August 2016 is the end of 'stage one'. This month I move from a flat costing me £650-675 a month in rent to one costing £350 a month. Since rent has been my biggest expense up until now, and will probably continue to be for some time, I'm very pleased about this. It's also satisfying that I'm moving only about 10 miles from where I am now, into a one-bedroom flat that's about the same size as the one I'm in at the moment. Manchester city centre has become prohibitively expensive for anyone you might once reasonably have described as "normal". Perhaps it always was: I don't know, or really care. Normal is relative of course, but you know what I mean. Just don't live in a city centre, OK? Trust me on this one. I am not a normal person. That's all I have to say about that.
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| A normal person. |
OUTGOINGS
Food: £168.59
Postage/ebay costs: £89.20
Prescription: £25.20
Rent: £675
Mobile/internet: £87.19
Council Tax: £84.00
Alcohol: £25.14
Deposit and 'admin fee' for new flat: £680.00
Other: £123.64
Total outgoings: £1957.96
INCOME
Income from work: £958.20
amazon/ebay selling: £221.88
Other: £3.30 (refund)
Total income: £1183.38
BALANCE: -£774.58
When you take account of the £680 for the deposit and admin fee I had to pay for the new flat (and what is an 'admin fee', really? Nobody knows) this is an acceptable result. All being well I have a £750 deposit to be returned to me when I move out of where I am now, which brings me to more or less even for this month. What that means is that with my rent about to drop by £325, I can live as I have been doing, sustainably, while working much less than I used to. Goal achieved. What's next? Some more number-crunching, for a start...
The Cost of Living: July 2016
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