Ah June. Long (it’s Denmark, so very, very long) days; al fresco dinners in the garden; the start of the summer holidays; *all* the football at the Euros; and the last month in our rental home. I knew June and July were going to be pretty brutal, and that has been the case so far. Trying to juggle work which is super busy, the kids and school or clubs (or ‘I’m boooooooored muuuuuums’) and moving house has been a huge pain. My ability to handle pain is probably evident in my overspending this month.

A note on my budget check ins: I was reading through the other check ins from this year and it felt a bit like watching a learner driver repeatedly start off doing pretty well, then start skidding around, and crash toward the end of the test, every. single. time. I know I’ve overspent every month, to a greater or lesser extent, and whilst I do a lot of hand-wringing at the start of the month I have always got good reasons (ahem) to go ahead with the spend anyway. Recognising this, I plan to do a budget and spend overhaul from September, giving me the summer to get settled in the new house and really work out what I am doing, my medium term goals, and – more importantly – a plan.

So how did it go? It wasn’t that bad, but I can see a couple of interesting choices glaring out from the grid below.

Item	Monthly Budget	Spend June	% of monthly budget
Childcare costs	£       1,100.00	£          726.30	66
Car (insurance, tax, petrol)	£          125.00	£                   –	0
Charity	£            66.67	£            67.95	102
Eating out	£          120.00	£          165.23	138
Entertainment – subscription	£            50.00	£            18.95	38
Entertainment	£          100.00	£          335.39	335
Kids – extra curricular	£          250.00	£       1,276.11	510
Family	£            50.00	£          292.01	584
Groceries	£          400.00	£          657.84	164
Holidays	£          300.00	£                   –
Insurance	£          200.00	£          493.99	247
Personal care	£            30.00	£            57.39	191
Shopping – general	£            25.00	£          539.49	2158
Shopping – gifts incl birthdays	£            58.33	£          434.32	745
Shopping – clothes	£            29.17	£            15.00	51
Rent and Bills	£       1,500.00	£       1,500.00	100
Transport	£            41.67	£          173.74	417
Utilities	£          200.00	£          112.51	56
TOTALS	£   4,645.83	£       6,913.21

So, once again I overspent my budget by A LOT, spending £6,913 against a budget of £4,645:

• My mum finally managed to come and visit which was amazing but meant covering her flights, tests and so on. This was well worth it for the support it povided us during a challenging time, and since she is on a small pension there is no way I would let her cover this.
• I paid out for my daughter’s three after school clubs for the 2021-22 school year since they opened the registration for current students and the spots fill up quickly. This cost £1,275, or about £127 a month for the duration of the clubs. Since all her friends (four of them!) have left school this summer and moved away (downside to the expat life) and things might feel a bit lonely for her, I figure that having some clubs where she also has friends will be comforting.
• I had three big splurges, one of which was an accident:
  • Since it was the Euros football was on, and I LOVE football, I went to see most of the matches at the pub with friends. The atmosphere was amazing, and supporting both Denmark and England meant a lot ot good times. It also meant a £300 bar tab over the month.
  • We had a few colleagues in my team leave this month as well, some people who have been in the team for five years. We had a huge team dinner and I covered the bill of £350 with an understanding that we would work out how to share this – that hasn’t happened yet, but it will.
  • I, um, might have had a moment during a LEGO sale. It was half price and I have two LEGO-loving kids, so a £400 moment occurred. This will cover my son’t upcoming birthday and major Christmas gifts for them both, so I tell myself it was a good idea!

So what did I save? Again I focused on getting the last of the money together for our house move including £3,000 for the removal men/house preparation etc , so I have just been putting extra into my current account to make sure the money is there for whatever comes up. No great savings news then, but at least I carried on with the usual basics which is still savings (or paying toward capital) of £ 2,348.

	Monthly saving plan	May	% 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

So this month, again, an unimpressive savings rate of 20% compared to spending 80%. July will also likely be odd again due to the move but I am glad that at least I kept to the regular savings. I need to do a mid year review of our net worth, since I have moved a lot into the new house.

So how was your June? And your summer budget planning? I’d love to hear from you!