January Finance Check: Holiday And Christmas Make An Expensive Month
I’m a little bit late to do my January finance check because I ended up getting Covid on Boxing Day. It hit me pretty hard and then turned into a sinus infection, so I have been pretty out of action for two weeks. But, catching up with everything this week!
How did the December budget do
December was a though month when it comes to working and being able to earn money.
The week before leaving for Christchurch my youngest got conjunctivitis, which prevented me from working most of the week, or my last day before going away.
Since my contract is casual I also didn’t get paid while I was away.
Then, after coming back there was an RSV outbreak in our small town so our daycare was extra vigilant in denying entry to kids with any RSV symptoms.
Of course my youngest was teething at the time so had a runny nose which meant she couldn’t attend, and I couldn’t work. By mid week my oldest caught something at the daycare and they both were sick by the end of the week.
I wasn’t even rostered to work during the holidays, so in December I managed to work 2 shifts all up.
Because I get paid bi-weekly this effect will be split between December and January.
Spending wise I stayed within budget for our Christchurch trip, you can read the cost breakdown here.
When writing the budget I had kind of doubled up some expenses, not considering that one week’s groceries would come out of the Christchurch budget for example.
But that benefit was swallowed up by Christmas spending!
Some budget categories that came significantly under were power ($107 vs budgeted $160), car expenses ($30 vs budgeted $330), takeaways ($0 vs budgeted $50) and cafe spending (($21 vs budgeted $85).
Our power bill was low because our meter reader comes every second month, so every other month is an estimation. For some reason despite the so far collected data, they keep estimating our usage quite high, so our power bill is currently fluctuation quite a bit since we’re overpaying every second month.
Car expenses were so low because I didn’t use my car much, my partner covered some petrol and I didn’t manage to get my car in for a warrant or to renew my rego yet.
Groceries came under budget too ($361 vs $400), but mainly because one week’s groceries came out of Christchurch travel budget.
Where I went overboard was my phone (spent $50 instead of my usual $10! It was data top ups while away), subscriptions ($308 vs $140, I ended up getting Canva pro and paying the yearly subscription) and Christmas shopping ($382 vs $250).
I also did some extra shopping and had other expenses like osteopath ($95), printing and buying other things like a lot of books! Shopping and other spending came to $552.
A lot of the shopping money came from receiving gift money from my family back home in Finland.
All up I spent $4968.93 in December, yikes.
Finance check: Savings progress
In December I still managed to save some money though! $335 all up, which I’m happy about.
Here’s how my savings goals are doing, if you are interested to know what kind of accounts these sit at, you can read about it here.
Emergency fund
Emergency fund didn’t move anywhere this month, still sitting at $20.
I’m only putting here what is absolutely surplus, which hasn’t been much lately.
Trip to Christchurch
This money has been used up now since our trip was in December. I haven’t closed this savings account as I’m sure I’ll be using it for something eventually.
Sleep out
Sadly, again our sleep out account balance has dropped.
As our TV broke this month (the screen just wouldn’t turn on one morning) we had to take some money out of the account to get a new one. Luckily my partner found a great deal on FB Marketplace, so we only had to withdraw $250.
We also needed some money for Christmas expenses so took another $150 out as well.
The balance is currently $5716.
Trip to Finland
This has become a huge priority to me now that the Christchurch trip has been done and dusted.
I’ve increased my weekly contribution to $50/week, which leaves me still 1000s of dollars short, so I will be hustling and budgeting hard to make sure I can save enough money.
Currently most of the time I’ve had any spare money it has gone into this account.
The balance is currently at $3560
Other
On top of these accounts I also have another savings account where I put $10/week.
It is saving for bigger splurge items that I might desire to buy, I’m currently eyeing out for a Nintendo Switch Lite and the Pokemon games released on that console.
Finance check: Investing
As mentioned in my previous finance check posts, my investment goal for this year was to invest $5000, which technically would double my portfolio to $10,000 (excluding KiwiSaver by the way).
$5000 felt like a bit of reach when I first set the goal so I’m absolutely stoked to have been able to reach it!
In 2022 I managed to invest $5135.
December was an exciting month for dividends as well, because I found out how much I had received for the year (I track them of course haha).
December is also a big dividend month for me in general.
In 2022 I received $140.58 in dividends, $57.56 of that was just in December!
While it’s not a lot yet (and all has been reinvested (meaning that I just invested the money)), it is a big increase from my first year of investing in 2021, when I only received $42.75 in dividends.
I’m still using my Finance & Investment Planner and in 2023 will tweak my investment strategy with its help.
How, I’m not sure yet, but I will definitely share when I do know!
Looking forward
In January I need to rethink my budget as I have decided to reduce my work hours.
I need to figure out how to save enough money for the trip to Finland, without depriving myself of everything else in the mean time.
I’ll also be deciding on a target amount to invest, and reconsider my investment approach.
For all sorts of reasons, (mainly being really sick) I haven’t even written down a budget for January, let alone finalised any goals for 2023, financial or otherwise!
What I do know though is that I will be watching my spending a lot closer and trying to avoid really impulsive buys!
How did your December go money wise? Have you made any money goals for 2023? I’d love to hear in the comments!
