Expenditure Tracker - February 2012

As a reminder to the readers my monthly expenditure goals are as follows:

• $3,300 increase per month in my share investments


• $1,600 increase per month net increase in my loan offset account


• $1,500 increase personal expenditure allowed per month

In February 2012 this whole system seemed to go haywire. The main problems were around my personal expenditure (again) and as mentioned last month, if this continues into next month I will need to consider whether I've underestimated the amount I require to live on. I realise that many people would say that $1,500 per month is more than sufficient however as argued in my new years goals - I do enjoy some of the nicer things in life and I want to be realistic when setting my expenditure goals.

Below are my monthly performance numbers along with the over / under expenditure associated with them:

• Share Investments: +$1,125 ($2,175 under)


• Home Loan Offset Account: +$2,888 ($1,288 over)


• Personal expenditure: $2,748 ($1,248 over)

On a cumulative basis (January 2012 - February 2012) the accounts are as follows:

• Share Investments: +$6,125 ($475 under)


• Home Loan Offset account: +$2,597 ($603 under)


• Personal expenditure: $5,451 ($2,451 over)

In this month my personal over-expenditure cut into my investment programme significantly. On a cumulative basis however I am only ~$1,100 behind which isn't that big of a problem. The biggest problem I foresee for the next month is that based on my credit card expenditure I am already very far ahead of my personal expenditure cap (I believe March 2012 will be the largest credit card bill I've ever received). As a consequence both my share investments and home loan offset account will suffer.