Money Matters: Where I Faltered in My Spending in November

Takeout and Dining out

There were three serious takeouts/ dinings, one work lunch, one bakery run, and several supermarket food court runs. It’s not criminal, but it adds up, especially the takeout and dinings. Had I avoided these, it would have saved me around 10% of my total income. Christ.

Coffee To Go

I brew coffee at home regularly, and I also use the free coffee from the vending machine that my office provides with a dash of cinnamon and coffee cream I bring from home. Sometimes, however, I want to live large and get a coffee to go at my favourite coffee place around here. It used to cost me 25 in local currency (less than 2 bucks), but the guy recently raised prices, so now it costs 35 with tip (a little over 2 bucks). I don’t have the exact number, but cutting these coffee runs would have saved me anywhere between 3 to 5 percent of my income. The Latte Factor, eh?

Treats, Snacks, Vending Machine

This is always one of my biggest missteps, both in finances and calories. I was doing fine when I was working from home, but in the office I find it particularly hard to deny myself that midday sugar run. Once more I don’t have an exact number, but I think it’s somewhere around 3%.

Online Subscriptions

Those have gotten out of hand when I got my salary increase. I haven’t felt any of them then, but I feel them all now. Cancelling what I don’t need will be on my todo list for next month.

Books

All I can do here is sigh. In general I am not against spending money on books, but considering my financial situation AND THE AMOUNT OF UNREAD BOOKS SCREAMING AT ME FROM MY 170 SHELVES AS WE SPEAK, I should cut out book spending altogether.

Cosmetics

I didn’t buy any makeup, and I didn’t buy any excessive beauty. What I bought was 2 bottles of dry shampoo and 1 bottle of regular shampoo. Dry shampoo is an extravagance, really. Washing your hair is technically ‘free’, as long as the water is running. And the regular shampoo I will certainly eventually use, but I didn’t need to get another bottle for around half a year or so.

Fancy and convenience foods

There were a couple of supermarket runs for simple things like bread and milk, but what I ended up getting were frozen pizzas, two boxes of salad (what? It’s more expensive than beef once you figure out cost per kg), low cal chocolate syrup, rich people plant milk, out of season veg and fruit, etc., etc.

Overall

If anything, this gives me a list of things to plan for to lower my expenses. I’d say these frivolities have accounted to about 40 massive percents of what I bring home, which is, of course, ridiculous. Let’s see how I fare in December, where all I want to do is buy Christmas baubles and ‘Cozy Winter’ scented candles, with a dash of pillows, hot chocolate, and fairy lights on the side.