I know it's only the 16th of December, but budget is on my mind.
We keep a family budget, which I track in excel. We break our life down into the following categories, and I've stuck the yearly percentages next to them. We don't really track our income, but just ensure that it is less than our budget. We do periodically review our budget to make sure it's realistic.
I know excel isn't the most advanced budgeting software there is, but it works for us. I also like recording our spending line by line because it helps me remember where money went, and sometimes I get to doubly enjoy something. For instance, when recording my chocolate hazelnut hot chocolate, I momentarily re-enjoyed the memory of my chocolate hazelnut hot chocolate. It was a good hot chocolate.
Also, this doesn't include retirement as that comes directly out of our pay checks. Here is what we spent in 2024:
Grocery (11.5%) - This is usually our weekly grocery delivery, and then other one off purchases like bulk flour. It includes any food we buy to prep and eat at home, but does not include anything we buy while out and about (which would be dining out)
Alcohol (1%) If andy and I go out for a drink together or get beer to drink in the house then this goes into the Alcohol budget. if we buy alcohol separately or buy a beer to drink with friends then this goes into our own hobbies budget. Sometimes a bottle of wine slips into the grocery budget though. Perhaps next year I will put alcohol into grocery and add a "rachel and andy fun" budget which could include drinks together?
Bills (30%) This includes Mortgage Water, Gas, Electric, Council Tax, Car Insurance, Home insurance. Mortgage is about 70% of the bills budget.
Dining Out (2.2%) This is for when members of our family go out to eat together. It doesn't include us going out alone or with our own friends (that goes under our own hobbies budget)
House (6.75%) I can't really think of our big house expenses this year. Andy gets some plants for the garden. We had two rooms painted.
Clothes (2%) We realized recently that most of our clothes were from living in the US, which meant they are approaching 10 years old, so we've tried to upgrade our wardrobes a bit this year
Misc (1.8%) The bane of my existence category?! Includes the kids photo albums and family photo albums. Christmas cards. Donations to charity. What is misc?
Transport (2.75%) this one is low this year because I wasn't commuting to work while on maternity leave. My commute is £35 a day. This is one reason I don't go into the office much
Rachel & Andy Hobbies (9.5%) I mean, it's our hobbies. We keep it seperate on the spreadsheet. Mine covers my gym membership, Peloton, massages, getting my nails done.. my things. Andy spends his on bike stuff and beer. It works out.
Entertainment (1%) This covers local memberships (for instance the castle memberships) and also any TV (we have Disney+ at the moment)
Kids (4.5%) Many kids expenses. Isaac's scouts membership. Kids bikes if needed. Some kids clothes? Swim lessons. Gymnastics classes. One-off trips to soft play.
Childcare (24%) This was low this year because I was on mat leave. Next year it's closer to 45%. Childcare basically feels like college - an investment in my future earnings. It's slightly less fun than college, but about the same amount of crying.
Gifts (2%) all gifts. Also sometimes if we buy someone else food it can go on gifts. Things that are nice for other people.
Health (1%) Dentist appointments, misc medicines. Physio. the NHS is free at point of service but sometimes it's better to pay for health care than wait for healthcare
And that's our year in money stuff. I guess real numbers might be more interesting than percentages? We are lucky that we don't worry about our spending, but we also don't have any big spending goals right now. We are not going on any holidays. We are not moving house. We have no major home projects coming up. We cancel Disney+ periodically to see if we still use it. Our kids are in a not-very-expensive phase of life (except childcare), and we are in a somewhat housebound phase of life, so thankfully money is not the thing keeping us from doing stuff. Our life set-up is the thing keeping us from doing stuff.
Do you budget? Do you track income or spending or both? Are you saving for anything big?
