November in Review

Okay, a couple days late, but here is November for you:

Before I present the numbers, I have some thoughts. This was my first month of actually living within budget. I tried in October and gave up keeping records - plus I had several friends take me away to Paris for a week which was an expensive trip. I am impressed that I kept records of everything I purchased, despite some unflattering results.

So, here we go!

So here's the bad news. Budget was blown. Mainly in the food department. The 'fun money' department, too. The good news is that I was under in my other areas, which eventually led to a minus £81.88 in the budget. It is always an interessting time - the first budget. Granted I have done many a budget in my... well, life. But this is the first in a new currency, new city, and new bills.

I've determined that my weaknesses are mainly snack food, as illustrated here:

Not to mention that many of those supermarket visits were partially fuelled by snack food. My bad.

Now the 'Fun Money' category is meant for fun, and in this case it was a fair amount of randomness.Some random household stuff, little things here and there, as well as some food. Now it was 100% junk food and snack purchases that went into this category.

On the plus side, this was the first month where I actually got to use my all-important 'Income' square!!

Yay! My first paycheque! This was only for 4 days work, so it wasn't very impressive, but still, it's money I am earning!!! Yay!! While I get paid £6.84 on paper, I am in reality taking in £5.47. And, because this is my first paycheque, I didn't get taxed NI (National Insurance), which everyone seems to say will come out on my next cheque. So far my tax rate is 20%, and will probably go up to 30%. Ew. Bonus is that I will get some (most?) of my Income Tax back come tax time, and the NI I can transfer back home to an RRSP when I leave.

Here's more good news! This is what I have in my accounts right now to start December with:

Not sure if you can see that, but I have a grand total of £7,808.17 in all my accounts. I have adjusted December's budget slightly, as you can see:

I think that this new budget will be difficult, especially as I have friends visiting for christmas and new years, but also good. If I can stick to a budget like this, I can make my money last for 10 months, not including any money I will make over the next 5 weeks. Especially since I have so so so many people visiting in the spring - I want to make sure I have lots of money saved for doing fun things with them!!

Hope you enjoyed my budget breakdown.

In all honestly I would like to post more. Really, I would. But this past week has been exceptionally rough for me. So many things are stressing me out. I'm homesick and bored and emotional and lonely all at the same time. 3 of my roommates and our local couch-dosser are moving out, and the search for new roommates has been stressful. We've found our single guy, but are still looking for a couple to take the double room. We need to have the room filled by December 19th, or they don't get their damage deposit back. The landlady will use their damage deposit to cover their portion of rent (up to 1 month) while we find people. If we can't find people during that month, the rest of us will be responsible for covering their share until we do. This is because we sign the tennancy agreement as a group. I would've rather preferred that I'm NOT responsible for other people, but 99% of all shared flats seems to run under this kind of rent.

Its stressing me out because I DON'T WANT TO PAY MORE FOR RENT. BahhhH!!!!!!!! Sorry. had to get that out. I hate the search of new people, but that is mainly because I hate change. Really. I do.

The roommates have posted several ads on GumTree but haven't had any response. We're in a good area (Wimbledon/Southfields/Wandsworth) and the rent is pretty cheap I think (£576 per month), especially for a couple. It's a great house with great people. I understand that this is probably a shitty time to be looking, but seriously. Is no one in London looking??? Can someone please give me some advice?? Its driving me nuts.

And I guess just the holiday season is bearing down to me. I'm stressed and homesick. All I really want to do is curl up and sleep everything away. Blah. That's how I feel. Blah.

Anyways enough ranting. Any help or suggestions on the flat-mate search are greatly appreciated. I think I would feel 10 million times better if we just found a couple to move in!!