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In our How I Manage My Money series, we aim to find out how people in the UK spend, save and invest to help them meet their costs and achieve their goals.
This week we speak to Bryony Lewis, 37, who lives in Hampshire with her husband and two children, Theo, six, and Isabelle, three. Bryony owns and runs T & Belle, a business that celebrates parenthood, creating gifts and keepsakes such as nursing pins and clothing clips.
Monthly budget
Income: I receive a salary of £1,500 a month from T & Belle and receive £145 a month in child benefit.
Expenditure: My expenses are shared with my husband. He makes more than me and pays extras like car insurance. My share is as follows: Mortgage, £380; groceries, £250; gas and electricity, £85; water, £15; council tax, £130; car fuel, £40; mobile phone, £38; contact lenses, £20; home insurance, £30; Clothing, leisure, hairdressing and gifts, £150; private pension, £50; Childcare, £60.
In total: £1.248
Growing up, my parents were always very organized with money and lived fairly frugally. They saved a lot for future investments and were comfortable, but not what I would call very wealthy. They believed in working hard to earn what you have and spending money wisely.
At school, I was taught next to nothing about saving and money management. Most of what I know now I learned the hard way through mistakes or through the example of my parents. I think lessons on money management, budgeting and compound interest would be very useful for teenagers.
As a naïve teenager and university student, I didn’t always follow my parents’ advice and ended up graduating with over £10,000 in debt on credit cards and bank overdrafts. This was a wake up call for me as I was having a hard time paying off the debt. I finally managed to pay it off and am now much more aware of my spending and what I buy.
I used to work as a web developer for a major cosmetics retailer, earning £25,000 a year in a part-time role revolving around looking after my two children. Having worked in the same company since 2014, I finally quit this job in March of this year. I had become unhappy in my job and was excited at the prospect of being able to work more flexibly and focus on something I really care about.
I founded T & Belle in 2019 and am now working on it full time. I founded the company during my maternity leave with my then nine-month-old daughter. I had a tough time breastfeeding for the first few months and wanted to do something to help other parents celebrate their journey while also giving back to charities that support infant feeding.
I make a range of products including enamel pins and clothespins for breastfeeding milestones. When I started my business, I felt like I really didn’t know what I was doing. But I learned a lot through the process, also from making mistakes. I think I will always worry about financial security because my paycheck is never guaranteed.
It depends on me making enough sales to be able to afford to pay myself, and I know there will be months in the future when my salary is lower than I would hope. I think in every business endeavor there is always the fear of “what if I fail”? But I try to focus on the alternative – “what if I succeed”?
Due to increased production and shipping costs, I had to raise my prices slightly this year for the first time. I think the government should lower sales tax to 15 percent. This would have a positive knock-on effect on so many areas of the economy.
At the moment I’m only saving money for my private pension every month with Fidelity. I’ve had a pension since I was in my 20’s and it’s really important to have a comfortable retirement. It’s the only savings I currently have, apart from some inheritance money from my father, which is held in trust.
I try to be very economical with money these days. We recently ditched our monthly Sky subscription and are now using a streaming service that’s a lot cheaper. I hunt for yellow sticker bargains in supermarkets and often freeze items to use at a later date. I also stock a product if it’s something we usually buy that’s on sale.
I often browse local charity shops or Facebook Marketplace when we need something. Our dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer were all bought used. When I buy something new, I wait for a sale, discount code, or cash back offer before I shop. I hate paying full price for everything!
In the midst of the cost of living crisis, I’m trying to use the car less since fuel prices are so high. I’m also worried about our energy bills. If things don’t change, by the end of the fixed-price deal, our energy bills will be huge. My husband and I are both actively trying to reduce our monthly expenses so that we can be in the best possible financial position for the next year.
My husband and I bought our first home in 2014 and then moved to a larger home in 2021 to take advantage of stamp duty holidays. We have made a good profit selling our old home due to high demand in our area and are now in what we hope will be our forever home. Climbing the property ladder was difficult. Although we had a perfect track record of paying our monthly rent, as new borrowers we were locked out of many mortgage deals.
In the short term I would like to settle our debts that are left over from moving last year. My longer-term goal is to save more and hopefully start overpaying on the mortgage to reduce the term and the amount of interest I have to pay. With interest rates this low, I believe this is the best option for making the most of our money. I would also like to start saving for the kids in junior isas.
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