If you spend a lot/ are high maintenance....

[negunslean]

How much do you spend?
I’m using an excel spread sheet to track spending during the year. I have separated out clothes in one column and beauty in another. I would classify myself as high maintenance. Regular nails, hair cut and colour and clothes. I am interested to know what others spend (if you don’t mind disclosing) monthly or annually, if you consider yourself a high spender in that area. Just interested in trying to gauge where I am on the spending scale!

Not a lot compared to some!

Make up/perfume from Boots - £200 per year
Massage/facial - £100 a year, vouchers for birthday mainly
Hair - £100 4 x a year for cut & colour, £30 4 x a year for just cut.

Shave myself, colour brows myself, do my own mani/pedi weekly. Bit of fake tan when I can be bothered.

Very interesting thread!

Im overseas but will translate into GBP

Groupon facials/massage every month or so - 10
Haircut every 2 months - 40
Makeup is bought in large batches and I wear little so it lasts ages - 15
Gym is family membership so sounds loads but isn't - 150
PT x twice a week - 100
Clothes are bought in batches when I get a shopping frenzy on and still do spend quite a bit even though I walk everywhere and consequently look like a complete scruff bag BUT have aspirations to look well groomed.... - 150 (this would include trainers, gym kit etc)
Holidays are my weakness.....
Keen to consider fillers, botox etc but bit scared so am watching with interest!

Wow. Where does all this money come from? I spend £100 on hair three times a year, £7 on brow threading every six weeks, about £20 a month on makeup and skin products and £300 a season on clothes. That's £1,500 pa. And I thought that was too much.

Pinkroseuk - how can you only spend £20 a month on clothes? A pair of shoes is £50-100 even in a very ordinary shop. Unless you only shop at Primark I can't see how you can stick to that budget.

Oops forgot the sums...

8940 per year in total

This is fascinating! I think I’m pretty high maintenance but I don’t have much money to spare at the moment so do some things myself
Home manicure and nail polish weekly
Home pedicure every couple of weeks.
Dye own roots at home every 6 weeks
Weekly deep conditioner at home
Probably spend 50 a month on cosmetics/ toiletries/ nail stuff
Salon cut And blow dry £60 every 3 months
Maybe lvl (£40) once a year if going on holiday
Clothes - on an average month none but replace things as needed and buy a few new bits when I can. Maybe 500 in a year. Would love to spend £500 a month- but have no idea what I’d buy!

Oh god I forgot gym!
£27 per month membership, £20 every 2 weeks for personal training
£5 per week slimming world.

Fuck. I need to reign this in

It's quite eye opening for me just to list expenditure because I don't think of myself as high maintenance, although with a spend well in excess of 15k I'd be surprised if people agreed.

I certainly have friends who spend heaps more in terms of high end treatments and surgical interventions.

For the poster who asked about personal circumstances I'm married with 3 x DC. I work FT, most shopping is done online and apt's are early morning/evenings/weekends, DH is a SAHD and DC are a bit older now so not so much running around and we have a cleaner so not too much housework.

I've not always set aside time and money for myself but it's important to do both.

Wow, I really don't spend much. About 50 a month on toiletries/makeup. About the same on clothes.

I really need to feel OK about spending more - we have two incomes and no mortgage for gods sake - but I have such spending guilt.......

I probably spend more than I should....

I’d love to be one of those people who pumps every spare pound into my pension or savings....but it’s just not me. I need my little fixes of ‘pampering’ and am willing to throw money at that.

I am high-ish maintenance for some things. Non-negotiable:

Gel manicure every 10-14 days
Fortnightly pedicure in summer/monthly in winter
Waxing and threading of various parts every 4-6 weeks
Various other beauty treatments that probably tot up to approx 1500 a year (ouch)
Perfume - I’m an addict and buy minimum one full bottle and a fair few samples every month.
I get through a lot of Clinique fake tan, too 😆

But I compromise on other stuff:

Expensive hairdresser, but it’s a cut that doesn’t need much maintenance, so only go twice a year. Colour my own hair at home.

I’ve swapped out the majority of my expensive skincare brands for cheap ones. There are very few lotions and potions I’d spend big bucks on these days. I’m a complete convert to Aldi Lacura skincare!

I go to a budget gym. 22 quid a month all access.

I buy a LOT of my clothes secondhand on eBay, especially designer pieces and dresses for work. I also sell on eBay regularly, so recoup a little bit of what I spend.

I have my acrylics done every fortnight and my eyebrows waxed once a month. That's it. I don't spend money on anything else in that respect. Haven't had my hair done professionally since 2012, I never ever wear makeup or eyelashes or have tans done. I only buy new clothes when I really need to. So yeah not much is spent on that kind of thing:

I am very envious of some of your lifestyles/expenditure.(Not in a horrid judgy way)
I can't imagine having so much money to spend on grooming.
Holy shit I'd look fab

I don't have the highest salary, but I do work in fashion so looking good is a priority for me.

Hair - £200 (highlights and trim), every 2 months or so.
Nails - £15 (Shellac), more sporadic but at least once per month. I sometimes do them myself too.
Makeup and skincare - £100 per month
Clothes - £400 per month. I choose to invest in designer (half of my wardrobe has been taken over!), so this could only be one or two items.
Designer savings fund - £200 per month. This is for bigger purchases like £1000+ handbags.
Other beauty treatments, such as facials and lash extensions - £50-80 (but this is every other month or so)

:)

Also, I'm loving reading this thread! It's so interesting to see how others spend their money :)

It would be really helpful to know what percentage of your income these amounts are, if that’s not too nosy.

I find this is all really intriguing. I used to spend an awful lot, probably around 25% of my annual income, so 20k, on beauty/clothes. Then I became a full time student and had to cut right back so now I’ve turned to DIY beauty treatments (apart from hair) and shop for clothes as and when I need them as opposed to for a treat.

So I’m now around the £50 per month mark I think, which is 200% of my student budget

I feel desparately guilty if I spend money on just me. I probably spend about £50 a month on average, that's probably mostly clothes too.

But let's not start on 'house stuff' because that's a whole other ball game. 😂

This thread is fascinating (I just hope my hairdresser’s not reading it!)
I’m not high maintenance (as you might tell by looking at me) so I don’t spend much (and therefore don’t really keep track of it).
Hair cut & colour £65 every 6-8 weeks
Cosmetics/toiletries: I used to be a bit of a hoarder so am working down the store of both in my cupboards - don’t need anything fancy as my skin is quite good for my age
Off-peak gym membership £16 pm
Clothes: currently not buying any until I have had a massive declutter
I think gel nails look gorgeous but not really keen on what they can do to your real nails
Had never heard of a lash lift until this thread, but I’m definitely going to get one - my lashes and brows are rubbish!

Those who spend a lot on clothes, so presumably buy good quality items (can’t imagine how big a bag you would need to take away £500-worth of stuff from Primark) - how long do you keep your clothes? If I spent £300-500 on clothes per month I wouldn’t be able to get through the front door!

OyO I do not earn much at all (25k per year, in London no less), but this is my first job out of uni so hopefully it'll only go up from here!

I just prioritise fashion/beauty above all else - within reason, of course. I still save for other purposes. I just don't really go out drinking, or eat expensively, or spend a lot on rent, because I'd rather save it for being high maintenance.

I would consider myself medium-maintenance but am intrigued by this concept. Early 30s here.

Two main things are clothes and skin

Clothes pm: £400 or so (about 1-2 pieces)
Skin: £500 some months (dermatologist appts) but £100 others. Probably average £200 pm
I walk/run so no gym fee
Hair cut: every 6 months (£50 a time)
Make-up/toiletries (not skin): £50 a month
Eyebrow threading: £20 a month

About £8k a year (rounding up as am sure I have missed some stuff). Bloody hell.

It is about 8% of my annual (gross) salary for PP who asked.

And my clothes spend has always been high; but I still have clothes I wear from when I was 18. Very rarely throw things away, and make do and mend. Also take most things I buy to my seamstress.

This is very interesting! I’d spend more if I had more time and money, especially on clothes and skincare, but this is me for now:

Toiletries/Skincare - £30 per month
Make up - don’t wear much so probably £10/month
Hair - mobile cut/colour £30/month
Clothes - probably about £100-150/month at the moment, as have lost weight and need to replace everything! Will probably go back to more like £50-100 soon.
Threading - £5/month.
No gym as I run.
Keep nails short and clean, paint my own toenails in the summer months.
Wax only when I go on a summer holiday so about £20 every two years and might splash out on a lash tint too (last of the big spenders me!)
I love perfume, and luckily get enough as presents so I don’t need to buy any. Also try to drop hints for winter coats/boots/bags for birthday and Christmas, which helps as these are probably the priciest clothes I need.

I’m not a fan of salon treatments as I don’t like the small talk so most of this suits me.

If budget was unlimited I’d definitely get massages on a regular basis though! and the extra clothes/skin care.

I’m wondering how you high maintainence ladies find time to fit it all in? A couple of months ago I tried being more high maintainance, but I found it just took up too much and too much organising. Is it a case of a repeat appointment with the same people each week/ month?
I just about manage to get my hair cut and coloured each month ( 60 pounds). I run so that’s free and go to a yoga class each week ( 8 pounds). I guess I spend about 150 pounds on clothes and 30 on cosmetics. Would like to do more, but I so rarely get to the shops and when I try to shop online I get distracted ordering tickets and booking restaurants. I also struggle to find nice clothes at the moment, quality seems to be an issue.

However, I reckon we’ve spent 15k on travel this year, so I guess that is my weakness.

Most of mine comes from exercise classes, about £30 a week, term time only.

Other than that

Haircut every 2 months £35 (I don't colour)
Gel manicure about 3x a year £25
No other salon treatments

Clothes/shoes/bags maybe average £100 a month.
Cosmetics including make-up, shampoo etc, skin/hand/bodycare about £40 a month

So about £2000 a year on style and beauty, and another £1000 on fitness.

I need to up my game I think!

I forgot to add exercise classes - £20 pw term time - about £600pa.

Thank you, Maven. I love your designer savings fund, great idea! I’ll be copying that once I’ve finished uni. Always lovely to have something to look forward to purchasing that you’ve worked hard and saved for.

Pilates class 8 weeks, costs £120.
Hair, cut and finish costs £43 every eight/ten weeks.
Clothes are bought in fits and starts: I have spent a fortune since January this year on clothes (mostly sale bargains) and on some tailoring to perfect what I have bought, plus new specs, but I will spend very little now for the next year or so, maybe a few Uniqlo Ts and the like.
Toiletries/cosmetics etc, about £30 per month.