January Spending Diary

a sneaky peek at what a low income mid-lifer spends her money on...

Hello Sparrows Enders!

It’s a new month, but I’ve just spent an hour hanging out with last month piecing together my spending diary for January.

I spend most of my time in the Clubhouse sharing with subscribers (and in more detail with members) how much I’m earning online and where it all comes from. I think the final piece of the puzzle is how I’m spending the money I make. Or, rather, how I allocate my money so that it contributes to my life in the here and now, the medium term (think big holidays and house moves) and my long term retirement plans.

📓 This spending diary is hopefully going to be a piece of the huge Impossi-puzzle of my financial life 🧩

Context

Household

A bit about me (and us) - there is an us, but my OH is not on social media and is a pretty private person, so I won’t be revealing specifics about his finances, just some general comment about how it fits with the bigger picture.

The one thing I do find myself sharing frequently online is that my OH has always earned a below average or average income. This is mainly because THOSE peeps on The Internet, who make a lot of assumptions, often suggest that I have a wealthy high-earning partner. So, to be clear, I don’t.

The way we split our money has varied over the years depending on who was earning what. At one point I earned double my partner’s salary so I picked up a higher percentage of our outgoings, other times it’s been more even between us. When I went through a period of not-quite-enough income, he picked up a bit more. The decisions we’ve made have always been discussed at length, are always flexible and always respectful of each person’s goals and situation (as well as many other factors).

In a nutshell we are a dual income, no kids and no cars household.

We are both in mid-life aged 45 and 48: 22 years together, 19 years living together (4 years renting, 15 years as homeowners - or it will be 15 at the end of this year).

We both have work place pensions where money is deducted from pre-tax income and we both have pensions from previous employment.

All things financial are based on a monthly cycle because it’s typical in the UK to be paid monthly and for bills to be due monthly.

I’m aware that no kids AND no cars is atypical and without doubt has made a difference to our numbers over the years. I also appreciate that for the whole of my adult life I have always had another person contribute something, even if it’s not half, towards the running of the household. Everything has been shared in some way, including burdens and worries (and sheer panic when the roof leaks and water pours down the wall onto electric sockets - you know, that kind of thing!). This makes a difference in ways that are difficult to measure. No children and no cars has of course made a huge difference too.

Location

• 45min to 1 hr train commute from London

• Property - 2 bed terraced house

I hope this helps with matching my spending to my circumstances

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My Simple Budget

(very few line items on a spreadsheet is my bag!)

Joint Expenses

(I’ve given the amounts in GBP (pounds sterling)/USD and the percentage of my contribution is in brackets)

• £500/$622 - into joint account for household bills and mortgage (47%)

• £125/$155 - groceries (50%)

Solo Expenses

• £34/$42 Mobile

• £8/$10 Dad Mobile (no Internet household - he pays me back in a lump sum annually)

• £9/$11 Amazon Prime

• £9/$11 iCloud storage

• £30/$37 Credit card repayment

Savings & Investments

• £100/$124 Investments

• £50/$62 Savings

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Spending

I allocate £200/$249 for spending money every month, but allow myself some more if I have a good month with my online income - as well as setting some aside for lower income months)

Spending Categories for January

• One-Off Subscriptions

• Clothes

• Reading

• Home & garden

• Social/Food & Drink Out

• Personal Care

• Transport

• Miscellaneous

The Spending Details for January

One-Off Subscriptions £13.98/$17.39

I paid for a month of Now TV because I wanted to watch the second series of Annika and also wanted to watch The Last of Us, neither of which were available for free elsewhere. I also wanted to watch Kate Winslet’s latest film Lee so I signed up for a week’s free film upgrade. Incidentally the film was so bad I couldn’t finish it! I loved Annika and The Last of Us and my OH found a few music documentaries to watch to try to get our money’s worth out of the subscription. Whilst I also enjoyed the latest True Detective series (I’m a sucker for detective shows in cold, cold places!), overall it’s definitely not a service I want to continue with. Although, when the next series of The Last of Us and Annika are both out at the same time, I’ll sign up again for a month to catch up with them.

I also signed up for a month of Discovery + to watch the Australian Open tennis which was amazing and made me so happy. £4 well spent!

Both services have been cancelled moving forward.

Clothes (£24.53/$30.51)

£18.39 - Long trench coat for spring from secondhand marketplace Vinted

£6.14 - New with tags Wimbledon “official merch” hat from Vinted

Reading (£24.80/$30.85)

• Gardening magazine with free seeds that I wanted for this year’s allotment plan.

• Financial Times Weekend newspaper which I usually pick up a few times a year - there’s so much to read that it lasts ages, plus I am always amazed/entertained/horrified by the adverts in the magazine supplement for Cartier necklaces that cost the same as my house 😱

• The rest was all on books, one new, one e-book and the rest secondhand

Home & Garden (£7.80/$9.70)

Some shelf supports that are supposed to fit a Billy Bookcase but don’t!

Some bulbs for the garden - a beautiful lily and some irises that are already potted up. I can’t wait to watch them grow and bloom. Truly the best money I spent this month!

Stargazer lily - bulb safely tucked in pot and will hopefully look like this come May

Social/Food and Drink Out (£36.15/$44.97)

I had an amazing lunch out by myself in January - spiced cauliflower soup with a cheese scone and garlic butter - genuinely as heavenly as it sounds. I’ve promised myself a solo lunch out every month this year because I often forget to make the most of being self-employed (instead of living a timetabled hectic existence as a teacher).

I also picked up a fancy takeaway sushi lunch one week and had a drink and blueberry muffin in a cute cafe post hair appointment before heading home to work.

My OH also took me out for a Sunday lunch at a nearby small town (and paid for all of it - extra nice!) which was such a lovely surprise. We sat in the bar area instead of the restaurant at one of my favourite tables and chewed the fat about our lives and the world at large for a couple of hours and then popped into a cafe for a drink (hot choc for me) while we waited for the next train home.

A terrible photo - it was actually delicious!

Not much in the way of socialising this month as I saw everyone I love over Christmas and consequently really needed time to myself.

Personal Care (£49.50/$61.57)

Haircut - trim - nowt fancy

Transport (£5.90/$7.34)

Train ticket to get to hair salon

The other train ticket for the month was paid for as a business expense from my business account because I was on a stock buying trip for my vintage shop.

Miscellaneous (£46.73/$58.13)

£30 towards a trip to Wimbledon this year

£16.73 mortgage overpayment. I like to pay off the odd pounds and pence every month. Even though it’s just a small amount it makes me feel good to pay off something, so I do it. I’ve definitely learnt over the years that some money decisions can be made just because they feel good even when the number is a token amount rather than something substantial!

TOTAL FOR SPENDS (excluding bills and other fixed expenses):

£209.39/$260.85

GRAND TOTAL FOR ALL MONEY GOING OUT:

£1,074.39/$1336.44

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This was a quiet month as far as spending went because I naturally don’t do as much in January. I’m mostly hibernating in the cold and dark. I read a lot and finished a difficult puzzle.

It’s deceptive! The greens all look very similar when they’re in the box.

Overall though, I’m pleased. I felt a mixture of worry about my income in January, but tried to relax about my spending.

Those of you who are my members know that last summer during a month or two of low income I went into a panic and overspent and used a credit card for the first time in years (on things other than stock for my shop).

If I keep a calm head, take steps to stabilise or improve my income then I don’t lose my head and spend like I’ll never have money again!!

This month I managed it - maintaining calm during some stormy thoughts about money.

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Let me know how you feel about spending diaries. They won’t replace my usual content, but might become a bonus article in months when I have some extra capacity for content.

I’m more than happy to receive curious comments and questions about my spending and if I’m comfortable with answering them then I will, or I’ll answer as part of the next spending diary.

Take care everyone,

Mel

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