Summary
Back to reality this month as we tried to settle back into our routine. If you didn’t know, we went to East Africa for all of August and got engaged in July, so it has been all change!!
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 | £999 | See below |
| Food | £258 | See below |
| Transport | £349 | See below |
| Entertainment/misc | £349 | See below |
| Total | £1,955 |
We break each of these categories down in the following sections.
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 | £26 | |
| Total | £999 |
Food
We spent £258 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.
Transport
A big bill for new tyres set us back but otherwise this was a fairly cheap month for transport. Miss Way is doing a lot less travelling for work which helps! The car now has 160,000 miles on the clock and doesn’t cost us that much on an annual basis!
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Car Repairs | £197 | New tyres and some wheel alignment |
| Diesel | £105 | |
| Trains | £31 | |
| Coach Travel | £16 | See our recent post 'Frugal Four – Episode 1!' for an explanation |
| Total | £349 |
Entertainment/Misc
This month we decided to get ahead with our Christmas shopping, as well a few other presents. Aside from these, this was a really good month for the entertainment/misc category.
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Phone Bills | £17 | |
| TV License | £13 | |
| Lottery | £10 | |
| Sports Team Costs | £32 | Match fees, floodlights, equipment etc |
| Mr Way Haircut | £8 | |
| Presents | £146 | We started preparing for Christmas early!! |
| MyProtein | £13 | |
| Cables | £26 | Chargers for various things |
| Theater | £29 | |
| Clothes | £6 | |
| Meals/Drinks Out | £40 | Socialising with friends/family |
| Hair Dye | £9 | |
| Total | £349 |
Extras
We had a debate this month about a couple of expenses! Miss Way bought an iPad and a new laptop!!! Not very frugal at all, but bear with us, we will explain….
We have chosen not to include these in our monthly expenses because they are both business expenses for Miss Way’s company.
The new laptop was as a result of an accident with a cup of tea….. Oops! Miss Way’s laptop is vital to her work. To save money, we bought a refurbished laptop rather than buying new. We have done this before and would highly recommend it!
The iPad was also for business purposes. Miss Way has started cycling to work much more often. As a music teacher, she often needs a lot of sheet music with her for use in lessons. Instead of carrying lots of music books, or a heavy laptop, she decided to buy an iPad. This allows her to take all of her resources with her on the bike!
Again, the iPad was a refurbished model at a fraction of the ‘new’ price.
The total for these extras was £474. As we said, we won’t include this in our monthly spending because it was a direct business expense taken out before Miss Way’s ‘salary’.
I am interested in your reason for playing the lottery. The chances of winning are extremely slim and even though it is only £10 per month, invested in the stock market with a return of 7% over 20 years that would be over £5000.
It’s a good question. We never used to do it for the exact reasons you mention. A few months ago, we decided to start buying one ticket a week. Justifications being: 1. Around 24% of the money you spend goes to good causes. Sports and the arts are very close to our hearts and we’ve seen first hand the benefits lottery funding can bring. 2. It’s a bit of fun.
We’re aware it probably isn’t a ‘sensible’ decision, but as it’s such a small amount of money and we’re still able to save around 50% of our earnings, we feel like it’s justifiable. Typing this is making us re-think again though haha.
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