Summary
Welcome to our July spending post! During July we got married. Say goodbye to Miss Way and hello to Mrs Way! With our wedding done we’re hoping our monthly spending will return to normal because it has been all over the place recently. Our total spend for the month was £2,822.
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 | £1,008 | See below |
| Food | £380 | See below |
| Transport | £67 | See below |
| Entertainment/misc | £1,367 | See below |
| Total | £2,822 |
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 July spending was fairly normal in this category.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mortgage | £415 | |
| Overpayment | £335 | |
| Bills | £147 | Gas, electricity & water. |
| Council Tax | £111 | |
| Total | £1,008 |
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 July spending on food was £380. As explained previously, this includes everything on our supermarket shop receipts for the month.
Transport
A bit more on fuel than we would like. We had the journey to our wedding and also went to a friend’s wedding the weekend after.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel | £67 | |
| Total | £67 |
Entertainment/Misc
Our July spending will see the end of the big wedding costs in this category! We finally got married!
There were quite a few last minute purchases leading up to the big day. We’ll be creating a separate post soon detailing everything we spent and why. We’re quite proud of some of the bargains we managed to get! We’re also planning to sell lots of stuff to make even more money back. Watch this space!
This month’s total was also bumped up by a life insurance annual premium and quite a lot of eating out.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Phone Bills | £10 | |
| TV License | £13 | |
| Lottery | £8 | |
| Eating Out | £125 | |
| Presents | £70 | |
| Hair Cuts | £15 | |
| Aquarium | £29 | |
| Clothes | £48 | |
| Postage | £7 | |
| Concert | £24 | |
| Life Insurance | £179 | |
| Wedding Food | £51 | See below |
| Wedding Misc | £187 | See below |
| Wedding Gifts | £296 | See below |
| Wedding Flowers | £140 | See below |
| Wedding Van Fuel | £40 | See below |
| Baby Shoes | £35 | See below |
| Baby Classes | £90 | See below |
| Total | £1,367 |
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
It’s done! Our wedding happened at the end of July, so while writing this we’re now Mr & Mrs Way.
This will be the last month this appears in our spending post. We’ll create a separate post soon to report everything in more detail.
| 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 | |
| Shoes | £84 | |
| Clothes | £68 | |
| Bridesmaid Dress | £12 | |
| Crockery | £535 | |
| Clothes | £161 | |
| Table Cloths | £150 | |
| Clothes | £21 | |
| Marriage License | £70 | |
| Venue | £5,370 | |
| Crockery Boxes | £40 | |
| Van Hire | £154 | |
| Photographer | £713 | |
| Band | £600 | |
| Clothes | £698 | |
| Food | £1,406 | |
| Rings | £519 | |
| Spotify | £10 | |
| Van Hire | £222 | |
| Registrar | £525 | |
| Decoration | £29 | |
| Food | £51 | See below |
| Misc | £187 | See below |
| Gifts | £296 | See below |
| Flowers | £140 | See below |
| Van Fuel | £40 | See below |
| Total to Date | £13,259 | |
| Parental Help | £12,000 | |
| Total Cost to Us | £1,259 |
Food
Last minute bits like tea bags etc.
Misc
Mostly on decoration, things like string, card, pegs etc.
Gifts
Because it was a DIY wedding, we had lots of helpers. We wanted to get them something good as a thank you. Lots of brownie vouchers and similar!
Flowers
We bought our flowers directly from a flower farm. Mrs Way has a friend who is a gardener and is also good at flower arranging. She agreed to do all of our flower arranging for us, and it looked amazing!
We previously had a quote of over £1,000 for a fairly basic provision from a professional, so that’s a serious saving!
Van Fuel
We had to top up the hire van to get all of our stuff to the venue and back!
Baby Costs
He turned a year old this month! We can’t believe how quickly that went.
We intend to make a separate post detailing our costs up to 1 year old.
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 | |
| Classes/Groups | £298 | |
| Birth Certificates | £22 | |
| Baby Carrier | £11 | |
| Baby Clothes | £7 | |
| Baby Book | £11 | |
| Breastfeeding Cream | £9 | |
| Wean in 15 Book | £7 | |
| Baby Cups | £14 | |
| Finger Puppets | £9 | |
| Cheeky Wipes | £15 | |
| Weaning Bibs | £32 | |
| Nappies | £16 | |
| Baby Carrying Sling | £35 | |
| Cream/Tablets | £15 | |
| Stair Gates | £27 | |
| Running Buggy | £150 | |
| Clothes | £17 | |
| Sling | £65 | |
| Shoes | £35 | See below |
| Classes | £90 | See below |
| Total | £1,455 |
Shoes
We’re big fans of barefoot shoes and want Baby Way to grow up using them. We bought 2 pairs of second hand barefoot shoes. They should also have good re-sale value!
Classes
The usual music classes etc!
That’s All for Now, Folks!
See you next month!