Like a lot of other people, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet nowadays. With the ever-increasing prices of life’s essentials—food, electricity, and rent or mortgage payments—our dollar does not go as far as it used to. So, I’ve decided that this year (and possibly the years to come) will be a very low-spend year. It’s more important than ever that I rein in my expenses, as at the end of this month, for the first time ever, I will be living alone and will have to cover the cost of everything myself.
The year did not start out very well, with an unexpected visit to the dentist for a sore tooth. I was going to wait until my next scheduled checkup at the beginning of April, but because the pain didn’t dissipate, I thought it would be wise to have it checked—and I’m so glad I did. It turned out that I had the beginnings of an infection at the root of the tooth. Thankfully, I have private health insurance, and I ended up paying only $160.40 AUD. In total, my health costs this month were my second-biggest expense, costing me $413.60.
My largest expense for the month—and the one that shocked me—was my grocery bill. I spent $548.38. For one person! Absolutely shocking.
Going forward I am going to have to be far more careful about my spending and with that in mind I have set myself a budget. My largest expense every month will be my rent. I am very lucky that my rent is quite low compared to the average rents in South Australia, but it accounts for more than one-third of the money I receive. I should mention here that I will be living on a pension with no other source of income, and my only debt is for my hearing aids which set me back $57.88 every fortnight and I will continue to pay this for another twelve months.
My budget is divided into three categories. The first is household expenses, which cover things like rent, electricity, and water usage. The second category is personal bills, which include donations, TV subscription fees, internet, and a yearly mobile phone charge. The third category is my snowball accounts, which cover things like personal care, birthday and Christmas gifts, clothing and shoes, health care, an emergency fund. In addition, 10% of my income is allocated to long-term savings. I also have snowball accounts for books and DVDs, and gardening. These accounts only receive a small amount, which is automatically set aside every fortnight when I get paid. I will also have a small amount of personal spending money.
I haven’t forgotten about groceries. My monthly grocery budget will be $440.00. It’s tight, but I think it’s doable.
Lately, I’ve been watching Frugal Queen in France on YouTube, and I’ve decided to follow her approach. Of my $440.00 grocery budget:
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$260.00 will be for full-price groceries
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$88.00 will be set aside each month to check weekly for discounted items I regularly use, which will form my stockpile
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The remaining amount will be used to buy fresh fruit, vegetables, and bread as needed during the month. Any money that is left over at the end of the month, (one can hope), will either be rolled over into the next month's grocery budget or be added to the emergency fund.
