Summary
Welcome to our July spending post! Our total spend for the month was £2,665.
During July we introduced the newest member of our family! We’re now a 4!
It was quite an expensive month for various reasons, the baby actually not really being a big factor at all!
Most of the cost for our MOT & service for the car went out this month, as well as a new freezer. We also both started private dental treatment. We’ve been unable to find an NHS dentist since returning to the UK last year and finally gave in. The up-front cost was pretty high because we had to have check-ups before joining a monthly plan. Unfortunately, dental cover is going to be a recurring cost which we hadn’t previously considered.
The other major expense was an electronic drum kit!! This was Mr Way’s Birthday present to himself. He hasn’t played for around 15 years and has always wanted to get back into it. Luckily an electronic kit is quiter than an acoustic one! We’re excited about this purchase and hope the little ones can both use it too!
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 | £458 | See below |
| Food | £609 | See below |
| Transport | £336 | See below |
| Entertainment/misc | £1,262 | See below |
| Total | £2,665 |
We break each of these categories down in the following sections, giving detail for any large expenses.
Housing
Our July spending on housing is fairly standard, with just the usual bills to pay.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gas & Electric | £187 | See below |
| Water | £54 | |
| Council Tax | £188 | |
| Internet | £29 | See below |
| Total | £458 |
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 £609. This includes everything on our supermarket shop receipts for the month.
This is a bit higher than usual. We had a kid’s party to cater for this month, as well as some more expensive ‘convenience’ meals around the time Baby Way 2 arrived.
Transport
Our July spending on transport includes our MOT & service. No major shocks there thankfully!
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel | £103 | |
| Tax | £233 | |
| Total | £336 |
Entertainment/Misc
Our July spending on misc items is a bit of a write-off! It’s a big time of year for Birthdays in our family. We also started dental treatment as discussed above, which was a large hit to take.
The biggest expense is the drum kit, but we’re very happy with that one! It should hopefully be a good purchase for years to come.
Fingers crossed this category returns to more acceptable levels in the coming months!!
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Phone Bills | £13 | |
| Eating Out | £180 | |
| Presents | £108 | |
| Activities | £29 | |
| Clothes | £32 | |
| House Stuff | £108 | |
| Dental | £225 | |
| Postage | £6 | |
| Book | £4 | |
| Freezer | £139 | |
| Drum Kit | £418 | |
| Total | £1,262 |
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!
Congratulations on the new addition to the family! I hope the birth went OK.
I’ve had the issue with no NHS dentists since returning to the UK as well. I went to one and they recommended £6k worth of treatment, £1200 being fillings and the rest Invisiline.
I did some research online and it seems there are two lines of dentistry philosophies, the `aggressive approach` and the `conservative approach` (https://blyssdental.com/do-you-really-need-a-tooth-filling/) and my dentist was definitely the aggressive one, he even admitted another dentist wouldn’t tell me to get as many fillings. I got 12 fillings in the USA in one trip when I hadn’t had any before and my teeth have hurt ever since, I feel this is almost negligent as after researching, aggressive dentistry can harm your teeth, but it of course gets them more money.
Make sure you definitely need the work done, get a second opinion, and do your own research if you can by looking at the scans and photos yourself, posting on Reddit, as you don’t want to be ripped off, and worse, damage your teeth more by getting work done that you don’t really need.
All went very well thanks Ninja, we’re delighted with our second little man, although totally exhausted haha.
Thanks for the thoughts on dentists, the stuff about two lines of dentistry is interesting and also agrees with my own experience. Thankfully my best man is a dentist so I’ve always got a reliable second opinion on hand. Still frustrating when you’re used to free (or at least heavily subsidised) dental care though.
Sorry to hear about the issues you’ve had with your teeth, hope you manage a better solution going forward.