We’re BACK with another entry from the Blogger Spending Series. You all loved seeing what Beth Sandland spent in a week, and now we’re hearing from Ella Gregory of Coco’s Tea Party! Ella lives in London and works full time as a lifestyle influencer through her blog and Instagram. Here’s what went on in Ella’s wallet last week:

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“Hi, my name is Ella and I’m the blogger behind cocosteaparty.com, and the co-host of the Let’s Discuss podcast. 

When it comes to money, I’m a very careful spender. It’s always been in my nature to err on the side of caution and save as much as I can. Especially right now, because I have an expensive few weeks approaching (I have a holiday and two weddings in the diary for September). Plus, I’m about to go through the process of remortgaging my flat. So I’ve been trying to have a frugal month. 

Here’s a look at my spending habits between August 13th and August 20th.”

Wednesday

I started the day off with a Brazilian wax, which cost £26.50. I resent the fact that women have soooo many extra monthly expenses, compared to men (makeup, beauty products, hair appointments, brows, waxing etc), and I don’t think any woman should feel obligated to spend her money on grooming unless she really wants to. I get a bikini wax every 3-4 weeks, regardless of whether I’m going on holiday or dating someone, because I just prefer how it looks. 

So now we’ve covered the topic of my vagina, lets move onto the rest of my weekly spending…

On my way home from my wax appointment, I stopped in at M&S to pick up a few extra groceries for the week. I bought eggs, potatoes, bananas, courgettes, a pepper, salad, salmon fish cakes, and a gluten-free oven pizza, which was reduced because it was on its sell-by date. It came to £10.29. Usually I shop at Tesco, because it’s cheaper, but M&S have better quality vegetables and eggs.

Thursday

The day started with meetings in Central London. I needed to top up my Oyster card, so I spent £20 on travel credit. I have both a personal and a business debit account, and my day-to-day travel always goes on the latter, because it can be claimed back as a business expense. 

My monthly payment to my accountants also came out of my business account today. At £193.20 it’s my largest business expense, but this cost covers both my personal tax return and the tax return for my Ltd company; along with all financial advice/management, and the monthly subscriptions to the two banking platforms I use for my business (the software subscriptions alone make up at least £60 of the monthly fee).

It was an expensive day for my business, but I didn’t make any personal purchases throughout the day.

Friday

I worked from home on Friday, and spent zero pounds! During the afternoon I was tempted to order a pair of faux-leather leggings on ASOS, which would have set me back £89, but I refrained! 

Saturday

My no-spend Friday kicked off a very low-spend weekend. I did a yoga class in the morning, which was pre-paid as part of my monthly membership. I then went over to a friend’s house for coffee, stopped in at my local library to pick up a book, and spent the evening at home putting my Amazon Prime 30-day free trial to use (The Bold Type is my current obsession). I spent a total of £3.13 on my personal debit card, picking up a loaf of bread, tinned tomatoes and baked beans on the way home from yoga. Is this the most glamorous money diary you’ve ever read? I think it is, right?!

Sunday

Another low-spend/boring day to report. More yoga. Cleaning my flat. Then dinner at my parents. I spent £13.03 at M&S on rice noodles, my favourite ground coffee (the Weekend Blend is delicious), frozen peas, bananas, courgettes, sweet potatoes, carrots, garlic and a piece of salmon.

Monday

Another working from home no-spend day!

Tuesday

Rounding off this seven day money diary with more boring purchases… I spent £1.59 on a box of cornflakes, and £5.99 on a light bulb for my bathroom. 

After my morning yoga class I arrived home to find that my building was experiencing a power cut, so I headed to Starbucks at lunchtime to charge my laptop and eat a depressingly-flavourless salad, that cost £4.90 (charged to my business account).

I also paid a £20 invoice from my business account, this was for a piece of typography that an illustrator created for one of my blog posts. 

Total weekly personal spend: £60.53

Total weekly business spend: £218.10

TBG Says: Ella had a great week with her spending – I can totally relate to the feeling of having business expenses slither out and inflate your weekly outgoings, but she’s got it well compartmentalised, by the looks of things. Great restraint with the faux leather leggings, too!