Simple Pound

May is drawing to an end, and so is my time at University. Next month I’ll already get my first salary (well it’s a relocation bonus, but it’s money from my employer) and after the necessary expenses that come with moving and living in a “proper” flat (as opposed to college accommodation) I should be able to progress with my (financial) goals much faster than I am at the moment.

My sub-goal for this month was to keep my overall expenses close to what I spent in April. I don’t have a budget yet that determines how much I am “allowed” to spend on various items, but I figured by sticking to the lowest monthly expenses I had this year I wouldn’t be over-spending. Unfortunately I didn’t quite make it but spent just under 10% more. This was mainly because my boyfriend and I finally decided on some crockery for the flat (and subsequently bought it) and due to higher expenses for public transport as I had to go down to London to figure out in which area we’re going to look for flats.

Moreover, I paid off the last outstanding credit card balances and got myself a coin jar to be able to put at least some money towards the goals on the progress page. The coin jar is an idea that is treasured by many personal finance bloggers on the web, and is a simple way of putting aside some cash without really noticing it. Every evening, after looking through my receipts and entering my expenses into a spreadsheet, I put all loose change (except for 1-pound and 2-pound coins) into a jar and put it out of sight. Now (at the end of the month) I’ll have the pleasure of counting (I love counting money!!) and allocating it towards one of my goals. While it’s not going to be a lot of money, I still feel it’s worth it because it keeps me motivated despite having limited funds available at the moment.

*counting*

*still counting*

It’s a total of £5.37 - which constitutes more than 5% of what I have in my account at the moment, so I keep telling myself it’s not that bad at all (you’re welcome to donate though )!

And finally, you will hopefully have noticed the progress bar on the right-hand side by now (yet another one!). With my life insurance premiums invested in mutual funds, I figured it is about time to start tracking my overall net worth. This is basically a measure of all money I have available in a reasonably liquid state (if I wanted it to be…) less any outstanding debts.

Now, those of you who have read my progress page will know that I owe my parents some money for minor repairs on my Mum’s car, but I won’t use these against the net worth because I don’t really have a due date for paying back that money and thus it doesn’t “feel” like debt. Further, I’m planning not just to pay back the outstanding money for the car repair, but also some more beyond that. My parents don’t expect this at all, but I feel it’s just fair because they have supported me for so long, paid tuition fees and rent and insurance premiums and were always concerned I might not have enough money. To make up for the slight imbalance this will create, the net worth won’t include any money I plan to use for paying back these sums.

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