Summary
Welcome to our December spending post! Our total spend for the month was £2,945.
We bought lots of furniture and general bits for the house this month. Hopefully the total will be much lower next month!
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 | £1,206 | See below |
| Food | £701 | See below |
| Transport | £211 | See below |
| Entertainment/misc | £827 | See below |
| Total | £2,945 |
We break each of these categories down in the following sections, giving detail for any large expenses.
Housing
Our December spending on housing is high!
We moved in at the end of November, so our December spending includes a trip to IKEA for furniture, as well as various bills for the flat and the house.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gas & Electric | £131 | See below |
| Water | £38 | |
| Council Tax | £290 | |
| Internet | £27 | See below |
| Shower Rail | £31 | |
| Furniture | £689 | |
| Total | £1,206 |
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.
In fact, we recently emailed them with a query and got a response resolving it within 3 minutes!!
We also like our internet, which is supplied by Virgin Media. We were surprised by how good their deals are, especially on Black Friday when we signed up. Check them our through this link and we could each get up to £50 cashback if you sign up!
Food
Our December spending on food was £701. This includes everything on our supermarket shop receipts for the month.
This is much higher than usual, but includes things bought for the house at the supermarket, as well as some excessive Christmas food shopping!
Transport
Our December spending on transport is quite normal.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel | £174 | |
| Bus | £4 | |
| Train | £11 | |
| Bike Lock | £22 | |
| Total | £211 |
Entertainment/Misc
Our December spending on misc items is inflated by various miscellaneous spending on the house.
Large items of furniture, appliances etc are included in ‘Housing’ but anything else appears here.
We also bought a new pull-up frame for exercising.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Phone Bills | £12 | |
| Eating Out | £76 | |
| Presents | £60 | |
| Books | £5 | |
| Piano | £20 | |
| House Stuff | £463 | |
| Activities | £15 | |
| Hair Cut | £16 | |
| Pull-up Frame | £160 | |
| Total | £827 |
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!
Previous Posts
Monthly Spending – November 2023