My second proper budget check in (having been blogging for 14 months. Small victories). And a lovely short month to focus on, after January which seemed to last 3100 days instead of 31. However, it did contain the February half term holiday; and an even-more-enormous-than-usual heating bill after I did the meter readings and it turned out we used a whole heap more than anticipated in 2020. This was also the month that we had to pull the house deposit together. But here we are: a check in of spending and saving for this month.

I carried on the habit of tallying up the budget weekly, which I found really helpful. What I also noticed was that I do well throughout the month then have a sudden splurgy freakout in the last week and get takeaways etc and generally let loose. I had never really understood that I did this, and it’s so helpful to identify habits like this and be able to work on them.

So, how did we do?

• I spent £6,164, or 133% of my monthly budget. This clearly sucks. There were three issues this month: £700 on winter tyres (I didn’t need them last year, but with temperatures of -9 and weeks of snow and slush, this year I really did). We also went on holiday for the February break, which cost £978, sharing a holiday home with another family just a 90 minute drive away. This felt expensive but it was totally worth it to spend time with others, somewhere with a heated pool and a hot tub. Money well spent having not spent a night away from home since June. Finally, we had a monster heating bill of £1,000 which will be the same every quarter this year. Blimey. We got all the old jumpers, socks and blankets out the day I got that bill, so fingers crossed that we won’t have another such bill next year.
• There were some smaller over-spends against the monthly budget but these should work their way through. I spent £100 on a birthday gift for a colleague where others will pay me back; and another £100 on a series of exercise classes prescribed by the doctor, where my health insurance should cover the cost. Starting that exercise class is hopefully a step on the road to a healthier me, but oh my gosh it’s total hell.
• But there were also lots of areas where I was well under the budget, and I spent 104% of the grocery budget which is the closest I have come to sticking to this one and which I am proud of! So, some gains in spite of the overall overspend.

February
Item	Monthly Budget	Spent Feb	% of monthly budget
Childcare costs	£         1,100.00	£          730.00	66
Car (insurance, tax, petrol)	£             125.00	£          731.82	584
Charity	£                66.67	£             25.83	39
Eating out	£             120.00	£             92.71	77
Entertainment – subscription	£                50.00	£             37.24	74
Entertainment	£             100.00	£             16.02	16
Kids – extra curricular	£             250.00	£                     –	0
Family	£                50.00	£                     –	0
Groceries	£             400.00	£          417.87	104
Holidays	£             300.00	£          978.41	326
Insurance	£             200.00	£                     –	0
Personal care	£                30.00	£             73.45	245
Shopping – general	£                25.00	£          134.12	536
Shopping – gifts incl birthdays	£                58.33	£             86.00	147
Shopping – clothes	£                29.17	£                     –	0
Rent and Bills	£         1,500.00	£      1,500.00	100
Transport	£                41.67	£          101.16	243
Utilities	£             200.00	£      1,240.24	620
TOTALS	£   4,645.83	£      6,164.87	133%

	Monthly Budget	February	% of plan
Mortgage Capital	£                    865	£                 865	100
Mortgage Overpayment  (actually deposit this month)	£                1,250	£                1000	80
Emergency Fund	£                    100	£                100	100
ISA	£                1,250	£                500	40
Kids savings	£                    248	£                248	100
SIPP	£                    300	£                300	100
	£   3,148.00	£ 3,013.00	87

Whilst the savings rate doesn’t look as good, I didn’t count up everything extra that I paid to my deposit for our house in Denmark, which all had to be in the account by the end of this month and which is in place! That’s £90,000 as a down payment ready in the bank, waiting for a big decision next month. I struggled to get the last little bit in place, so even though it looks as though I saved less than planned I am pretty confident that any additional money trickled into the deposit account and will count as capital at some point!

Overall I saved 34% of my income, and spent 66% which is a little worse than planned.

Hopefully this is because of money spent – such as on the car – where it will balance out over the course of the year. And I am proud of some of the areas where I have been able to really control my spending and starting to see changes, such as grocery spending.

How was your February? I’d love to hear how its going!