Do you know where your salary is going?

About a year ago, when my partner and I decided to live together we decided to have a common bank account whereby each month we put the same equal amount of money so that we can use them to pay the rent, utility bills and living expenses.

Being our first experience of living away from our parents we estimated that we would need to fork out EUR300 each for living expenses and utility bills! This ofcourse excluded the paying of the rent and our personal expenses such as mobile phones, fuel, going out, etc.

It was a lot of money going down the drain! We couldn't see where the EUR600 were going in less than a month. I was always with zero cents in my bank account because it was impossible to pass by with the budget. I confided with a colleague and friend of mine about this financial issue and even she found the budget to be excessive and was surprised how we could not live by. 

I was really bothered with this and it was time for me to re-think our spending habits. I decided to dedicate a whole month to be fully conscious of what I was buying...then it started to get pretty obvious. Whenever we put another EUR300 each in the bank account, we would immediately go to the supermarket and stock up as much as possible thinking that the food would serve us for a whole month. I realised that it wouldn't last for even 2 weeks! We were comfortable nibbling and throwing extra food which we could have saved for another meal. We would buy perishable goods which would unfortunately expire before we consume them. 

We also used to love eating out, and we still do...but I was realising that a minimum of EUR50 dinner everytime we eat out at an average restaurant would have allowed me to buy groceries and food for another three to five days. Buying lunch from the nearby coffee shop everyday was costing me about EUR80 a month. All this was adding up and no wonder that my salary was not sufficient.  

So these spending habits had to be managed without resorting to austerity and convert these habits into new benign ones which would allow me to save up for vacation, a new laptop or a future want.

We put more effort with dining home by cooking delicious meals. I cooked that bit extra food in order to take it with me for lunch. I avoided supermarkets as much as possible as they tempt you to buy stuff which you don't need so I started to buy my groceries and food from the local shops and budget the shopping to serve me for three days rather than a whole month. Everytime I have small change under EUR1.00 I would save them up in a jar in order to use them once the jar is full.

It didn't take much effort to make this change. It was more a change of consciousness from buying things just because you 'think' you 'need' it to actually knowing what you want to buy.

Nowadays our budget for living expenses is EUR200 each and we always have some money left which allows us to celebrate another month at a nice restaurant :)

Enliven your Senses - Enjoy Life!