Summary
Welcome to our 2025 spending post! Our total spend for the year of 2025 was £33,977. For context, this is for 2 adults plus a five year old and a one year old, living in the UK!
This represents a ~10% increase on last year’s spending. While we were hoping for less, it’s not too drastic. We feel like we have focussed on quality again this year, particularly with our food and some ‘long term’ purchases. Hopefully this helps us in future years!
We would like to try and reduce costs across the board in 2026, but let’s wait and see what the new year brings!
See below for a more detailed breakdown of our 2025 spending.
We break our main expenses down into broad categories starting with the big 3; housing, food and transport. Everything else falls into the entertainment/misc category.
| Category | Amount |
|---|---|
| Housing | £9,277 |
| Food | £9,756 |
| Transport | £3,023 |
| Entertainment/misc | £11,921 |
| Total | £33,977 |
Housing
Costs for housing in 2025 are slightly higher than last year. This is mostly due to a new boiler in February! Otherwise it was a very straightforward year.
We bought our house outright when we returned to the UK in 2023, so costs are fairly low in this area for us.
Food
Our 2025 spending on food is significantly higher than 2024.
This year we decided to spend more to ensure we were eating quality, organic produce (mostly). We also have the fact our 1 year old has started eating significant amounts of food!
Even considering those points, we’re still a bit shocked by the increase here and will look at what sensible compromises we can make to cut costs while still prioritising our health.
We’ve been getting organic fruit & veg this year from Riverfords. We’re really happy with the produce and it’s very convenient – they deliver to your door! If you want to give it a try we can get £15 off each on this link. Thanks in advance!
Transport
It’s all good news in our 2025 spending for transport.
Mr Way started a new job in January and he’s now commuting to the office 2 days per week, via bike and train. This has reduced our overall car use and therefore transport costs! It’s also significantly more enjoyable and healthier than sitting in a car, so a win all round!
Entertainment/Misc
It has been another high spending year in this category.
We were hoping to reduce our costs here, but similarly to with our food, we’ve focussed on quality long term items that will genuinely improve our quality of life.
Through 2025 some of our significant spends have included high quality outdoor gear for the colder months, a 3-month personal training plan for Mrs Way to help boost her fitness post-kids, high quality stainless steel pans, Lego, stuff for the allotment, a ‘sensory swing’ for the kids, new phones for both of us, a few holidays/camping trips and a car seat.
We’ll make it a goal to reduce our entertainment/misc spending in the coming year, while also maximising our quality of life.
That’s All for Now, Folks!
We’re looking forward to new challenges in 2026.
Mrs Way will turn 40 this year so it feels like a significant one!
Fingers crossed we’re able to keep our spending low across the board and focus on padding out our FIRE funds.
Our FIRE Fund targets remain at £375,000, or £15,000 annual spending each. While living costs have increased, we’re still confident we can be well within this target for a ‘minimum’ spend.
We hope 2026 brings you everything you hope for. Let us know how your annual spending looked and what you make of our new total!
If you want to see how our FIRE Funds are coming along, see our upcoming 2024 Financial Review.
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