January is an expensive month

[JabbaDaButt]

True or false for you?

It's normally not too bad, but this year our outgoings for January has gone up by a third.
Not due to overspending over the festive period, or bad money management, but purely due to DCs school and extracurricular activities trips all needing an installment taken out this month!

Hopefully this year is just a one off for us,
but is January usually a speedy time for you?

Time to tighten those belts and spreadsheet time methinks... 🤗

I don’t usually find January any more expensive than any other month but it’s always a long month to make the money stretch. As with a lot of work places, DW , who is now the wage earner, was paid early in December ( two full weeks) and no matter how disciplined we try to be , we always seem to end up breaking into the pay before the end of the month thus leaving less per week than we’d normally have.

Yes it’s dh’s birthday,it’s a long month as I got paid on the 19th December!have to wait until 30th January!

It is expensive for me because I have car MOT and car insurance to pay for. Then Feb is car TAX time so it's a crap couple of months money-wise for me. Also the start of a new school term means we have another terms worth of swimming, school trip installments to pay for. I always try to pay for Christmas with my end of November pay, knowing Jan is expensive.

Well taxes are due at the end of the month so that’s one major expense for me! I also had to pay service charge on a flat which was another big expense. But these are not surprises so I’ve planned for them. What I didn’t plan was my tenant not paying rent for two months! That has made things very tricky indeed.

Tax due at the the end of this month for me too.

I find January a cheap month, but I don’t have any annual expenses that fall in January. We have loads of new “stuff” from Christmas so don’t need to be buying anything really, plus loads of treat foods left which get portioned out as snacks for us and the kids. Freezer is full from the December supermarket deals on meat and veg, and also some Christmas leftovers like cheeses etc, so food shop is cheap. No birthdays this month, or social things planned. We already have gym memberships, swimming passes etc too so those are our standing expenses and not new.

I find january cheapish. We don’t really do much in terms of days out as the weather is crap (usually snows or rains most of jan here), we have lots of new stuff from christmas so dont need to buy anything (other than new pillows & duvets which we do yearly in jan!) and the kitchen still has xmas snacks left over. Just need food & petrol really.

Cheap for us as we just hunker down after so much travelling in December. We have so many snacks and so much cheese that it reduces the shop a bit. No big expenses in January.

Although I agree with previous poster that it is a long month especially due to getting paid earlier in December.

January is a cheap month for us.
February and (early) March are really expensive with (one-off) bills of £2.5k+ all coming in at the same time.

Cheap for us. Tends to be a quiter month socially after all the Christmas activity, plus we have a rammed freezer from Christmas, so grocery shopping is cheaper.

It could have been expensive for me.
The nice man at the Telegraph refunded my subscription. I'd been on a 4 month free trial and I forgot to cancel it last week and yesterday was Sunday when they are not open to cancel.
I know it's only £15 but I had no intention of spending anything.

I have my eldest’s birthday on Wednesday then DH’s next Tuesday so January has always been pricier for us. The year they turned 18 and 40 respectively was a tough one.

This year we have extra unexpected bills. The car passed its MOT last month and we thought we just had to deal with a caliper which was an advisory but DH took it in before new year to find the back brakes are both totally shot and need fully replaced. So that’s a good few hundred, maybe almost a grand. And that’s on top of the £525 vet bill from us losing one of our dogs just before Christmas.

DH and I are also going away for a gig towards the end of the month. Thankfully our hotel for the night has already been paid for (and was only £37 anyway) and we travel for free because DH is a bus driver so it’ll just be food and drinks we have to pay for so we can keep it cheaper.

No long months for us at least since DH is paid weekly and he worked NYD for treble time so we should be just ok despite everything.

It's a long month and December payday is usually early. We have 4 January birthdays in the family.

It’s subjective though, we haven’t done a big shop since the 22nd Dec and our freezer is still pretty full. I’m having a no spend January - apart from bills and food. No buying random stuff on Amazon just cos I fancy new wax melts when I have dozens in the drawer still. Feb is worse for me, car insurance and dentist check up and hygienist in the same month.

I think it feels expensive because of the Christmas spending. In comparison to December it is a long month with nothing to look forward to, and the stretching money to payday makes things feel tighter.

I have plenty of festive food left over, so that's something.

Not much spending going on, just payments coming out for various things, mostly DCs relayed.
But it is a one off for this year so it's fine.

It can be pricy for us depending on what I fancy doing for my birthday. Jan is usually a reset month where we work through our cupboards, pantry and freezer to use up stocks of food.

I paid my insurance for the year, so in that way it is. Otherwise, I tend to not spend much in January because it's too bloody cold to leave my flat. And with all this snow, I can't anyway due to wheelchair not being a tank.