Get a grip woman!

Suffolk_lass · 26 May 2018 at 8:17AM

Here is the whole month totals - I have added a few more columns - I am so shocked, I keep checking for double counted entries

Total £7462.48
£693.85 - Other things
£1067.51 Actual possessions
£110.40 Entertainment
£351.25 Food total (inc stores)
£109.09 Drinks
£986.26 payments (bills, utilities, subs, premiums)
£1524.33 Debts
£1244.23 Savings and TTs
£429.04 Fuel
£946.52 work-related (including my season ticket, over £700)

A few exceptions -

I had to order Bras after the bone in one broke through the fabric and erm practically impaled delicate bits (just over £85 so I can try two styles and two sizes - may return two).
I had a planned change of phone contract - buying two handsets outright (£879.98) for DS and me (it is his birthday and his Grandmother moved the money to me) - the upside is his contract (regularly over £60) comes down to £25 and mine to £15.30 (from £35) and the lovely man in the EE Shop gave us a discount.
I started to buy some wine and beers on offer as we have a planned party in August
Some of my TTs may need to come back to pay for my CC in June - I have literally logged every transaction
My expenses claims are not shown as minus figures to offset any work spends

Never the less. I am just so shocked. We have a week off and I will ponder

Karmacat · 26 May 2018 at 10:48AM

Your shock shouts out, SL! Only you know what's in "other things" etc, but are the phones included in this list somewhere? Because thats a lot in one go.

Debt paying down, and savings, are also appreciable! So good for you. There's obviously wiggle room, and it shows once again how powerful knowledge can be.

Hope the weekend is still good for you - the sun is out (sometimes), life is good.

Busy_Mee1 · 26 May 2018 at 11:39AM

I know the feeling Suffolk lass.I was horrified when I tracked our spending in May. I am going to set some budgets for June and track all my spends again to see if this helps. I really want to try and understand/get a grip of our spending before we retire.

Suffolk_lass · 27 May 2018 at 6:25AM

It is really interesting, looking at the breakdown. I will scrutinise the columns a bit more this morning, given I am up and about quite early (I am fighting a head-cold and have spent two three-hour spells in bed, sleeping, over the last couple of days)

Suffolk_lass · 27 May 2018 at 6:44AM

The breakdown of my "other things" column includes:

2 overdraft fees (left over from April, when I ordered currency, and it was taken before I collected it) - only 66p in total
£25 - DH's online lottery top-up
£120 - DS's car tax (he reimbursed me)
£40 DH cash
£10 deposit for camping weekend in July
£9.99 DH i-Tunes
£24.50 DH Bike MOT
£22 cash (I paid for two at a work dinner, so I could take the cash)
£24.50 DH the other bike MOT
£8.50 DH replacement watch battery
£11.99 printer ink cartridge
£141.99 replacement tyre (emergency call-out includes £1.99 for a forecourt cash machine)
£15 DH Bike groups annual memberships
£5.40 Town-centre parking (when I bought the phones)
£18.23 Garden compost
£6 late night service station coffees
£50+ cosmetics
£26 - phone cover (me) - I did not want leather
£87 Bras
a few random electronic entry things I cannot identify

Suffolk_lass · 27 May 2018 at 6:53AM

I have just started to look at the actual possessions column. DH has a number of Bike things in there too. No wonder he thought he would continue with his phone handset without replacing it. He has something in Amazon, a visor, goggles. I bought a blanket and then there are those two mobile phone handsets.

Entertainment includes wine at my cousin's 60th birthday lunch (very much a one-off, and my pleasure), one dinner at the local pub; en-route home from the Station, when I was so late back on a week-day, it would have been too late to cook, and a quiz night which included hot food, entry fees and drinks; really good value and good company for just £13 a head.

enthusiasticsaver · 27 May 2018 at 8:36AM

Before we retired we did a similar exercise to you in that we looked at all our spends to see if our projected pensions would cover them taking out the work related ones and some of the fuel and adding on some retirement costs like extra energy costs (our direct debit has just gone up from £116 per month to £185 partly due to catch up but partly because we were home more over the winter so extra heating etc).

Looking at your costs and anticipating retirement as I think you finish end of the year and your DH next year is it? Presumably the fuel will go down and obviously no work related items? Debts and savings may adjust as you should be moving from saving to drawdown after retirement. There is nothing in others, food or entertainment which would worry me. Your DH spends a lot on bike related things which is presumably his hobby. DH and I have a personal spends account each to cover hobbies. If my DH wasn't constrained by this I strongly suspect our house would be full of "stuff" and our others budget would be close to £1000 each month. As it is thankfully he can only spend £200 per month and is forced to sell stuff he doesn't use to buy other bits. Hobbies is one spend in retirement which can increase significantly without some limits being set so I would talk to your DH about how this will work after retirement when he has more time to spend.

Suffolk_lass · 27 May 2018 at 11:21AM

Thanks ES - there is some good advice there. I am hoping we can continue to acquire some wood for our stove from locally without it ramping up our energy costs too much.

I don't intend reining in DH's personal spends at this point. He admits that at some point he could sell one of the Harleys but I think we can afford to hold on to both at the moment. I would like him to SORN them in the winter but it would really only be until he stops work, so the savings would not be too significant. They are also quite juicy - I notice this in the summer.

Karmacat · 27 May 2018 at 11:31AM

Ooh, the bikes are Harleys! How exciting

SL, now that you've analysed it all, you sound like you're fine about what you've spent? I think it's especially difficult for people like you and enthusiasticsaver - you've got the money to spend, in retirement too, but its not endless, so decisions have to be made. And like I said, knowledge is power. I especially love the late night coffees at a service station by the way

that conjures up a great image.

Suffolk_lass · 27 May 2018 at 12:33PM

HaHa - we were on our way back from a BBQ and I was designated driver - both of us had been up since before 05.30 and we had the long trunk road left after midnight so not interesting driving. a couple of small black coffees and some nuts ensured I was alert driving, and DH kept chatting to me! Good job really as the road was closed part way home and we had a diversion around the neighbouring town.

Get a grip woman!

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