Where do you spend your money?

[Margyseries]

I always wonder what people spend their money on especially in relation to your salary.

I never buy clothes unless necessary in which case I spend only at ASOS sales or Primark. I am very tight. I try to always take in a packed lunch (I work in London so this is hard!), try not to eat out at restaurants unless it's a birthday, I don't have children just one dog so spend on insurance. Every other penny I try to put towards travelling as this is my favourite thing. I don't have a car but I am about to change this as it's getting a bit annoying.

So where do you spend yours and what would you not go without spending on?

Travel, food, phone contract, wine, going out with mates occasionally clothes

Oh and I should have added that I have a major eBay addiction
Snap!
It's terrible. I love ebay so much. Bargains galore! The excitement of bidding, will you win at the best price?...! The Buy it Now is also so handy...

Errrr DDs activities ( ballet, etc). Pre school / after school care which is a decent chunk DDs clothes. Then events: ballet and London hotel this weekend although that’s a special treat, theatre tickets, concert tickets, restaurants occasionally, drinks, coffee, clothes, hair. I decided that since I work in London I want to do more events. I buy some of my clothes in charity shops but I have access to good ones. I’m not going through life as a domestic drone.

DP and I currently have a joint income of about 9k per year. Yes, 9. With a 4yr old. Most virtually all of our income goes on grocery shopping and bills. Any "luxuries" (needed shoes/new clothes for growing DS) I get from ebay or charity shops.
We haven't been abroad in years.

Childcare and mortgage.

Personal trainer, skin care, hair, food, taxis and holidays

We don’t have a car, or children.

Running two cars
General bills (but thankfully mortgage free )
House renovations
Food shopping
Savings
Days out
The garden
Coffee shops

Ours goes on running house, 2 cars, food and everything else that 2 growing teenage girl demand! I put 15% of my pay into my pension. We also try and save money every month towards Christmas and an annual holiday. There isn't much left over. I allow myself £30 per week for guilt free personal spending after all the other bills and petrol have been accounted for, and when it's gone it's gone. Some weeks I don't spend it and carry over to the next week. Sometimes I buy myself a nice bunch of flowers or a candle with it. I also love beauty products and used to spend a lot on them but now get a monthly beauty subscription box which is great value at £13 per month and you get 6 beauty products for that.

The supermarket

I spend a fortune on presents for kids parties! At least £10 a week it seems!

And clothes. And random stuff off amazon that I don't end up unpacking for ages. I'm a stone overweight after having my three month old so I keep ordering clothes I think will look nice and they look awful. It's like the holy grail!

Maternity pay kicks in soon though, then I'll be scrimping to pay the bills.

This thread comes at a good time for me as I've actually no idea!
I went through last months bank statement yesterday and it seems had £1600 coming in, £700 in bills and other fixed costs and £200 in savings. DH pays for food shopping so I must have pissed £700 up the wall on absolutely nothing!
I might have to go through it again to work out exactly what I've been doing wrong but I suspect cafe lunches, take away tea and soft play will score highly.

Deliveroo. Pension. Savings. Hen parties. Holidays.

My kids, food and holidays mainly. I’ve usually got a trip of some sort booked as I like having something to look forward to

Just adding that my DP gets the same amount of personal guilt free spending money as me, £30 per week. He spends his on bottles of wine and scratch cards

Myself and DH save 20-25% of our salaries each month and outside of that it's household bills, running the car and we eat out at least once a week (usually just lunch/brunch). Also both pay for gym membership each month.

Like you I love to go on holidays so we use some savings towards that a couple times a year. Typically the US for one of them so we shop for clothes and stuff there in bulk and buy as needed at home.

Just had a baby though so I have a feeling it will be mostly baby clothes on our next trip ☺️

Teen (clothes - she's growing again!!, hobbies (lots of sports/Scouts needing equipment and coaching/fees), food.....endless and constantly changing food!!!, and support for her HF but very present SEN)

Food (good quality, and a fair amount of "convenience" as we are all out of the house a lot all day)

Sailing (teen (for years) and I am now having some fun learning as well)

Coffee in town (I do try to bring lunches a fair amount to work, but I generally get a coffee en route to work daily)

Clothes (I need a professional wardrobe, tend to shop in sales and discount periods, but spend on good quality clothes that look good and will last (and will repair those rather than immediately replacing), and having enough to not worry about laundry in manic weeks).

Transport (car, car parking (I pay for a ticket that covers my parking at train station for work, Scout Den half the weekend, and Sailing club other half of the weekend - all at once) and also train ticket for commute to work)

But we did prioritise things like paying off the mortgage and enough decent food and clothes (and supporting DD) before allowing other things to creep up as our incomes improved. And last part of the mortgage should be full paid off early next year, which is almost 3 years early (2 other parts already finished - we had 2 extensions to the house needing remortgaging).

No kids, decent shared income, which allows us to live a nice lifestyle..

Lovely stuff:
Facials and skincare
House interior and garden
Restaurants and pubs
Clothes, shoes and handbags
Holidays and mini breaks
Snowboarding clobber
Nice car
Entertaining
Dog
Horsey gear and regular lessons

Mundane stuff:
Mortgage, life insurance, savings, pension, petrol, commuting (season tix and car park at station)

Therapy.
Coke (the sort you drink).
Ebay.

"I don't understand why it's any harder to take a packed lunch to work in London than anywhere else."
@bridgetreilly - there's a huge difference inLondon in the City I think. There's lovely food places EVERYWHERE and a lot of people see it as an enjoyment eating out, grabbing something from Pret. Temptation is high.
I've worked on local clients where there's not much around except their canteen so it's easier to be in the mindset that you must prepare your lunch

Love hearing everyone's spends, it's so interesting. I think I'm frivolous with money but if I were to be more accurate:
-We aim for 6 holidays abroad a year
-I get my eyebrows waxed religiously
-STUDENT EFFING LOANS

Biggest expense has been DC's education. They are 20 and 24 and I estimate the bill to be £300,000 and it isn't over yet. DS finishing his Masters and dd likely to go the phd trajectory.

Apart from that domestic upkeep.

Don't give two hoots for cars, expensive clothes, but do like good shoes and bags (no more than £200), oh, and my hair- £120 pcm. I wear everything out and take packed lunches to work.

My Hiar costs about £7 a month (pack of hair dye and I cut it myself) v the £6250 a month on university costs! Lucky tax payer /state that I save it student loan costs which may not be repaid perhaps.

Once all the essentials are covered, my discretionary spend is largely:

• football (season ticket and travel to away games)
• eating out
• theatre
• gym membership and personal trainer
• nails
• adding to my (already ridiculously large) lingerie collection (I have no interest in outer garments, save that I need them for warmth and modesty
• charity donations

In terms of discretionary spend (and excluding kids stuff)

Fitness- have two personal sessions a week and do quite a few overseas races each year.

Fair bit on going out (meals and drinks), wine at home and Deliveroo.

Buy good quality high street clothes (Whistles, Theory, Hush etc). No designer. Don't buy a huge number of clothes though. My favourite jeans were $200 but I've had them 7 years.

Don't spend much on skincare and makeup. Dont smoke or take drugs. Zero interest in interiors but again, I subscribe to "buy cheap, buy twice" so the furniture is decent quality but I don't redesign my rooms every year like a few people I know or have a lot of accessories.

Holidays but nothing super exotic/ impressive - mainly skiing, short haul sun and wine regions.

Savings.
Roof over our heads and bills.
Car. Diesel!
Children! Ballet, sports, tuition, fashion, social life, school trips etc.
Hair, nails, fashion, fragrance.
Travel.
Food.
Socialising.