January 2021 Update - New year, same me

January is already over, how does this keep happening.

I read a theory that as you age, time seems to accelerate. When we encounter novel things, we form strong memories about them, but when we encounter common things, our recall is weaker. As we age and have more experiences under our belts, we form less strong memories - because our brains see 'oh, that again? not saving that'. 

Anyway, that's my excuse for time flying.

In a way, I'm in a significantly better position now than I was this time last year. I've achieved my goal of having a beautiful dog in my life. I work from home 100% of the time - with loose plans for the team to head back to the office 1-2 days a week. I've finally accepted that social skills can be worked on, just like every other skill, and I'm making strides to build stronger friendships.

But in another way - 2020 feels like an absolutely write off where nothing was done. Financially, I moved forward more than expected. But I didn't achieve my 2020 goals around my savings rate. Thanks to my employer being smashed by covid, we (all the company employees) had very small pay rises. Still, I'm going to take that payrise, and use it to tackle the same goals as last year.

Goals For 2021

The exact same as 2020. Can we all just agree to write off 2020?

Goal #1: 50% Savings

Yet again, the actual goal is for this 12 month period to sit comfortably above 50%. Ideally I'd like to bring the 3year rate up as well, but we'll see how that actually goes.

January Rate: 57%

2021 Average: 57%

Three-Year Average: 35% 

Goal #2 Reduce Average Spending by 10%

The goal is to reduce my average spend by 10% from January 2019 - bringing it down below $4,400 (a nice rounded number).

January Spend: $4,129.79
2021 Average Spend: $4,129.71

Goal Spend: $4,400 (or less)

Spending

Here's what I spent in January, which includes the save-to-spend amounts.  

Category	Spent	Budgeted	12 Month Average
Home	$1,050	$954.17	$991.24 (up $29.17)
Over Budget. It's a 3-rent kinda month (I pay fortnightly).
Investment Property 1	$1,100	$1,145.83	$1,226.15 (down $34.07)
Under Budget. The mortgage, council rates and $30 set aside for later.
Home turned IP2	$869.56	$833.33	$727.96 (down $361.43)
Over Budget. The mortgage, and building insurance. Average is down a lot because this time last year I replaced the airconditioning unit.
Personal Bills	$130.74	$130.83	$128.42 (up $0.29)
Under Budget. Trucking along
Groceries	$337.61	$200	$225.92 (up $14.96)
Over Budget.  Third month in a row of being up this high... maybe this is new normal? Maybe I need to make a bit more effort.
Pets	$396.36	$150	$273.74 (up $22.68)
Over Budget. More than double the planned amount again. According to my records I bought bulk puppy food in December and January? I think I may have recorded something twice.
Roller Derby	$96.67	$166.67	$169.56 (down $1.95)
Under Budget. I paid dues for January, and then all our trainings were cancelled. I'll get some kind of rebate once we work out what's actually going on with this covid-induced admin nightmare.
Travelling	$50	$105	$41.67 (up $4.17)
Under Budget. Just putting aside money for the future
Comfort Food	$11	$50	$30.04 (down $3.94)
Under Budget. Snaaaaacks. Most of my junk food get's bought in the bulk grocery spending. I may have to review the benefits of having this category.
Car	$36.86	$200	$696.30 (up $3.07)
Under Budget. Just one tank of petrol.
Donations	$0		$1.25 (down $5)
None. I need to start thinking again about this though.
Other	$50.99	$183.33	$174.67 (down $14.75)
Under Budget. One book, and a lot of saving.
Total	$4,129.79	$4,119.17	$4,686.90 (down $355.81)
Total ex. Donations	$4,129.79		$4,685.65 (down $350.81)
Under Budget. January just snuck quietly by. I spent a lot of time prepping for derby camp, and waiting for puppy training classes to start. February is where all the fun starts!