In the spirit of trying to be more self-accountable, here are the monthly figures. I have to say I feel quite proud of having actually engaged with the budget during the month – I do realise that’s the point, but as noted I have tended to treat my spending tallies more as a summary of mistakes rather than something I can use to tweak behaviours and get back on track.

I have been tallying up my budgets weekly and found it really helpful. It also takes such a short time, and removes The Fear of having to suddenly spend four hours pulling it together at the end of the month.

So, how did I do? Not badly in some ways but not great in others:

• I spent 95% of my monthly planned budget, or £4,414 out of a planned £4,645. In some ways this is great since it’s under budget – but looking across the lines it’s clear I should have spent even less. Some annual costs (such as kids’ extra curricular activities) are budgeted for monthly but I didn’t spend anything this month, meaning in theory that at some point I will overspend if I don’t pull it back from elsewhere. I spent quite a bit on gifts but January is birthday heavy for us so this one should work out.
• I still spent 150% of my grocery budget. This is SO ANNOYING – I was at almost exactly £400 on 30th January but we had a birthday dinner to host today so I went crazy in (the most expensive) supermarket. I knew as I was doing it that I was already regretting it. Something to continue working on, clearly.
• We hadn’t planned for the impact of Brexit. I feel like, in the words of Lily Tomlin, it’s going to get a whole lot worse before it gets worse, but the immediate impact was that we couldn’t watch the telly. I might appreciate that this is small beans compared to, well, so many other things, but – the telly! We normally watch Prime, through my UK account, and pay additionally for some channels. 1st January – nada. I spent a frustrating amount of time trying things out (turns out you can’t get Brit Box in Europe, since apparently it’s only available in Anglophone countries) and did the single mum thing I hate – asked One Of The Dads to help since technology is a Boy Thing. Shakes fist at self. So I ended up buying an Apple TV box, cancelling my Prime subscription and trying HBO Nordic. We don’t have terrestrial or cable TV so I don’t mind paying for *something* but this was not budgeted for. It turns out my mum also won’t be able to send over gifts for the kids (or me) in the same way, so watch this space for the reign of terror which begins when I run out of marmite.
• The kids’ schools are closed since Christmas and after a few weeks my son started to get neck pains. So whilst we had laptops from last time, my shopping-general budget took a hit to buy mice/keyboards/ whatnot to set him up, and a webcam for us both so we can use a proper monitor. I managed to find an old monitor and some bits and pieces, and we asked first on the local freebie marketplace, but still had to fork out.
• There are still some things I haven’t budgeted for. Almost the entire ‘family’ spend this month was on helping out a very old friend. I can afford to do it, and he has done the same for me in the past, but it wasn’t anywhere on the list.

Item	Monthly Budget	Spent Jan	% of monthly budget
Childcare costs	£         1,100.00	£             790.54	72
Car (insurance, tax, petrol)	£             125.00	£                99.50	80
Charity	£                66.67	£                25.63	38
Eating out	£             120.00	£             104.22	87
Entertainment – subscription	£                50.00	£                72.77	146
Entertainment	£             100.00	£             340.09	340
Kids – extra curricular	£             250.00	£                        –	0
Family	£                50.00	£             170.39	341
Groceries	£             400.00	£             597.15	149
Holidays	£             300.00	£                        –
Insurance	£             200.00	£             127.87	64
Personal care	£                30.00	£                47.02	157
Shopping – general	£                25.00	£             165.37	661
Shopping – gifts incl birthdays	£                58.33	£             167.97	288
Shopping – clothes	£                29.17	£                        –	0
Rent and Bills	£         1,700.00	£         1,638.57	96
Transport	£                41.67	£                67.46	162
TOTALS	£   4,645.83	£   4,414.55	95%

With that done, what did I save?

	Monthly Plan	January	% of plan
Mortgage Capital	£                    865	£                    865	100
Mortgage Overpayment	£                1,250		0
Emergency Fund	£                    100	1500	1500
ISA	£                1,250	500	40
Kids savings	£                    248	248	100
SIPP	£                    300	300	100
	£   3,148.00	£   3,413.00	108%

This went pretty much to plan. In January I had to move my house deposit over to Denmark and I lost some money in transaction and exchange rate costs. I also need to now boost my emergency fund as I’ve taken it down to £4,000 (or one month’s expenses). It’s definitely not enough in these uncertain times, so rather than focusing on my usual goals I need to spend a few months getting that back up to at least three months’ worth.

Overall I saved 44% of my income, and spent 56% which is a little better than planned.

Given the overspend in some areas, February should be a month of clawing back – though it does include half term holidays… Watch this space!

How did your January budget go? Feeling in good shape for the start of 2021? I’d love to hear from you!

PS – if you like British TV and don’t feel like your life has enough dystopian fear in then I highly recommend Years and Years (I am not paid for this – it’s just the best thing I’ve seen in a while. Terrifying).