Summary
Welcome to our February spending post! Our total spend for the month was £2,365.
The next few months are likely to be a bit over our ‘normal’ target of £2,000 a month due to our impending wedding. We’re busy planning because it looks like we’ll be able to go ahead, assuming the opening up roadmap all goes to plan. Our base costs are very similar to normal.
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 | £940 | See below |
| Food | £370 | See below |
| Transport | £0 | See below |
| Entertainment/misc | £1,055 | See below |
| Total | £2,365 |
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.
Our February spending was fairly standard in the housing category.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mortgage | £415 | |
| Overpayment | £335 | |
| Bills | £66 | Gas, electricity & water. |
| Council Tax | £105 | |
| Internet | £19 | |
| Total | £940 |
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 February spending on food was £370. As explained previously, this includes everything on our supermarket shop receipts for the month.
Transport
Another zero transport month!
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel | £0 | |
| Total | £0 |
Entertainment/Misc
This is where the damage is done! We’ll explain all of the wedding items below but that’s where the extra spending all falls this month!
We also had to renew our blog hosting. We use Bluehost and have been very happy with them so far. We’ve had no major issues and the pricing seems reasonable! Check them out on this (referral) link.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Phone Bills | £10 | |
| TV License | £13 | |
| Lottery | £8 | |
| Eating Out | £54 | |
| Presents | £24 | |
| Life Insurance | £72 | |
| Charity | £31 | |
| Plants | £32 | |
| Bedding | £53 | |
| Blog Hosting | £30 | |
| Wedding Returns Postage | £14 | See below |
| Wedding Shoes | £84 | See below |
| Wedding Clothes | £68 | See below |
| Bridesmaid Dress | £12 | See below |
| Wedding Crockery | £535 | See below |
| Baby Cream/Tablets | £15 | See below |
| Total | £1,055 |
Running Totals
There are a few big things going on in our lives at the minute. We wanted to add 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
Full steam ahead! The new Government roadmap has all restrictions lifted on 21st June, so our wedding should go ahead as it’s booked for a month later.
Mr Way has been trying on lots of clothes, shoes, and we’ve bought loads of crockery! More details follow the table.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 'Save the Date' Cards | £26 | |
| Postage | £22 | |
| Registrar | £100 | Deposit paid. £525 more due before wedding. |
| Photographer | £238 | Deposit paid. More due before wedding depending on package. |
| Band | £100 | Deposit paid. £700 more due before wedding. |
| Cards | £10 | |
| Evening Food | £246 | Deposit paid. £983 more due before wedding. |
| Dress | £350 | Deposit paid. £388 more due before wedding. |
| Food | £52 | Deposit paid. £154 more due before wedding. |
| Returns Postage | £14 | See below |
| Shoes | £84 | See below |
| Clothes | £68 | See below |
| Bridesmaid Dress | £12 | See below |
| Crockery | £535 | See below |
| Total | £1,144 |
Returns Postage
Trying on clothes without the shops open is quite a faff. Mr Way has been ordering lots of stuff online, which sometimes incurs return postage costs. We would probably have spent money travelling to shops in normal times, so at least we can offset it against that.
Shoes
We absolutely love Vivobarefoot shoes. Mr Way was really happy when he found some ‘smart’ looking ones on sale. They’re the Ra Lux brown shoes and were reduced to £105. Quite a lot for a pair of shoes, but Vivos are incredibly comfy and great for your feet. A further bonus was that the shoes had a few scuff marks so we got a further 20% off!
If you’re interested in barefoot shoes, send us a message and we can send you a referral for 20% off your first Vivo order!
Clothes
Mr Way’s outfit is getting close. It’s a summer wedding and we aren’t going for the full smart look. Mr Way found some ‘smart’ chinos on a big discount. He got them for £32, down from £99! He also bought a shirt.
Bridesmaid Dress
We’re really chuffed with this!! Yes you saw the total right – we managed to find a bridesmaid dress for £12 on Asos. She loves it and it looks great – what more could you ask for!
Crockery
We’re having afternoon tea at our wedding. We looked into hiring the crockery, but it’s almost as expensive as buying it second hand. We decided to buy it all, which should mean we can recoup the costs afterwards!
Baby Costs
This month we only spent money on some cream/tablets for Miss Way.
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 | |
| Baby Scan Photo | £5 | |
| Baby Bath | £5 | |
| Yoga | £21 | |
| Reusable Post-partum Pads | £25 | |
| Baby Bed Sheets | £30 | |
| Second Hand Baby Sleeping Bags | £20 | |
| Yoga/Birthing Ball | £13 | |
| Second Hand Baby Clothes | £18 | |
| Breastfeeding Cream | £8 | |
| Breastfeeding Bras | £3 | |
| Perineal Ice Packs | £19 | |
| Baby/Mum Vitamins | £53 | |
| Baby Thank You Cards | £26 | |
| Boots | £6 | |
| Baby Related Tablets | £41 | |
| Music Classes | £12 | |
| Birth Certificates | £22 | |
| Baby Carrier | £11 | |
| Baby Clothes | £7 | |
| Baby Book | £11 | |
| Music Classes | £24 | |
| Breastfeeding Cream | £9 | |
| Wean in 15 Book | £7 | |
| Baby Cups | £14 | |
| Sing & Sign Music Class | £80 | |
| Baby Class | £64 | |
| Finger Puppets | £9 | |
| Cheeky Wipes | £15 | |
| Weaning Bibs | £32 | |
| Nappies | £16 | |
| Baby Carrying Sling | £35 | |
| Cream/Tablets | £15 | See below |
| Total | £953 |
Cream/Tablets
The usual top up of breastfeeding cream, as well as some tablets to help Miss Way with her reflux. We’re classing this as ‘Baby related’ because it has been bad since she gave birth. Otherwise he hasn’t cost us a penny this month!
That’s All for Now, Folks!
See you next month!
Previous Posts
Monthly Spending – January 2021