Summary
Our spending was almost spot on our target monthly amount in October! We aim for around £2,000 so this was a good result for us. A very low month in the transport category helped us balance out some big items elsewhere.
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 | £986 | See below |
| Food | £313 | See below |
| Transport | £148 | See below |
| Entertainment/misc | £557 | See below |
| Total | £2,004 |
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.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mortgage | £467 | |
| Overpayment | £283 | |
| Bills | £111 | Gas, electricity, water |
| Council Tax | £101 | |
| Internet | £11 | |
| DIY | £13 | |
| Total | £986 |
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 £313 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
October was a cheap month for transport spending as Miss Way continues her cycling to work!
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bike Repairs | £20 | Miss Way had a fall and needed some repairs! |
| Diesel | £104 | |
| Trains | £24 | |
| Total | £148 |
Entertainment/Misc
Aside from the annual fees for Miss Way, this was a very standard month in this category.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Phone Bills | £16 | |
| TV License | £13 | |
| Lottery | £8 | |
| Sports Team Costs | £37 | Match fees, floodlights, equipment etc |
| Charity | £25 | Raffle tickets etc at a couple of charity work events |
| Presents | £72 | |
| Headphones | £14 | |
| Clothes | £38 | |
| Professional Fees | £221 | Annual subscription for Miss Way |
| Football Match | £10 | |
| Meals/Drinks Out | £88 | Socialising with friends/family |
| Theatre | £15 | |
| Total | £557 |
Previous Posts
Monthly Spending – September 2019
Can you tell me how your internet works. £11 is really cheap. Do you have a landline or is this some sort of internet only arrangement?
A well-timed question!!
The monthly cost is somewhat misleading as we also pay an annual line rental on top of that.
However, we just renewed our contract this morning! 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 (unlimited calls and texts with 4.5GB data = £7).