It’s time for monthly check-in on my No Buy Year progress. Today, I’m breaking down my total savings for last month, showing exactly where every euro went across my savings pots and tracking my progress toward my major financial goals.
Monthly Overview & Sweeps
This month was a great test of my weekly cash flow routine. After transferring my weekly contributions to our joint account, funding my fixed bills and keeping my checking account lean (€50–€100 weekly allowance), here is what stayed in my account at the end of the month.
Sub-Pots Breakdown
Here is how my individual savings pots (“sinking funds”) grew in October:
1. Auto Maintenance Pot
Contribution: €20/week
Expenses Paid Out: €0
New Total Balance: €320
2. Health Insurance “Own Risk” Pot
Contribution: €25/week
Progress: €100 / €900.00
3. 3-Month Emergency Fund Pot (Goal: €4,000)
Monthly Swept Amount: €105.75
New Total Balance: €343.71
Highlight of the Month
This month’s rollover is not as exciting as I wanted it to be. I had almost 400 euros saved and ready to go to my emergency fund but a hefty invoice came at the end of the month and depleted most of my “Free Savings” pot. Luckily for me it was a one time expense and an invoice like this won’t happen anytime soon. At least I hope not.
Focus for Next Month
We are moving in November to a new place, so I’m not sure how saving will go next month, especially because my salary for next month will be a little bit lower, due to days off I had to take for the move. I will be paid for those days from my holiday hours but it won’t be as much as if I was actually working.
But I will keep my No Buy Year promise and only get absolute necessities for our household. It is tempting to upgrade certain things as we move but we will have to do with what we have.
For example, we know that our couch needs replacing and we were looking into getting a new one for the new home but as we sat down to do our household budget, we realized we cannot afford an upgrade yet. That’s why our old couch will move with us to the new place and we will save up to get a new one in an upcoming year.
Both me and my partner agreed that it is not wise to finance things like this and we are okay with waiting a bit longer, until our shared savings grow.
The move will wipe out our shared savings, so upcoming months are going to be focused on stashing away as much money as possible. I hope we won’t have any surprises in upcoming months but there are things that are uncertain, like our utilities in a new place. That’s why we have to be very careful with our spending in general, aside from my No Buy Year journey.
How did your savings or budget goals go last month? Let’s chat in the comments!
Leave a Reply