Welcome to 2024! Whilst lots of bloggers and personal finance folk are kicking off with goals and plans for 2024, I am coming into it a bit more gently. I worked crazy hours November and December right up to Christmas, so I’m just working on reviewing last year and getting into the right mindset for moving forward.

That said, I already have GREAT plans for this blog and the related accounts in 2024 so watch this space! And until the launch of the transformation in February, do come and join me on my Insta.

I like to start the new year with a stocktake of how my finances are doing and whether my savings and investments went according to plan, then using this as a baseline to setting some plans and goals for the coming year and understanding how well it worked. This isn’t the only focus for the year, so check out future posts to find out more about setting intentions, vision boards and the like. But it is a good way of gathering some baseline data and starting off from a position of honesty about my behaviours.

2023 wasn’t as challenging as 2022 when it comes to finances and socio-economic issues, but it also wasn’t amazing. Inflation went up by an additional 4% over the year, which was a slow down on the previous year but continued challenges with rising basic costs on food, transport, and mortgages or rents, mean that most people felt the pinch. Food inflation rose to 19% by mid-2023. This is a measure of inflation just on food and non-alcoholic drinks, which can be impacted by things such as transport costs or conflict which limits shipping (watch this 2024 space for more on the Red Sea issues on shipping and their impact on household costs…) which people really felt at the shop.

Unlike 2022, I undertook a complete review of my spending and was pretty horrified by how much I have been shelling out. I will say two things – one is that I live in Denmark, and my salary includes a ‘cost of living’ allowance which recognises the increased costs here compared to the UK. Denmark is the 10th most expensive city in the world, and whilst this isn’t an excuse there are areas where I feel like we have been really careful in making choices and the overall costs have still been huge.

So what did I spend?

So in total, I spent almost £90,000 in 2023. Even with Denmark prices, and with my ‘pay yourself first‘ savings approach, getting my budget under control is deiniftely my focus for 2024.

25% of that was my mortgage, then there were five other areas around 10% of overall spend: childcare, groceries, holidays, house repairs and utilities. In total, that’s 75% of my entire spend, with everything else fitting into the other 25%. There are savings to be made here (I was horriffied that my blasé approach to subscriptions – i.e. if one person in the house values it, we keep it) means we are spending more than £500a year on this alone. But that’s good news as it’s something with infinite possibilities to work on.

	TOTAL GBP	Monthly average	%
Childcare	£                   6,985	£                 582.07	8
Clothes	£                      579	£                   48.23	1
Cosmetics	£                      378	£                   31.47	0
Eating Out	£                   3,656	£                 304.68	4
Extra-Curricular	£                   1,669	£                 139.06	2
Gifts	£                   2,337	£                 194.78	3
Groceries	£                   9,161	£                 763.38	10
Health	£                   1,739	£                 144.92	2
Holidays	£                   8,984	£                 748.68	10
House	£                 10,240	£                 853.29	12
Insurance	£                   3,701	£                 308.39	4
Kids	£                   2,039	£                 169.29	2
Mortgage	£                 20,717	£              1,726.42	23
Shopping (misc)	£                      347	£                   28.90	0
Legal	£                      116	£                     9.69	0
Subscriptions	£                      779	£                   64.88	1
Treats	£                      492	£                   41.01	1
Transport	£                   4,892	£                 407.70	6
Utilities	£                   9,533	£                 794.43	11
	£                 88,344	£             7,362.01

How was your spending in 2023, and what do you want to change? Whilst actual numbers will differ depending on location, priorities, household size, available income etc, the percentages should at least mimic your priorities. What does your spending tell you about areas you might want to work on in 2024?

Happy new year, and happy goal setting!