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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.

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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
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