Where did January and February go? I have somehow missed doing these reports so I decided to combine January and February. I did want to make some comparisons between the two anyway because I’ve been working on getting my spending down. Let’s dive in!

I’ve had a few newbies join my Instagram and blog lately so for those of you who haven’t visited me before (welcome), this is a quick breakdown of what I go over in each monthly report, you can skip to each category using the links below.

Spending | Savings | Credit Score | Superannuation | Side Hustling

For Decembers report see here or for the full breakdown of 2018 see here.

Spending

Below is the breakdown of my spending by category as well as the relative % of my total spend for each month.

January

Savings: $2,200
Spend minus savings: $3,563

February

Savings: $1,400
Spend minus savings: $2,484 (decrease of $1,079 from January)

SOME NOTES:

• Gifts includes birthday gifts for both my parents, one in each month
• Moving category (Jan) is the cost of cleaning/carpet cleaning of my old unit as I moved
• Personal care is my gym membership
• Health is my health insurance, medications and any doctors appointments
• My utility bill in January was for electricity, I didn’t receive a phone bill in January as my old employee discount credited it all. February however I received a gas, electricity, hot water and phone bill all in the same month. Some was for my old house and some for the new house. It was quite a hit
• Auto & Transport includes car insurance, petrol, public transport to work etc.
• Misc is postage for online sales I made in those months

I really tried to work on my spending in February and managed to get my ‘food spending’ down to $502 from $811 in Jan saving of $309. It’s still too high for my liking but I’m working on it. I also reduced ‘shopping & entertainment’ by $129 from $343 in Jan to $214 in Feb. In total there was a difference of $1,079 in spending from January to February. Pretty proud of that!

Savings & Investments

Savings

During January & February, I put $3,600 towards my savings. $2,200 in January (a bit higher because I received my bond back from my old house) and then $1,400 in February.

My savings progress is below. My minor savings goal is $35,000 and then the next goal is $65,000. At the moment I’m looking into purchasing an off-grid tiny home to have as my forever home instead of buying a house and then having a mortgage.

Investments

My initial investment in an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is going well. I’ve seen an 8.68% increase in my balance since I purchased them in November 2018. I should probably start to add to this at some point but am unsure if I continue with the same ETF or a different one?

Credit Score

My credit score hasn’t changed much as you can see below. It ranges between 667-698 depending on which website it is. Due to the fact I’m not taking on any debt, have no debt and no new inquiries I don’t see it changing much. It’s classed as ‘good’ under Australias scale, just missing out on the ‘very good’ mark which starts at 700.

Do you know what your score is? If you don’t feel free to check yours with Finder via this link for free and you’ll also get a $5 Woolworths gift card just for checking your score.
Just so you know, I’ll also get a $5 gift card too! (This is for Australia only)

Superannuation

My current balance (as of 04/03/19) is $49,055. I have started to contribute to my super via salary sacrifice. It will be interesting to see how this increases my super over time. My first contribution will come out of my next monthly pay in March. It will bring my total super contribution to 14.5% (9.5% from my employer and 5% from myself).

Side Hustling

I earned $696 above my wage from my job (over Jan-Feb) through things like Pureprofile surveys, selling unused items on Facebook, Container refunds for cans/bottles, interest on my savings account and gift cards from various sources.

How was January & February for you?

Let me know if there is anything else you want to see in these reports.

Credit: Icons by Freepik from Flaticon. Post Images from Unspash.com