Beads, budgeting (revisited) and bangles

It was the start of a new month, one that should have seen me both step onto that Bead Wagon & try out a new skill (more on that later)... well that Bead Wagon must have been going way too fast to stop to allow me to step on it, as I succumbed before breakfast with a big purchase (but great bargain naturally - see photos below) and I finished the day with Goldmine's Critter Crawl... oops!

1 bangle!

2 bangles!!

3 bangles!!!

A'hem... my only saving grace and escape from eating beans on toast for the rest of July is I also scored a bargain on my car insurance renewal, so my beads & bargain have at least been paid for without resorting to raiding my boiler fund - my favourite back of the sofa place for unexpected bead indulgences!

So given I've had a narrow escape on a month of eating beans... how is it all going on the budgeting front?

It all started with this post and as I blogged the progress of the May bead embargo I set myself some very challenging goals.  Given a bit of reflection, and a bit of spending, I've figured out that those goals were a bit too challenging... time for a rethink!

As comic timing would have it - Victoria over at Endangered Trolls just alerted us all to a UK retailer sale as I was writing this... go here for details!

So for the next 6 months, including all the unplanned/unexpected spending I've done for the "didn't get back on the wagon" in June and the "the wagon didn't stop long enough for me to get on it" in July I'm aiming for a total spend of around 5% of my net income, from my originally rather harsh target of 1.5% per month!

Although as I've spent a lot of that already, ironically what's left is about 1.5% per month - it's going to be a tough year!!!

Day 26 of a self-imposed bead embargo and some maths!

Well I thought I'd pop in and let you know how it's all been going.

Heap'o'beads

The last two weeks have been rather tricky, there have been, and still are, several really gorgeous beads for sale at fab prices and it's been hard to resist snapping up a couple, especially as I was in the right place at the right time for some classic core Navy Galaxies... but resist I did, and to date I still have.

Part of what is helping this week is knowing that I have a "troll date" with some lovely friends next weekend and I've budgeted for this as a special occasion.  If I find the right kit of the Trollbeads Summer Stones 31st May release I intend to indulge myself fully.  Plus there will be so many other beads my friends own to drool over I should get my troll fix by the bucket load, but I needed something more if I'm ever going to spend what I want to on my jewellery without going slightly crazy on all the bargains out there.

So I did some back of the fag packet* maths.

In the first 6 months of this year (providing I stick to my self-imposed bead embargo and budget) I will have still spent the equivalent of 20% of my take home pay on jewellery, mostly Trollbeads, compared to the equivalent of 7% on savings.  Now that maths looks a little bit wrong to me, although I'm sure I can conjure up a fabulous argument regarding investment vs spending when it comes to jewellery, which to some extent is true should I ever decide in the future to sell my collection.  Fat chance of that though, as whilst I may part with the odd bead or two that are not working out for me, I buy my jewellery primarily to wear - not because of it's collectible value.

Having said that I must admit, like many collectors, I do get a certain buzz off picking up something up that's a bit rare or limited/special edition or hunting out, or discovering something that I really want.  All this despite denying what several friends have independently called my Pokemon addiction - although I do see the similarities, especially when I've collected the zodiac birthstone stars, twice!

Whilst you may be amazed that anyone can not spend 27% of their take home pay on everyday essentials, looking back at the last 6 months it has all been at the expense of everything else e.g. very little day-to-day spending on essentials bar what you need to exist, plus the odd bottle of wine, as some things, like last weekend's festival, have been paid for well in advance, 12 months ago in fact for Bearded Theory!

So I've rejigged some figures on that virtual fag packet for what I'd like to be spending on jewellery for the remainder of the year and I'm aiming for an incredible 1.5% of my take home pay and an average of 2% thereafter.  Now I appreciate that most folk don't buy their jewellery like an accountant, nor do I, so this will be an interesting experiment.  Normal willpower hasn't worked well in the past so I thought I'd throw some cold hard logic over the situation to see if that works any better?


*or it's modern day equivalent of a few formulae in an excel spreadsheet