
• Grocery spending continues to be slightly over budget, but instead of increasing the budget, I will be implementing other measures, so stay tuned.  Our average for the rest of the year needs to lie at about £230.
• The new diesel Skoda means that I have been able to reduce the fuel budget a little.
• The school activities budget has been supplemented by a further £100, especially since the YFG has been offered a trip to London to the theatre to see "The Woman in Black" and I have written the cheque for that today.  I usually let the girls go on school trips because they are good for expanding their horizons and I would personally not take them to the theatre in London myself!  This to me is money well spent.
• I have reduced the holiday budget by £100 as there seems to be plenty of leeway in that one.
• I haven't had time to look into the electricity supplier but I remain convinced that there are still savings to be made there.

These changes have allowed me to start up the Travel fund for the EFG officially on the spreadsheet.  Our income is relatively fixed although I am in the process of talking to someone about running some more after school gym clubs, which may come off and provide a little more income.  

Seeing how other people have posted their budgets online, I am not going to do that, as I have far more categories than most, and it would be a huge table, but it works for me.  As we enter the second third of the year, it seems to me to be a good time to take stock and see what is working, and what needs to be taken under stricter control.  A spot of stocktaking in the cupboards should also be on my agenda.

How is your budget looking?