The Menopause Spending Nobody Warns You About

Have you ever looked at your bank statement and wondered when you started spending quite so much on… well, feeling like yourself?

A new supplement someone recommended. A moisturiser because your skin suddenly seems to have changed overnight. A gym membership. Collagen. Different clothes because the ones you already own don't feel quite right anymore.

Maybe you've paid to see someone privately because you didn't want to wait. Perhaps you've bought a sleep tracker because you'd really, really like to know why you're waking up at 3am every night.

Individually, none of these purchases necessarily feels like a big financial decision.

But add them all together, and it can be surprising how much you're actually spending.

And that's exactly what came through when I asked women what they're currently spending money on to help manage how they're feeling.

It turns out, we're spending quite a lot

Supplements and vitamins came out on top by quite a distance, followed by skincare. But the list didn't stop there.

Gym memberships, new clothes, collagen, private medical appointments, personal training, weight loss injections, sleep trackers…

And many women weren't spending money on just one thing. They were paying for three, four, sometimes even six different things at the same time. Which got me thinking.

Where does any of this actually sit in the household budget?

Because most of us have an idea of what we spend on the mortgage, food, the car, energy bills and holidays. But I've never seen a budget with a neat little category called "Things I'm buying because perimenopause has changed how I feel."

Instead, it gets mixed in with everything else. £20 here. £40 there. Another monthly subscription. Another bottle of supplements when the last one runs out. And before you know it, something you never consciously decided to spend hundreds of pounds a year on has simply become part of life.

This isn't about telling you to stop

I really don't want this to become another conversation about what women should or shouldn't be spending their money on. If the gym makes you feel stronger, brilliant. If you've finally found skincare that makes your skin feel comfortable again, use it. If you're paying for something that helps you sleep, feel better or simply feel a little more like yourself, that has value. The point isn't that we need to cut all of these things out. It's that perhaps we need to start recognising them for what they are: a genuine cost of this stage of life. Because once we see the spending, we can actually plan for it.

There's another side to this too

One of the things that really stood out to me from the responses was that this extra spending isn't necessarily happening at a time when earning money feels easy. More than a third of women who responded told me their symptoms had made work harder.

Some had reduced their hours. A few had left a role altogether. So you can potentially have more money going out at exactly the same time that your income is coming under pressure. And that's the bit I don't think we talk about enough when we talk about menopause and money.

It's not necessarily one huge financial event. Sometimes it's lots of smaller changes happening at the same time. You're spending a little more here, earning a little less there, dipping into savings occasionally, putting slightly less into your pension or finding there's simply less left over at the end of the month than there used to be. Over time, those small changes can add up.

Here's something to try

Have a look at your bank statement from the last month. Not with the intention of cancelling everything or giving yourself a hard time about what you've spent. Just have a look.

How much have you spent on things that are, in some way, connected to how you're feeling right now?

You might be surprised. And if it turns out there is a reasonable amount going out each month, perhaps it deserves its own little place in your budget rather than quietly disappearing into "miscellaneous". Understanding where your money is going isn't about being perfect with it. It's about making sure the things you're spending money on today aren't quietly getting in the way of the things you want your money to do for you tomorrow.

I'd love to know - have you bought anything because of perimenopause or menopause that you never imagined you'd be spending money on?