Busy Mee's Last Leg

Well the weather has brightened up again and it is a beautiful sunny day here. I was beginning to think I was going to have to get my boots out again

Thanks for popping in Beanie and Suffolk Lass. Lovely to see you "back" Michelle and AndersonDavis I think you wandered into the wrong thread. But you are very welcome :rotfl:

So I have spent the morning updating our spending diary (gulp !) Removing the bedroom refurbishment costs we have spent a whopping £1250.46 and no excuses this month...no parental emergencies or five week month. We just spent it

Our groceries came in at £285 this month - £71.00 per week for three adults, but does include some bulk buys. I am reasonably happy with my grocery spending, it feels that we are achieving a reasonable level of frugalism ( is that even a word ?) that is acceptable to us ( and more importantly Mr Mee) I think I could get it lower but that is likely to take more time (trailing around looking for YS items) and would probably upset Mr Mee;) I think I am going to set our budget to £70 a week for groceries.

Our petrol costs came in at £265, and this included some work trips for which we can claim expenses back. We try and cut costs by using the smaller car at weekends and I have been trying to encourage Mr Mee, who has the longer commute, to work from home at least one day a week. I think I do however need to increase the petrol budget to £250 per month.

Household costs were better this month (if I take out the bedroom costs) and we spent just over £100.

Personal spending was (ahem) high and so was gift buying.....I seem to have broken the seal on internet shopping and I need to close it again firmly....very firmly. In my defence it has been DS and 3 Parents' Birthdays and a wedding this weekend. We will gloss over the clothes I bought for myself :rotfl:

Medical expenses were fine

Our entertainment costs were £222 for the month and this included a bulk buy of 12 bottles of wine bought in the Asda 25% off offer. Looking through the spends there was nothing regrettable, a bottle of wine (£22) shared with a colleague whilst in London, 2 reasonably priced Indian meals out with friends, a couple of lunches and our regular weekly breakfast out. Our budget of £200 a month seems reasonable and is affordable both now and in retirement.

The positives from this are that I am feeling a lot more confident about understanding our spending patterns. The good news is that quite a bit of this spend is discretionary and we could grind it down if we want/need to but it is affordable. When we retire I am hoping that some of these costs will reduce, hopefully we won't spend as much on petrol or paying people to do jobs we don't have time to do

I have just had a little wobble about sharing all of this. I hope no one finds it insensitive, I know we are incredibly fortunate to be in this position to afford our lifestyle and there are lots of people who aren't as fortunate as us. I am sharing though, because it is really helping me on our road to retirement and it might help others by giving a benchmark that you can compare to.

Beanie, Suffolk Lass and MadVix thank you for the reassurance. The last thing I would want to do is be insensitive and I am acutely aware that there are lots of people living in proper poverty and it really saddens me.

Beanie actually gave me a well timed nudge a few weeks ago when she mentioned on someone else's thread how sad she was that the food bank where she helps out had run out of treats for kids and it was school holidays. It made me get off my backside and take a couple of carrier bags of stuff ( sensible and treats) down to our local food bank. They are advertising that they need tinned meat and toiletries now so I will drop off another donation this week.

This is what I love about this forum, in addition to the focus on saving money, it is the generosity and gratitude of the people on here. Everyone gladly gives of their advice and shares their journey and there are lots of people like Beanie who give up their time to help others.

There is also just generally a sense of gratitude that pervades this forum. Maybe it is because a MFW lifestyle gives you choices or maybe the fact that the people on here have such a well considered life, whether it be choosing how they spend their money, the impact on their environment, whether they eat meat or whatever. Although people have different backgrounds,, incomes and everyone has different priorities people are living a life where they have consciously considered their choices. Anyway I am not sure what it is but I like it