What I spend in a week…
After reading the Money Diaries on Refinery 29, I thought it would be interesting to publish one myself. I’m incredibly nosey, and I love reading about how other people spend their hard-earned cash, some people I can relate to, others, not so much.
Now, as I’m not anonymous I’m not going to publish my earnings or go into as much detail as other articles about my overall outgoings; but I will give you a little background:
Age – 32
Occupation – Insurance Broker/Part Time Blogger/Freelancer
Outgoings – I’m a joint homeowner with my partner, my bills are pretty straightforward; general household costs, my phone, petrol, contact lenses and blog running costs*.
Here’s my week in spending:
Saturday – I headed to Tough Mudder which was the other side of London, I filled up my tank with fuel (£25.00) and I had an eye emergency (I slept in my contact lenses) so I grab some eyedrops (£4.50). Then we stopped on the route for a bite to eat, I grabbed a sausage sandwich and a coffee at Starbucks (£7.50). We arrived at Tough Mudder and as Trek had kindly paid our parking and entry cost, my only spend was for bag drop (£3.00).
On the route home, we stopped again and I grabbed some cold chicken, water and a rather nice chocolate bar from M&S (£5.75).
Total Spend: £45.75
Sunday – After a long day at Tough Mudder and on the road, I was thankful for some peace and quiet at home to get ahead with my work. I paid for myself and my partner to take part in ‘The 3 Peaks Challenge’ for 2018 (£230.00). I will note that this is partly his Xmas gift as I often really struggle with what I should buy him.
Total Spend: £230.00
Monday – I nipped out at lunch to get a replacement screen protector, Primark sells these for £2.00 so off to Primark I went. Whilst in there I got distracted and bought a dress £5.00, coconut chips £1.00, cat headphones £6.00 (Xmas gift) and some wacky foam body wash £2.50. In relation to the body wash, I think secretly, I’m still around 6 years old.
Total Spend: £16.50
Tuesday – I came down with an unexpected 24-hour sickness bug and subsequently had to take the day off work. My day was spent in bed, feeling rather sorry for myself.
Total Spend: £00.00
Wednesday – Back to work, I took myself out for a walk at lunchtime and dropped into a local shop which sells various healthy bits and bobs. I grabbed a couple of bars of ‘Green and Blacks‘ chocolate £2.00, Maca powder £4.50, chia seeds £3.50 and ‘Bounce balls’ £3.50. I was meant to attend ‘Bear Grylls 10km‘ race this weekend, but I was feeling under the weather so I paid to transfer the tickets to a friend £5.50.
Total Spend: £19.00
Thursday – Well, it was a pretty uneventful day. I needed another tank of fuel, so I whizzed to the petrol station on the way home (what an exciting life I lead?) £29.05
Total Spend: £29.05
Friday – Finally, the weekend is drawing in and due to the fact I was going to be home late, I nipped to M&S for some lunch, dinner and nibbles. I grabbed: a beetroot and feta wrap, chocolate covered marzipan balls a pack of fruit scones. Plus some pancakes, ham and chicken crumble, a packet of mango and watermelon, a quinoa, carrot and sweet potato meal.
Total Spend: £18.50
Total weekly spend – £358.80
***
Wow, I genuinely didn’t expect that total but this wasn’t a standard week at all.
For example; I normally use a lot less fuel and I most certainly don’t buy an entry to ‘The 3 Peaks Challenge‘ every week. Yet, as an experiment, I think it’s really interesting to understand how much I spend and where I’m very clearly wasting money. I wonder how many of us are in the flow of just grabbing bits and pieces here and there, with no regard to how quickly the cost adds up?
Which brings me to this, have you ever kept a money diary before? If so, where you surprised by how easy it is to thoughtlessly spend money? Clearly, I buy too much chocolate…
Katie
x
*I’m going to publish a ‘behind the scenes of my blog’ post soon, so I’ll go into the running costs of my blog then.