Inflation’s really starting to smash us, isn’t it?
This month I needed to buy protein powder, which I use after going to the gym. The last couple of times I’ve bought from My Protein, and a huge 5KG bag cost around £45 after using a discount code or buying during a sale. This month, it was going to cost nearly £100, which is just ridiculous. Instead, I bought a different brand, Optimum Nutrition, from Amazon. It’s not a fair comparison because it’s a 2.2KG tub, not 5KG.
The weed killer I have used in the past has jumped from around £28 to around £65, so I held off buying. I’m finding that I’m now having to shop around more, swap brands and so on, to avoid huge increases in price.
Spending
| Category | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Blog | £32.39 | Renewal of the domain for this blog. |
| Eating out | £11 | |
| Entertainment | £163.32 | TV licence, Spotify, four lottery tickets (no wins), Latin dance classes, competitions magazine, and a ticket for the farewell tour that the TV show Neighbours is doing next year. |
| Groceries | £132.5 | Budget of £40/week = £160 for the month. |
| Health | £100.98 | CrossFit (2 x week membership) £40 and PureGym (unlimited) £19.99. Protein powder £39.99. |
| Housing | £726.7 | Mortgage, gas and electric, broadband, window cleaning, council tax. |
| Mobile phone | £6.95 | Lebara SIM only deal. |
| Personal | £19.95 | Haircut and a bargain of a deal from Gruum, a company that makes eco-friendly shampoo bars, skincare products etc. |
| Presents | £10.00 | Sponsored walk for my niece and nephew. |
| Shopping | £8.00 | A book of second class stamps costs how much these days? |
| Technology | 79p | Google One cloud storage. |
| Transport | £180.23 | Petrol, parking, snow foam, and replaced the front and rear wiper blades on my car. I replaced the blades myself rather than paying Halfords or similar to do it. |
| Total | £1,392.81 | A very similar level of spending to last month |
Savings Rate
| Savings rate excluding pension | 48.15% |
| Savings rate including pension | 58.01% |
I’m quite happy with this month’s savings rate, but it’s definitely getting harder to maintain it because of inflation and the increased National Insurance costs.
Net Worth
| Month | Including Pension and Primary Residence | Including Pension, Excluding Primary Residence | Excluding Pension, Including Primary Residence | Excluding Pension and Primary Residence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | £626,103.58 | £517,231.54 | £337,731.83 (-£5181.81) | £228,859.79 (-£5518.84) |
| Feb | £626,450.46 (+£346.88) | £517,150.95 (-£80.59) | £336,149.46 (-£1582.37) | £226,849.95 (-£2,009.84) |
| Mar | £635,806.88 (+£9,356.42) | £526,117.29 (£+8,966.34) | £343,576.63 (+£7,427.17) | £233,887.04 (+£7,037.09) |
| Apr | £634,569.78 (-£1,237.10) | £524,494.33 (-£1,622.96) | £340,410.28 (-£3,166.35) | £230,334.83 (-£3,552.21) |
| May | £637,067.24 (+£2,497.46) | £526,603.17 (+£2,108.84) | £340,978.24 (+£567.96) | £230,514.17 (+£179.34) |
| Jun | £632,859.07 (-£4,208.17) | £522,012.77 (-£4,590.40) | £334,840.82 (-£6,137.42) | £223,994.52 (-£6,519.65) |
My Vanguard account dropped in value by around £6,000 over the course of the month, accounting for most of the decrease when my house and pension are stripped out.
