Monthly Spending – July 2020

On By A Way to LessIn Baby Way, Coronavirus, Finances, Monthly SpendingLeave a comment

Summary 

Here’s our July spending – our first month as a 3! In early July, we welcomed Baby Way to the world. Fingers crossed our spending for 3 won’t be significantly higher than it was for 2. We’re using reusable nappies, wipes etc so that should really help minimise the cost on disposable items as well as being so much better for the environment. We do expect our energy bill to increase though – the washing machine hasn’t stopped! 

Another big help here is the fact we’re now receiving Child Benefit. As he’s our first child, Baby Way will earn us £21.05 per week. This is a pretty big help and we expect it will go a long way to covering all of his costs! 

Our total spend for the month was £1,886. Obviously Baby Way has not yet had a big impact on our spending. Long may it continue!! 

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Monthly Spending – June 2020

On By A Way to LessIn Coronavirus, Finances, Monthly Spending2 Comments

Summary 

And there it is – our June spending – our final month on our own! Baby Way is now over-due and will be with us before the next monthly spending post. We’re really excited and looking forward to showing that it doesn’t have to be a crippling financial decision, as most of our peers seem to insist! 

Our total spend for the month was £1,928. We’re pretty happy to come in under our £2,000 target again despite a few big expenses this month. 

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The Benefit of Salary Sacrifice Pensions

On By Mr WayIn Finances, FIRE, Optimisation9 Comments

I recently went through an interesting exercise at work and wanted to share the findings here. Essentially, my company don’t offer salary sacrifice pension contributions and I wanted to persuade them to consider it!

As you can probably tell, I’m bit of a personal finance nerd! I created a document showing the benefits of salary sacrifice to both employer and employees. I even added some Sankey Diagrams to demonstrate the difference it would make!

The information below shows what I submitted to my employer. Hopefully it will help explain the different pension contributions as well as giving you inspiration to request similar changes from your own employer!

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Monthly Spending – May 2020

On By A Way to LessIn Coronavirus, Finances, FIRE, Monthly Spending1 Comment

Summary 

As lockdown continues, our May spending has been significantly impacted. We love seeing those zeros in the Transport category!  

Our total spend for the month was £1,700. This is well within our £2,000 target again. 

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.  

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Why We’re 100% in Equities

On By Mr WayIn Finances, FIRE, Optimisation7 Comments

Our investment strategy has always been 100% equities, with no allocation to bonds or other asset classes. There are several reasons we came to this conclusion, which we want to cover in this post.  

When we say 100% equities, this is within our actual FI funds, which are housed in our ISA and pension accounts. Our emergency funds are in 100% cash and cover roughly 6 months of living costs. For more info on how our FI funds look at the moment see our 1 Year of Blogging post.

Our 100% equities allocation consists of index tracker funds with a global spread. This reduces the risk of being over-exposed to any particular country.  

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Monthly Spending – April 2020

On By A Way to LessIn Coronavirus, Finances, FIRE, Monthly Spending2 Comments

Summary 

Our first full month of lockdown has had a huge impact on our April spending.

Our total spend for the month was £1,559. This is well within our £2,000 target. It’s actually our second lowest month since we started tracking. Beaten only by August 2019 when we were in Africa and most of our accommodation and food was pre-paid!!

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.  

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Frugal Food – Grow Your Own

On By Miss WayIn Coronavirus, Frugality, Optimisation2 Comments

Our Coronavirus Journey – Part 3

There has never been a better time to begin simulating The Good Life and ‘grow your own’!

The current Coronavirus lockdown has given us all the opportunity to spend more time in our gardens. We’re using this time to rediscover our green fingers!

With many supermarkets low on lots of fruit and veg, having your own supply has become more important than ever.

All you need is some decent compost that is not at an exorbitant price! We found B&Q particularly useful as they’re offering a very efficient collection service, with social distancing thrown in!

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Monthly Spending – March 2020

On By A Way to LessIn Finances, FIRE, Monthly Spending2 Comments

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! 

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Seeing Opportunity in Adversity

On By Mr WayIn Baby Way, Coronavirus, Education, Finances, OptimisationLeave a comment

Our Coronavirus Journey – Part 2 

As we discussed in Our Coronavirus Journey – Part 1, we’ve been gradually adjusting to the changes in or lives since the Coronavirus outbreak started. While many of the implications are negative, we’re seeing opportunity in the adversity.

It would be easy to become overwhelmed and give up in such challenging circumstances. But there will always be new avenues to explore in unprecedented times.

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