July 2022 Money Review
Here we are again! Another month gone, another money roundup. Time for a July money review. Scary how fast this year is going by – soon it will be Christmas again!
What is a money review?
It is where I share reflections on my finances from the previous month and detail every penny in and out. I find doing this at least monthly is a good way to stay connected to your finances. Plus, I love reading them back in a couple of months!
Why do I share this?
I know it might seem weird to share this on the internet, but I truly believe in creating the type of content that I love, and I am obsessed with seeing what people spend and earn. I also believe that the best way to break the money taboo is to talk openly about it, so here we are! Hopefully you enjoy this type of content too!!
Context
I am a full-time student with a full-time and a part-time job living in the North West. Currently I am living in student accommodation which we pay for termly and all bills are included in our rent. I graduated at the end of July so this will be my last money review as an undergrad student – although I will still be living in my student accommodation until mid-August.
First up, spending!
SPENDING
July has been a bit of a spendy month – sometimes I felt like old Jess, just tapping that card all over the place! But I have the financial foundations in place that I can do this sometimes and easily recover.
Groceries = £12
Ridiculously low this month! Mostly down to my intense work schedule this month, getting free food on shift and spending a week at home – where we ate out an insane amount.
This £12 was on one shop and it wasn’t even a real shop – just a bunch of random bits I ate that night 🙄.
Eating Out = £323.35
Ooof I don’t think I have ever spent this much on eating out in a single month before – absolutely unheard of for me! But it can all be explained and justified 😅. So, let’s break it down….
£101.30 – Sister’s birthday meal
I picked up the bill for all four of us.
£33.32 – whilst at home
The reason I went home for a week was to help my parents move house. And if you’ve ever moved house you’ll know the last thing you want to do is cook. So, we ate a lot of takeaways and picky bits. I picked up the bill for a few of these over the week.
£89.25 – graduation
This includes a meal with my grandparents the night before, a smoothie before the ceremony (I was too nervous to eat real food!), a round of drinks, a maccies at 3am and breakfast for my family the next day!! Not bad all things considered.
£28.02 – food for work peeps
Graduation meant that the pub I work in has been insanely busy! I went out a few times to pick up food for myself and my colleagues. I love that the financial position I am in means I don’t have to stress about expenses like this!
£31.85 – food in Newcastle
My friends and I spent a weekend in Newcastle to celebrate one of my housemates 21st. This covered lunch on the way there, some drunken chips and lunch out the next day! All Newcastle related costs (more to be reported) were covered by my birthdays sinking fund 🎉.
£39.61 – takeaways and snacks on the go
All within my allowance each week so not mad about this!
It doesn’t actually seem that bad when I break it down 😂.
Gifts = £88.63
Had a few birthdays this month plus a couple of expenses which I am classing as gifts – like a food shop for a friend who was isolating with covid.
Transportation = £96.68
Well, I did warn you last month that this category would be increasing dramatically 😅. My bus pass (that I bought for £285 at the start of the academic year) ran out at the start of July so I now have to pay per journey! Thankfully I walk to job #1 and only go onto campus for job #2 so the cost is worth it in the long run.
In July I spent £23.30 on bus tickets, £64.98 on various train tickets (including to and from Newcastle) and £8.40 on parking for my family.
Social = £18
This entire amount was spent on drinks in Newcastle – including a round of shots 🤪. I really didn’t spend all that much because I was already very drunk when we left the birthday girl’s house, having drank her booze all afternoon!
Personal = £6.28
Two necessary and one random purchase makes up this total. Had to buy tampons again – thanks Auntie Flo! My monthly 79p iCloud storage charge is also included in this category. The random purchase was a £3 charge for downloading the land registry on the student house I live. Long story short I got into an argument with the company that manage the house we live in and wanted to know who the legal owner is. Did you know you could download that info online? I didn’t 😂.
Graduation = £38.10
I finally found an outfit!!! Four days before the day – last minute as always 😂. I got a full refund for the other outfits I bought and the one I went with came in under my £50 budget 🎉.
Entertainment = £18.19
Just my two subscriptions in this category this month. Family Spotify plan (£16.99) and book club fees (£1.20). Still haven’t decided what to do about this!
Shopping = £12.99
I have been surviving on perfume dregs for about a month and it was time to finally buy a new one. But I did it the BST way 😂. My favourite perfume is from Zara but there isn’t a store near me, and I detest paying for shipping, so I hate ordering it online. However, one of my housemates was going to a store so I had her pick up my perfume for me and transferred over the money!
TOTAL = £614.22
Considering it’s felt like I’ve been spending out of control this month, it wasn’t actually that bad. However, a lot of my spending was unplanned, so it felt more out of control that it really was. Most of it was covered by various sinking funds and weekly allowance but I did have to use some of my tax refund to make up the difference.
Now, sharing my spending is interesting and all but it’s not valuable without context. So next up, is my income for the month of July!
INCOME
Even though my spending was much higher than usual, my savings rate was still 75%. That’s absolutely insane!
Job #1 = £1227.66
Average amount earnt from job #1 this month! I didn’t work completely full-time in July because I had a few stints of intense shifts at job #2. The pay for these will be in next months review 🎉. I only have two weeks left at job #1, which is absolutely crazy!
Job #2 = £596.22
Nice little savings boost from job #2 this month!! This is payment for the work trip to Cardiff I went on plus a few other shifts I did in June.
P2P Lending Interest = £8.33
Very happy with this totally passive income stream!
Bank Interest = £5.12
Well well well look at this!! Big change from the 8p I made in March from bank interest 🤪. This major increase is down to two accounts – Chase 1.5% savings account and EverUp. I have really been loving EverUp this month and have been playing the games daily (takes minutes). Making a grand total of £3.59 from this!
Tax Refund = £401.80
Finally!! Very happy to finally receive my 21/22 tax refund 🎉. Originally, I had intended for all of this to go into savings, but my spending got in the way and I had to use some of it to catch up.
Other = £179.13
The other category this month includes a couple of refunds, a graduation gift and bank compensation.
Thankfully I got a full refund (£56.95) for the three grad outfits I ordered which didn’t fit. I was getting a bit worried because the site reviews were not great when it came to refunds and it took like 15 days to go through. Thankfully it went through without me having to go full Karen 😂. I also got a full refund (£36.65) on a train ticket because my train was cancelled.
My bank gave me £30 in compensation because their app glitched and I couldn’t see or access £1200 for nearly two weeks. I was happy with this gesture because it was a pain, but I didn’t need to access the money so not a massive problem.
TOTAL = £2418.26
Not a bad month at all! If you have read one of my money roundups before you will already know that I primarily live off my student loan. Therefore, any money made month to month goes straight into savings. Obviously, this month was a slight exception to the rule as I did end up spending a bit of my tax refund. But like always the entirety of the other five income streams went straight into savings.
And finally, a little net worth update!
NET WORTH
Start of the month = £29,566.83
End of the month = £31,394.41
Woohoo!! Back in the thirties 😂.
A combination of having a 75% savings rate plus my investments slowly recovering has led to my net worth increasing this month. Very happy to be back in the thirties!
So that’s it, July done and dusted!
Enjoyed reading this? Why not check out my past money reviews?
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