Where is the money going?

As part of the 31 NSD trial, I went through our expenses over the last few months and had a closer look at what we were spending money on.

A lot of money goes out every month on smallholding feed, equipment, fencing, medication and vet bills. I can mostly plan for the things needed but not emergencies requiring vets or fencing because the sheep have executed a mistimed Fosbury Flop and hurt themselves or got their heads stuck and thrashed until a fence post snaps. It is still worth keeping livestock as the quality of the meat and eggs is much better than what we could buy in shops.

The car is always springing something on us. February was two tyres for £103, neither planned, because we noticed the sidewalls had cracked. March was a new light unit for £15. We got away lightly last month.

The cat's vet costs are just ridiculous at the moment. Georgie was diagnosed with a thyroid problem at the beginning of March, had two sets of blood tests, expensive medication and a tooth extracted plus tooth cleaning. Fleagle has a problem with a lump under her tongue, which has necessitated three vets visits and two lots of meds. She goes back next week for an examination of that lump under anaesthetic and a tooth clean plus blood tests. The insurance should cover some but not all the costs of these two - Petplan would only offer us a shared responsibility policy for two elderly cats - so that's something but vet bills are now shaping up to be a regular expense so I need to find cheaper sources of medication for them instead of shelling out full price all the time.

I have discovered that we seem to pick up the tab for things more often that we should and overspend on people's birthdays and anniversaries. £30 for a relative's birthday lunch for the two of us turned into £90 last month because we picked up the tab for everyone. I can't even pretend alcohol was involved in the decision making on that one, we were drinking lemonade. I have realised we need to be a bit meaner because I can't remember the last time someone paid for us. If I budget £30 for a gift, we'll end up spending £40 by the time we take into account a card, maybe flowers and a birthday cake.

Finally, charity shops, car boot sales, etc. I've said before that these two end up not being such a cheap hobby, especially if you don't need the stuff you buy. You just end up piling more stuff into the house. I mostly gave up regular Sunday car boot sales before we moved here, as I was spending £20-£30 a week on bags full of stuff and cluttering up the house. Done the odd one as I've come across it but nothing planned. Unfortunately, regular charity shopping took its place. Analysis of the receipts shows I'm not just buying stuff in the charity shops, I might go into Savers or Boots and buy something, then I'll find something in the library in the For Sale section, then I'll have tea and cake at a local hospice cafe to support them and finish off my 'cheap day out' looking around Sainsbury's. Breaking that habit in Feb/March was the best thing I could have done, because that was shaping up to be a £20-£30 a week habit as well plus whatever I bought in Sainsbury's 'off-list'.

In all I can see where economies need to be made and habits need to be changed, because we're spending our early retirement. If we continue like this we will miss out on retiring early together, which we will always regret.

We need to refocus our commitment to our long-term plans.