Welcome to our January spending post! Our total spend for the month was £5,216 or $6,259.
As we’ve mentioned before, the goal is to get our spending below $5,000 as often as possible. We paid for our holiday accommodation this month, but otherwise haven’t done too badly!
Continue reading “Monthly Spending – January 2023 “Here it is! Our financial review for 2022. Below, we’ll detail how we each got on this year, including progress towards our FIRE goals.
If you want to see a more personal review of 2022, see this post by Mr Way.
As we’ve mentioned elsewhere, moving to the Caribbean has come with some significant moving costs. We’ve also ramped up our spending since we want to make the most of our time here. Because of this, we haven’t actually added to our FIRE funds since moving.
We did add a large lump sum in March, from the proceeds of our UK house sale.
As 2023 arrives, we do have a bit of a stash starting to appear in our Caribbean account, so we’ll look to put some money into our savings shortly.
Continue reading “2022 Financial Review”It’s time for my 2022 Personal Review – what a year it has been!
First and foremost, Happy New Year to you all! Hopefully 2023 brings you health, happiness and prosperity.
My 2021 review promised that the blog would become a priority for us again. Unfortunately, this hasn’t happened yet, due to the chaos of setting up our new lives in the Caribbean! Fingers crossed 2023 sees us finally find the time.
The start of 2022 saw us unravelling the lives we had built in the UK. I had lived in the same place for nearly 14 years. We owned our home and had lots of commitments, both personal and professional. We also had lots of belongings!
Selling our house was a huge undertaking, but a very interesting process to go through for the first time. Alongside selling the property itself, we also got rid of most of our belongings. As someone who had been wanting to live a more minimalist life, having to fit everything you own into suitcases is quite a strong motivation to get on with it!
We didn’t quite manage to achieve the goal, because we’ve left a lot of sentimental belongings at parents’ houses. Nevertheless, the process has been very freeing and is something we’ll try hard not to go back on without good reason.
As well as the physical ‘stuff’, we also had a lot of loose ends to tie up. I was the Chairman of my local tennis club, which was upsetting to leave behind. However, I hadn’t been able to play for a while due to a long-term injury, which made the decision easier in the end.
I was at the point where I really hated my old job so going into 2022, I was VERY happy to be leaving that aspect of my old life behind.
Continue reading “2022 Personal Review – Mr Way”Welcome to our December spending post! Our total spend for the month was £5,185 or $6,324.
December saw us visit New York for a week to get our wintery Christmas fix. We hadn’t been to New York before so we did a lot of the ‘touristy’ activities, meaning a lot of expense! We also ate out a lot so the costs quickly added up. It was all very much worth it though, we loved it!
Over the Christmas break we’ve also been planning our next trip, which will be to Antigua in April! We paid for the flights in December so that has added a large sum to this month’s spending!
Continue reading “Monthly Spending – December 2022 “Welcome to our November spending post! Our total spend for the month was £5,185 or $6,324.
Throughout November we had 2 sets of visitors, so we spent quite a lot on eating out and doing trips etc! Everything is really expensive here, so it very quickly adds up.
Continue reading “Monthly Spending – November 2022 “Welcome to our October spending post! Our total spend for the month was £5,594 or $6,433.
We’re generally expecting to be closer to $5,000 in a ‘typical’ month, so this was a bit above our expectations. This is mostly due to booking flights for our New York trip, as well as extra expenses with visitors in town!
Continue reading “Monthly Spending – October 2022”Welcome to our September spending post! Our total spend for the month was £5,455 or $6,273.
We’re generally expecting to be closer to $5,000 in a ‘typical’ month, so this was a bit above our expectations. This is mostly due to booking a trip to New York!
Continue reading “Monthly Spending – September 2022 “Welcome to our August spending post! Our total spend for the month was £4,383 or $5,259.
With our UK visit over, August was about settling back into our new routine in the Caribbean. Spending wise, we had a fairly consistent month and would be happy if we could stick around this level for the next few months!
Continue reading “Monthly Spending – August 2022 “Welcome to our July spending post! Our total spend for the month was £5,042 or $6,049.
Our July spending was quite high across the board. This is because we spent most of the month back in the UK! Mr Way was back for 2 weeks, with Mrs Way and Baby Way staying for 4. It was great to see family and friends and experience some of the hottest UK weather ever!
With everything being so expensive in the Caribbean, we took the opportunity to fill our suitcases with cheaper clothes, food, toys etc. It made July very expensive, but will save us a fortune over the next few months!
Continue reading “Monthly Spending – July 2022 “Welcome to our June spending post! Our total spend for the month was £3,601 or $4,321.
Our June spending was much lower than the previous two months. We’re finally settling into life in the Caribbean and most of the large start-up costs are now out of the way.
It’s still significantly higher than our living costs in the UK, but we would be very happy if we could consistently spend under $4,500.
Continue reading “Monthly Spending – June 2022 “