Maybe it's just me but this is the first time that I've really felt the cost of living since all of the drama started last year.
I'm working away but it's been a bit quiet since xmas so the money wasn't flowing in as fast as I would like.
The price of crypto was in the drain and I'm not selling anything at these prices. It's accumulation mode.
So when there is less money coming in and more money coming out I have definitely felt the pinch at the end of January. I think that after the xmas we all see a little dip in our savings anyway but this is the first time that i've had two kids to raise and my GF was unpaid for the past few months so we had less coming in on both sides of the equation.
Now that she has gotten back to work full time we have the two kids in creche during the week and that is a new expense form the joint account and a big one at that.
So our monthly spend has gone way up and the savings, way down but it's across the board.
We do the same weekly shopping every Saturday within reason and this time it was the highest one so far. $150 up from what used to be $110 or so just a few months ago.
Things must be rising sneakily every week to push our weekly spend up by so much. We had seen it sit around the $130 mark for the past few weeks but this time really stood out.
Luckily January is a quiet month in most regards but after this the events will start piling up.
Two birthdays in February. Going to England in March. A weekend away in May. Three weddings in the summer with one of them in Portugal. Those are only the bits that we know about yet. There will surely be a lot more added over the year as things happen.
That's starting to feel like a lot of money added to the expense sheet. Especially with prices going up in all industries. We were looking at hotels for the weekend away with one of the cheaper good quality options sitting at $550 for two nights. That's crazy money and a huge jump on last year. Last year we booked a four star hotel for the same weekend for $420 and it was expensive at the price. They used to be about $300 just a couple of years previously and it's every part of every plan.
Every part of the day out comes at a premium and it's making things very unappealing.
I don't know where this is going to end but if prices keep going up then business are going to close as people turn away from these expensive nights away and make do with their local area and more cost effective fun.
We need the money for every day expenses and can afford to go to every single thing that is on. A lot of these ones are the important events so anything form now on will have to be though about as life keeps getting more expensive.
