January spending diary

Now if you followed my spending diary series last year, then you’ll be familiar with this format. But this year I’m going to change it up. Rather than listing what I’ve spent in a week. I’m going to list what I’ve spent for which category over the month. I figure this might be easier to read, but also useful in helping me identify which parts of my budget I’m going over. Because yes, I do like to budget. Especially as I like to spend my money on luxury items. So here it is, my January spending diary.

Bills £1,215.84

Now I can’t escape this amount or even cut it down really. This is what my bills come to every. Single. Month. And by bills, I mean, mortgage, utilities, holiday payment, phone, insurances etc. I should add here that I choose to overpay my mortgage, so technically I could cut this down, but I’d rather save money elsewhere and continue to overpay the mortgage.

Saving and Investments £700

Now this is an area that I’d like to increase. I always ensure that my savings and investments go out at the beginning of the month, that way I know what I have left to spend. This is broken down into quite a few pots. I have a couple of funds that I invest in, as well as a ISA, LISA and private pension to go alongside my workplace pension. As well as a regular savings account. I use the plum app as another to save. Not only does it round up my spending to top up my savings, but I can also take part in savings challenges. I’m currently doing the 52 week saving challenge, alongside the rainy day one. So every time it rains, plum takes £2 from my current account to top my savings.

Food £141.91

Now unlike bills, this is an area I really should try and cut down if I can. I’m not the best planner, so tend to not meal plan all that often which leads to overspending on food and an increase in food waste. Which isn’t great. Oh and I’m quite partial to a takeaway and meal out too.

Travel £525.94

Now I wish this was full of plane ticket expenses, but it’s actually made up of my car payment, fuel costs, train travel and parking for when I travel to the office. Not that exciting but still necessary.

Entertainment £42.95

Now this covers things like my multiple TV subscription services, as well as my Spotify account. Again, this isn’t something I can really cut back on unless I choose to drop one of my subscriptions. Which is tempting, but I do like to have the choice of what to watch.

Clothing and Beauty £261.05

So this covers, you guessed, everything I spend on clothes and beauty. That includes getting my hair, nails, brows and lashes done. As well as shopping for new clothes. Now this is an area that needs to be closely monitored as I find it ever so easy to just spend, spend, spend. Especially when it comes to late night online shopping.

Miscellaneous £198.78

Now this covers all the little random things that don’t seem to fit into any other category. So things like blog costs or other unexpected costs that are classed as miscellaneous. So for this month, that includes paint for my living room, hallway and both bathrooms. A birthday present for a friend etc.

So that brings my grand total to £3,086.47. Not bad but definitely could do better with cutting back on the food and shopping categories. Wish me better luck next month!