Spring is springing (it’s Denmark so it seems to happen pretty late). The weather has been beautiful, the evenings getting longer, and there’s a delicious smell in the air. Budget-wise March has two close family birthdays, mothering Sunday, Easter, and school holidays. I did calculate how much I had spent half way through the month, then once again had a massive splurge in the last week. I thought about it and realised it’s because I get paid on the 23rd of the month but budget per calendar month. For some reason I can’t cope with the thought of managing the month differently so for now I am going to try and be aware of my final-week-free-for-all and see if that works.

Item	Monthly Budget	Spend March	% of monthly budget
Childcare costs	£           1,100.00	£         1,000.62	91
Car (insurance, tax, petrol)	£              125.00		0
Charity	£                 66.67	£              28.38	43
Eating out	£              120.00	£              90.16	75
Entertainment – subscription	£                 50.00	£            118.15	236
Entertainment	£              100.00	£              50.80	51
Kids – extra curricular	£              250.00		0
Family	£                 50.00		0
Groceries	£              400.00	£            714.38	179
Holidays	£              300.00	£            329.89
Insurance	£              200.00	£            169.35	85
Personal care	£                 30.00	£            248.94	830
Shopping – general	£                 25.00	£              14.89	60
Shopping – gifts incl birthdays	£                 58.33	£            251.85	432
Shopping – clothes	£                 29.17		0
Rent and Bills	£           1,500.00	£         1,771.00	118
Transport	£                 41.67	£            159.18	382
Utilities	£              200.00	£            186.15	93
TOTALS	£       4,645.83	£         5,133.74	111

So how did it go? Better than February, worse than January. I spent £5,133, or 11% over budget. It could have been better, but could have been worse.

• I absolutely beasted my grocery budget AGAIN which is infuriating. I managed to spend 180% of the monthly budget which is ridiculous. I realised I have one particular trap which is the fancy supermarket delivery service (only one place does this in Denmark and it’s way more expensive than my usual Lidl) – that added £200 with no real added value.
• I spent a lot on personal care which I had hardly budgeted for. Thanks to working from home, both my son and I have developed back and neck issues and have to go to physiotherapy. He, lucky chap, gets to go to an osteopath: I get a scary Norwegian man who shouts at me whilst I do horrendous exercises. So I spent a lot more than planned but I do get back 80% from our health insurance company which means that the £250 I spent should actually be in budget when I get refunded.
• My entertainment subscription budget doubled but it included an annual £50 subscription for the Guardian newspaper. Technically I don’t get anything from this other than a sense of supporting Proper News since it’s free to read anyway – maybe I’m prepared to pay before it hides behind a paywall. Anyway, I could stop this cost but I am prepared to keep it for now, at least in solidarity.

	Monthly saving plan	March	% of plan
Mortgage (UK house)	£                500	£              500	100
Mortgage Overpayment	£                500	£              500	100
Emergency Fund	£                  100	£               100	100
ISA	£               1,250	£               500	40
Kids savings	£                   248	£               248	100
SIPP	£                   300	£               300	100
	£   2,898.00	£ 2,348.00	87

And what happened with the savings? I reduced my budget on this because I was saving for the house costs – the deposit is all there but the costs like the lawyer, removal men and so on don’t come cheap and I need to be ready. So an additional £2,000 went to that making a total savings of £4,348.

Overall I spent 54% and saved 45% which I am very happy with, even though some of the spending lines took a bit of a kicking.

How has your March been? I’d love to hear from you!