Keep calm and carry on....

South_coast

🤣              

South_coast

Morning all.

As I mentioned last week, I've dug out my old book of monthly accounts from my smaller salary days and put together a comparison of September 2015 bills v September 2020 (no bill envy please, that's the trade-off of living alone in a tiny flat!)

RENT/MORTGAGE
Then £400 / £253 now

CAR PAYMENT
Then £238 / £380 now

SAVINGS (FOR VARIOUS PURPOSES)
Then £365 😳 / £260 now

COUNCIL TAX
Then £63 / £73 now

WATER
Then £35 / £28 now

ELECTRIC
Then £15 / £20 now

TV LICENCE
Then £12 / £13 now

FLAT SERVICE CHARGE
Then £0 / £150 now 😡

PHONE
Then £0 / £21 now

TOTAL
Then £1128 / £1198 now

I really can't believe that there's only a £70 difference! I've triple-checked! I thought that the car was massive lifestyle inflation, but it appears it was offset by savings in other areas.

Life feels more expensive now, but I forget I was both paying rent and saving for a deposit back then 😮 (and putting money into my private pension and S&S ISA every month - what a diligent girl I was!) I'm reassured now it is more do-able and that I would still be able to put money into savings (this pays for car insurance, gifts and holidays, so it's important to me that I keep it up). The only thing which would suffer would be OP's, but I would at least be breaking even, which is better than I'm managing currently 😀

ruby_eskimo

I'm loving all the positivity around here at the moment.  Could do with some myself but hey, it will appear I'm sure.  It's interesting seeing that there wasn't much difference in your outgoings 5 years ago.  Wonder if we can all say the same thing

themadvix

That's really interesting SC! (And total bill envy, but I get that it's the difference between a small flat and a 3-bed house!) 

Every_penny

Wow, it's great to compare your outgoings. Great work on keeping it so low!

Cheery_Daff

Woe, what an interesting comparison, and I'm glad it's made you feel more positive about the changes

Grogged

In today's money, you're actually £100 better off, as £1,128 is £1,300 today!

South_coast

Thanks all 😀😀😀 And Grogged, I like your thinking 😀!

Hazelnutty

Brilliant SC! I love the positive spins

South_coast

Thanks Hazelnutty, now I just need to really believe in what I am saying 🤣! 

Not much to report on here, applied for more jobs, actually cooked things I've bought ingredients for, more walking etc. Love it when I see people on the beach taking photos of the view and I catch myself thinking "It doesn't look particularly spectacular today", then realise with a jolt that it does but I'm just anaesthetised to it at I see it all the time (and it really did look better the other day 🤣)