Belgium was still pretty much locked down so April was another month of low spending for me. In the first 4 months of 2021 I have spend a total of 5 910,50 euro which means that on average I have stayed within my 1 500 euro monthly budget. And that includes the purchase of a 800 euro rowing machine! I think it is the first time ever that I was still within budget 4 months into the year!

Let’s take a look at the numbers of this month.

Income: 2 277,55 euro

Expenses: 1 428,50 euro

Savings: 849,05 euro or 37,28%

Income:

Income was my pay slip from work plus a 100 euro gift from the parents because of easter.

Expenses:

Expenses are going slightly higher but this was in part by design. With the country slowly opening up I used this month to buy some more essentials as I am hoping to finally be able to spend some money on going out and seeing people in May.

First are the fixed expenses I need to pay each month.

This includes the 1 100 euro I transferred to our joint account for my part of the mortgage,utilities, groceries and such ,,,

My mobile phone subscription of 12 euro (no reduction this month).

A medical bill of 10 euro. Back in February I hurt my richt ankle (again) and just to be on the safe side I had photo’s taken form than foot (it was just sprained). The bill for this came in April.

Then there are a few moments of weakness.

Steam once more seduced me into buyning another game, No man’s sky set me back 54 euro.

I also spend 50 euro on extra food. Most of it was in line with my regime, but not all of it.

And then there was the stuff I decided to buy in April since I was going to end the month below budget anyway.

95 euro went to a new keyboard and mouse as working from home has taken a toll on my home equipment. Fancy new led lights, mmmhh! I actually only needed a mouse and I could have gotten one from work for a few months but I want decent stuff to work with and even pre-Covid I was thinking about buying me better gear for the work place. Now that I work from home there is nothing stopping me setting up my workplace the way I want.

I could have used the Vespa a little bit less and pushed the refill to May but we had a few very nice weather days in April and I enjoy riding my Vespa more than I do using the car so I filled it up in April: 10 euro

With all the exercise I am doing I needed some extra sport outfits. I have been rocking the same short for the last year and it was porbably 10 years old to begin with. I also needed some new underwear. And I define ‘needing new cloth’ not because ‘the colors are a bit faded’ of ‘it went out of style’ but more by the number of holes and how big they are. Trust me when I say I needed them.

All of this on the below photo set me back 97,50 euro.

I may have gone a bit over with the shorts. If my current use of 1 short per decade is any indication this may very well be the last shorts I will buy during my lifetime.