Recap: Spending and saving in December 2014

Holy moly this was a phenomenally bad month for my wallet and my budget.

Between planned gift spending, unexpected gift spending, forgotten extra expenses and totally unplanned personal purchases, I not only spent 150% more than I spent in November on just about the same salary, but also went from putting around $200 on my credit cards per month to dumping over $1300 this month on purchases.

Yeah yeah yeah I fell off the wagon big time this December and only have myself to blame here. So let's get the bad news out of the way first as far as my spending went.

EXPENSES: First things first, I blew past the original $250 soft limit on my gift spending for the month by a little more than $100 thanks to some unanticipated spending on my parents.

This was largely due to discovering my mother's true birthday falls on the December 23rd thanks to her being born under a lunar calendar and it only aligning with the Gregorian calendar aligning in her 60th year, thereby making it a massively important day culturally. So there was a ton of extra spending there as we celebrated my mother getting old.

The next thing that hurt this month's budget phenomenally was two planned expenditures: getting new glasses and my G2 test.

The good news is, I passed my G2 test on the first go, saving me the agony of having to conjure up the cash to afford the test again, an expense that costs me $235 while borrowing the instructor's car. But it was still $235 to go out there and with a lesson beforehand as a refresher with my driving instructor.

I had some of that money set aside in my savings for this expense, but of course, I totally forgot about the fact I have to pay for an extension on my five year learner's permit, which dropped me a jaw dropping $80 to do. That number made me choke just a little bit, but it was unavoidable given I was due to expire in April, which won't give me enough time to advance to a full G license and therefore rending the G2 costs moot.

That was the unavoidable extra expense due to government scheduling and bureaucracy. But I could have delayed buying my glasses another month. And yet I decided not to. With the year about to end and my benefits resetting as of the 1st, and me wanting to get the most of my benefits for this calendar year, I went ahead and got them. And that was how another $300 disappeared from my bank account.

Well I spent $300 off my credit card this month on new glasses, but I did get some of it back. But more on that later.

And finally comes the unplanned for expenses, or me swallowing a large case of YOLO and falling completely off the "smart spending" wagon and into the happy denial of consumerist glee. Because these expenses were arbitrary and not really smart.

Expenses for myself that happened this month in the form of a leather jacket, three new pairs of jeggings, a new button up top, some socks and an external USB charger (the last major expense is yet to be discussed here however). All of that went completely unplanned and therefore decimated my savings account in order to pay down my credit card to the tune of an extra $420. I dipped into my emergency fund for these items, which hurt to realize.

At the same time however, I'm not exactly feeling buyer's remorse on any of the items either if for no other reason than I like everything I bought and will learn to appreciate having them.

It's a weird dichotomy actually. 

Throw in overspending on food because I got lazy and ate out A LOT, and that is how I blew the roof off my budget and my month!

DEBT REPAYMENT: Despite racking up a massive credit card bill this month, I managed not to accrue any interest thankfully and paid most of it off in time.

I say most... because I forgot about an extra $50 I threw onto it while Christmas shopping before the settlement date. Whoops.

But I am paying down the limit on a biweekly basis at least, so by next paycheque I should be in the clear for all charges accrued against the balance and avoid the dreaded interest machine.

As for my student loans, well it's going, as in going down one way or another. I managed to put $60 extra dollars on top of the minimum on my student loans for the month, although frankly, it turned out to be money that I didn't have to go to my student loans thanks to my crazy spending after the fact. Therefore it was money that more or less could be said to have come out of my emergency fund to float.

But that's me quibbling over details I no longer have control over. I have no means of predicting my unpredictable impulses. Although maybe that ought to be a lesson in controlling them better for my money's sakes.

Either way, I paid down $401.91 against my student loans when you include the cost of interest for the month. The total owed is still over $33,000 but by next month should be down beneath it. And here's hoping some extra cash will also help supplement the costs as well.

INCOME: First a confession: I spent way more than I made this month on my regular wage.

Not to mention, the holiday pay from Thanksgiving that I had half been counting on since Thanksgiving but still haven't seen paid out to me...  still didn't come in! And it's past Christmas! :(

My boss was notified of it after the last pay cheque at least so hopefully that quibbles itself out. But with Christmas and New Years holiday pay coming up, I will have to keep a really close eye to ensure it gets processed and not mixed up with the rest. Basically, it's now way more work to ensure I get the correct holiday pay credited to my account, something I wasn't exactly banking on here.

I did have a small Christmas miracle though as far as money coming in this month. My benefits claim for new glasses I mentioned earlier when detailing my expenses came through just before Christmas. And I got $265 back on my claim from the $365 I spent upfront to purchase them. This deposit single-handedly gave me a positive net-worth. No jokes.

And as a small aside: I also got a small pay cheque from my freelance gig to help dull the terrible spending decisions I made for the month, though it really only paid for part of the leather jacket and so was money that didn't do much at all if anything.

SAVINGS: So... yeah. About that savings account...

By the end of November, I had $860 in my everyday savings account. By the end of December, I had $327 in that account. 

Although granted, it would have been well under $100 if not for the refund I got from my insurance right before Christmas. And plus, at least $400 of that money that was in the account by the end of November was planned spending for the month of December so it's not as if it was total unexpected that I would lose some cash this month in that account. So there is a silver lining here.

Really, the good news here is that I managed not to take any money from my TFSA to make up for any shortfalls in my budget, if only just managing not to touch it. No lie, it was tempting, especially because the limit resets in January so it'd be like a temporary loan. But I couldn't justify it to myself and ultimately didn't pull the trigger. Phew.

And as usual, regular deductions on my pay cheques to go towards my pension, RRSP and employee matched company investment, meant that there was some forced savings made for the month that dented any negatives I incurred by spending lots of money out of my spending.

So what's the damage?

Current Net Worth: -$32,174.47 (+0.19%)

For the close observer, you'll noticed that I cleared myself into the positives only by the smallest of margins... say $60 worth into the positive. Which is not exactly a good look for the month, but in the same breath, at least I managed to keep it positive. But only just thanks to the aforementioned insurance claim refund.

Although really I should be a little ashamed because I should be closer to the positive increase of $400, which was how much I paid towards my student loan repayment and that's without any other contributions towards a positive net gain. 

So ... realizing the fluctuation involved in including my short-term planned spending into my net worth month-over-month and how it can hinder me in terms of whether I post a positive or negative net worth has made me realize that perhaps I should remove them from my net worth value from here on out and really only include my emergency fund towards my net worth. This way I save myself the agony of losing a huge chunk of money when time comes due for me to spend it.

The short term spending account is at zero right now so it won't be too hard to make the adjustment for the new year anyway. And therefore won't make a noticeable differences to my value next month.

Happy new year everyone! Do you have any plans for the new year? I do... some of which are pretty big too.