Getting to the end of the month

                                             

Sitting at the computer this afternoon, I have had one eye on the diving and then gymnastics, and the other eye on working out the spending for the month, and looking at the state of the budget.  Seven twelfths of the way through the year, the budget lines are not all accurately reflecting that, as some are underspent, especially if they are for an annual payment which hasn't yet been spent, like house insurance which isn't due until October, but some are still overspent, and aren't going to be able to recover, so they are areas in which I shall have to continue to watch the spending very carefully.

• Grocery spend for the month has hugely benefited from the challenge I have done this month, but  it will not undo the overspending in earlier months which helped to fill the storecupboards.  This month's spend stands at just over £150, which includes the Peterborough warehouse trip and a stocking up shop from Approved Food - we now have lots of loo roll, cous cous, soup etc and i am sure it will be the later part of the autumn before I need to do another order there.
• Clothing spends have been high this month - I have bought the YFG's new uniform for September as she needed new trousers, shirts and polo-shirts, and we took advantage of a trip to a town where there is an Asda, where there were some good offers on clothes in the George section.  I have also had to buy the EFG a few new items for her Sixth Form wardrobe - she has had a fairly limited "at home" selection of clothes, but now that she will be wearing her own clothes at school, we needed to extend her range somewhat.  And then the FH needed a couple of new shirts - he is a nightmare to dress, as he frequently stains "good" clothes when he just "pops" down to the workshop and ends up doing a spot of something messy with paint or stain...
• I have invested £30 in buying 15 folding crates from Tesco to finish off the storage issues in our bedroom - the FH built us a new wardrobe months ago, which has four shelves above a hanging section, but we needed these crates to put items in tidily on the shelves, so I finally found some cheap ones and I spent last Sunday afternoon sorting it all out.  It is nearly finished, and I am very pleased with the progress in there.  Shame that there is no room for bookshelves!
• The Gift budget has had a big dip this month, but within its limits - I have ordered new games consoles for the girls (Nintendo 3DS) for their combined birthday and Christmas gifts this year.  They each have a bundle of the console and one game.  It means that I don't have to worry about finding anything else for their birthdays, and for their Christmas gifts, they understand that they will just get some trinkets in their stockings, but they are happy with that.  We have made this sort of arrangement before.
• I am getting a refund from Utility Warehouse since I moved my electricity account away from them and it is just over £100, so even with the payment to the new provider, I am still going to be about £40 in profit this month.  The DD has come down from £114 to £62 to start with, although I do think that it might go up a little when they have had a few meter readings.

Hope your budgets are all under control!