A bit of a trim

Well that was rather terrifying.

I did my budget and discovered my present outgoings are over four figures per week averaged out.

I didn't even realise I earned that much, let alone spent it. And the even scarier thing is, I am not living extravagantly. I went over every item and most of it is necessary. Things like rent, mortgage, insurance, groceries, phone, petrol etc. 

Part of why it is so high is because I am paying rent and a mortgage simultaneously. Fortunately I have a tenant and their rent pretty much covers the mortgage portion. But even with that taken out of the equation I'm still paying out close to a grand each week. Some of those are business costs and therefore deductible, but still it is a scary number. 

I'm now in the process of trimming off a bit here and a bit there, to get the budget down.

 

I've just started an envelope system for home expenses: One for groceries, one for petrol, one for clothing etc. Each envelope gets its allotted amount of cash deposited at the beginning of the week and I use it as I need it. If I don't use it one week it rolls onto the next week and the cash adds up. This system is still in its embryonic stages but I see it will be very effective if I stick to it.

For example I've decided the grocery/takeaways/cafe budget is $100 per week, which is fine for two people. We are herbivorous eaters these days so it helps that we aren't scoffing down expensive bits of dead animals. I enjoy the grocery challenge, although I would probably look a bit weird if I took my envelope to the supermarket.

The petrol budget is $30 per week. At the moment I'm not using that much, so anything left over can accumulate for the next time the car needs a warrant or repairs. Etc. Etc.

I'm also going to start looking at other things like restructuring my mortgage and insurance policies. One thing at a time. It is all a bit overwhelming at once but trimming off a bit here and a bit there should add up to significant savings over time. 

Speaking of trimming, I gave myself a little trim yesterday.

I usually cut my own hair. This didn't actually start as a frugality measure. I just got sick of going to the hairdresser and not getting my hair cut right, or if they did get it right, I had to keep going back regularly and I could never be bothered so most of the time it looked grown out and scruffy. One evening after a wine or two I decided to have a go myself. I hopped on YouTube for a few pointers and off I went. The results were ok. I wouldn't win hairdresser of the year but no-one pointed and laughed either. (At least not to my face.)

Here are the results of yesterdays trimming session. I cut off about two inches of hair. Sorry for the crap picture quality but as I discovered, it is surprisingly hard to take pictures of myself without wobbling the camera and it was far too hot and I was far too lazy to bother with mounting the camera on something stable and doing the whole delayed picture palaver.

If I'm in the mood I can also brush it forward and become a female version of Mr Spock. Always handy.