Tweaking the Budget

Things started off well with the food. We have spent very little on actual food, and have managed to reduce our takeaways down to practically nothing. However, there have been a few expenses not allowed for.

Week One saw us spending money on postage and getting a bigger bill for the chemist than anticipated. We also needed to spend some money at the hardware store for small things like screws and seeds. Overall we only went over our budget by $10.60

Week Two also turned out to be expensive, with food coming in just slightly over budget, but that did include stocking up on cat food. Main expense was alterations for clothing I bought for the upcoming trip. As I haven’t sewn in a lot of years, I did not feel that I had enough experience to do the alterations in a professional enough manner. Budget blew out by $69.40, otherwise it would have come in under budget.

I went back and re-tweaked the budget to reflect a more reasonable expectation of what we could achieve. Looking at coming expenses, I am sure that the new budget will be achievable.

Am currently spending time helping Mum to make some new clothes for the coming cruise. They have 8 formal nights and 8 semi-formal nights, as well as 17 casual nights. At 88 years of age, Mum does not have a lot of these sort of clothes. So far, with my daughter’s assistance, we look like getting everything ready in time.

Our visa has arrived for China, our tickets are all printed out, just the transport to and from the airport left to arrange. Mum and I are so looking forward to this trip. Our trip of a lifetime!