I am officially declaring the end of my lockdown spending diary, but do not worry readers I will be carrying on with my spending diary posts. I love them, as do you. And they keep me mindful of my spending every week when I add up my spending in my spreadsheet. This week was a bit of a shocker when I looked at the total, whoops. I appear to have spent my entire April budget 2/3rd of the way through the month. No one is perfect.
This is me all ready for a media day this week, working with Admiral talking about personal finance relating to children still living at home with their parents as adults. I did 11 radio interview, fun and exhausting!
Spending Diary Comparison to Faith Archer – Much More With Less
Faith from Much More with Less website and I have been back at the spending diary comparison again. It is our fourth time of comparing and we wanted to share how we have faired over the last lockdown from Jan to March 2021. We are both very grateful to share that we have been able to save some money and reveal what we are doing with our savings.
I find being able to compare my spending to another person so valuable, maybe like you do by reading these weekly posts! I learn new ways to save money, but I also feel reassured when someone else spends on things like I do. It relieves the guilt somewhat!
You can read my comparison post over on the PensionBee website here. You can also read Faiths views on our spending diaries over on her website here.
New Podcast Launch Mrs Mummypenny Talks With Ridley Writes
This week saw Rebecca Megson-Smith, AKA Ridley Writes and I launch our new podcast – Mrs Mummypenny Talks with Ridley Writes. Episode 1 is all about our intentions for the podcast and we talk through our lives an share some of our life events that have shaped us individually and our friendship.
You can either listen to the podcast here
Or you can watch us recording the podcast on YouTube instead!
Spending Diary Update
So back to my spending diary for last week. Lets just say I enjoyed the first week of freedom and spent quite a chunk of money out and about.
Childrens Costs
I was hit with some unexpected children’s costs this week, namely a deposit for a school trip, a hockey stick and a hair cut (okay I was expecting the hair cut!). How on earth do you choose a hockey stick and know if you are getting value for money or the right brand. We winged it and did lots of google research, but still spent £52 on a hockey stick?!
The school trip costs do get alot higher in secondary school, this one is £790 (I pay 50% of this) for a four day sports trip to Paris. But the children have missed out on so much over the past year, I want them to enjoy these kind of experiences with their friends. Total spend this week on children costs £116.
Dinner Out in London
This one I was very excited for and actually cost me less than expected as my wonderful friend paid for dinner as a birthday present! But the night out still cost an additional £55 in restaurant tip, drinks in the sunshine before and after dinner and the train into London.
Dinner was amazing, at Granary Brasserie in Granary Square near Kings Cross. I highly recommend the outdoor dining, food was amazing, service was great and they had heaters!
Clothes Shopping
I totally took advantage of the shops on Saturday and did a bit of clothes shopping for myself. My intention was to look for jeans and got a few bits more! I got two beautiful dresses from H&M, 1 jumpsuit (perfect for a wedding I have in July!), 2 pairs of shoes, all for £94. I saved £13 on this purchase by using my 25% off birthday discount (on one item) and I got an extra app £3 discount. They reminded me whilst at the till, to bring in a bag of clothes for recycling to save an extra £5 off future purchases! The H&M app is a great way to save on purchases in that shop.
I also found the said jeans in New Look along with new pair of pumps and spent £ 44 there. £138 spent on clothes. You can see my purchases over on Instagram.
Bills and Food Shopping
A few bills hit this week, namely broadband and mobile phone being the biggest. Both are with EE. My broadband is £24 and my mobile bill was £63, this is for 4 lines, soon to be 3 lines as I have cancelled my watch contract finally after two years. I also paid for life insurance, Netflix and Audible. I am confused about audible as I’m sure I cancelled it. Anyways I have now cancelled it AGAIN. Total spend on bills this week was £121.
Grocery spend jumped up as I wanted some treat food from M&S after my operation on Friday. All went well by the way. I wasn’t going very far this weekend in my recovery so wanted some tasty, easy food. M&S is my favourite shop for lovely food. I spent £53 on food to last a few days, still cheaper than takeaways.
Total grocery spend was £97 and a little bit extra spent on takeaways, just £17 this week.
Other Smaller costs
My cleaner was here so i spent £25 on her for two hours and an immaculate house. I love having my house cleaned. £20 was spent on petrol. I have a hire car at the moment whilst my car is in for repairs after the accident at the end of March. This is saving me money as I’m not spending anything on my pay as you go insurance!
I spent a whole £10 on personal fun money, a yoga class and some incense sticks! I spent £30 on flowers for a friends birthday, of course getting some cashback in the process with TopCashback.
Total Spend £636
As you can see there were a few biggies of costs mentioned above and the total spend for the week came to £636. This means that I’ve now spent my £3,000 monthly budget by 3 weeks into the month so I need to cut things back a bit this next week. Hmmm I have a dinner out planned on Thursday and Friday and trip to the beach planned for Saturday. But I won’t buy any clothes this week!
I hope that you have had a good week, and enjoyed the sunshine and some freedom. I have loved it.
