Skip to main content

Day One: the Crunch begins in London

And... I spent nothing! Oh, except for £2 in the collection plate at church (God doesn't hand out receipts so you'll have to take my word for it.)

What I have done, however, is figure out the weekly cost of each of the direct debits that fly out of the joint bank account (actually, I'll come clean - I made Alpha work it out for me). I'm not sure if all this comes under 'housing' which by the rules of the game are not included, along with income tax and childcare (you can read the original post here). However, the UK is so brilliant at applying stealth taxes it would be financially foolish to ignore them. Here goes:

Council Tax: £39.23
House contents insurance: £5
Car insurance: £7.69
Road tax: £16
Congestion charge: £16
Service charge: £35
School lunches (for two children): £11.66
Gym membership (Alpha, me and the kids get to swim): £40
Utilities: £40
Telephone (landline): £4
Mobiles: £20
Cable & broadband: £7

OMG. A truly shocking total of £241.58. And that's before food and ciggies! In fact, it's before I've even left the house...

Oh dear. I think I need to lie down for a moment. Under normal circumstances I'd have a nice fortifying glass of wine but I'm not sure I can afford it after seeing this little lot.

More tomorrow.

Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
That is truly horrible - costs that cannot be ignored (except gym membership - but, hey, you need to keep healthy!). Shared between 2 adults - still £121 each. What a great exercise though to truly see how the pennies are disappearing. Look forward to more.
2:06 pm
Kate B. said…
I know... that REALLY expensive gym membership that I use ALL the time. Ahem. I hate the fact that Alpha lectured me and said that I wouldn't use it, and darn it he was right. I hate those moments.

Thanks Anon. Keep coming back, we're posting our spending shame every day.
11:52 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Grim Reaper

Firstborn is obsessed with death. It started with the odd comment, such as; "Mummy, what happens when you die?" OK, I thought, I was expecting this at some point, what a cute little curious brain she has. So I trotted out all the cosy Heaven stuff and left out all the things that could worry her, such as worms and bones and holes in the ground. This went down pretty well, although somehow Firstborn made the jump from my view of Heaven (filled with love, joy, always warm, never rains, has a huge discount designer shoe outlet and I never have to pay my Visa bill) to her own view of Heaven; a wonderous place where small girls don't have to eat their vegetables before they're allowed pudding, and where Barbie dolls grow on trees. Anyway, I digress. Last week Firstborn started shouting "Kill! Kill!" in a bloodthirsty tone while bashing her hithero-beloved teddy against the wall. This was topped by her purposely flushing her favourite My Little Pony down the loo. ...
11 comments
gimme more...

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to

A friend recently emailed me to say that her big memory of her stay with us last year is that she had a great birthday, one of the few where she didn't 'act like a spoiled grumpy princess'. She tried to give me all the credit but as I explained to her, it was all down to having a fellow female organising the birthday fun rather than leaving it to her partner. Her email got me thinking about birthdays and how very different men and women are in their attitudes to celebrating special occasions. It also had me thinking about my birthday two years ago when I threw a major tantrum in the Carrefour car-park after being told that we were off to do the weekly shop, kids in tow, which was simply the final straw at the end of a very uninspiring day. In contrast, my birthday last year was rather lovely (a morning on my own in a spa with no mobile coverage, pure selfish bliss). This year - in a few short months, eek! - I'll be hitting the grand old age of 38. This will be my las...
13 comments
gimme more...