Summary
Welcome to our January spending post! Our total spend for the month was £1,929.
Our spending is settling down now, as we get used to life in our new home!
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 | £506 | See below |
| Food | £343 | See below |
| Transport | £251 | See below |
| Entertainment/misc | £832 | See below |
| Total | £1,929 |
We break each of these categories down in the following sections, giving detail for any large expenses.
Housing
Our January spending on housing is much more normal!
Now that we’re fully moved in this will be our new baseline, with only exceptional costs to add.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gas & Electric | £155 | See below |
| Water | £70 | |
| Council Tax | £251 | |
| Internet | £27 | See below |
| Total | £503 |
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!!
Food
Our January spending on food was £343. This includes everything on our supermarket shop receipts for the month.
Transport
Our January spending on transport includes a few extras. We bought a bike trailer, which is great for transporting stuff around, and booked a couple of train journeys.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel | £137 | |
| Bike Inner Tubes & Bell | £33 | |
| Train | £31 | |
| Bike Trailer | £50 | |
| Total | £251 |
Entertainment/Misc
Our January spending on misc items is inflated by a few additional purchases.
We’re expecting another baby in July, so we bought some reusable nappies! We also bought a few bits of furniture etc for the house.
As we readjust to the UK weather, we’re also finding we need to buy lots more warm clothes! We booked a weekend away too.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Phone Bills | £12 | |
| Eating Out | £101 | |
| Presents | £118 | |
| Easel | 15 | |
| Reusable Nappies | £69 | |
| House Stuff | £75 | |
| Holiday | £160 | |
| Activities | £102 | |
| Clothes | £164 | |
| Pharmacy | £16 | |
| Total | £832 |
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 – December 2023