Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: £238 for my half of our mortgage, plus £50 per month overpayment.
Loan payments: My car is on finance at £165 per month. We bought our white goods on finance, which is £14.32 per month for my half. My student loan also comes out of my salary, around £133 per month. During 2020-2021 I racked up nearly £6,000 of credit card debt through a mixture of being irresponsible with money, a period of depression and a bit too much lifestyle creep. I kept this secret from everyone, including T, and just tried to ignore it or hope I’d figure it out. I owned up to T last Christmas and he was shocked. He’s always been careful with money (he works in finance) and he was hurt I’d kept this from him but together we worked out a plan for me to switch to an interest-free card and pay the debt off in time for us to hopefully have a baby. While I did this, T took over building up our savings for the house renovation. After an incredibly frugal 11 months of selling things online, downscaling my bad habits (hello, Wilko makeup instead of Estée Lauder) and carefully budgeting for big expenses or events, I’m about to make the final payment on the credit card. I still paid my half of all our bills and I fully appreciate how privileged I am that I was able to do this.
Savings? Joint £10,000 for house renovations that’s in a lock-away savings account. T has an emergency fund of a similar amount and I’ll be building up one for me too when I’ve paid off my debt.
Pension? I pay about 9% and my employer pays about 12%. This works out at about £300 per month.
Utilities: My half of our monthly bills breaks down as £66 council tax, £16.40 broadband, £6.84 TV licence, £23.54 water, £73.34 gas and electricity.
All other monthly payments: £25 phone contract, £38.79 life and illness insurances, £7.12 boiler cover and servicing, £8.55 home and contents insurance. Subscriptions: £8 Netflix, £25.66 union fees, £11 NHS prescription pre-pay, £32 gym membership, £40 parking permit, £60 cleaners (starting this month). We pay a number of monthly charity direct debits from our joint account, my half breaks down as £25 Trussell Trust, £25 Macmillan Cancer Support, £10 Mind and £2.50 to a local animal shelter.
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