In 2020, I published a couple of what I called ‘What I spend in a week’ posts. These posts looked at my weekly spending and were very loosely based on the Money Diaries that are regularly published on Refinery29.
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The first money diary captured my weekly spending pre-lockdown, the second money diary during lockdown. As lockdowns are hopefully very much a distant memory, I thought I’d keep track of my spending during a week in the lead up to Christmas. I figured that certain aspects of my life have changed since June 2020, so it was time for an update.
When I published my lockdown weekly spending diary, I was employed on a fixed-term contract due to end in November that year. While after a lot of uncertainty and stress, that contract was extended to April 2021, I was so determined to find myself a permanent contract I probably spent more time job hunting and applying for jobs than was sensible. The job applications paid off, and I was incredibly fortunate to find a permanent job working for the same organisation in December 2020. Although my pay is lower than average for someone with my qualifications and experience, the organisation I work for actively encourages flexible working, and my job is relatively secure. At the moment, I value my mental health more than my salary, but my priorities could always change.
Two years ago, I’d identified that while getting a mortgage when I was employed on a fixed-term contract was possible, I needed to find a permanent job. In theory, having a permanent job should have made getting a mortgage relatively straightforward. With all the uncertainty surrounding the housing market, the reality has unfortunately been different.
I decided last year to continue renting and saving as much as I could each money towards what I hope will eventually be the deposit on my first property. Although houses prices where I live have started to fall, it feels like as a single person, getting a mortgage is getting increasingly unlikely each month. Apologies for the self-pitying, adulting is hard, and I sometimes wish I had a partner to share some of the decision making with.
At the start of 2022, one of my goals was to save at least £1500 a month. By not going on holiday this year, I’ve just about managed to do this. Another goal was to generate at least £250 a month through what I’ve previously described as my side hustles. This goal was slightly ambitious, and some months I struggled to generate this amount of extra income. Overtime at work has helped, but I’m currently looking at getting a part-time job so that I can save more each month.
Background:
By the time my pension, PAYE, and NI A have all been deducted from my monthly pay, I take home approximately £2215 each month. Sometimes this will be supplemented by overtime.
Monthly expenses:
Without further ado, here’s what I spent during ‘Black Friday’ week.
Monday I used to work from home 1-2 days a week. The days I had to travel into the office, I’d spend three hours commuting by train to and from my office in Solihull. I’ve been working from home pretty much every day since March 2020. It’s reached the stage working from home has become completely normal, and I can’t imagine ever having to spend three hours a day on a train commuting to work. Although regaining three hours of my day back has been a huge positive, I live alone and sometimes wish I had more in person contact. I’m looking forward to meeting my work colleagues in person for the first time next month.
My job keeps me so busy during the day I rarely have any time for online shopping. Unfortunately, as soon as I finish work, I’ve got into the habit of opening my personal laptop and checking out sites such as Lululemon and Sweaty Betty. When it comes to sites selling tempting looking running gear, I’ve got quite good at just browsing and not buying. It’s a shame I’m seemingly unable to just browse the website belonging to my local Chinese takeaway. I’m not saying that I’m one of the Hungry Sparrows best customers, but I’m on first name terms with the people who work there.
Since the start of the year, I’ve developed a habit of rewarding myself for getting through Monday with a takeaway from the Hungry Sparrow. Definitely a not so positive and expensive habit I need to break in 2023. The problem is that I get fed up with having to cook for myself, and good food does seem to banish those Monday blues. I’m not convinced the food I ordered was worth £17.60, but it tasted amazing.
Total for Monday: £17.60
Tuesday I was reasonably restrained to start with on Tuesday. I paid my British Hydrological Society membership fees for 2023. I should be able to reclaim the cost of these membership fees (£30) back from work. I made my first (and last) purchase on Vinted and spent £12.69 buying a parkrun t-shirt. Tuesday got more expensive when I finally completed my Christmas shopping. The Ford Focus boot liner I bought for a friend is quite possibly the most random Christmas present I was asked for this year. It was also one of the most expensive presents.
Total for Tuesday: £99.68
Wednesday I’m not sure what happened, but I’m ashamed to admit that I was ‘influenced’ by a beauty article I read online. Within 10 minutes of reading the article, I found myself on the Sand and Sky website inputting my credit card details. So much for not making any ‘Black Friday’ purchases this year, but at least I saved £7.38.
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It will be interesting to see if the Australian Pink Clay Porefining face mask draws out impurities, tightens pores, invigorates a dull complex and boosts radiance. If the face mask makes a difference to my face, I’ll be impressed.
Total for Wednesday: £33.42
Thursday I aim to have what I call ‘no spend days’ at least twice a week. Some weeks this is easy, other weeks not so easy. On Thursday, I finally managed to leave my credit card inside my wallet and had a ‘no spend day’.
Total for Thursday: £0.00
Friday Home Alone is one of my all-time favourite Christmas films, so I’ve been eyeing up the Home Alone house on the online LEGO store on a regular basis since last Christmas. Predictably, the Home Alone house was not reduced in LEGO’s Black Friday sale.
On Friday, although I managed to avoid spending £259.99 on something that would have made me happy but also guilty, I did end up buying myself a LEGO City Advent calendar. I converted some of the LEGO VIP points I’d accumulated into £15 worth of discount codes. This made the cost of the LEGO City Advent Calendar I bought slightly less exorbitant. I’m still regretting not buying myself a LEGO Home Alone house as it looks like it’s now out of stock.
Total for Friday: £10.94
Saturday I’ve reached the conclusion that food is an important part of my life and I’d go as far to say that my Saturday lunches at the Giggling Squid in Mere Green are one of the highlights of my weekends. I’m sure you can guess what the other highlight is. At least parkrun is free.
With apologies for the slightly dubious photo, but I feel really embarrassed whenever I try to capture a sneaky photo of whatever I’ve ordered. My lunchtime companion doesn’t help as he always asks me why I’m taking a photo of my food. I guess it’s a reasonable question to ask but it’s a good job I’m not a food blogger. I’m a creature of habit, so I always end up ordering prawn crackers, followed by duck spring rolls, Samui zingy prawns and egg fried rice. I also always seem to end up paying.
Total for Saturday: £47.30
Sunday When I found out I was going to receive a local recognition award at work, I asked for Amazon gift cards. I had visions of using the gift cards to buy most if not all of my nephew and nieces Christmas presents. The reality was a little different, as most of the items on my nephew and nieces Christmas present lists were too niche to be sold on Amazon. At least the Joules sale was impressive this year.
After selling yet more of my unwanted running gear on eBay, I discovered that I’d completely run out of mailing bags. I did what I suspect a lot of unorganised people do, I ended up on Amazon. Once I’d found some suitable mailing bags that were in stock, I added a couple of books, and some car wash sponges to my online basket. I could argue that Sunday was a ‘no spend day’ and as I paid for the mailing bags, books and car wash sponges using my Amazon gift card balance, but I’ve included the £28.99 in my weekly total.
Total for Sunday: £28.99
Total spent this week: £237.93
Like last time, I found writing this post informative and somewhat concerning. I thought I’d had a reasonably thrifty week by my standards, I was a little shocked to discover I’d spent well over £200 in seven days. Luckily it’s only Christmas once a year.
Although working from home means that I’m not having to pay for a travel pass, I suspect I’m still spending more on eating out and on takeaways than I was pre-lockdown.
I hope that the contents of this post haven’t offended anyone, that really wasn’t my intention when I published this post. I don’t have a partner, live alone, work from home, and quite often feel lonely. I think it’s clear that I see food as some sort of mood booster. I’m hoping that once I’m able to run regularly, I’ll be able to replace some of the Chinese takeaways with training runs. Both my wallet and my waistline will thank me.
Have you ever kept a money diary? I’ve kept track of my spending since I shared my first ‘What I spend in a week’, post.
Bloggers, do you have any tips for monetising blogs? A repeat question, but as it costs me money to maintain this blog, this is something I seriously need to consider in 2023.
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