A recap of the latest month and a look at my income and expenses.
Better late than never, this is my income and expenses report for July 2018. July was a fun month – the first half was relatively quiet, but that was made up for in the final week when my girlfriend and I went to London for a short holiday, and where I was able to meet her sister and brother-in-law for the first time! I have several friends in London and so have visited many times over the years, but usually this ends up with us going to someone’s house and playing board games and catching up, so it was quite novel to do some of the touristy things again! A notable highlight was visiting Stonehenge; I’ve driven past it several times, but this was the first time I’ve seen it up close. Obviously it’s no Great Wall of China or Pyramids of Giza, but it’s still pretty cool to see in person and learn about the history of the area. Definitely recommended if you’re ever in the area!
Income
| Income type | Amount |
| Wage | £1920.82 |
| Ms FIRE | £115 |
| Interest | £51.1 |
| Matched Betting | £205.57 |
| Total | £2292.49 |
As I’ll write about in a separate post, this month was my first foray into matched betting. I didn’t put a lot of time into it, and actually didn’t do any matched betting in the latter half of the month, due to the aforementioned trip to London. So, £200 for 2 weeks work, mostly a few hours here and there in the evenings and weekends, is not too bad as far as I’m concerned! I’m looking forward to getting back into it in August and seeing if I can make a similar amount again.
Expenses
| Category | Amount spent | % of Income |
| Rent | £550.00 | 24.0% |
| Bills | £271.55 | 11.8% |
| Groceries & Toiletries | £197.06 | 8.6% |
| Eating Out | £240.59 | 10.5% |
| Presents | £37.75 | 1.6% |
| Alcohol | £68.6 | 3.0% |
| Transport | £121.75 | 5.3% |
| Fun | £111.98 | 4.9% |
| One off | £15.00 | 0.7% |
| Clothes | £16.99 | 0.7% |
| Total | 1631.27 | 71.2% |
Bills this month included my first month subscription to Profit Accumulator. I paid £18.99 (£1 for a three day trial plus £17.99 for one month). Not bad for the £200 profit (£180, once you account for the subscription) that I made!
Other expenses are higher than usual this month due to my trip to London. Most of my eating out, alcohol and transport costs are from that holiday, as is most of the “fun” category.
The One-off category is an accountancy course that I decided to buy. I’m not sure if I’m completely happy in my current career path, so I took advantage of a sale on online courses. I obviously don’t expect the course to lead to a full time accountancy role, but I do think it will give me an idea of the things involved in that line of work, so I can make a more informed choice further down the line.
Savings rate
My savings rate this month was a respectable 28.8%, which I think is pretty good considering how expensive London can be! I have a busy August coming up as well, with several weddings and birthdays, so I imagine that will be another expensive month before everything calms down again in September.