You Flew Pretty Good – 2019 in review

Happy new year everyone!  Seeing as we’ve come to end of another year I thought I would do what every other blogger is doing and talk about how the last 365 days went!

With apologies to Sonia Dada there were good times and bad times and something in between, but at the end of it our finances were the best that they’ve ever been, so all up I’d say that it was a pretty good year.

Read on for the details!

Actual spending vs budget

I’ve talked before about how our budget is based on what we’ve actually spent previously.  As I said back then, this way it’s based on reality rather than whatever numbers I could think of at the time of doing up a budget.

As a result of this, spending tends to track reasonably closely to our budget.  This was the case for the first half of the year as I talked about here, and remained fairly true for the second half as well.

Any of our fixed cost bills came in exactly as expected, because whenever the costs change I just update our budget to reflect this.  So changes to expenses like our various insurances (car, home, health, life) or rates are what they are essentially.  Obviously we shop around for the best deal, but once we’ve got that, well the cost is the cost.

Other costs can vary quite a bit though, and we spent both more and less than expected on various categories. 

Overspending

Our car came off it’s fixed service period so now we have to pay a higher cost for the servicing, and we also had to get new tires so the car cost us a lot more this year than it had done previously.  I’m assuming that as the car gets older costs will continue to be higher so I’ve updated our budget to reflect this.

We had a big one off cost for a medical operation I had (don’t worry, it was a one off and I’m in excellent health!) that bumped up our spending there. 

My wife’s phone broke so we had to get her a new one which cost a couple hundred bucks, and we also donated a bit more than we had previously.  Basically my rule with donations is to give $50 whenever any of my friends put something up on FB etc, their kids tend to get $25.  So I guess there were a few more people raising money for good causes this year, which is great news!

Underspending

On the underspending side, we spent less than budgeted for on entertainment like going to concerts, sporting events etc.  This is due to a few different things like having small kids who can’t go to this sort of stuff, living in a regional city so most stuff requires a journey to and from the big smoke which makes it a hassle, and just general laziness. 

I’m still hopeful that we will actually spend our budget on this at some stage because this is what I am aiming for with FIRE, to be able to go to these sort of events on a regular basis.  The good news is we have bought some tickets for the T20 world cup next year so we have something already lined up at least!

We spent a bit less on house maintenance than budgeted for, as I said in my last budget update this is mostly due to it being less than 2 years old so nothing much breaks and if it does then it’s under warranty anyway.

In our half yearly update I talked about our spending on Food and Groceries being lower than expected and not being sure why.  This actually accelerated for the second half of the year where we spent even less than we had done in the first half.  I have no idea why it is as our kids are eating more not less, and presumably we adults are eating roughly the same.

My wife hasn’t changed her grocery shopping strategy where basically most shopping gets done at Aldi but shopping the specials in bulk at Coles/Woolies.  We do get FlyBuys points and my wife is fairly aggressive in making the most of the bonus offers like spend $50 a week for 4 weeks and get $50 off with the points then being spent on more groceries, but she’s been doing that for ages already so I really don’t have an explanation for the lower spending at all.  In light of this reduced spending though I’ve adjusted the budget for next year to reflect the lower than expected cost, but kept it slightly higher as I expect our food bill to go back up as the kids keep growing. 

Relatedly, a great tip which I learned today is that if you are a member of RACV or a bunch of other automobile clubs you can buy Woolworths gift cards for a 5% discount.  Because we don’t spend much there anyway it doesn’t make a huge difference for us but hopefully this will help others!

Our spending on eating out was a bit below budget as well.  This is another area that I’d like to spend more money on, but I also want to optimise.  A fair chunk of this tends to be either me buying snacks to satisfy my sweet tooth, or buying cheap fast food from KFC and the like.  I would prefer that a) I was eating less sweet stuff, b) we spent less on cheap fast food and c) my wife and I spent more on nice experiences  rather than going to the same 3 restaurants any time we have a date night.  Something to work on!

We also spent a fair bit less on utility bills, presumably this is in part due to my wife continuing to shop around and in part just being more efficient with our usage.  I’ve reduced the amount in our budget to reflect the lower spending, we’ll see how it goes.

The last two areas with lower spending were running stuff and subscriptions.  My employer has a program where I get a fixed amount of money to buy health and wellbeing type stuff, and I tend to spend this on running shoes.  I’ve actually built up a little bit of a stockpile so I’m not sure what I’ll spend the money on this year! 

No this isn’t me, the “highlights” of my running have been top 5 finishes at Parkrun!

I also cancelled a couple of subscriptions (The Economist and Xbox Gold) that I just didn’t have time to use.  In both cases I’ve reduced the spending amount in our budget spreadsheet to reflect this.

Spending summary

All up over the course of the year we spent about 2%, more than we had expected.  This was due to some one off costs like my operation, a new computer and some furniture for the house, excluding those we came in about 2% under budget. 

So pretty close to being right in line, which is what you’d expect given our budgeted spending is based on our previous spending. 

Goals reviewed and targeted

I talked at the start of the year about my new years financial resolution being to hit a net savings rate of 52.5% excluding superannuation guarantee contributions.  Given our spending was about 2% over the expected amount we instead managed just over 50%.  Which is near enough as far as I’m concerned, particularly given the overspending was on one offs or items that hopefully won’t be repeated for a while.

Next year we will likely be spending a fair bit less on travel as my wife will likely kill me if we attempt any more long distance overseas trips with young kids, and we can just put the money not spent into savings instead.  We still want to do some travel domestically or to nearby places though so it’s not as though the spending will be zero.

As a result we should probably save a bit over that 52.5% target next year, and probably the year after.  This is obviously dependent on there being no major unexpected expenses that aren’t covered by insurances, so we’ll see how we go!

How was your 2019?  Were you over or under budget?  What goals have you set for next year?

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14 Responses to You Flew Pretty Good – 2019 in review

  1. fiexplorer says:

    A really good and down to earth read! Thanks.

    Congratulations on a fantastic year just passed – and look forward to your progress this year.

    I use exactly the same budgeting approach – reaching abstract spending targets set in advance has never worked for me. And good tip on the 5% discount, will need to look into that.

  2. aussiefirebug says:

    Nice update mate and happy new year!

    Funny enough, I’ve been itching to fire up the Xbox again haha. I’ve spent time with my cousin over Christmas and we’ve been on the Xbox a lot. So much fun! I miss the old uni days of COD WOW so much haha.

    Bring on the new decade 👊

    • Aussie HIFIRE says:

      Thanks mate, hope you had a great Christmas and New Year as well! Have you had any snow in London yet, cause in my experience that tends to shut the city down real quick!

      I would love to be gaming more but between work and family I just don’t seem to have any free time for it unfortunately. I used to play a lot (and I mean A LOT!) of Halo 3 and it’s successors, plus a fair amount of the various COD games as well. And I’m so old that my main games at Uni were Wolfenstein and Mechwarrior!

      • My 3rd son is a gamer and once, years ago, I hopped onto a team game of COD with him and his mates.
        I got stuck in a corner and was helplessly turning round and round. I accidentally killed a zombie.
        My son’s friends were heroically trying to rescue me until Ryan yelled, “LEAVE HER! SHE’S A LIABILITY!!!!”
        After that I decided Tetris was more my thing. On the 64. Happy days…

        • Aussie HIFIRE says:

          Yeah it’s tough playing with noobs, sometimes you just gotta let them die. That was the moral of your story right? 😉

  3. Sounds like a pretty successful year to me. A 50% savings rate is nothing to scoff at.
    Keep up the great work and I’m sure 2020 will be an even better year.

    • Aussie HIFIRE says:

      Thanks Buy Hold Long! We’re pretty happy with the savings rate, certainly there are some areas where we could cut spending if we really wanted to but I’d rather be comfortable than cutting costs to the bone for the next 10 years!

      Hope you have a great 2020!

  4. I’m impressed with how detailed your budget is.
    I don’t have set amounts as such. I put away savings/investments first and then manage what’s left. I usually end up with a surplus.
    Like you, I’ve had a lot of ‘one-off’ expenses last year and definitely this coming year, as I spend up big getting the house Retirement-Ready. I’d rather do these things now while I still have a wage coming in, then I do’t have to spend the money out of my retirement savings later.

    • Aussie HIFIRE says:

      It’s about finding a system that works for you. To be honest I’d probably be just fine doing it your way given I don’t really change any of my major spending decisions anyway, but having a bit of accountability probably helps.

      That makes a lot of sense to me, get your one off expenses paid for while you still have that income from work, particularly if it’s the sort of expense which may end up being more than what you thought it would.

  5. FIREforOne says:

    Nice work, Aussie HIFIRE!

    On the discounted gift cards, if either you or your wife are still working and are in a union, the Union Shopper offers discounts on gift cards for various stores, including Coles.

    • Aussie HIFIRE says:

      Thanks FIREforOne! Neither of us are members of unions, I will see if there are any other ways of getting discounted gift cards for Coles or Aldi though as we spend a fair chunk of money in those stores, particularly Aldi.

  6. Sounds like a pretty full on year you had! And a 50% savings rate as well, nice work! Hope you have a GREAT 2020.

    • Aussie HIFIRE says:

      We kept ourselves busy that’s for sure, and thankfully managed to save a fair amount as well! Thanks very much, hope you have a great year as well!

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