Don't normally post twice in a day, but sometimes I've just got more to say. Don't worry, I won't make a habit of it!
Seems like an appropriate time to do this, given that it's the end of the month of May, near enough!
March – May have been remarkably good earning months, I’ve earned significantly more than my usual outgoings, but I still need to have a skint month next month because:
- I’ve paid for my Steemfest 4 flight and hotel early – paying early being an absolute no brainer for the both of them given the insanely good rates I got, but this did soak up £500 of my surplus earnings.
- I’ve decided I need a new Desktop P.C. – I like my Macbook Air but it’s just a bit too pokey for eight hours a day daily use. I figure I’ll be much more likely to actually sit properly at my desk and work if I have a stationed desktop and large monitor (which I’ve already got from my previous P.C.) – I’m only gonna buy a cheap P.C., about £400 is what I’m aiming for, and upgrade the ram in a year when it’s cheaper.
- I’m also going to treat myself to £150 of security hardware – a nano ledger for my crypto, two encrypted storage disks and a fireproof box.
- I’m almost certainly going to earn less than I need in July and August, meaning I need to keep money by for August and September (I pay myself a month in arrears)
Plans for Skint June
I figure it’s best to treat this like it’s some kind of game, albeit not fun at all.
There’s nothing I can do about my regular outgoings (mortgage etc.) but I can aim to keep my day to day expenditures as low as possible, so this means:
- No beer! This should be easy – I’m in the mood for no beer AND I just found out today that I’ve had a mid-June social event put back to July, and I just cancelled my only other social event this coming wknd (reluctantly), because I’m too busy!
- Severely reduced take out coffee – I’m not gonna say none, because I’ve got a work gig in Plymouth next week, and I will have coffee on the train, but besides that I’ll aim to limit my posh coffee to Friday’s only – an end of week treat. If I have a munchie too, plus train coffees, I should be able to do this on £30.
- I’ll also need to buy breakfast, lunch, dinner when I’m working away next week: £20 for three days?
- Only buy fresh food and cook well, including baking treats rather than buying pastries. For me this means no veggie soya products, no pizza and no pastries, I’ll either live without, or make them myself. I should be able to feed myself well for <£150 for a month.
- One tank of petrol - £40 – I want to do a lot of walking in June, so £40 is fine by me!
- No Poundland shit, no clothes, no munchies, basically nothing else.
So that = £240 for June for ‘every day expenditure’….. quite demanding, but it’s a very doable target!
TBH it’s about time I got back into playing this minimizing my expenditure game, I’ve been a bit slack lately: with around £300 on coffee and beer a month, that’s just not good enough.
Post Script: will I, won't I?
So having decided on this strategy a few days ago, and written this up, it turns out that yesterday I was offered 3 days more teaching in mid June, down in Kent, literally just 6 miles or so from where my Dad lives, which kind of makes me thirsty for the idea of catching up with a few people down that way and blowing this whole budge thing off!
Maybe I could do this in chunks? 3 days here, 4 days there, from June - September? Wouldn't quite have the same ring, would it?!?