After spending far too long reading some of the lifestyle posts on Metro and seeing what other people manage to spend and save, I decided to keep track of my own spending for a week. I’m clearly quite nosey and enjoy reading about how other people spend their money, so I thought I’d write and publish my own ‘What I spend in a week’ post.
Some people don’t share their earnings, however, I work in the public sector so my salary isn’t exactly difficult to find out. It’s relatively low for someone with my experience, but I decided to work for an organisation that actively promotes flexible working. I like being able to work from home and being able to leave the office at 3:30pm.
One of my goals this year is to save at least £1500 a month as I want to get onto the property ladder. Another is to generate at least £250 a month through what I call my side hustles. My priority is to find myself a permanent job as I’m currently employed on a fixed-term contract until the end of November.
Although I’ve managed to save up a decent amount of money to put towards a deposit, I still want to save more. I don’t want to find myself living in an empty house while having to sleep on an airbed for several months until I can afford a bed. I’ve been there and done that.
Background:
Monthly expenses:
Without further ado, here’s what I spent last week.
Monday I decided to work from home as I had several technical reports to read. This also meant I could shop online. A friend had told me Sportsshoes.com had some great deals on Hoka One One trainers, so I found myself investing £68.99 (plus £4.99 P&P) on a pair of Arahi 3 trainers. I remembered to use TopCashback so I should receive a ‘bonus’ £4.14 at some stage. I must remember to use TopCashback when I buy stuff online, I completely forgot when I was doing my Christmas shopping.
As I was working from home, I had arranged to meet my mother for lunch. This meant that lunch cost me £22.25, far more than I usually spend! I’d sold some running leggings so spent £1.30 posting them. My Monday became more expensive when I somehow spent £10.70 buying groceries in my local Co-op.
Total for Monday: £108.23
Tuesday Luckily, I had an incredibly thrifty Tuesday. For lunch, I bought myself a baguette and soft drink from the canteen at work, this was £3.25. Dinner was some of the turkey spag bol I’d prepared for a friend the previous week which cost me £0. After an expensive Monday, my spending was back under control
Total for Tuesday: £3.25
Wednesday When I checked my banking app, I discovered that the payment for my monthly travel pass had come out of my bank account. Except for this monthly outgoing, Wednesday was another reasonably thrifty day. For lunch, I bought myself a sandwich from the canteen at work, this cost me £2.60. I’d arranged to meet a friend for a quick drink after work so I ended up spending £9.05 on a meal and a pint of Wainwright beer.
Total for Wednesday: £11.65
Thursday The day got off to a positive start when I remembered to pack my reusable water bottle. This meant I was able to make use of the water machine at work and avoided spending money on over-priced cans of Diet Coke. For lunch, I bought myself a baguette from the canteen at work, this cost me £2.85.
After work, I popped round to a friend’s house as he needed help entering a chess tournament. The card reader he needed to set up a new payee online didn’t work, so I ended up paying the £15 entry fee. This investment was worth it as my friend treated me to fish, chips and curry sauce from the local chippy.
Total for Thursday: £17.85
Friday I worked from the office on a Friday for the first time in several months. This meant I was able to treat myself to ‘fish and chips Friday’ for lunch. I think £4.95 for a huge portion of fish and chips and a soft drink is quite reasonable. I’m not looking forward to the office moving to the centre of Birmingham in June.
I left the office at 3:00pm and worked out I had 20 minutes to check out the final clearance sale in TK Maxx in Birmingham on my way home. I left TK Maxx with three pairs of running leggings for £12.00 so it was a worthwhile trip.
I popped into my local Co-op on my way home and picked up £14.85 worth of groceries. And finally, I treated myself to a takeaway from my local Chinese restaurant. Was the food I ordered worth £15.70? Much as I think that the occasional treat is okay, I think my Friday takeaway habit needs to end.
Total for Friday: £47.50
Saturday I had a thrifty Saturday until I headed into Birmingham to return a jacket I’d bought before Christmas. I was a little concerned I’d struggle to get a refund as I’d lost the white TK Maxx price tag. Luckily, I’d managed to find the receipt, so once the manager tracked down the same jacket online, he was happy to give me a £39.99 refund.
As I hadn’t eaten all day – not ideal, I know – I popped into McDonald’s and treated myself to £4.46 worth of unhealthy food. I also bought a book I’d seen reviewed in Stylist Magazine. I’m hoping that the £14.99 I spent buying The Squiggly Career will turn out to be a good investment. I escaped the drunken madness that is Birmingham New Street station and headed back to Four Oaks. I spent £8.00 in Sainsbury’s buying some snacks for work and £3.90 on another pint of Wainwright beer.
Total for Saturday: £31.35
Sunday Once a week I aim to have what I call a ‘no spend day’. Some weeks I’m successful, other weeks I fail miserably. After working out how much I’d spent between Monday and Saturday, I decided I needed a no spend day.
Total for Sunday: £0.00
Total spent this week: £219.83
I must admit that I found writing this post really interesting. I was a little shocked to discover I’d managed to spend almost £220 in six days. Luckily, I don’t invest in a new pair of trainers every week.
Although I keep track of my online shopping and expenditure, I hadn’t bothered keeping track of what I’d describe as my day-to-day expenditure. All of those reasonably priced lunches in the canteen at work soon add up. And as for the Chinese takeaway treat on a Friday, I’m scared to work out how much I’ve been wasting without even thinking about it.
Have you ever kept a money diary before? While I’m going to continue to keep track of my online shopping, I can’t see myself keeping track of everything I buy.
Bloggers, do you have any tips for monetising blogs? As I’m spending money maintaining this blog, I think this is something I need to consider.
Member adidas Blogger Community
Top 10 Running Blog 2020
Top 10 Running Blog 2019
Top 10 Running Blog 2018
Decathlon Bloggers Community
Myprotein Award Winner 2017
Member UK Fitness Bloggers
Proud to support #RunEqual
I loved reading this. I often read the Money Diaries on Refinery29 (the comments are savage tho – the judgements people make on strangers!!). I find it so fascinating how people spend their money. Most of my money goes towards food and running – hardly surprsing I guess. I will always happily spend a lot of money on food, which is somewhat of a problem as it’s like I have budget blindness!
Thanks, I (sort of!) enjoying writing it. Definitely the kick up the bum I needed. I hadn’t heard of the Money Diaries on Refinery29 so thanks for the heads up. I’ve had a quick look and have to limit myself to 30 minutes at a time! I love seeing how people spend their money. I did feel guilty about my spending, but then I found a diary where the writer managed to spend £600 in one evening. I need an account without a debit/credit card. If I can’t access my money easily it’ll help me save 🙂
I love these types of posts, I read the Money Diaries on Refinery29 which Anna suggested in her comment. I spend too much on Diet Coke!
Thanks Lucy. I’m not brave enough to work out how much money I’ve spent on my Diet Coke addiction over the years. I bought an 8-pack on Monday – £3 in my local Co-op, happy days – and only have a couple of cans left. I started reading the Money Diaries at work, 30 minutes later I realised that my colleague was looking at me suspiciously so I had to get on with some work.
I LOVE reading the money diaries but only if I have time because I get sucked down the worm hole a bit.
I don’t have it, but Andy has an app linked to his spending that categorises his spending into things like groceries, leisure, bills, so he can see how much he is spending on each thing. I did it in a notebook, writing down monthly costs and then seeing how much was left for spending and saving. My bank does a save the change thing, where when I use the debit card it rounds it up to the nearest pound and puts that “change” into a savings account. I also heard a pay day save day campaign back in the summer, and have now set up standing orders to various savings accounts so that I don’t need to think about it and the money is already moved.
I spent an hour reading money diaries yesterday. I’m quickly discovering that the site is quite addictive. I make sure that I transfer money into my savings account every payday. I am useless though and only yesterday discovered that Intelligent Finance doesn’t really exist any more. I now need to work out how to close my savings and current accounts with them. This is turning out to be anything but simple. I need to open a couple more savings accounts as I’ve maxed out the amount I can put in the two I’ve got at the moment. I had a slight mishap and transferred to much money from my current account into one of my savings account and can’t withdraw any as I’ll be penalised. Definitely an adulting fail!