To ask how much money you spend in a average week?

[biibbiibobby]

I tracked my money this week. And in total I spent about 370. It's a bit more than normal I think and more than I planned but anyway...I will aim to reduce next week I think!
250 of the weekly spend was my electricity bill of 110, fuel for my car 55 (which is still half full) and my bin charges 26.50 and food shopping for the week. (Had some bits at home already so it wasn't a full food shop!) although I have only bought milk and bread to top up.
So I spent 120 on random purchases , including a Chinese, lunches in work, two movies for the dc that weren't available on Netflix (8.99 each), 35 on a HUGE bag of kitty litter...etc so most of it was justifiable I suppose.

I thought it was a good activity to do and I might do it again next week. Do you do this? What's your average weekly spend? Do you track your spending?

I keep a track of my spending but not by week as I think that's pretty pointless when most of my spending apart from food is monthly so it wouldn't tell me anything useful. I don't do it every month by every 2 or 3 months I do a catch up as I find it's quite easy to lose track of food costs which is my biggest spend

No, I don't track my spending.

I don't track my spending either. We're fortunate that our essential bills are very low and we have a good surplus, so we just tend to roll with it.

All non direct debit costs like food, fuel, insurance, clothes, etc go on a cashback credit card that's cleared in full every month, so this smooths out a lot of the peaks and troughs and it means we don't have to monitor the current account especially closely. I just check once a month that there's enough in there to cover the direct debits and last month's credit card bill, and buy premium bonds with most of the surplus as a way of saving.

I think it makes more sense to look at what you spend averaged over a longer period rather than weekly or monthly, because apart from regular bills, people don't tend to spend at that frequency because things are needed more or less often than that, eg a tank of fuel may last 2 days, 2 weeks or two months, depending on how far you are driving, which may not be predictable in advance.

My credit card does allow me to download a year's worth of categorised spends, so I could analyse that by looking at how much was spent on fuel, in supermarkets etc if I wanted to.

Yeah I normally just roll with it too @BarbaraofSeville as we are very lucky to have no mortgage/rent. I never really thought about it much before but I thought I'd give it a go and see how I got on weekly . I might change to monthly next month and then compare!

There are sections on BBC & Guardian websites where they track one person's spending for one week. Interesting reading & photos too

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/your_money

I do track my spending but not on a weekly basis, especially when it comes to bills like electricity, surely monthly is better way to factor in fluctuations in food spending and bills. Some weeks I will spend less than £100, others it'll be a lot more.

We are comfortable, but I enjoy tracking and developed lots of good habits from it so have kept up with it.

I track my monthly saving, everything else has therefore been spent.

What is a bin charge?

I spend £50 a week, including food but not including bills or mortgage. This is average and also excludes birthdays etc.

We have a budget for everything and then track spending to make sure we stick to that. Our DC get pocket money, if they want film that costs I give them the option to pay for it, often they decide whatever is a available on Netflix will do

OP I have startling account and you can categorise your spending and see how much you are spending on bills, groceries etc etc each month, I use that rather than a spreadsheet.

What is a bin charge?

Presumably an extra charge for getting bins emptied. We pay one for the garden waste.

Buy a compost bin with with a lid
Then you don't have to pay the green bin charge

Extras last week
2xtake away coffee
Years car insurance (half the price of my renewal quote from existing)

We have a weekly budget and almost always stick to it.

Groceries. 100
Fuel. 20
Personal Money. 200 (100 each)
Household Money. 230
Fixed bills. 220 (averaged out per week, 950 a month)

Personal money is ours to do whatever we want with. Household money is similar but more for shared misc expenses, date night expenses, stuff for the dog, the house, sociallising, we can both dip in to it if personal money runs out etc. Anything we don't spend rolls over to the next week so it can build up sometimes but then gets wiped out by an unexpected bill.

So basically, we spend around 550 weekly plus 220 for bills as a married couple with no kids.

I don’t keep track. Life is too short. It was a significant motivating factor in concentrating on my career throughout my twenties and aiming hard at promotions, for money not to need to be something I count or worry about. My bills all go out by direct debit the day after payday, I transfer a decent set portion into savings and then the rest is just for fun. Some months I’ll spend most of it, others not.

I spend as little as possible on unnecessary items, but I wouldn’t class bills like bins, utilities, council tax in with spends. I would review my direct debits and standing orders periodically and reduce if needed. One tool that people recommend is working out a yearly cost of items, such as bought work lunches or takeaway and then seeing what else that would get you. Ie when I had my first full time job, I couldn’t afford to go on holiday with mates but I was buying lunches and breakfast at work.

I am a financial fun sponge though and saving towards being able to retire early.

Since lock down, apart from Netflix I think my spends have been very minimal.

Excluding general bills, last week I spent:
£176 supermarket
£24 Riverford
£10 (approx) coffee and ice creams on walk
£20 take away

(Food and treats were for 4, and supermarket included laundry bits, toiletries etc.)