Adult Goals: August 2018

August was a great month, wanna know why? I got a new job! With a big fat payrise, a way cooler boss and much more interesting work.

Plus, the daylight hours ticked over to we see more than 10 hours sunlight each day. Super important, and super great.

Adulting

August was dubbed the month of Actually Cleaning My Kitchen, I think maybe it was clean once or twice. Right now there aren't enough clean dishes for breakfast. I've got guests coming over tomorrow so I actually need to get all the dishes done tonight. So excited *cough*

Normally this is where I'd put in a good excuse why I didn't get it done. I don't have one. I got grumpy for the first half of the month, and I played Pokemon Go for the second half...

August Adulting: Abysmal failure...

For September I'm going to work on my floordrobe. I've always had a floordrobe, and it's not so much that I think that's a bad thing, but 99% of my clothes are black. And trying to find the right black jacket in the mound of black shirts and pants is really difficult.

Plus, I'd actually like to be able to put my washing away. This isn't just a 'stop being lazy' goal, but also I need to invest in a set of drawers and come up with a system to actually be able to put all my clothes away. I could have a wardrobe clean out, but I wear everything till it falls apart. Even the things I don't wear often are pulled out semi-regularly for dress ups. I've owned the same Hawaiian shirt for almost 20 years (no, that's not an exaggeration) and it still comes out once or twice a year.

Savings

So how did the second month of saving and rebuilding my cash reserves go? Better than July, still not great though...

So the good news is we're trending upwards (unlike July). The bad news is we're not going up anywhere near fast enough. I didn't realise how aggressively I am investing - I saved over $4,000 in August, but I barely made a blip on this chart because that money goes straight into investments, it's not being held as cash. Obviously this is a good thing, and I'm not going to cut back on my investing to grow my cash reserves faster, but it is making this goal look a bit tenuous.

My spending in August wasn't ideal either. All my pets wanted feeding, and while I buy ahead in bulk, I managed to spend $60 on food this month. Plus I bought four more quail.. because apparently I don't get enough eggs (I get way too many eggs). On top of this I booked more flights for derby, one of which I paid full price for because I've used up my frequent flyer rewards, and I spent money on video games. Plus I had a lot of bills this month (not the ones I prepaid back in June) so it wasn't the cheapest month on record. Thankfully not the most expensive one either.

Lastly, I still put some money aside for future spending. I'm putting $100 a month into my trip to Canada, which will be roughly this time next year. I know it isn't enough but it's a commitment and a start. I'm still saving for a blueberry hedge that I hope to put up in September, a new helmet and (super exciting) a new toilet.

Expenses

For the sake of curiosity, here's what I spent in August, which includes the save-to-spend amounts.

Category	Spent	Budgeted	12 Month Average
Home	$1,286.83	$1,312.50	$1,372.37 (down $1.32)
Most of this 'spend' is actually putting money aside for new things. Cash towards a toilet, a quail pen and a blueberry hedge.
Investment Property	$1,204.31	$1,166.67	$1,290.60 (up $41.76)
Paid the water bill and the mortgage.
Personal Bills	$151.60	$126.67	$148.86 (up $0.39)
My phone contract finally ended, so my bill drops from $59.99 to $35 starting in September. I've dropped the budget to match the new spend. Hopefully this phone holds together for a while, because $25 a month back in my pocket is lovely.
Groceries	$204.95	$200.00	$200.07 (up $0.62)
You would think with all the eggs I've been eating I'd have spent less. But I got a bit excited making fancy new things. I'm going to watch this like a hawk in September. With about 15 rounds of leftovers in my fridge, surely I can bring this back down.
Pets	$82.55	$35.00	$47.11 (up $5.39)
Yeah, so umm... everyone likes to eat! I restocked the chicken and cat food for $60.55 and then went and spent $22 on new quail. Unfortunately the first batch was 3 boys and a girl - gotta fix that gender ratio. I didn't manage to sell any eggs this month, but I did get a refund on a dodgy waterer I bought off eBay. Oh, and FYI, quail is delicious. In September I'm hoping to sell the temporary quail cage to recoup some costs, and going to push a bit more marketing for egg sales.
Roller Derby	$381.87	$185.00	$226.80 (up $14.95)
Oh, so this is what it feels like to pay full price for flights... I ran out of rewards points, and need to use actual cash. I don't like this feeling.
Travelling	$100	$108.33	$12.50 (up $8.33)
Next year I'm going to Canada! I figured I better start putting money aside.
Other	$189.50	$157.25	$264.02 (up $9.62)
So, at the end of July I said I was going to cut back on the nightly wines, and I'm happy to say that I did. The big spends for this months 'other' category was a going away lunch from my old job, a trip to Bunnings, and a trip to the Op Shop. There was also a little spend where I picked up 3 games for $20 - which I have already sunk 50+ hours into, money well spent!
Total	$3,741.61	$3,300.83	$3,562.33 (up $79.75)
The spending crept up this month and I'm not pleased. The major costs were bills, but there was still a couple of luxury shops in there, including the quail (that I swear I will write about soon). I don't think there will be any bills in September (although with some on quarterly cycles, and some on 4-monthly I lose track) so hopefully it will be a nice low spend.