Summary 

December was yet another expensive month for us. Our kitchen was the last room in our house left to overhaul, having moved in nearly 5 years ago. The update was much needed and we’re really happy with the result. It doesn’t make the spending any easier to stomach though! 

As we head into 2020 we’re looking to get back to normal and settle around our desired £2,000 per month spending level. See this post for more detail. 

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	£2,303	See below
Food	£325	See below
Transport	£637	See below
Entertainment/misc	£341	See below
Total	£3,606

We break each of these categories down in the following sections, giving detail for any large expenses.  

Housing

The housing category consists of our mortgage payment, overpayments, bills, insurance, DIY costs etc.  

We had our kitchen renovated just before Christmas. We decided to just update the worktop, sink and hob. We decorated ourselves and are really pleased with the final outcome. It was nice to have a fresh kitchen for our first Christmas hosting others! 

Category	Amount	Notes
Mortgage	£467
Overpayment	£283
Bills	£66	Gas & electricity. Our water bill is split over 8 months so no bill this month!
Council Tax	£101
Internet	£29
DIY	£1,357	Kitchen
Total	£2,303

We continue to be very happy with our energy supplier, Octopus Energy. This month we received a refreshing email from them saying they would again be reducing the cost of our energy, following cuts in wholesale prices.  

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 

We spent £325 on food this month. As explained previously, this includes everything on our supermarket shop receipts for the month. This was a fairly typical month in this category, even despite a few excesses at Christmas! We bought enough meat to feed a small army so we’re hoping to reduce our food costs for the coming months by living off frozen left-overs.  

Transport  

As we explained here, we bought a new car last month. Shortly after that, the car insurance policy was up for renewal. Otherwise, a typical month for transport costs. 

Category	Amount	Notes
Parking	£2
Fuel	£118
Trains	£23
Car Insurance	£464	Annual premium
New Car Tax	£30
Total	£637

Entertainment/Misc 

This was a very standard month in this category, despite the outlays on presents! 

Category	Amount	Notes
Phone Bills	£14
TV License	£13
Lottery	£10
Sports Team Costs	£10	Match fees, floodlights, equipment etc
Presents	£122	The last of our Christmas presents plus some Birthdays for early in the New Year
Contact Lenses	£13
Christmas Tree	£21
Charity	£21
Audiobooks	£12
'Save the Date' postage	£22
Clothes	£10
Meals/Drinks Out	£73	Socialising with friends/family
Total	£341

Wedding 

This month we reluctantly booked a registrar for our wedding. This service seems incredibly expensive for what it is, but we decided in the end we wanted to have the ‘official’ ceremony on the day in our venue.  

As we mentioned in our New Year post, we’re receiving some very generous help towards our wedding costs. The registrar is one of the items we are being helped out with. 

The deposit paid this month was £100, with the final total coming to £625. 

We also paid some postage to send out ‘Save the Date’ cards this month. These are included in the Entertainment/Misc section above and cost us £22. 

Total to date:  

Category	Amount	Notes
'Save the Date' Cards	£26
Postage	£22
Registrar	£100	Deposit paid. £525 more due before wedding.
Total	£148

Previous Posts 

Monthly Spending – November 2019 

Monthly Spending – October 2019 

Full history of Monthly Spending posts here, dating back to March 2019.