End of March finances

March has been a tricky month, and one I have to say that I am glad to see the back of it this year.  It has been a surprise, somehow, that we managed to actually save over target, when we had the onslaught of bills to pay that had arisen!

Extra expenses this month:

• £60 glasses for the YFG
• £328.60 Heating oil
• £67.20 Boiler service
• £223.80 Skoda bill
• £57.62 Bike service for EFG
• £17.00 Dentist
• £20.00 Comic Relief donation
• £7.99 Hairdryer

Some of those are routine and are in the annual budget, but are extras which have an impact in the month in which they fall.  Others, like the bike service and hairdryer, weren't planned, or expected.  We managed.

The regular pots of spending held up pretty well:

• Chicken food, cat food, road fuel, activities, Lunch club and Stationery/ink all came in under budget.  It reflects that some of these are actually pitched too high (I never spend £10 in one month on cat food) and that some were low because of the FH's illness - he hasn't been out to the lunch club so that one is under budget.  
• Groceries was over budget at £320.45 (£300 is the budget) but that does include this weekend's "beginning of the month" shop, and is nowhere near as far over as it was last month - let's not mention how bad that was...
• Toiletries has been over budget again.  This one is perhaps not set high enough when I consider that there are three females in the house and the amount of STs and shower gel/shampoo etc that we get through.  I have also added a little to the loo roll mountain, as it had begin to deplete and I found a good deal!

We managed to save £800 this month, which I am pretty well amazed at, although it does include some money that I earned from coaching.  Since I put it straight into savings instead of spending it, it is definitely money saved.

And how will April fare, do I reckon?  

We have another bill for the Skoda, but only £131 this time for the front suspension spring repair, and I don't anticipate too many extra bills this month, so I am hoping to be on track for a target £750 in the bank by the end of the month.  I had a little windfall this morning in that the interest was paid overnight on one of my savings accounts!  Although it would contribute a significant sum towards this month's goal, and it has of course increased our net worth, I am not going to include it in the savings for the month because that feels like cheating because I didn't do anything to save/earn that money this month - it is from interest on past endeavours.  Nice to have, all the same.

The ISA allowance was used all up for this year, so I am currently saving into an account from which I can sweep the money over into the ISA on the 6th April.  I am going to look at using some of my Stocks&Shares ISA allowance this year to maximise the opportunity.  I have never done this before, and it might not even be called that any longer, so it will all be new to me.

(image from bbc.co.uk)

We are all looking forward to watching the new Easter Jonathan Creek mystery which starts in a minute or two, so I am going to make a cuppa and get my knitting sorted out - on to my fifth hat now.  Good night xx