I haven't been looking forward to this post. April was expensive, and some of that is my fault. My trip to Scotland was valuable in a sense more important than the monetary one, but not making it as cheap as I could have irks me. This, remember, was also the month I stopped earning a full time wage. Spoiler alert: I do not come out of April 2016 with a balanced budget.
Here's the numbers:
OUTGOINGS
Rent: £650.00
Mobile (£51.20) and phone/internet (£37.50): £88.70
Prescription: £16.80
Food: £18.98
Electricy bill (Dec-Mar): £178.91
Postage: £90.00
Other: £502.77
Total outgoings: £1546.16
INCOME
Income from work: £0
Other (amazon/ebay sales): £230.23
Total income: £230.23
APRIL BALANCE: -£1315.93
If my life was a business, this month it would have been in the red. The board of directors would be unhappy. Share prices would plummet.
But life is not a business, which is the whole point of this exercise. Look at your life as if it was, and then ask yourself, am I happier for it? Am I really, in all senses of the term, "better off"?
So now the issue comes down to simply weighing pros against cons. Is the loss of £1315.93 worth what I have gained this month? Well, what have I gained this month? What have I learned? What I have achieved? Who have I helped, apart from myself? I'll just answer the first question for now. I've gained a complete reset of my biological clock. My trip to Scotland took me out of the world of night time and shift work that's been my life for so long, and into the natural world of day and night, noise and darkness, peace and quiet. Was it worth the material cost? I would say definitely, yes.
And that's actually all I have to say for now. It's time for bed. It's dark. You're supposed to go to bed when it's dark. So goodnight. I'll answer other questions tomorrow.
The Cost of Living: May 2016
The Cost of Living: June 2016
Unshopping
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