Do you ever have those times where you just feeling like cash is flying out the door? It’s been one of those months at ThriftyChap HQ. Let’s take a look at why we’ve been spending money, what we’ve been spending it on and how we plan to bounce back from handing over the cash.
Unavoidable Costs
So often in life there are unavoidable costs. Things go wrong, this need to be replaced. We are fortunate enough to have an emergency fund which can be dipped into in times of need. That doesn’t stop me thinking too much about the cash being spent which wasn’t planned. Also, thinking about replenishing the emergency fund! This month has consisted of many unexpected and perhaps unavoidable costs.
Firstly, we had to put the van through it’s MOT and service at the beginning of the month. That was a big hit. It needed quite a bit of work doing to it but we bought it knowing we’d have to fund it year-in-year-out. It’s a lifestyle and this is why we pop a bit of cash into a campervan fund every now and then. After that pricey bill from the garage, I bought a new battery for the van too. The garage had said the battery wasn’t fantastic and we’d already had issues with it starting up in cold weather. A new battery was bought and whilst it was an extra expense, spending money on things which make life better is a good thing in my opinion. The van now starts up perfectly, every time.
Since then, we had a nail in the tyre of our car. To be fair, the MOT & service of the car is due next months (another expense!) and the two rear tyres have never been changed, so it was probably going to be flagged up that they were close to needing to be changed anyway. Instead of just getting one done, I got both done at the same time. Two new tyres so the family can drive around happily on the road. Finally, this is probably one of the most annoying ones, broke my camera.
I don’t know if you know that I run a photography YouTube channel as well? I enjoy getting out and about in nature and creating behind the scenes videos of my adventures. Well, I went to the coast to take photos of Storm Ciara battering Blackpool and my camera fell victim to the sea spray and rain. Repairing it would have been around £200, if they could repair it. If not, it’d cost £50 to be looked at anyway. So I thought, having had it for over 7 years, was it worth it? I found a slight upgrade camera body for not much more than the repair would have cost so I bought the new camera body.
Future Spending
Our future spending next month will hopefully include less broken gear and vehicle spends, although as I mentioned we do need the MOT and service doing on the car. We also need to buy the eldest boys a bunk bed as they want to room share. This will include a new mattress as we only have one single bed in the house, so the youngest of the two will move from a toddler bed to a single bed, hence the new mattress requirement.
I’m also debating getting new passports for all of us. My passport expired a couple of years ago and I’ve never thought about getting it renewed as I hadn’t had plans to go anywhere. As my wife’s has also now expired, I’m considering whether we need to get them for us and the kids. It’ll be a few hundred quid but it might be worth it. With my sister in Australia and my Mum ending up in hospital when she visited New South Wales over Christmas, I think having a valid passport would be a good idea. There’s no real rush with that yet though. Apart from everything mentioned, I’m hopeful that we can keep costs low for the next month or so.
Side Hustling
Whilst I’ve been spending money, I’ve also been trying to earn it. I’ve been clearing out our loft, which has basically been a storage unit since we moved in. Boxes of all shapes and sizes just rammed in. It needed organisation. We’ve now been through all the boxes and I’ve been flogging stuff on Ebay. I’ve also listed my broken camera body on there and earned over £100 for it.
Spending money is a nightmare at times but it comes with life. Things happen, accidents happen, it’s all part of it. What have you been spending money on this month? Let me know over on Twitter.
