It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!!

MallyGirl

Impressive tracking.
Our figures have always been a bit clouded as we have a OneAccount mortgage/bank account so everything happens in big wodges on credit cards. I obviously know the bills and could look at the cc statements if I wanted to. I have made the decision to remortgage to a more conventional product while interest rates are so low, with a fix that should see us to retirement, so this will be easier to categorise. I have opted for a term that takes us just past state pension age so will see if they go for that - I expect we will pay it off earlier but nice to have flexibility.

Sea_Shell

Stubod said:

..for those sad people who like me like their spreadsheets, does anybody track their "long term" total income v expenditure to assist with retirement planning? If so how much have you spent over the last (say) 20 years, and how much have you saved over the last couple of (covid) years compared with what you planned to spend?

..just out of interest (?) I have calculated that our total spend for the last 10 years is pretty much identical to the previous 10 years. 

It'll come as no surprise that yes, we do have this historic data.

For the period from 2007 to 2018 we had an average spend of £22,360, with average income over the same period of £31,556.

This period included some large household expenditure (£18,000 conservatory) and 3 new(er) cars (£21,000), of which we have subsequently re-couped £6000 having sold one.

Holiday spends were about £3000 average p.a.

michaels

Stubod said:

..for those sad people who like me like their spreadsheets, does anybody track their "long term" total income v expenditure to assist with retirement planning? If so how much have you spent over the last (say) 20 years, and how much have you saved over the last couple of (covid) years compared with what you planned to spend?

..just out of interest (?) I have calculated that our total spend for the last 10 years is pretty much identical to the previous 10 years. 

Can I ask if you (and Sea Shell) have adjusted for inflation when comparing spend between years?

Sea_Shell

michaels said:

Stubod said:

..for those sad people who like me like their spreadsheets, does anybody track their "long term" total income v expenditure to assist with retirement planning? If so how much have you spent over the last (say) 20 years, and how much have you saved over the last couple of (covid) years compared with what you planned to spend?

..just out of interest (?) I have calculated that our total spend for the last 10 years is pretty much identical to the previous 10 years. 

Can I ask if you (and Sea Shell) have adjusted for inflation when comparing spend between years?

Personally, no.  The figures are the actual figures. 

We do have them broken down into categories, so we can see trends over time, but then so much of spending is discretionary to a point, I'm not sure that tells me much!

michaels

Sea_Shell said:

michaels said:

Stubod said:

..for those sad people who like me like their spreadsheets, does anybody track their "long term" total income v expenditure to assist with retirement planning? If so how much have you spent over the last (say) 20 years, and how much have you saved over the last couple of (covid) years compared with what you planned to spend?

..just out of interest (?) I have calculated that our total spend for the last 10 years is pretty much identical to the previous 10 years. 

Can I ask if you (and Sea Shell) have adjusted for inflation when comparing spend between years?

Personally, no.  The figures are the actual figures. 

We do have them broken down into categories, so we can see trends over time, but then so much of spending is discretionary to a point, I'm not sure that tells me much!

Thinking out loud it might be interesting to make the cpi adjustment as I suspect that may show that somethings have surprisingly got much cheaper over time and others not gone up by quite so much as it seems.

Sea_Shell

michaels said:

Sea_Shell said:

michaels said:

Stubod said:

..for those sad people who like me like their spreadsheets, does anybody track their "long term" total income v expenditure to assist with retirement planning? If so how much have you spent over the last (say) 20 years, and how much have you saved over the last couple of (covid) years compared with what you planned to spend?

..just out of interest (?) I have calculated that our total spend for the last 10 years is pretty much identical to the previous 10 years. 

Can I ask if you (and Sea Shell) have adjusted for inflation when comparing spend between years?

Personally, no.  The figures are the actual figures. 

We do have them broken down into categories, so we can see trends over time, but then so much of spending is discretionary to a point, I'm not sure that tells me much!

Thinking out loud it might be interesting to make the cpi adjustment as I suspect that may show that somethings have surprisingly got much cheaper over time and others not gone up by quite so much as it seems.

How though?   Take groceries as an example.  In 2012 we switched from Tesco to Aldi, slashing our spends.  How would inflation show any "real" bearing on our lower costs as you're not comparing eggs with eggs.

We don't buy exactly the same "basket" of goods every year, some might have included more wine, some more steak or any other variations.

Stubod

michaels said:

Stubod said:

..for those sad people who like me like their spreadsheets, does anybody track their "long term" total income v expenditure to assist with retirement planning? If so how much have you spent over the last (say) 20 years, and how much have you saved over the last couple of (covid) years compared with what you planned to spend?

..just out of interest (?) I have calculated that our total spend for the last 10 years is pretty much identical to the previous 10 years. 

Can I ask if you (and Sea Shell) have adjusted for inflation when comparing spend between years?

Hi, I have not adjusted for inflation just used actual figures, so in real terms we have been spending less in the last 10 years compared to the previous 10 years. Not really sure why as yet....

Bravepants

We haven't monitored our spending apart from noting that we have paid £1000 into our joint account each month for something like 10 years.

Sea_Shell

Sea_Shell said:

Stubod said:

..for those sad people who like me like their spreadsheets, does anybody track their "long term" total income v expenditure to assist with retirement planning? If so how much have you spent over the last (say) 20 years, and how much have you saved over the last couple of (covid) years compared with what you planned to spend?

..just out of interest (?) I have calculated that our total spend for the last 10 years is pretty much identical to the previous 10 years. 

It'll come as no surprise that yes, we do have this historic data.

For the period from 2007 to 2018 we had an average spend of £22,360, with average income over the same period of £31,556.

This period included some large household expenditure (£18,000 conservatory) and 3 new(er) cars (£21,000), of which we have subsequently re-couped £6000 having sold one.

Holiday spends were about £3000 average p.a.

Just did the sums, as we invested that money from the car sale in April 19, and it's now worth £7,900.   

We could have made even more if we hadn't split the money over our two funds and just gone for the 100% equity one, as that has risen 56% since then, rather than the overall increase achieved of 31.5%.

Don't you just love hindsight!!!     Here's hoping we can hang onto that growth in time for our next car change!

OldScientist

We too are spending roughly what we did 10 years ago on everyday things (i.e. shopping and bills). This is despite, according to ONS, overall CPIH having increased by about 25% since 2010 (annualised rate of  ~2%). It is interesting to note that some individual categories have gone up much more than this (alcohol and tobacco 53% and education 89%) while others much less so (clothing and footwear 6%, food and non-alcoholic beverages 12%). So, if you drink, smoke and are paying for education your personal inflation rate will be much higher than CPIH would indicate.

Some possible reasons (for us at least)...

1) Like sea_shell, switching to Aldi for most of our shopping

2) Using advice on sites like moneysavingexpert and taking advantage of the ease at which it can now be accomplished to switch suppliers of utilities and other expenses (e.g. when we first switched house insurance back in about 2010, we reduced our premiums by more than half - the amount we now pay is less than what we paid after that first switch for similar cover)

3) Smaller income so more incentive to reduce expenses and, since retiring, more time to do so