This was my first week of tracking all my spending religiously. I’m trying to get a baseline, a sense of what I’m OK at, what needs improving as well as a way of tracking change over the next 2 years or so that I think it will take me to become totally debt free.

Monday

• Oyster card top up £15 (contactless)
• Bagel + peanut butter from staff canteen £1 (cash)
• Sal Capone carbonara £4.95 (contactless)
• Grocery shopping with the “person of interest” £14.57 (card)

Tuesday

• Ham & egg sandwich from Eat £3.95 (card)
• Brunch burger at Wetherspoons Croydon + Kronenburg £7.25 (card)

Wednesday

• Oyster card top up £15 (contactless)
• Sausage & chips (x2) from Seashell of Lisson grove £6.10 (card)

Thursday

• Toiletries from Boots £12.16 (contactless)
• Groceries from Sainsbury’s £4 (contactless)

Friday

• Gift to the “person of interest” to help get to payday £25 (bank transfer)
• Bus fare £1.50 (contactless)

Saturday

• Day return ticket to Milton Keynes £15.50 (card)
• Oyster card top up £10 (card)

Sunday

• Lucozade and plantain (for breakfast) post football (cash)
• Oyster top up £5 (card)
• Groceries for dinner with person of interest £3.89 (card)

Categories

Summary

• Best purchase: As part of my toiletries, I got my normally £5+ face wash for £2. I didn’t have enough money on my card to risk buying an additional one (I’m not sure whether contactless payments are charged at the time of purchase or they just check that sufficient funds are available for the transaction) otherwise I would have done so.
• Worst purchase: The carbonara and the ham & egg sandwich were pure gluttony because I was on my way to have a cheaper meal when I got them – in fact there were free sandwiches on offer at the agency I was headed to when I got the sandwich. The carbonara was also extremely disappointing in quantity. All the stuff listed in italics are things I think were bad decisions.
• What will I do better next week? Have snacks on hand to stop me from succumbing to gluttony. Maybe stop making contactless payments because they don’t show up on my statement immediately (and don’t seem to be charged either) leaving me with inaccurate balances at the end of the day. I picked up my Mondo card and its UPS is instant transaction information. I’ll be trialling that.
• Observation: Contrary to popular belief, I think I spent a lot less when I didn’t have cash – after Monday – compared to previous weeks. I wasn’t tempted to go down to the canteen for a snack and I drank the free coffee instead of my traditional flat whites. Will need to conduct an experiment on whether this is actually true.