The other evening, I decided to take a long hard look at my finances over the past year and see how I'd fared in comparison to the year before. In all honesty, despite leaving my job earlier this year, I was quite pleasantly surprised.
Overall, I had earned a little more over the year, than I did in 2024, but then I did get a tax rebate in 2025, some of which should probably have been accredited to 2024, as it was in this year that the tax was originally taken off my wages, so in reality, taking this into account, I didn't actually earn more in 2025, but I didn't earn much less either. The fact that I earned virtually the same, but worked 4 less months in 2025, can be explained by the fact that towards the end of my job, I worked a lot more hours each week/month, which was a part of the reason why I decided to leave. I never wanted to work 25 to 30 hours per week and found it just too much. I just couldn't get a good work/life balance. I do live in hope that I might find a job at some point where this is possible.
Anyway, I digress, in terms of spending in 2025, I spent approximately £2730 less than in 2024, which is a good thing. This reduction in spending was virtually across the board in terms of the categories of spending. I spent £152 less on food, £492 less on household items, £299 less on miscellaneous spending, £533 less on home and garden, £887 less on myself and £143 less on gifts. The only area of spending that increased, was charitable spending, which increased by £172, by which I mean donations to charity or to the foodbank. I did donate to my local food bank most weeks until I left my job, which accounts for this increase. I tried to donate an item for each day of the week most weeks. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to do this now, but I still want to give something, so I may reduce giving to just one item per week going forward, which is better than nothing.
I was quite happy with these figures and when I looked further at spending with particular companies, I spent £384 less on eBay this year and £650 less in charity shops, but I did spend a little more at the car boot sale, with spending rising by £25 here. I didn't keep detailed records of other companies I spent money with in 2024, so I couldn't really compare any other spending, but these few comparisons were also quite positive and indicated that I made progress towards being more mindful and considered in my spending this year, although there is still quite a bit of room for further improvement.
Going into 2026, and having reduced my spending over the last 4 months since I left work, I will need to continue to do the same, as I'm not currently earning money. As a consequence, I'm considering a very low buy year and as I've been building my low buy muscles lately, I'm in a better place to be successful in this regard at the moment. I won't say no-buy, as everyone needs a treat now and then and I don't think it's sustainable for me to have a no buy year, but I do want to reduce my spending further if I can and completely cut out unnecessary spending if possible. I will need to do a lot of budgeting for gift buying and dental treatment, etc., but I'm hopeful that I can do this by tweaking my spending here and there.
2026 is definitely going to be a year of prioritising what is important to me and one thing that is, is my gym membership. My gym, where I got very subsidised rates for being over the age of 50 has now closed for at least 3 years for refurbishment and I want to be able to walk to the gym and not have to catch a bus or cycle for 30 minutes, so I'm considering paying for a monthly membership at another local gym. This is going to be more expensive, but to me it is worth paying for, as I need to be able to go on a regular basis and for my gym to be near to where I live. As a consequence, the money will have to be found from other areas of the budget and that will mean a bit of juggling, but hopefully it will be doable.
There are other things that I would like to do too, such as more dance classes, but I will just have to see if I can accommodate these in the budget. I am also due a dental check and clean and an eye test in the first few months of the year, so they will need to be paid for and I really would like some new glasses, but I may have to wait a while for these or possibly use some savings. It's going to be a challenging year, but I'm up for it and willing to try my hardest not to waste what money I do have at my disposal.
How have your finances fared in 2025? Do you compare your year on year spending? Do you have any plans going into 2026 to reduce your spending or be more mindful of how you spend your money? I'd be really interested to know what they are, as I'm always looking for tips and inspiration.
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