Financial Overview 2009: Expenditure

The Surprises
Wow. I knew I spent a lot of money on transport (for someone who lives less than half an hour from work), but I didn’t realise it claimed approx. 23% of my yearly expenditure.
I thought my mobile phone bills would be less. I don’t speak much on the thing so why is it claiming around 10% of my annual expenditure? I shall be making some adjustments to my price plan very soon.


The Expected
Electricity, water, landline, internet, TV and food bills didn’t surprise me. What can I say? I like to eat and I like to be warm in my flat. The others are fixed prices spread over the year.
Entertaining and miscellaneous expenses could be reined in, but given there was a lot of fun had and some curveballs thrown in 2009, not a bad result.


Against Last Year

Even though I earned less in 2008, overall I seem to have spent more – quite a bit more actually. I blame it on the cost of living alone, acquiring household appliances and excessive commuting to London. In 2009, I monitored my expenditure a lot better. I noted down most purchases and updated my spread sheets regularly.

Thank goodness for birthday money in 2009. I am ashamed to say I spent most of it – partly on birthday-related things (party dress, party shoes, party etc.) and partly towards funding my trip to the USA. My Entertaining and Miscellaneous figures would be much higher if not for the offset.