I am a very late in putting up my monthly, others things did get in the away this time but that’s another story which you have been reading about lately here. I only just updated my Excel so here are the figures for last month.

As I work on 28 day cycles, my dates may be out to a calendar months so here are the figures for my last period.


It’s time to start again on reviewing my monthly daily living allowance.

These are the categories for this challenge.

Items === Approx. Budget===Spent
Eating out===$35.00=====$22.00
Groceries===$135.50 ==== $78.18
Non-Food===$17.00=====$7.72
Clothes ====$35.00=====$105.50
Grooming===$15.00=====$35.00
Gas======$ 25.00=======$8.00
Pets====== $50.00=== ==$63.19
HH items===$42.50=====$40.44
Fares== ====$9.00====$20.00
Entrainments= $12.00
Garden =====$10.00
Gifts & Donations =$35.00===$3.00
Medical =====$15.00======$37.15
Diabetes Expenses====$50
Misc ======$9.00
Personal Allowance =$85.00 ====$58.29

Note only one amount is a no spend
Budgeted for this period $580 spent $478.38 so under budget by $101.62

No Spending days over the 28 days = 7 days in total.

Personal allowance covers confectionery, lotto, books, stamps, craft & hobby supplies.

Eating out including meals out with family and friends, we all go Dutch.

As for medical this is the extra out of pockets amounts that came up this month just on medicine
As for my medical visits out of pocket expensive if they are related to Diabetes then I will class them as Diabetes Expenses will come under this new category.
Diabetes Expenses – nil

A most will be one off items or once per year expenses. But I need to track these items on my small budget and pension. Each time I pay for some things in this category I will need to cut something in other categories.

My credit cards are still paid in full each month.

Spending on books and papers $38.80 for the month including 4 papers.

I do keep my bill money separated from this summery. This year I will be budgeting around $650 per period month to cover all my bills. This month bills were around $ 378.80 so balance banked this month. This fund does cover all my fixed bills for the year if I can stick to this schedule as I have done for the past ten years or so. On my budget excel modelling chart I can pay the full amount this year.

As for food out, I dined out 4 times this month costing between $5 & $9 a time most were around the $9 mark as I can no longer eat at fast food outlets. That $9.00 meals at casino is still looking the healthiest and best deal in the city for now.

My grocery bill came in under budget for this month.

My clothes and grooming budget was well over this month I bought 4 new bras and only paid for 3 and had a watch battery replaced along a haircut.

Most of my social outing are dining out this is part of my social outings money and spending allowance.
If any changes to my spending habits will need to come out of my daily living allowance categories of my budget as my bill categories are very tight now.

Still need to work on a few categories as you can see but over all I had a good month.

Strategy: - Track your daily spending down to the cent by writing it down daily.