Summary
Welcome to our August spending post! Our total spend for the month was £2,415.
It’s another month above our target! This month we had to pay our vehicle tax for the year. We also had a significant spend on eating out, due to a camping trip.
As well as the above, we’re starting to spend more on ‘activities’. Our eldest is starting Reception this September, which means he is now old enough for various sports/activities. We try to favour free stuff, but things like swimming always come at a cost.
We break our main expenses down into broad categories starting with the big 3; housing, food and transport. Everything else falls into the entertainment category, with any large inclusions explained in detail.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | £458 | See below |
| Food | £729 | See below |
| Transport | £319 | See below |
| Entertainment/misc | £882 | See below |
| Total | £2,415 |
We break each of these categories down in the following sections, giving detail for any large expenses.
Housing
Our August spending on housing is fairly standard, with just the usual bills to pay.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gas & Electric | £187 | See below |
| Water | £54 | |
| Council Tax | £188 | |
| Internet | £29 | See below |
| Total | £458 |
We continue to be very happy with our energy supplier, Octopus Energy. Our energy is from 100% renewable sources too which is a great bonus. If you are interested, click through this link and you will get £50 and so will we! It can be hard to find a decent energy company but we really do recommend Octopus.
Food
Our August spending on food was £729. This includes everything on our supermarket shop receipts for the month.
This is higher than usual! We’ve started consciously spending a bit more to get higher quality produce. We’ve been annoyed by the amount of plastic used to wrap fruit & veg in Aldi. We’re also trying to only buy higher quality/organic meat. Obviously these things come with a price!
We signed up for a fruit & veg box from Riverford Organics. So far, the produce seems very high quality and is generally sourced very locally. We’re really happy with the service, which offers various different types/sizes of box, as well as meat boxes and various other products. If you want to give it a go like us, try this link and we’ll get £15 off each! That’s a pretty significant saving.
Transport
Our August spending on transport includes our tax for the year.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel | £129 | |
| Tax | £190 | |
| Total | £319 |
Entertainment/Misc
Our August spending on misc items is much higher than we would like. There’s a large total in eating out, which is because of a camping mini-break we had. We ate out most of the trip, as we were camping near our old home and did lots of catching up with friends in pubs!
We also stocked up on some fresh (second hand) clothes/shoes ready for the new school year, with our eldest starting Reception this year!
This month we bought some new, refillable, foaming hand soaps. We’ve generally used bar soap, to avoid buying plastic bottles every time. But bar soap generally makes a bit of a mess and falls apart quite easily. We thought we would give this a go and it’s great so far! We got 2 bottles and several refills capsules from Raindrop, all for just £18. The bottles look great, and the refills supposedly last a long time – they have so far! If you want to give it a go, here’s a link for £5 off. Let us know what you think!
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Phone Bills | £13 | |
| Eating Out | £308 | |
| Presents | £38 | |
| Activities | £146 | |
| Clothes & Shoes | £144 | |
| Refillable Soap | £18 | |
| Dental | £88 | |
| Camping Crib | £34 | |
| Camping | £64 | |
| Haircut | £16 | |
| Birth Certificate | £13 | |
| Total | £882 |
That’s All for Now, Folks!
We’re looking to reduce our spending in pretty much every area as we settle down to life back in the UK. It will be interesting to see how low we can get our costs! We’re buying our house mortgage free, so we thankfully won’t have to worry about the astronomical interest rates.
Considering the average UK household spend is £2,700 we’re aiming to get down significantly below that level – probably more like £1,500-1,750.
See you next month!