Budgeting: Wise Choices, Computers and Crypto Coin

Ever since I left my father’s house, now nearly twenty years ago, I’ve had some sort of budget. At the moment, I live very comfortably and have nothing to complain about, but things haven’t always been like this.
I’ve had times where I had very little money to spend and had to keep a tight budget to pay all my bills. So far, I’ve always succeeded in doing that, without receiving substantial money from others.
There are several reasons I manage to stay within budget and a few of how we hope to save some money in the nearby future…

Separate Grocery Money Account

I’ve always kept my grocery-money apart from my regular account.
Due to Covid, I’m not as strict with that rule as I have been in the past. Since we won’t go to the store anymore to pick up what we’ve forgotten, my supermarket budget for my weekly delivery has increased a little.
The reason for keeping this money apart is to prevent it from disappearing into unexpected bills. Of course, I make sure to have sufficient funds in my regular account for the usual bills, but there are always some that escape my attention.

Revising Our Budget

Once in a while, usually at least once a year, we go over all our expenses. Sometimes we do this manually, but I’ve also used online tools. For instance, this is how we discovered exactly how much money we were spending drinking coffee in town. We thought it wasn’t so bad, but when you do that once or twice a week, it adds up.

Cheap Clothing

Like Marie described in her post on budgeting, I don’t like to spend money on clothing. Since I have four cats, I feel like I don’t deserve expensive clothes. Within seconds they’re covered in cat hair anyway, and they often make tears and loops in the fabric. Add to that my utter lack of fashion sense.
I only buy basics. A couple of months ago, I ordered some cheap dresses online. One of them I like so much, I ordered three more in different colours. So right now, that’s all I wear. I’m not even sure it looks good, but they’re comfortable, and right now, that’s all that matters.

Computer Investment

Both my husband and I don’t like saving money. We have an emergency budget, but not much more.
I used to set apart a set amount of money every month, but with today’s interest rate, that’s almost of no use.
Instead, we have come up with a different idea. We’re going to buy two new computers. We’ll set apart a little money every month and buy components when they are available. They’ll be mainly our gaming systems, but we could use them for work if need be.
We’ve already bought two casings and a power supply. Since there are difficulties with the supply of graphic cards, we actually need to wait a few months before this project can continue. For us, it’s a good way of investing in our future.

Crypto coins

Something else we’ve recently started doing is investing in crypto coins through Bitvavo.com. We have no knowledge of how to trade, but we took some pocket money and bought coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, amongst others.
It’s great fun to see your investment grow. I bought 10 Euros worth of coins, and after only a week, I’m at this moment on Eur 12,29. That’s more returns than I’ve had on my savings account in a long time.
It’s trading, so you can lose it all as quickly as you win it, but we play it safe. And no, I’m not gonna sell my house and invest that amount.

We’re Okay

We’re doing well right now, budget-wise. And like Marie, I’ve often felt like an angel is watching over me and makes money come in when I need it the most.
We have plenty of money, often even more than I realise, but I do think we’re doing it right. It’s better to live and enjoy your funds today, instead of putting it all aside when you could be dead tomorrow. You just gotta play it safe.

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