The total at the bottom of the column said £1,553.82, and I looked at it for longer than was good for me. It was Sunday afternoon in the middle of April, the kitchen smelled of primer, and for the first time every regular payment for the house was in one place.
The whole list
This is April 2025 for a two-bed end-terrace in Walkley, with what each line costs us a month:
- Mortgage: £889.00
- Council tax (Band A): £165.40
- Gas and electricity, one direct debit: £119.00
- Water, unmetered: £49.60
- Broadband: £31.99
- Buildings and contents insurance (£296.40 a year): £24.70
- TV licence (£169.50 a year): £14.13
- Two phones: £45.00
- Boiler pot: £15.00
- House fund: £200.00
The mortgage is the fixed five-year one, so that line should stay put until the end of February 2030. The energy figure is the direct debit on our 12-month fix from March. The unit rates are fixed, but how much we use isn't, so I expect the amount to be reviewed. Water is the one that moved most. It was £39.80 when we moved in and went up to £49.60 this month, which is about a quarter more, and I have some thoughts about that for another day.
Annual bills in monthly clothing
Three lines on that list aren't really monthly at all. The insurance was paid upfront in January and the TV licence in February, so the £24.70 and £14.13 are what we put aside each month to pay for next year's renewals. This way, next January, I won't have to find £296.40 in one go. Council tax is the opposite: it's ten instalments, April to January, so February and March are free. I've left those two months empty in the sheet, as a cushion.
The broadband is £31.99 now, but the contract says it rises by £3 each April, written down in pounds and pence. There's a cell in next year's sheet for the extra £3.00 already.
How the joint account works
Payday is the 25th, give or take a weekend. On the 26th we each move £777 into the joint account. That's £1,554 in against £1,553.82 out, so the account gains 18p a month, which has its own cell, and which Matt finds funnier than I do. Direct debits leave between the 1st and the 20th, so everything is paid out of money that was in the account the month before. We keep about £300 in there as a buffer so that a date never catches us out.
The boiler pot, the house fund and the insurance and licence money go into separate savings pots. The house fund started last month at £200 a month, aiming for £2,000 by December. The boiler pot is new this month: £15 a month, for the day the boiler decides it has had enough.
What isn't on it
Food, petrol and tax for my Fiesta, buses, clothes, haircuts and presents all come out of our own money after the £777, and I'm not putting our pay on the internet. It's comfortable without being roomy. For comparison, the flat in Crookes was £725 in rent before bills and the house is £889 before bills. I had expected the extra £164. I had not expected quite so many pots.
One thing I got wrong: my first version of the sheet came to £1,539.69. I had forgotten the TV licence, which is £14.13 a month of nothing, and it was only when I was ticking lines off against the bank statements that I found it. A forgotten bill is exactly what the spreadsheet is for, so I was a bit cross with myself.
The line I can't judge is the house fund. It's meant for the things that will break, and I have no idea yet how much that is, so in the spreadsheet I've labelled it "oh no". So far it's the most honest label on the sheet.
