October - November Expenditure Review

Welcome to my October - November expenditure review.

I review my expenditure monthly as part my tracking progress towards Early Retirement.

The main reasons I track my expenditures are

1. To keep my frivolous expenditures to a minimum, on such things as take-out food, coffee and beer.
2. To track my income to expenditure ratio each month - the higher a percentage of your income you can save, the earlier you can retire!
3. To make sure I'm getting value for money on my expenditures on - I can compare what I spend on insurance for example with the best rates available and change as necessary.
4. To keep an eye on 'relative returns' for each expenditure category - I don't mind spending money on something that brings me a decent return - for example my mortgage expenditure is high, but I get a rental income from my house.

October - November Expenditure Review

• Total expenditure = £1500 in the last month, excluding investments.

Expenditure break down:

I've tried to colour-code everything so it's in 'similar themes'

• Blue = main house in the UK (of course I get most of that back in income!)
• Red = house rental and related bills here in Portugal
• Yellow = car costs
• Pinky purple = one off costs for this month
• Green = all other regular monthly outgoings.

Mortgage and Insurance costs REALLY stand out!

Damn the costs of owning a property - and those costs are BEFORE any maintenance - although my insurance does include boiler breakdown, so I guess that's one of the possible larger expenses covered at least!

OK it does bring me in an income, gives me massive security, probably isn't going to go down in value, but man it costs me 40% of my income to maintain it - my other expenditures are just under £900!

While I do like my house in the UK, I've got to say it's tempting to sell it at the above figures!

I could extend the mortgage over a longer term at not too much additional cost if need be too.

Rent and Bills - £300 a month

I'm happy enough with this for now - around £300 a month all in for a beautiful cabin on a peaceful Quinta, with electricity and water, I'll take that, cheapest rent I've ever had, I mean EVER, even going back to sharing a house at prices 20 years ago!

The car and fuel - £100 a month

I've said before that the car is a massive drain on one's finances, and it is - they are expensive - those costs aren't even for the cost of purchase, they just cover insurance and basic maintenance - but where I Live, it's 4Ks to the nearest shop, and a 15K drive to the nearest main town, I need one!

Food etc.

No need to beat myself up here - my food costs are down from last month, I've got a nice routine now, and I drunk less beer last month. There's not a lot I can do about phone etc. costs

Miscellaneous one-offs

I bought some paint etc. to fix my scraped car, however I've since decided to claim on the insurance as I need to sell it, so I need a proper job. That's one for the next month to get sorted!

Bureac stuff is the cost of getting a couple of certificates for changing my driving licence to Portuguese - all these bits of paper cost here in Portugal you know!

Overall....

I'm reasonably happy with last months's expenditure - it's settled down after moving here to Portugal, which is what I wanted, and it's sustainable, and I'm earning more than I'm spending!

If you need help reducing your expenditure then you might like this post: a motivational tool for reducing your expenditure!

Nice!

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