Bruce's journal (original) (raw)

At the end of 2004, I made a note of the state of my finances. Surprisingly, life's not gotten any more expensive - my monthly bill burden is still £1,450.

However, I've noticed that I'm not tucking much money away into savings - so I decided to have a quick look at my monthly outgoings after bills:

• £580 goes on toys - CDs, movies, laser pointers, inflatable dragons and the like
• £320 goes on travel - and the bulk of that (£270) is airfares
• £310 goes on food
• £190 goes to friends or charity
• £170 gets put into my savings account - down from £240 in 2004
• £780, however, is simply drawn out of cash machines - and it's hard to say where all of that goes (but my guess is more food and beer) As a slightly late New Year's Resolution, therefore, I intend to use my cards in preference to cash so that I can track my expenditure more closely.

I'm staggered by the amount I spend on stuff. I've been telling people for ages that I'm not buying as much because I've nowhere to put it in my 1-bed flat - but, apparently, I'm merely buying smaller things at much the same rate.