Summary
Not a good month for the savings rate!! In fact we’ve spent much more than we earnt this month.
This was almost entirely caused by having to buy a new car – see the Transport section below for more detail.
Ignoring the car for a second, we spent £2,040 which is very close to our target of £2,000 per month.
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 | £1,302 | See below |
| Food | £355 | See below |
| Transport | £7,274 | See below |
| Entertainment/misc | £191 | See below |
| Total Without Car | £2,042 | |
| Total With Car | £9,122 |
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.
In early December we’re having our kitchen refreshed with a new worktop, sink and hob. This month we bought the hob. We had some John Lewis vouchers from our engagement so were able to get it cheaper than usual!
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mortgage | £467 | |
| Overpayment | £283 | |
| Bills | £111 | Gas, electricity, water |
| Council Tax | £101 | |
| Internet | £198 | Annual line rental renewal! |
| DIY | £142 | New hob & some timber! |
| Total | £1,302 |
As you can see, our line rental was up for renewal this month. We took the opportunity to call our internet provider (Plusnet) and see what they could offer. We did a quick compare of other offers online so we knew what to expect. In the end, we managed to upgrade to fibre broadband for less than we were currently paying!
Line rental plus fibre broadband works out as £22.48 per month on the new deal. We could have got slightly cheaper elsewhere but we’ve been very happy with Plusnet and also get preferential mobile phone contracts as customers. Our phone contracts are unlimited calls and texts with 4.5GB data for £7 each.
For gas and electricity, we are with a company called Octopus energy and are absolutely delighted with them. They are really transparent with billing and while other companies are increasing prices, theirs have recently gone down! 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
We spent £355 on food this month. As explained previously, this includes everything on our supermarket shop receipts for the month. This was a fairly typical month in this category.
If you’re interested in more information about our food shopping see this post.
Transport
Oh dear!!
This month, Miss Way’s car finally packed in. It would have needed extensive repairs which we were advised not to go ahead with.
This meant we needed a new car (Miss Way needs one for her job, where she travels between numerous schools). Of course, being frugal types, we went for a good quality used car!
We decided to buy a 2016 Honda Jazz, which we were advised is one of the most reliable cars around! It’s much more modern than anything we’ve had before and feels very luxurious to us! As we managed to get a 3 year old car, we’re hopeful that it should last us a long time. Tax, insurance and fuel costs should all be cheaper than our previous car too! It still hurts to spend £7k at once though….
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| New Car! | £7,080 | Ouch.... |
| Fuel | £136 | |
| Trains | £58 | |
| Total | £7,274 |
Entertainment/Misc
This was a very standard month in this category.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Phone Bills | £17 | |
| TV License | £13 | |
| Lottery | £8 | |
| Sports Team Costs | £11 | Match fees, floodlights, equipment etc |
| Presents | £5 | |
| Glasses and Contacts | £49 | |
| 'Save the Date' Cards | £26 | The first of our wedding expenses! |
| Meals/Drinks Out | £62 | Socialising with friends/family |
| Total | £191 |
Wedding
As you can see above with the ‘Save the Date’ cards, we have started along the dreaded path of wedding planning.
We’ve also paid a deposit for our venue, which was £850. We aren’t including this in our spending totals because it’s a fully refundable deposit. If we do cause any damage in our celebrations and lose any of the deposit it will be included at that time! The wedding isn’t until July 2021 so we have a while to wait!
We’ll keep a separate tally of all of our wedding related costs and summarise them nearer the time!
Here’s to a more frugal December, with no more emergency car purchases!!
Previous Posts
Monthly Spending – October 2019
Monthly Spending – September 2019
Ouch, that car cost has got to hurt 🙁
My partner is currently still on a car lease (£120 per month for a Ford Fiesta), she’s in her fourth and final year at the moment and we’re really struggling with deciding what to do when the lease is up in 2020. We’ve NEVER spent more than a couple of thousand on a car but we’re researching whether it would make financial sense to fork out around 7k like yourselves for a more reliable car.
I’ve always insisted that paying £500ish and swapping every year if there are significant problems is the cheapest travel option, but it will be really hard for her to go to a £500 moving skip from a brand new Ford Fiesta, I’m also a little more worried about the safety aspect.
Finding that Goldilock Zone for how much should to spend is really difficult. I’m worried that if we spend £3k+ and it has significant faults after the first year then that 3k would be wasted!
What made you decide on 7k? How have you reassured yourselves that the engine won’t stop working next year? 🙂 And how many years will it have to last you (without incurring 4 figure repair costs) for your investment to be worth it? I’m asking purely selfishly as I have no idea what to do, haha! Post please? 😀
Yeah the cost is still on our minds now, especially after our Africa trip this summer. We told ourselves we would make the next year as frugal as possible to justify the trip! These things are inevitable but still hurt when they happen. It feels a bit like FI is running away into the distance at times like this.
Your question is a great one – we were toying with the idea of making this a separate post and you have convinced us! Keep an eye out….