Doozy of a month. I spent way too much, but I got paid way too much, so all is well in the end.
|
June 2014 Budget |
|
| Category |
Spent |
Budgeted Amount |
| Rent |
$1,100.00 |
$1,000.00 |
| Groceries |
$375.32 |
$425.00 |
| Internet |
$99.00 |
$99.00 |
| Electricity |
$307.08 |
$250.00 |
| Eating Out |
$225.80 |
$150.00 |
| Charity |
$0.00 |
$25.00 |
| Cell phone |
$20.00 |
$26.00 |
| Medical |
$0.00 |
$65.00 |
| Misc |
$1,167.19 |
$400.00 |
| Savings |
$600.00 |
$600.00 |
| Total |
$3,894.39 |
$3,040.00 |
| Remainder |
$1,033.31 |
|
Interest earned: $114.12
Rent was higher because I was paying double rent in both my new place and my old place ($115 pw for two weeks, 4 days at $30 per day ($120), and 3 weeks at $250 pw). I have since found a garage renter, dropping my rent from $250 pw to $190 pw (effectively). So July should be a lot easier.
Groceries: $375, under budget due to me not wanting to move a lot of cold stuff from one fridge to the next, and my new fridge is a lot smaller, so I'll be buying tinier quantities of stuff many times over. I suspect that my grocery bill will now be a lot higher because of that.
Internet is now all my responsibility. $99 per month, should be $85 next month as I've reduced our plan from unlimited to 80 GB per month (we are averaging about 60 so we should be OK).
Electricity: $307.08. Ridiculous. I don't even know what to say about this.
Eating Out: $225. I treated a lot of people who helped me move.
Cell phone: $20. Right on track.
Misc: $1167.19. Holy Moses! This is made up of a ton of things: $100 for a strength training course, $200 for a gym membership, and most of the rest of it was buying stuff for the new house.
| MISC |
|
| alcohol |
$ - |
| entertainment |
$ - |
| exercise |
$ 324.00 |
| fees |
$ 2.00 |
| gifts |
$ - |
| goods and wants |
$ 657.79 |
| transportation |
$ 183.40 |
| travel |
$ - |
| total |
$ 1,167.19 |
Speaking of stuff for the new house, the reason I have spent so much is because NZ is awful. I hate NZ in situations like this. The
simplest items are not for sale here, or are so astronomically priced that you have to either ignore those alarm bells going off in your head when you buy it, or make do without it. A
plastic bin with drawers that I can find in Walmart for less than $18? Upwards of $80 here. A
vast selection of many colors and styles of soap dispensers and toothbrush holders for your bathroom decor? An
over the door hook? A
small corner shelf unit for my spices? Impossible to find. They simply do not
exist here. WTF, NZ...W. T. F. I am really really frustrated because I wanted to make my new semi-permanent home really cute and comfortable and
mine. But there is no way to do that due to the lack of options here. It really, really makes me miss home. Here, I have visited every conceivable store that I thought may carry items I want: Briscoe's, Spotlight, KMart, Warehouse, Bed Bath and Beyond, and many more. Nobody has what I want. Yet I KNOW that if I lived in the US I could find everything I wanted in Target and WalMart for much less than I spent here just on removable wall hooks. I have really been trying to cut back on my Kiwi-complaining, but situations like this frustrate me to no end.
I know it isn't about the color of my toothbrush holder. I know there are way more important things in life. Yet I am a homebody and love for my digs to be pleasant to my eye, a respite from the big bad world, a place that I walk into and sigh with relief as I drop my bags and weight of my day from my shoulders. A coordinating toothbrush holder does that for me--and I'm sorry, NZ, but you just don't cut it.
I toil away every evening to make my house more of my home. I've cleared and organised the two storage units, sort of sorted out where to put most of my things, and am making a make-shift desk from old shelves I had and some scrap wood I found on the side of the road (never say that I am not trying to be a make-do Kiwi). I am trying so freaking hard to like my new place and to turn it into a place that I can love. Every day, though, I catch myself wondering when I can 'go back home,' like I am on a work trip and just counting down the days when I can go back to my old apartment. I hate that I had to move. I hate that everything changed. But I will cope with it. I have to! I just hope this attitude helps change my mindset soon so I don't keep longing to return to my old digs...
