This week: “I’m a 35-year-old content designer living in the southeast. I started out in content strategy for the fintech industry before switching to content design. I work full-time and also earn from a freelance role. I’m single and lead a quiet life due to chronic health conditions which at various points in my life have seen me in and out of hospital. I don’t go out much and while I used to be very embarrassed by this, I’ve learned that it’s okay. My main expenses are my rent and health insurance; the latter is sky-high thanks to decades of claims. Otherwise I am largely frugal. Irritatingly, I can be a penny-pincher for things I know, deep down, don’t matter for me (like agonising over 50p on a yoghurt in Tesco). I am trying to be more reasonable and allowing myself the rent on my current place is the biggest step I’ve made in this direction.”
Occupation: Content designer
Industry: Tech
Age: 35
Location: Southeast
Salary: £95,000. Base salary £70k from full-time employment. I also earn £25-30k from freelance work. My freelance gig is steady and while income can vary, I’m guaranteed a minimum £25k a year.
Paycheque amount: £4,047.92 post-tax base pay. Freelance income brings around £2,083 pre-tax.
Number of housemates: None
Pronouns: She/her
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: £1,350 rent for a lovely cottage with a small garden. I spent most of my 20s and 30s in shared accommodation. I’ve since learned how important my own place is for my wellbeing and am okay with this figure for rent.
Loan payments: None
Pension? I pay 10% into my workplace pension. My employer pays 6%.
Savings? £130,000 in a high-interest savings account. Around £120,000 in stocks and shares.
Utilities: Council tax £150, gas/electricity £55, water £28. Private health insurance is £505. My job offers private medical insurance but won’t cover me for pre-existing conditions so I’ve kept my own insurance.
All other monthly payments: £15.21 for SIM-only phone plan. £27 Wi-Fi, 50% of which work reimburses. Subscriptions: £9.99 Google Play music, although I pay about 50% of this with Google Rewards money I earn. I also pay £79 for Amazon Prime annually and £108.10 for NHS prescriptions.
Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
I have a degree from a European university. My parents paid for about 50% of the tuition and living costs. I covered the rest by working.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money?
My parents didn’t discuss their finances openly, although they made me aware of their mentality: never live above your means, spend on things that’ll last (if you can afford them) and always put money away for a rainy day. My dad moved to this country with only the clothes on his back. I’ve always been humbled by this, particularly since I never wanted for anything as a child.
If you have, when did you move out of your parents’/guardians’ house?
I moved out aged 18.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself? Does anyone else cover any aspects of your financial life?
I became mostly independent during my mid 20s but truly independent at about 28. Until then, my parents were still occasionally chipping in for things like rental deposits or the odd healthcare bill. Nobody currently covers other aspects of my financial life.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
I babysat occasionally from the age of 14. My first proper job was at a local bakery aged 16. I worked six days a week to save up, not for anything in particular, I just knew I wanted to be earning my own money.
Do you worry about money now?
Yes, despite knowing I have a high income. Being ill is hands-down the most expensive thing I’ve ever faced and I worry about not being able to work in the future or facing massive healthcare costs. When people query why I don’t ‘treat’ myself more, I point out the years of hospital expenses and general healthcare management I’ve faced, plus my £6k/year health insurance. All the fancy gym memberships, brunches and holidays in the world would be obliterated by this single annual payment.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?
No.
8.45am: Wake up and open my Viridi app (I’m growing a virtual plant pot). Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine, I’ve struggled to open the news first thing. Instead I’ve settled on this rather adorable and growing plant collection. A little snail circles the pot and I water my virtual aloe vera.
8.55am: Make bed, fold pyjamas. Eat an Alpen Light Jaffa Cake bar while putting on my Bialetti Moka Express (the best £14.99 I ever spent, thank you eBay). Check Slack and emails while coffee brews.
9.05am: Take coffee and breakfast into the garden. Today I’m working on redesigning sections of an interface that repeatedly results in user abandonment. I pause to order e-liquid for my trusty vape, using a 20% discount code. £53.57
1.45pm: Wrap up meetings and set aside 20 minutes to summarise with both my manager and those reporting to me. The more I work, the more I learn: you spend half your time working and the other half advocating for what you’ve done. Heat up homemade vegetable soup with pearl barley, eat it with baguette and two Babybel.
6pm: Close laptops and decide against going out. I tire very easily and have learned to hold back when necessary. A neighbour on Facebook asks if anyone has spare cardboard. I gladly offer my eight remaining boxes from my recent move. She comes over to collect and stays for a socially distanced chat and tea. I wind up making us a makeshift dinner of salad, cheeses, baguette, grapes etc. We both test negative before our meeting.
9pm: Hang up my washing and ‘plan’ what will go in the next machine. I started turning into my mother around the age of 30.
11pm: After my shower I wash my face with a bar of Boots baby soap and cold water, then apply DoubleGel. I was prescribed this about 10 years ago for dry skin. I forgot to use it, then randomly tried it in 2020. It’s the best moisturiser I’ve ever applied to my basic, low-key face. I don’t care if it’s out of date.
11.45pm: Scroll TikTok, message a few friends on WhatsApp. Put on the Forever 35 podcast while prepping a bedtime snack of Greek yoghurt, honey and frozen mixed berries. Refill my hot water bottle like a granny and climb my old cottage stairs to bed. Fall asleep watching Desperate Housewives.
Total: £53.57
8.25am: Wake up before my alarm. Virtual plants don’t need watering today. Change my bedlinen, stick on a machine. Grab a Special K bar like the ’90s kid I am and put on my Bialetti Moka for garden coffee and breakfast.
8.45am: Yes, I’m dressed. Largely in Sports Direct, for which I feel very guilty. I throw on a Barbour jacket for garden time and stay out working until my 10am meeting. Between meetings I check the news and read a Substack I subscribe to.
9am: A perfume I’ve listed on eBay sells, netting me £22.12 after the admittedly extortionate fees.
12pm: I’m hungry but tired so eat a large bowl of cereal with milk and a chopped banana. A little later, I make oatmeal pancakes with frozen blueberries and dark chocolate chips. I eat two and save the rest for a more adventurous breakfast tomorrow. Work keeps me busy until 5pm.
5pm: Feeling strong enough to head out. Go to M&S for my favourite 90p yoghurt. Then I head to Tesco for 50% fruit granola, broccoli, leeks, chargrilled chicken pieces, rice and a croissant I plan to eat on the way home, £9.39. A homeless man I suspect is on drugs begs me for cash. I have none and refuse to fund an addiction (although appreciate I could be wrong). I pop to Costa where I have points. I feel bad for donating a ‘free’ coffee but do so anyway, also giving him the croissant.
6.15pm: Fry up veggies and rice with chicken and buckle down for an evening of freelance work. Also box up my eBay sale, wash my hair with my ghetto 75p Boots shampoos and conditioners that smell lovely, hang up laundry and do 30 minutes of Pilates.
10pm: Scroll TikTok and Instagram, take out bins, do face. Open a new pack of ground coffee for tomorrow (aahhhh the smell). Snack on mixed nuts and some milk chocolate. Fall asleep around 12am, again watching Desperate Housewives.
Total: £10.29
9am: Wake up. It’s Free Fancy Coffee Day! Water my dumb virtual plants, get dressed, put my hair up with cute bow clips and apply a little makeup for a call.
9.10am: Alpen Light bar, coffee, usual yoghurt mix in garden. I respond to some freelance correspondence before starting actual work around 9.30am.
3pm: Free Fancy Coffee Day is the only reason I stay with O2. Triumphantly head to Caffè Nero for my free medium latte and enjoy it while scrolling Depop (where I feel very old).
3.50pm: £2,190 is credited to my account for this month’s freelance work. Walk home and stop to buy a few cleaning supplies and tea candles. £7.40
5pm: Tidy a little before getting back to work until 7pm, then freelance work until 10ish. Finally eat some pancakes and later a small bowl of porridge with almonds, dried apricots, banana and honey.
10pm: For no reason I feel overwhelmingly sad. And lonely. I miss my mother, who lives far away. I sit on the floor and rearrange my kitchen cloths drawer (just like she does). When things feel out of control I cling onto comfort with household fussing that takes me close to her maternal warmth.
10.20pm: Amazon debits my account for a multipack order of miso soup sachets, £17.10. I shower and do my face, which makes me feel better.
11pm: Listen to Forever 35 while cleaning my coffee pot and ironing. Have rice cakes with peanut butter. Fill my hot water bottle. Fall asleep around midnight while scrolling Reddit.
Total: £24.50
10.30am: Wake up late as I’m taking a day of leave today. Usual breakfast and garden time (under my parasol today because it’s raining). Put on a pair of Moschino jeans I bought in 2003, a check H&M shirt over a Petit Bateau T-shirt, Falke socks and black Skechers I purchased from Vinted. Attempt to do something with my hair and give up.
12pm: Head out to meet a close friend for a walk. She’s going through major job-seeking drama and I spend a good 45 minutes walking her through interview and salary negotiation tactics. We then head to the post office so I can post my eBay parcel, £3.20. Afterwards we part ways and I head to Tesco where I spend £6.15 on bakery bread and a few fresh items.
1.15pm: Read my local newspaper in the sun and try a new vape juice: ButterMint, which tastes exactly like a Werther’s Original. A friend WhatsApp video calls me for about 30 minutes before I end the chat because I’m hungry.
2pm: Wrap up a segment of my freelance project, which takes me to 5pm, using ‘break’ moments to network with old contacts on LinkedIn. Have a vanilla yoghurt with crumbled Melba toast because the crunch is so good.
5pm: Long call with my mum, which turns into sorting out her inbox drama. She’s so paranoid about falling for scams, she thinks everything is out to get her.
6.15pm: Do 30 minutes of Pilates, then place an Amazon Fresh order for £45.20. My smoke alarm starts beeping (low battery). Foolishly, I think I can just ignore it.
7.15pm: Make rice with miso soup and steamed leek and broccoli, plus various sauces and prawns (defrosted and microwaved because I’m a freak). Eat watching YouTube.
9pm: Do a coffee and mint face scrub. Years ago I worked for a beauty company and have kept in touch. They still send me an annual voucher, this year spent on the scrub. I shower and put on a freshly ironed nightshirt.
11.50pm: I have no idea what I’ve been doing for the past hour. Order a new battery for my smoke detector because this is turning into a Phoebe from Friends situation. £3.79
12.40am: Finally in bed with yoghurt, frozen fruit and a warm bowl of soup, plus my hot water bottle. It took me, like, a year to figure out why the soup/hot water combo makes the snack so much better. Duh, it’s freezing food in your stomach. Sleep.
Total: £58.34
7.45am: Get up quickly. Today I’m onboarding a new recruit based in Hong Kong. She’s yet to relocate so the time difference means an early call. I wear sweats from the waist down, decent shirt and (fake) pearl earrings from the waist up.
8.15am: Start Zoom, which lasts 90 minutes. The new recruit is really sweet and packed with ideas. We brainstorm on principles of content design and web content accessibility guidelines.
10.05am: Delayed coffee and breakfast in the garden, today with the cheeky robin who often drops by. I work solidly until midday, then take an hour for myself.
12.20pm: Have a Google Hangout with my parents. We talk about stuff they’re doing in the house, plus a recent Money Diary (they quite enjoy the odd diary I tell them about). Heat up homemade vegetable soup from my freezer stash and make a wrap with brie, tomato and basil.
1.10pm: Spend a few hours reorganising work stuff in Asana and wrapping up some ongoing projects. Hoover living room.
3.30pm: Have a small bowl of cereal with milk. Don’t really want to finish it but the mush seems more of a hassle to clear out so down the lot. Work while I eat.
5pm: Finish work and arrange seeing friends. We all confirm negative lateral flow and they pick me up just before 6pm. I spend the evening hanging out at theirs after a rather dramatic bedtime fuss from their 5-year-old. These are my oldest friends. They’ve stuck by me through hospital stays and all the ugliness between them. Their kindness means the world to me.
9.35pm: Get home and log onto work for some quick, pre-weekend correspondence. Then do similar for about 30 minutes for my freelance gig. I am aware a large chunk of my life revolves around work. When I was too sick to go out, it was the one purpose I could cling onto. Water my Viridi plants and have a shower.
11pm: The charger for my super old laptop (used for bedtime TV) is on its last legs. Find one on eBay and purchase for £9.79. Do my face, brush teeth, realise I haven’t mentioned brushing teeth at all in this diary. I brush twice daily for anyone wondering.
11.45pm: Put on The Bad Broadcast podcast while doing dishes, cleaning surfaces, putting laptops away etc. Snack on rice cakes and nuts while doing so. Prep usual bedtime yoghurt and fruit.
11.59pm: Damnit, forgot hot water bottle, go back down for it. Fall asleep watching Parks & Rec.
Total: £9.79
11am: Wake up, make my bed, throw on stripey Primark elf leggings that are technically pyjamas and make for excellent loungewear, plus an old Gap T-shirt and a soft hoodie from Uniqlo.
11.45am: Pop a baguette in the oven to eat with jam and usual coffee (guess where). At 12pm I have a Zoom with my doctor to discuss some alternative treatment I’ve been trying for the past six months. He’s helpful and I feel better afterwards.
1.20pm: Earn 34p from Google Rewards for confirming what I do and don’t search for on Google. I started answering their questions years ago. In general it pays one out of two months’ worth of my £9.99/month Google Play.
3pm: Do some stretching and strength work on my mat then head into town. Browse some beauty stores but don’t buy anything. Head to the farmers’ market and buy fresh veg for £4 and freshly ground coffee beans for £3.75. Collect meds from the pharmacy and buy toothpaste from Boots using points on my card, £7.75.
4.20pm: Have a late lunch while messaging friends and browsing random crap. Start freelance work and stop…dunno, when it’s dark.
7pm: Eat tortelloni while browsing old family photos. Later I lie on my yoga mat and listen to music. I bought a piece-of-crap yoga mat on Amazon in 2020. It’s almost as comfortable as my bed.
9.12pm: Realise I forgot to call my bank about something. Spend 30 minutes on hold – does anyone else put the recording on speaker but fail to accomplish other tasks because the voice is so intrusive? Maybe it’s also the angst of ‘perhaps they’ll answer now’.
11.55pm: Shower with something or other minty. Put on fresh pyjamas. Usual bed snack and hot water bottle with more Desperate Housewives.
Total: £15.50
9.08am: Screaming kids wake me up. Roll back to sleep.
10.15am: Not being 18 anymore wakes me up.
10.20am: While prepping breakfast, my job drama friend calls (with more drama). She comes by around 11.30am for an emergency advice session and revamp of her CV. We snack on cheese and crackers at various points.
2.15pm: I hit an old part of town and take photos while admiring quirky coffee shops and pretending I’m Instagram in 2017. It’s a busy Sunday and all the fancy women are in their Lululemon. I am in M&S thermal leggings purchased five years ago and I’m A-OK with that.
2.55pm: I stop at Tesco for milk and cling film, £2.80. On the way home I eat two granola bars. I always carry some in my bag.
3pm: Freelance work until around 6pm, then chat with my dad on Google Hangouts. He’s getting on. Seeing his face always melts my heart, I wish we were physically in the same room. After the call I browse handmade leather bookmarks and desk accessories for his birthday next month. I bookmark two items from a local, independent business.
7.10pm: I make pasta with pesto and parmesan, then clean all my vape gear, change my coils and mix up nicotine with my new e-liquids. I steep Frosted Flakes for when ButterMint is done.
9.55pm: Usual evening routine. An app tracking how much time I spend in each app confirms I average 9 minutes per day on TikTok. Feel quite good, given that the stated average is around 90 minutes. Fall asleep some time after midnight.
Total: £2.80
Food & Drink: £142.86
Entertainment: £0
Clothes & Beauty: £0
Home & Health: £24.94
Travel: £0
Other: £6.99
Total: £174.79
Conclusion
“I’d say this week was pretty average. I tend to spend little on day-to-day living but when something comes along (big Amazon purchase or one-off payment), it comes along. This diary made me realise how much of my expenditure is either monthly or annual. In the future I hope to spend a little more on treating myself. I’d also like to reduce my dependency on Jeff Bezos (if only the handmade leather goods lady sold chargers and mega boxes of miso soup).”
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