This week: “I am a 27-year-old with no skills or degree who worked as a barista but lost my job during lockdown when the cafe I worked at closed down permanently. I started receiving Universal Credit and my boyfriend, who I live with, told me I do not have to contribute to bills during this time. I have been living with him for two years in the flat that he owns in Manchester and he has never asked me to contribute towards rent.
I decided to use this time of unemployment to try to self-learn programming so I can get a job as a software developer but that was derailed a bit by a period of depression, a condition I have been struggling with since I was 17. I’m much better now than I was so I am working towards getting everything back on track.”
Occupation: Unemployed
Industry: Currently teaching myself coding in the hope of getting a job as a software developer.
Age: 27
Location: Manchester
Salary: £530 a month in Universal Credit, which is going down to £450 this month.
Number of housemates: One, my boyfriend, A.
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: None. I live with my boyfriend in the flat he owns and he pays all the bills.
Utilities: £0
Loan payments: None.
Savings? I try to save up £200 a month.
Pension? None.
All other monthly expenses: £10 for a giffgaff SIM card.
Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
My parents didn’t have any expectations when it came to me attending higher education. I didn’t get great grades in school so those expectations were placed on my sister, who had much better grades.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money?
The only conversations I had with my family growing up about money related to the fact that we didn’t have any.
If you have, when did you move out of your parents’/guardians’ house?
I moved out at 22.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself? Does anyone else cover any aspects of your financial life?
I became financially responsible for myself when I was 22 and moved out. I was completely financially responsible for myself up until two years ago, when my boyfriend asked me to move in with him in the flat he owns. I was giving him my share of the bills up until a year ago when I lost my job due to the lockdown. He then said he would cover my share of the bills until I find another job.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
My first job was tutoring. I got it by posting an ad online offering my services.
Do you worry about money now?
I don’t have to worry about money right now but I definitely worry about scenarios in the future if my boyfriend and I break up before I find a job.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?
No.
9am: I wake up and my boyfriend, A, is already up and at work in the next room so I don’t bother him. He works some days from home and some from the office, but he likes to start the week from home.
9.30am: I have toast and strawberry jam for breakfast and wash the pile of dishes we were too lazy to wash at the weekend.
10am: I go to the independent coffee shop in my neighbourhood to have a coffee and spend a few hours doing some programming assignments on my laptop. I buy a hazelnut latte for £2.50 and spend several hours there working.
1pm: Head to the nearby charity shop to scour for board games. I love playing board games and a charity shop is all that I can afford right now so I usually buy them there. I find two games there I like so I buy them. The cost is £8.98 altogether.
4pm: I go home and make myself a blueberry salad with tahini sauce. I’m trying to lose the 8kg I gained during several months of struggling with depression earlier this year and this is my second week eating healthy. I have always loved exercising but my issue is relying on food when I am feeling down. I think about checking the scale to see if my one week of eating healthy produced any results but I decide against it because if I haven’t lost any weight there is a possibility I will end up rage-eating everything in my fridge.
6pm: A finishes work and goes to the gym. I’m more of an outdoors exercise type of person so I go for a run in the park.
7.30pm: I come back and take a shower. A stopped by the grocery shop on the way from the gym so I use the ingredients to make pasta with pesto and sprinkle pine nuts on top.
9pm: We settle in the living room and spend the rest of the night watching The Boys. He’s watched it already and has been trying to get me to watch too. I finally caved!
Total: £11.48
9am: I wake up and browse Instagram for much longer than I care to admit. I head downstairs and have a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast.
11am: I go shopping because it’s getting colder and I need some winter clothes. I find one cosy striped jumper at Peacocks which I like and buy it for £15.
2pm: I open the fridge and stare at it, trying to figure out what to eat before I have to head to the after-school club I volunteer at. I do tutoring there in basically any subject the kids need tutoring in that day. I settle on making scrambled eggs on toast, put on my jumper and I’m on my way.
6pm: After volunteering, I go to the pub where a few of my girlfriends have a board game night once a week. I take the tram there and the return ticket costs £2.80. On my way I realise I am an idiot who forgot her new board games purchased yesterday but it all works out because one of my friends comes prepared with a whole bag full of games!
7pm: We play Cluedo and Codenames, which is a lot of fun. I have a coke to drink. £2.50
10pm: I take the tram home, take a shower and go straight to bed.
Total: £20.30
9am: I wake up with a huge sense of anxiety. It feels like the fears I had about my life have been repressed and they all choose to swim out on the surface at the same time. My anxieties are about not being where I want to be in life and whether I can really become a self-taught programmer or if I am just kidding myself. A has already left for the office today so I can’t even turn to him for a support hug, which sucks. I decide to go on YouTube and watch videos of self-taught developers sharing their experiences to make myself feel better and more motivated.
10.30am: I decide I will take a chill few hours reading in bed before doing any coding. I start a book called The Last Correspondent, which is about three women and their lives during WW2. The book is really interesting and I get sucked right in.
12pm: I finally emerge out of bed (if we don’t count bathroom breaks) to get some food. I make myself a smoothie with bananas and peanut butter but in my head I’m dreaming of doughnuts. I text A to tell him about my anxiety this morning and he offers to make curry for dinner to make me feel better.
2pm: I go to the shop to buy some groceries, including ingredients for tonight’s curry. It comes to £14.38.
3pm: I make myself a fruit salad that I proceed to snack on while doing coding on my laptop. Today I go through (half of) a tutorial on how to create a Tetris game.
6pm: Go for a run in the park.
8pm: A makes me curry while I shower. Over dinner we chat about the anxiety I felt this morning. He advises me to look into some apprenticeships if I feel that trying to learn coding on my own is too much for me. I decide to look into it tomorrow.
10pm: We watch The Boys before going to sleep.
Total: £14.38
9am: I lie in bed for too long scrolling Instagram and following travel influencers.
9.30am: I get up and make cheesy scrambled eggs for breakfast. Today is errands day, when I do my half of the errands. A does his on the weekend. I wash clothes, iron clothes, clean the kitchen and wash the dishes. I prefer to do my errands during the week so I can relax on the weekend.
1pm: I feel accomplished about doing my errands. This sounds pathetic but when you spent the best part of the last year struggling with depression, even the little things are an accomplishment. I go to the coffee shop and before doing coding, I look into some apprenticeships. There is one that particularly catches my eye so I ignore the feeling of anxiety I get every time I apply for a job and go for it.
2.30pm: I do some coding while having a latte. £2.50
5pm: I start getting ready to go to the theatre. I made plans with my friends to go watch A Midsummer Night’s Dream weeks ago (the ticket cost £15.50). I wash my hair and decide to wear my new jumper.
6.30pm: My friend is kind enough to pick me up with her car and drop me back home. The play is a lot of fun as the theatre group changed the story to be a comedy. A texts me saying he is ordering chow mein for dinner and asks if I would like some too. Yes please!
10pm: I arrive home and have the (delicious) chow mein before going to sleep.
Total: £18
8am: Wake up and make a plan to spend most of the day doing programming. I look at my phone and see a notification from my bank that £350 has arrived in my account. It’s compensation from an airline for my flight being delayed when I went to visit my family last month who live in a different country. Honestly, this money will really help me out because the Universal Credit payment is getting cut this month by £80.
9am: I decide to put £300 away into my savings so I don’t get tempted to spend it and decide to treat myself with the £50. I look into doing something I’ve wanted to do for a while, which is booking a day trip with a proper tour company. I look into one that my friend recommended and they are doing a day trip to Yorkshire this weekend, including a hike to Malham Cove where Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows part one was filmed! I text A (who is in the office), asking him if he wants to come with me. He is not big on hiking and says he has a work birthday party to go to that night so I decide to go by myself. The cost of the booking is £40, which leaves me £10 to treat myself with. I’m just so happy to be getting out of Manchester tomorrow.
11am: I have bananas and Greek yoghurt for breakfast before continuing working on my Tetris game.
6pm: I take the tram (£2.80) to the sports centre, where I am meeting my friend to play badminton. My half of the cost of the court is £4.
7pm: After a great game of badminton we go for a drive in her car. She suggests driving to a diner and having waffles. If I were religious, I would think that God is testing me today. I manage to resist somehow and suggest going to Starbucks instead, where she treats me with mint citrus tea. I was too embarrassed to tell her I’m trying to lose weight so I lied and said I wasn’t in the mood for waffles but since she knows me really well I don’t think she bought it.
10pm: I come home, take a shower and pack everything I need for my day trip tomorrow.
10.30pm: Chat with A before going to sleep.
Total: £46.80
7am: I wake up and get ready for the trip to Yorkshire. I don’t feel like having breakfast so decide to skip it.
8am: I arrive at the coach meeting spot early so I go into Costa and buy a tuna panini to have for lunch later for £4. Every time I go into Costa I am incredibly tempted to buy their delicious millionaire’s shortbread and a latte but I don’t do it because my bank account cannot handle it.
10.30am: We arrive at Malham Cove where we have a hike. We spend some time on top taking pictures before heading back down. I collect fridge magnets from every place I visit so I buy a Yorkshire fridge magnet in the visitor centre for £1.
1pm: We’re given some time for a lunch break so I walk around before sitting in a park for a bit, eating my panini.
3pm: We visit Bolton Abbey before the journey back home. I nap on the coach.
7pm: We arrive back in Manchester. By the time I get home A has already gone out. I’m starving so I scour the fridge for food. A usually does shopping on the weekend and I see he bought tuna so I make myself rice with tuna with some soy sauce. Delicious!
9pm: I collapse after taking a shower and barely find the strength to turn on Netflix. I continue watching Atypical and pass out around 10.30pm.
Total: £5
9am: I wake up and realise I have to do some boring errands like clothes ironing and dusting. A decides to lie in bed and sleep off the hangover.
9.30am: A bought raspberries yesterday because he knows I like them so I make myself a raspberry smoothie for breakfast.
11am: A wakes up only to go to the living room and lie on the couch. I join him and go through Instagram to try and find a nearby gym I can join soon. Winter is coming and soon enough it will be too cold to run outside.
11.15am: I find a perfect female-only gym but the cost is £40 a month! A offers to pay until I start earning but I refuse. I’m too ashamed to be that dependent on him.
1pm: A makes us fried cheese sandwiches for lunch and we go for a walk in a nearby park. The park has a proper autumn vibe with brown and yellow leaves everywhere, it’s really beautiful. We stop by a shop to buy Nutella because I offer to make crepes for dessert tonight. The weekend is my treat-myself-with-sweets time, which is a step up from every day being my treat-myself-with-sweets day. A pays.
4pm: I wash my hair and do my nails before deciding to weigh myself on the scale we have in the bathroom. I want to see if I lost any weight in the last two weeks. I nervously step on and it reveals I lost 1.5kg. I am happy with that but there is still a way to go as I want to lose six more.
6pm: I make crepes while A orders us gyros because he is craving Greek food.
7pm: We play Scrabble together while eating and I beat him for the first time after playing each other a million times.
9pm: We watch more of The Boys before falling asleep.
Total: £0
Food & Drink: £25.88
Entertainment: £19.50
Clothes & Beauty: £15
Home & Health: £0
Travel: £45.60
Other: £9.98
Total: £115.96
Conclusion
“Honestly, I think I did well considering I am on a shoestring budget. The experience was illuminating in realising how many things I don’t even blink at spending on because they cost a few quid but it adds up to a lot and you only see it when you write all of your expenses down. As for changing anything in the future, I’ll be hoping to get a job soon so I can spend more!”
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