Me and DP are starting to turn our attentions very seriously to early retirement. We're some years off yet but we're working towards it and thinking about what life will be like when we get there.
In 2018, we've decided to have a practice run on the money front and see if we can bring in our yearly everyday living expenses at less than £12,000 for the year.
We're not including our mortgage payments or what we pay on commuting in this because those costs won't exist when we're retired.
We've worked out that all of our "necessary" bills (not including food shopping) come in at about £400 per month:
Gas/electricity: £60
Council Tax: £95
Water: £23
Phone/Internet: £55
Gym: £40
Dog grooming: £30
Beauty Stuff: £30
Birthdays/Xmases averaged out per month (other people's presents, not me and DP buying for each other): £40
Home Insurance: £10
Monthly total: £383
I say "necessary" as some could be cut but this is how it stands at the minute. That leaves us about £600 per month for food shopping and treats. So, about £150 per week
To try and achieve this, we've got three aims:
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Try and bring in a weekly shop for as close to £40 as possible
In the past, we've had online shopping delivered twice per week (with a minimum £40 spend each time) and have spent an average of about £90 per week on shopping. This year we're going to have cheaper meals whenever we can and try to concoct meals from bits and pieces we've got left over from previous weeks. We're also going to cut down on buying sparkling water (currently costing us about £80 per year and generating lots of plastic waste).
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Shop around for best prices on bills In the past we've been lazy and auto-renewed for basically everything. This year, we've already saved £250 on our home insurance by swapping provider
We're looking at energy providers over the weekend and will call our internet provider when our contract is up to see what they can do for us.
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Start accounting for every penny At the end of each month, we're going to download our statement and see exactly where our money's been spent so we can map where it's all going and if there are any ways we can trim this back. Where we get cash out, we're going to account for where this went too. For me, this means avoiding "popping" into the £1 shop where I can very easily spend £10 on basically nothing.
In November, we should have a pretty good idea of how well we've done and we'll use this to set a Christmas budget. We've never had a budget at Christmas before and normally spend £200-£500 on each other. However, we can still have an amazing Christmas on £50 or £100 each so we'll see how much we get