Summary
Our February spending went slightly over our target of £2,000 with a total spend of £2,391 because of a few big expenses. Most of these were annual amounts so should average out through the year. See the sections below for a breakdown!
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 | £923 | See below |
| Food | £380 | See below |
| Transport | £120 | See below |
| Entertainment/misc | £968 | See below |
| Total | £2,391 |
You can see in the graph below that we now have a full 12 months worth of spending history! Over the past 12 months we’ve spent a total of £39,666. That’s a lot of money!
We’ve explained previously why there are such large blips in the graph but if you don’t know yet, see a link to all previous spending posts at the bottom of the page.
We break each of our spending 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.
A typical month with just the usual bills to pay!
| 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 | £6 | |
| Total | £923 |
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 £381 on food this month. As explained previously, this includes everything on our supermarket shop receipts for the month. It was slightly higher than normal as we bought a few presents/medical items at the supermarkets.
Transport
A couple of long trips but it’s a good month for travel costs.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel | £116 | |
| Bus | £4 | |
| Total | £120 |
Entertainment/Misc
Quite an expensive month in this category. A new phone, an insurance premium, a large professional fee bill and pre-paying for a holiday in April all added up! Further explanations below.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Phone Bills | £14 | |
| TV License | £13 | |
| Lottery | £8 | |
| Sports Team Costs | £20 | Match fees, floodlights, equipment etc |
| Mobile Phone | £130 | See below |
| Mobile Phone Accessories | £27 | Case, screen protector & extra charger |
| Baby Book | £9 | See below |
| Baby Scan Photo | £5 | See below |
| Baby Bath | £5 | See below |
| Professional Fees | £393 | Mr Way's professional body annual fee |
| Life Insurance | £72 | Annual premium |
| Eating Out/Cafes | £67 | |
| Clothes | £53 | |
| Blog Hosting | £30 | See below |
| April Trip Costs | £122 | We're going away for a friend's wedding in April. Costs paid this month include 4 nights' accommodation. We're turning it into a mini-break! |
| Total | £968 |
Mr Way finally bought a new mobile phone this month. His old phone had lasted him 6 years! It had finally got too slow to cope with!
After a lot of research, he decided to buy a Motorola Moto G7 Power*. First impressions are great and the battery is incredible! Fingers crossed this one lasts 6 years too!!
This month we also had to pay our renewal for the hosting of our blog on Bluehost. We’ve used Bluehost since we started and we’re really happy with the service they provide. If you’re interested in joining them, follow this link*! You’ll get a cheap, reliable hosting platform and we’ll get a referral bonus. Win win!
*Affiliate links – we earn a small commission if you buy through any of the above affiliate links marked with a star.
Running Totals
There are a few big things going on in our lives at the minute. We wanted to this section to the end of our Monthly Spending posts to keep track of our total spending on both the wedding and Baby Way.
To be honest this is as much for our own interest/records as it is for our readers!
While these aren’t all spending items from this month, we think it’s useful to keep ‘running totals’ for these longer term categories.
Wedding
No extra wedding costs this month! We need to get a move on…
Total to date:
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 'Save the Date' Cards | £26 | |
| Postage | £22 | |
| Registrar | £100 | Deposit paid. £525 more due before wedding. |
| Total | £183 |
Baby Costs
As we start to prepare for Baby Way it feels right to also include a breakdown of these costs here.
All of our baby-related spending will appear in Entertainment/Misc for now, but we’ll also track it separately here. We’re convinced we can spend significantly less than our peers so it’ll be interesting to see how we get on!
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pregnancy Vitamin Tablets | £8 | |
| Antenatal Class | £80 | |
| Cot | £80 | |
| Nappies | £100 | Second hand reusable nappies |
| Pram | £0 | Free!! |
| Baby Book | £9 | See below |
| Baby Scan Photo | £5 | See below |
| Baby Bath | £5 | See below |
| Total | £287 |
Baby Book
We took out a hypnobirthing book from the local library last month. Hypnobirthing is essentially an approach to birth based around staying as relaxed and in control as possible. It has helped countless women to have a much more relaxed and enjoyable birthing experience and we wanted to learn all about it.
Unfortunately, we were only part way through the book when it needed to be returned to the library. We liked it so much that we were happy to buy it. It even comes with free audio tracks to help you along.
The book we chose was Your Baby, Your Birth: Hypnobirthing Skills For Every Birth by Hollie de Cruz*. Our initial reaction was that hypnobirthing sounded weird, but to be honest it’s not a very good name. It essentially means approaching your birth in a mindful and calm manner and being in control of your decisions etc. We love it!
*Affiliate links – we earn a small commission if you buy through any of the above affiliate links marked with a star.
Baby Scan Photo
We had our 20 week scan this month. At our 12 week scan we managed to get a free scan photo. This time we weren’t so lucky! Photos are a rather extortionate £5 each but we wanted one for the memory.
Baby Bath
This month we also picked up a baby bath from Facebook market place for £5! Another bargain we think!
See you next month.
Previous Posts
Monthly Spending – January 2020