This week: “I’m a 25-year-old client success manager in advertising. I was so lucky to land my job in an incredible startup which has a great work culture and really values personal and professional development. I knew nothing about advertising or the media when I started so it’s been a huge learning curve but I’m lucky in that I absolutely love my job and it’s such a fun, dynamic and exciting industry to be a part of. I currently do two days in the office and three at home, which I’m really enjoying and I feel like I’m in a great routine at the moment.
Growing up, money was quite tight but I’ve always worked and saved. Now I’m living in London and on a good salary, I’d say I’m a mix of a spender and a saver. I put away money every month without fail but am still very happy to prioritise holidays and going out over religiously and relentlessly saving, and I do dip into my cash ISA to pay for ‘fun’ things most months. I recently got a generous pay rise after a review so for now I’m definitely prioritising having fun and enjoying my life after my early 20s were robbed from me during the pandemic.”
Occupation: Client success manager
Industry: Advertising
Age: 25
Location: London
Salary: £38,000 + 10% bonus
Paycheque amount: £2,270
Number of housemates: Two
Pronouns: She/her
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: £575 for the smallest room in a lovely three-bed flat with a garden in Zone 3 (an absolute bargain in my opinion).
Loan payments: Roughly £90 student loan comes out of my paycheque each month. I also pay £25 a month for a cordless hoover I bought on Amazon.
Pension? I pay 3% which my employer matches.
Savings? £1.5k in a stocks and shares ISA and £5.5k in a cash ISA, which I have just switched to get a better interest rate as my previous one was abysmal. I pay in anything that’s left over after I move all my money around at the start of the month but do dip into it quite regularly to cover travel or tickets.
Utilities: £55 council tax, £29 gas and electricity, £13 water, £7.50 Wi-Fi, £7.50 contents insurance.
All other monthly payments: Gym membership £49. My dad still covers my phone bill through his business. I pay £34 for Wi-Fi for my mum at home and also send her £100 to help out. Subscriptions: £30 annually for Amazon Prime (split with my sister), £5 a month for Monzo Plus as I’m obsessed with colour-coding my budgets.
Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
I got the maximum loan and maintenance grants and worked throughout the holidays to pay for university. I also had various part-time jobs during uni, including some horrific catering jobs that scarred me for life. On my year abroad I also got a very generous Erasmus grant. My dad (who is more well-off than my mum – they separated when I was in primary school) was always on hand if I got really stuck and helped with housing deposits and paying for my glasses etc.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money?
There were very few conversations pre-parental separation. We were never rich but always comfortable and had several staycations and a European holiday every year, although my dad owned his own business so it was quite dependent on how well he did. When my parents split, my mum really struggled as a part-time NHS worker and as the older sibling I was very aware of how tight money was. I still see that firsthand now.
If you have, when did you move out of your parents’/guardians’ house?
I moved out for uni, then went back post-university and during the first COVID lockdown. I moved out properly in August 2020 when I moved to London.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself? Does anyone else cover any aspects of your financial life?
When I moved to London in August 2020 (unless you count the phone bill). When I lived at home post-uni I paid my mum £150 in rent and helped with groceries etc. Now I’ve moved out, I fully cover myself and don’t get any other help. I have enough in savings to have a safety net if anything bad happened.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
I worked in various cafes on the weekend from the age of 14. It was tough but I learned a lot. It was a really good experience and taught me how to manage my own money.
Do you worry about money now?
I feel like I should but I don’t. I’m so fortunate to be paid a generous salary at my age/experience level, which I’m very grateful for. I have a decent amount of disposable income, decent rent and no dependants. I’m not interested in saving for a house at the moment so I really enjoy spending my money on holidays and hanging out with friends, while still saving where I can. I worry more about money in terms of my family, which is why I started helping out my mum when I got a pay rise and had more than enough for myself each month.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
I received £1,500 from my grandmother when she passed away. I was still in school and spent it on a new guitar and a World Challenge trip to Central America when I was 17. I also received £7,000 (I think?) from my dad – he put money into a fixed term ISA for us when we were younger, which matured when we turned 18. This went towards paying myself (and my dad) back for my school trip, got me through uni as a backup for fun things and paid for a lot of trips and holidays when I was at uni such as Interrailing and going to Canada. I topped it up with my own savings but it probably finally ran out during my year abroad. I could definitely have invested this better but I had a very fun time during uni so cannot complain.
9.30am: I wake up naturally following an extraordinarily rare lie-in. I got home from holiday last night and our flight was delayed so I got home really late. I listen to my podcasts (Shagged Married Annoyed followed by How to Fail) and doze in bed.
11am: Finally force myself to get up. I put a wash on, change my bedding and head out for a food shop. I start at Aldi and buy toothpaste, butternut squash, sweet potato, mushrooms, basil, yoghurt, beans, lentil bites and dip, £13.48. I then go to Sainsbury’s to pick up ketchup, gnocchi, falafel, grain pouches, beans and a jacket potato, £8.69. I also go to Boots and get nail polish remover, a cuticle scraper and cotton pads, £5.89.
1.30pm: I get home and snack on lentil bites and sour cream and onion dip (my favourite snack and absolute guilty pleasure, I probably have it every weekend) and then have a huge jacket potato with beans and cheese.
4.30pm: Doing my nails took a lot longer than expected and I’m not entirely sure where the afternoon has gone. I FaceTime Mum and catch her up about my holiday, then head out for a walk as it’s sunny and I have loads of podcasts to catch up on.
6pm: Tick off some life admin tasks. I submit a claim for compensation from BA for yesterday’s delayed flight. I donate £10 to UNICEF after the #CookforUkraine Table Manners podcast, which had me in tears, and set up a £5 monthly donation to a refugee charity. I then see an email from Wine52 about a free box of wine from Portugal (I was on holiday in Portugal and thoroughly enjoyed the wine there) so I order it, costing £5.95 for postage. I then do an Amazon order for soil, La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo and ulcer gel, £18.72. I also get an email with an offer for Now TV for £1 a month for two months so I sign up so I can finally jump on the bandwagon and watch Euphoria.
8pm: I make dinner of roasted gnocchi, butternut squash, mushrooms and sage with a basil and lemon dressing while watching some David Attenborough.
8.40pm: Do my nighttime routine, get into clean sheets and watch the first episode of Euphoria.
10.30pm: Go to bed with a podcast as I can’t sleep without having one on a sleep timer in the background.
Total: £68.73
6.50am: Ambitiously set my alarm for 6.50am to go to the gym. I feel like a zombie so the alarm swiftly goes on snooze.
8.30am: I am still SO tired. My alarm goes off and I have my Alexa set to play BBC Radio 2 when I wake up, which I LOVE – despite it making me feel like a middle-aged woman – as it reminds me of home and I find it really comforting. I force myself out of bed and shower etc.
9am: Log on after a week off. There is SO much to catch up on. Have catch-ups with my team, go through emails and Slacks, and check all my campaigns. I make a priority list for the rest of the day and week.
1pm: What a manic morning. I stop for lunch, which is a grain bowl with sweet potato, falafel, broccoli and hummus. I don’t take my normal hour break and head straight back to work to whizz through some set-ups and troubleshooting.
5.50pm: I log off and get ready to meet my friend who moved abroad last year, along with our other uni friend. Tube is prepaid (I top up my Oyster whenever I need to). I haven’t seen my friend in eight months since she moved so we have so much to catch up on.
8pm: I spend £33.10 on shared small plates at Wahaca and two drinks. I’ve never been to Wahaca before and it is so good – I love Mexican food and margaritas are my favourite drink ever.
10.30pm: Tube home, nighttime routine, read, bed and podcast.
Total: £33.10
6.50am: Why did I even bother?
7.20am: Get ready and head into central London.
9am: I have a breakfast ‘meeting’ with my teammate and our client this morning. I finally try the famous Dishoom breakfast naan, with veggie sausages and egg, and it lives up to the hype. Work pays.
10.30am: Walk back to the office and have a full morning of internal meetings, then bash through work. Claim I’m still stuffed from breakfast then have lunch at my desk around 3pm.
5.50pm: Leave the office and get the Tube home to get ready for this evening.
7.50pm: The guy I’m seeing, L, picks me up (late as always) and we go for pizza. We have dinner and catch up. I get a Margherita pizza and a Diet Coke and L pays because I bought our takeaway the last time I saw him. We then pop into Sainsbury’s to buy treats but decide we actually don’t want anything so I just buy some peach squash, £1.85.
9.30pm: We’re back at mine and watch Teen First Dates (which we’re absolutely obsessed with), chat about love languages (we’re both touch) and make up for lost time… I’ve been perpetually single for my 25 years of existence and usually get the ick very, very early on. It used to really bother me that I’ve always been single, as if it was something inherently wrong with me, but actually it’s given me the opportunity to do so many things in my life, like live abroad, and really get to know myself. I’m fiercely independent and love spending time on my own and when I met L, for the first time in my life, I really wasn’t looking for anyone and was thriving on my own. It’s been five months with no ick so it’s going surprisingly well. Almost too well… I’m trying not to get too attached in case it all crashes and burns.
12.30am: Finally go to bed after chatting rubbish and more cuddles.
Total: £1.85
8.10am: My alarm goes off. I actually slept the whole night through, which is unheard of when I have someone in my bed. I have an early training course so I listen to it in bed with L snoozing next to me.
10am: The call ends, L leaves and I log on to do work and have some breakfast. It’s nearly the end of the quarter so it’s pretty stressful trying to make sure all of our campaigns deliver.
1pm: We get an extra hour on a Wednesday for ‘wellness’. I drop off my coat at the dry cleaner’s after I vomited on it after a very rowdy night out a few weeks ago (oops), £16. I then head to the gym. I’m still feeling very sleepy and do a quick and pathetic leg session.
2.30pm: I’m home and very hungry. My Wine52 delivery has arrived, as has my HelloFresh box. I shower then make lunch of grains, sweet potato, falafel, hummus, broccoli and basil and lemon dressing.
3pm: I finally sit back down at my desk to do a report and tick off more things from my to-do list, plus check in on campaigns. My sister and I decide to buy our mum a railcard so I transfer £15 for my share. I unnecessarily snack on more lentil bites and sour cream and chive dip while working.
6pm: Log off, go for a quick walk, then make an aubergine and pepper pasta from HelloFresh before walking to my friend’s house. She’s just moved to the same area as me, which I am very happy about as most of my friends are a Tube or bus journey away. We were going to go to the pub but I want to save money and frankly cannot be bothered to be in public so I take some gin and tonic and we catch up at hers instead, which is so lovely and her house is GORGEOUS. I am very jealous and offer to move in if her housemate ever bails on her.
10pm: Get home and go to bed (with podcasts, as always).
Total: £31
7.20am: Wake up to Zoe Ball (no ambitious alarm this morning), get ready and head into the office.
9.30am: I’m in training all morning, which is interesting and very helpful but I can feel my to-do list piling up in front of my eyes.
11.30am: Quick blast through some tasks then head off for a client lunch. There are four from my team and 10 of our client team at a rowdy Italian restaurant in Holborn. The pasta is delicious and we drink a lot of Aperol Spritz and limoncello. It’s such a fun afternoon with a great group of people. I love my industry and boozy client lunches and drinks are definitely a perk of the job.
4.15pm: We head to a nearby pub. Our clients stay for one drink, then myself, my teammate and my boss stay for ‘just one more’ which turns into about five more, all on the company card.
10.30pm: Finally get home and I’m pissed and absolutely ravenous. I eat three bags of lentil crisps and order a pizza from Firezza on Deliveroo, £8.59. I then harass L to come over for cuddles while spilling tomato sauce all over my clean sheets. L refuses, which I can’t understand?! How is this not an appealing booty call? I go to sleep, way more smashed than I needed to be for a Thursday.
Total: £8.59
7.15am: As I always do without fail when I’ve been drinking, I wake up early and feel very rough. Close my eyes and try to go back to sleep.
8.30am: I think I’ve avoided the worst. The pizza was clearly an excellent idea. I head into the office, which is unusual for a Friday but I promised to help us move into our new office today and I’m not hungover enough to have an excuse not to.
9.40am: Arrive at work, have a catch-up with my team about everything that’s broken and going wrong (the absolute joys of working in tech) and then blast through a long list of tasks I neglected yesterday due to training and lunch. I munch on a Kinder bar and an Eat Natural bar (the office has some phenomenal snacks, which I organised and am particularly proud of).
11am: We start moving everything from our old office to the new one. Thank God they’re on the same floor of the building. We have accumulated so much stuff over the last year and a bit and it feels great to organise it all and get rid of random crap.
1.15pm: We break for lunch and grab a poke bowl from down the road, which is so delicious and fresh. Work pays as a thank you for helping with the move on a Friday.
3pm: After blasting through more tasks, I finish my to-do list for the week and help with some more organising and unpacking. I finally get hit by a massive wave of hungover/end of week/excessive moving and pushing trolleys of computer monitors fatigue, so call it a day at 4.30pm and get the Tube home.
5.30pm: Pop into Aldi on my way home to get lentil crisps, sour cream and chive dip (my fave AGAIN, I cannot resist), naan breads and a Diet Coke, £3.76. I then go into Sainsbury’s to get Gü salted caramel cheesecakes on offer, £2.20.
6pm: Get home and make a prawn and squash dal with a naan from my HelloFresh box, eat the cheesecake and hang in bed watching Euphoria. After a hefty week of socialising and not really giving myself time to recover after my busy holiday I’m absolutely exhausted. To be honest I love a chill weekend and really relish having the house to myself.
8.30pm: Go to sleep stupidly early.
Total: £5.96
9.30am: Another very long lie-in for me! I chill in bed for ages, scrolling on Instagram.
11am: I have a yoghurt, do a bit of life admin, then go to the gym. I manage to change my membership from an adult to young adult membership (£30 rather than £49) after my friend told me I was being ripped off as she was only being charged £30! Absolutely buzzing. Do quite a productive upper body session. I make the most of it as it’s the first time I’ve had energy at the gym for ages.
1.30pm: Home, shower and have eggs and mushrooms on toast. I go out into the garden and repot my cheese plant, which is more of a job than I anticipated as it’s huge, as well as my monkey face plant. The plants are so heavy I call to my downstairs neighbour over the fence and he comes to help me. I chat to him about his cat, which has a poorly ear. I’m such a cat person and miss mine so much so I live vicariously through the neighbour’s chubby ginger floof. I then get into bed and watch more Euphoria – I’m late to the party but thoroughly addicted. I also book my coach to Stansted for a holiday in June, £10.
5.15pm: I really have to drag myself out of bed to get ready and have dinner (leftover HelloFresh aubergine and pepper pasta) and head on the Tube and bus to Mercato Metropolitano to meet my friends from home. We have such a fun evening catching up, we also chat through some stuff I’ve been struggling with recently. Having grown up together since we were 11, they’re so supportive and I can be so much more open and honest about things like this with them. I have four pints and spend £22.50.
11.30pm: Say goodbye to my pals then accidentally get the really long bus home – it takes ages and I have to walk down a dodgy road to get home. L tells me to send him my location so he can check I’m okay getting home, so I chat to him for reassurance on the way back. Manage to refrain from inviting him over.
12.30am: Finally home. I can’t feel my face because it was SO cold outside. I smash two packets of lentil crisps, down water and go to sleep.
Total: £32.50
Food & Drink: £100.12
Entertainment: £1
Clothes & Beauty: £16
Home & Health: £24.61
Travel: £10
Other: £30
Total: £181.73
Conclusion
“I feel like this was a pretty typical if not very busy week for me: a mix of socialising with friends and work and then quite a chilled weekend. I guess the dry cleaning and railcard are the only unusual purchases but these would normally be replaced by other things like clothes or topping up my Oyster, which I didn’t buy this week. I’m normally very on top of my spending as I use Monzo and I am very obsessed with keeping my budgets up to date so I have a good idea of exactly where my money is going every month. I still found it really interesting keeping a money diary, more as a journal of my week than for the actual spending. I’ve only had this salary for a few months so for the short term I’m going to enjoy my summer and keep booking holidays (I already have about four booked this year). Coming from a low-income family, I’m still adjusting to being able to spend money on things I want to and not feel guilty about it or having to dip into my hard-earned savings all the time. I’m enjoying the transition a lot!”
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