Summary
What a strange month!! Our March spending is slightly different to normal to reflect the current situation we find ourselves in.
As we’ve detailed in our recent posts, our lives have changed massively. We’re hoping the lockdown will help us to reduce our expenses even further, especially as our income looks more unreliable by the day!
Our total spend for the month was £1,775. This is well within our £2,000 target and we expect it to reduce even further if the lockdown continues.
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 | £386 | See below |
| Transport | £75 | See below |
| Entertainment/misc | £391 | See below |
| Total | £1,775 |
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.
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
Our March spending on food was £386. As explained previously, this includes everything on our supermarket shop receipts for the month. Thankfully our spend here hasn’t increased too much despite the current supermarket situation. We’ve been shopping for our usual weekly shop and not stockpiling, but we expected this to be a bit higher due to not being able to find our usual (bargain) items!
Transport
Mostly fuel from earlier in the month when we were allowed to travel. Expect this to reduce even further if the lockdown continues!
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel | £75 | |
| Total | £75 |
Entertainment/Misc
A fairly low spending total in this category for March. We expect this to reduce even further going forward, for obvious reasons!
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Phone Bills | £14 | |
| TV License | £13 | |
| Lottery | £10 | |
| Sports Team Costs | £5 | Match fees, floodlights, equipment etc |
| Sports Team Membership | £160 | Annual Membership |
| Presents | £49 | |
| Photo Frames | £36 | |
| Plant Seeds | £7 | |
| Eating Out/Cafes | £99 | Thankfully we squeezed in quite a few social events before lockdown hit |
| Ikea | £43 | |
| April Trip Costs | £-92 | In February’s spending we included £122 for a trip to a friend’s wedding in April. Unfortunately, this was cancelled. Thankfully we got a full refund, minus a £30 deposit! |
| Haircut | £8 | Mr Way got his hair cut - luckily just before lockdown! |
| Yoga | £14 | See below |
| Reusable Post-partum Pads | £25 | See below |
| Total | £391 |
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 | £148 |
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 | |
| Baby Scan Photo | £5 | |
| Baby Bath | £5 | |
| Yoga | £14 | See below |
| Reusable Post-partum Pads | £25 | See below |
| Total | £326 |
Yoga
Miss Way started a pre-natal yoga class this month. It was meant to be in person but due to the circumstances, it’s being done via Zoom!
Reusable Post-partum Pads
Some reusable sanitary pads* for Miss Way after the birth. On the advice of other mothers!
See you next month.
*Affiliate links – we earn a small commission if you buy through any of the above affiliate links marked with a star.
Previous Posts
Monthly Spending – February 2020
I wonder how many other people are “accidentally” also following FIRE now they can barely go out and spend in the same way as the rest of us! Really hoping that this doesn’t last too much longer, but I am personally already writing off the summer 😦
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