Yearly spending

[BG2015]

Last April I began keeping a detailed record of what I've been spending over the last 12 months.

I bought a notebook and divided it into different categories and began to note all of my spending down each week, going through my bank statements .

Last night I added it all up and it came to a grand total of £16,124. That figure does not include any foreign travel but does include weekends away. It doesn't include mortgage payments either.

It's basically bills and personal spending.

I probably missed the odd thing off and I got very confused sometimes with certain categories but I'm so glad I did it. I must admit I have tended to buy (within reason) what I want.

More recently however, i have begun to think more carefully about what I'm buying.

I'm now 55 and have had some health issues which have made me take stock a bit and I've realised that I want to retire from teaching in the next 2-3 years.

I am in the middle of a house sale (downsizing ) so I know that my spending once i move will go down as i will pay less council tax and gas/electricity. Plus I will be mortgage free.

Im going to carry on monitoring and recording what I spend to see if I can get it under £16k for 2024-25.

I’ve been thinking about doing this, have started trying to work out how much I spend on food & petrol especially ( tap tap tap at the tills and before you know it you’ve spent hundreds!😱)
I think I’ll try to go cash whenever possible.
I'm also going to try to put money away each month into a separate ‘car’ account - by the time you add up insurance, RAC, MOT, yearly tyre replacements it all adds up even without any repairs.

Most banks can do all of this for you. They have spending categories so you can analyse your spending and set limits on different categories.

I know banks can do this to a point but I've got 27 categories.

I wanted to separate my alcohol spending from my weekly food shop.

I wanted to separate make up from toiletries etc. plus I pay for some things with cash e.g my hairdresser only takes cash and that wouldn't show up if I used my banking option.

So I decided to do my own.

Definitely going to stop buying random rubbish from Amazon

I do this. I use The Budget Mom’s methodology.

@Chatonette ooo tell me more

This would make a lovely spreadsheet!

I want in! Not sure I can manage a spreadsheet but a notebook sounds good.
How did you set it up out op? I can't visualise.

I'm in bed now but will post some photos tomorrow.

I used to have a brilliant app to do this - had to link all my accounts to it - but they closed it down or whatever the term is and I haven't found one similar. Like you OP I had about 20* categories and this app let me add and name them as I pleased which the bank ones don't do. It got me into good habits but I miss being able to see it all. Might see if I can find another one.

The idea is that you set a new budget every time you get paid. I get paid on the 20th, so I’m currently in my 20 March budget and a new one will start on 20 April. You plan out where all of your money will go in advance, at the beginning of the pay period, to include cash envelopes for spending and sinking funds for bigger items expected later in the year. There is a workbook, printable worksheets, or a spreadsheet. I prefer pen and paper, so I use the printable version.

I use YNAB. It's awesome and has totally changed my approach to money.

It takes a couple of months to really see the benefits - this is month 3 for me and for the first time in years I'm not panicking when I look at my bank account.

Being able to categorise my spending and see what my true expenses are has allowed me to start building up a savings pot for annual expenses, and also see where my spending gets out of control.

You can get a free trial here: www.ynab.com/our-free-34-day-trial

Yep. I love YNAB too—I use it alongside The Budget Mom.

I used to use Moneybox - it was great imported all data from the bank and you could split payments as well - so in your example if you have spent 100 in Asda on food and alcohol you could split that bill and budget it separately. Think it closed down though.

I had drifted off using it as by then I had a handle on what I was spending.

I used to use YNAB but once I'd got rid of my debt and was budgeting ok I stopped.

This is how I record it

I've now added it to a table

I started tracking my expenditure a year ago too. Decided it was key to retirement, knowing what outgoings are and whether pension + a drawdown of savings is enough and how long those savings will last. I feel much more in control now and now know if we have 'overspent' on meals out etc.
What's also important (& I haven't quite covered properly in my spreadsheet yet) is occasional costs like car / kitchen / boiler / roof replacement.
I tweak the spreadsheet regularly, trying to take into account tax, tax on savings etc.

Just do the tables in excel then you can analyse all your expenditure in all sorts of ways.

Have you heard of snoop? It's the app I use. The free version limits the number of categories though, so you won't get 27 like OP wants. But was a game changer.

This is all really helpful. Thank you OP and others