Did I Keep to a Budget in 2017?

You might remember that at the start of last year I wrote a post about going with a book buying budget instead of a book buying ban. In case you don’t, I  gave myself the loose goal to not spend more than 50,- Euro on books each month (with the exception of gifts and the Boekenfestijn which got its own budget). You can find the whole post here.

Even though I didn’t nesseciarly meant it as a goal it sometimes felt like that. I tried very hard to keep track of what I spend. It was very confronting at times to see how much I would spend and how much my husband actually gave me too. A lot of those that my husband gifted I also counted. He buys me books every month that I would have bought myself otherwise. I feel as if they don’t really count as gifts then, especially since everything is ours instead of his and mine. Though we do still have seperate accounts, haha. We’ve just never bothered getting a joined one.

Fail or Pass?

In any case I will share whether or not I failed each month. I’m not sharing how much I spend. I share a lot, but not that much. Wink. For the Boekenfestijn and the Deventer book market I each had a seperate budget of about 70,- Euro

January – FAIL (but only by a few Euro’s)
February – Pass
March – FAIL
April  – Pass
May – FAIL
June – FAIL
July – EPIC FAIL
August – Pass
September – SMALL EPIC FAIL
October – STOPPED COUNTING KIND OF EPIC FAIL
November – EPIC PASS
December – Pass

Boekenfestijn – EPIC PASS
Deventer Book Market – FAIL (but only by a bit)

Clearly, I have a problem. But you all already knew that. I think there are about three things here that made me fail in these months. They all kind of hang together though.

Pre Ordering Months in Advance

As I have mentioned before last year, I had been pre ordering more books . This happens sometimes a few months in advance. Which is great because there are always books coming in. The downside is that there have been months where I had three pre orders coming in that month. However I did not have the enjoyment of actually buying a book that month which sprung forth impromptu book buying moments. I have no self control. In that case the amount of books and money does stack up.

Buying More New Releases

Next to the downside of pre ordering, new releases just aren’t always the cheapest. I’ve been buying more releases as I have been seeing so many interesting books on my twitter and goodreads timeline it has been hard to resist them.

Buying More Hardcovers

Which automatically brings us to the next related item. I’ve been buying more hardcovers, especially when it comes to new releases. Hardcovers have been slowly seducing me over the last few years. It doesn’t help that a bunch of new releases don’t have paperbacks coming out until a year later. And all those pretty editions. I really have no self control. But hardcovers are more expensive.

Verdict?

I shouldn’t be allowed around books with my wallet.