Budget Update
My budget is a little unique, as I have to worry about two currencies, you can read more here on how I do that. To be honest, it has gotten a bit easier due to Biden’s executive order to extend the student loan moratorium that was set up under the Trump administration. This is mainly because I do not have to transfer the payment every month.
Some good news!
I received a notice that I am getting a raise but it will not show up until my paycheck for March expenses but it will also include the retroactive pay for January and February paychecks which will be nice. I also spent a little more on my spending category than I initially anticipated. This will be spoken about later.
Housing
The total paid to rent was 4537 SEK, which included my rent and electricity. I managed to bring down the electric bill by only keeping the radiator at the automatic temperature. I am able to heat up my apartment more using the radiator but the heat that is provided was sufficient enough.
Transportation
I did have to Uber a few places this month. Depending on how my foot was feeling that day. These were usually to different appointments. I did take the metro some days if I had to go into town which is only 50 SEK (student price) a day, which is 2 trips. The total for transportation was 828 SEK, which is 138 SEK more than I originally budgeted.
Food
In terms of food, I really went overboard. I would go to the market to buy one thing and come out with more things. I also became a little more creative with my cooking, which I am happy about since I do enjoy it. Unfortunately, I also spent a bit on UberEats, so that is what I gave up for Lent this year.
The total spent on food this month was 3589.50 SEK. A super painful number to write out, especially since it is more than double what I had initially set aside in my budget. I normally budget 1500 SEK and it was not easy to keep for the shortest month of the year.
Shopping
I normally do not spend much in this section but I also went overboard again. I had to get a new handheld blender set because the mechanics of the one I had begun smoking. That is not the kind of FIRE I like in my life.’
Get it?’
Anywaý, I spent a total of 3349.25 SEK on shopping, not including the 600 SEK for the shoe insoles I needed to continue to stabilize my foot. The latter was an unexpected expense, so it came out of my savings.
I had budgeted 1000 SEK for shopping but it ended up being a bit more. This included the new handheld blender, along with some other things that I needed that I had run low on.
Subscriptions
My phone was 99 SEK as usual and I paid 49 SEK for my Spotify subscription. Since I am a student I am eligible for the discounted price. Honestly, I think it is worth the full price. The amount of ads on it is really annoying and I use it all the time.
Savings
Everything else was sent to savings.
9578.25 SEK is saved in my student loan sinking fund. This is in my Swedish savings account because I am doing a larger transfer to save on transfer fees.
My dividends are set to reinvesting and I earned $18.58 on that.
My final savings rate was 42%. Not bad for overspending.
A look back
What went wrong?
During the middle of the month I gave up looking at my budget and stopped paying attention to it. I am a natural spender so sometimes it does come out. I do allow my spending budget to be decent enough so I do not go overboard. Instead I did.
What will you do differently for the next month?
Allow myself a higher spending budget. The things with a budget is that it does not always work, sometimes it needs to be changed. I have been allowing myself a 2500 SEK spending limit for over 2 years, and it is too stringent for me now. I really have been enjoying learning to cook different things so I have been buying more high quality ingredients. Also, my body cannot handle ramen like it once did.
Otherwise, I am still happy with how it turned out because I still had a high savings rate.
How did your budgeting go this month?
Comment below!
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