This week, in partnership with NatWest Buy Now Pay Later, we’re with a content designer based in London.
NatWest Buy Now Pay Later can be used online and in store almost anywhere Mastercard is accepted (excluding foreign transactions), aimed at helping customers shop safely and responsibly in the moments when it matters. By automatically splitting purchases into four equal monthly repayments at 0%, it offers customers a smarter way to spread the cost. With clear structured repayments, credit scoring and affordability checks, along with fraud and payment protection, customers will be able plan their purchases with confidence.
NatWest Buy Now Pay Later is a credit product. Subject to a full credit assessment. To apply you must be 18+, earn at least £10k per year, be a UK resident, a NatWest current account holder and must not already have NatWest Buy Now Pay Later. Maximum credit £1,000 and minimum spend £50. Mobile app required and available with compatible iOS and Android devices and a UK mobile number. Late fees apply.
“I’m a 26-year-old content designer living in London with my boyfriend, H. I moved here for work when I was 19 and while my heart still yearns for the North, I do love London and how much there is to do. Due to this, we recently decided to put down roots and buy our first flat. While we are yet to move in properly, I’m super excited to move to a new area, become a more active part of the community and live out my Grand Designs fantasy of renovating our first home.
Work-wise, this year has been turbulent for me. I was made redundant from my previous job that I’d had for many years, which made me realise how much work had accidentally become part of my identity. I’m striving to create a better work/life balance and, as part of this, learn to manage my money better so that I never feel trapped in a job that doesn’t make me happy. I’ve not had much (any) guidance when it comes to finances in my life, and I’ve become accustomed to never checking my banking app and ignoring my situation to flatten my anxiety around money. However, I’m learning that once you force yourself to look at your spending, it’s actually a relief, and it’s okay if you spend more than anticipated one week because it’s your long-term spending habits that matter.”
Occupation: Content designer in the NHS
Industry: Healthcare
Age: 26
Location: London
Salary: £38,760
Paycheque amount: £2,300
Number of housemates: One: my boyfriend, H.
Pronouns: She/her
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: £435 on my half of the mortgage (£870 total).
Loan payments: None. This is my first year being debt-free since I turned 18.
Savings? £4,986 in a stocks and shares ISA (which has consistently gone down in value but it’s a long game, I’m told), £6,500 in an easy access savers account and £750 in a NatWest regular savings account where I round up my everyday spending.
Pension? I contribute 9.3% and I think the NHS pays 20.6% into it now? It’s a great benefit.
Utilities: £235 for my share of the bills. I’m currently living between two places while renovating the flat so our bills are double and come out of our joint account. This works out as £250 for electricity and £30 for internet where we currently live, and £30 for electricity, £130 council tax and £30 for water at our future home.
All other monthly payments: £30 phone contract. Subscriptions: £9.99 Spotify, £6.50 Netflix.
Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
I didn’t go to university, instead I did an apprenticeship. It paid less than £11,000 a year but it was fully worth doing for the experience. Luckily I was able to live with my mum for most of this but I think the minimum apprentice wage should be higher to attract diverse candidates.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money?
My financial education mostly came from learning what not to do. I never went without but I was always frustrated with my mum’s spending habits: buying me designer school shoes one minute and then buying a bag of potatoes to last us for several meals the next (which I definitely wasn’t complaining about). I can now see this erratic spending was a symptom of my mum growing up poor and to some extent I inherited these habits and am working to change them. After my parents divorced, I shared a bed with my mum for a number of my teenage years and we couldn’t afford some basics like a sofa. I think these experiences made me fiercely independent and prepared me for purchasing a property as a couple (I wanted to do this together but have made a plan if things don’t work out between us.) Also, I learned how to make the best potatoes cooked every way.
If you have, when did you move out of your parents’/guardians’ house?
When I moved to London, aged 19.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself? Does anyone else cover any aspects of your financial life?
I’ve been completely financially independent since I left home. Me and my boyfriend put money into a joint account monthly where we split all shared costs.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
I got a job at a department store the week I turned 16. I needed money to spend on mucking around the Northern Quarter and band badges at Affleck’s Palace. If you’ve ever worked a Boxing Day sale, you’ll know why I quit.
Do you worry about money now?
I constantly worry about spending on something I don’t deserve or need and I’m anxious about the cost of living crisis (especially as I’m on a fixed term contract). Overall though, I’m considerably less anxious about my financial security now after buying the flat. We spend half of what we spent previously on rent and we’re paying towards a mortgage, which has given us some flexibility. We were only able to do this because of luck and good fortune. My biggest money worries at the moment revolve around my mum. I’m an only child and she lives by herself a few hours away, so I feel pressure to find a higher paid job so I can afford to contribute when the time comes. Last winter, she didn’t turn the heating on at all because of the rising costs. The thought of this upcoming winter for people in this country terrifies me.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?
I’ve not personally received anything but for full disclosure, the deposit, legal fees and some other costs associated with the flat came almost entirely from my boyfriend’s inheritance. Although he would get all that money back in the event we split up (we signed a sort of pre-nup), I appreciate I’ve benefited massively from his help and I’m very grateful to him.
7am: Wake up. My job is relatively flexible so I can sometimes work from the new flat so I can let in various tradespeople and oversee the works. Today we are having a quote for some gas and plumbing work that we need doing.
7.30am: Head to the new flat on the Tube, £5.50. We bought a Victorian ground-floor maisonette with great potential a month ago (which is code for a run-down old flat with its own front door). We’re gutting and renovating it so it’s not currently liveable. In the meantime, we are staying in a flat my boyfriend H’s family member owns on the other side of London. They put it on the market a few months back and are kindly letting us stay there until they find a buyer so it’s not sitting empty. I often conjure up ideas of Home Alone-style booby traps to put off potential buyers to give us a bit longer, before reminding myself that we are very lucky we can do this at all (we just pay our own bills).
1pm: The best thing about our new area by far is the corner shop. In less than 30 seconds I can be in an oasis of every type of foreign Fanta, assortments of baklava and Lays crisps. The lovely shopkeeper jokes that my total comes to hundreds every time and I chuckle to myself at the silliness. I walk out and head back to work clutching my flaming hot Monster Munch and black grape KA, £1.59.
3pm: The contractor arrives for the quote and he’s extremely knowledgeable and helpful. Our new neighbourhood is just the best and there’s a great community Facebook page that has recommendations for everything you need. He tells me that he will send the quote in the next few days. We’re trying our best to do as much of the work on the flat as possible ourselves as we both enjoy DIY, but aren’t quite willing to risk death by doing gas, plumbing and electrics.
3.30pm: I go back to work in my garden office (by that I mean balancing my laptop on a garden chair between piles of rubble and broken tiles).
6.30pm: Head home on the Tube, £3.65.
10pm: I’ve always had trouble with sleeping, it’s not been so bad the last few months but has come back recently. I’m currently in a vicious cycle of getting migraines, not being able to sleep, which causes more migraines, meaning I’m too tired to sleep and so on. I sort of crash in a semi-conscious state while catching up on Coronation Street before my workaholic boyfriend comes home at midnight and pulls me in to bed.
Total: £10.74
7am: Today H is joining me at the new flat. Our electrician is coming round to do a first fix in our bathroom, which involves getting the messy drilling out of the way so we can replaster and put in new floors.
7.30am: Hop on the Tube, £5.50.
8.30am: Our upstairs neighbour is leaving for the day so we have a quick chat, let the electrician in and head for a coffee and almond croissant at a local place we haven’t tried yet, £5.50. Our neighbour is retired and also a printmaker working in the same building as the coffee shop so I pop my head in and say hello. He has my dream life.
9am: Log on to work.
11am: Lighting is my ‘thing’ for a few reasons. It’s a luxury for me to be able to decide on permanent features in my home, instead of being fined by landlords for just hanging a picture, but most importantly, lighting really impacts my mood. I love bright, airy rooms for working from home and then cosy, soft lighting for when I’m feeling anxious or have friends round. After much searching I find The One: this brass and glass chandelier shard light from Pooky. It’s going to be front and centre of our new kitchen (the room we spend the most time in) so I want it to be something special. We’re trying to manage our cash flow the best we can to pay tradespeople, so I recently applied for NatWest Buy Now Pay Later* so I don’t overstretch myself if there’s an emergency. I’ve got a renovations budget spreadsheet so this will be added to there as a monthly expense so I can keep track of my outgoings. In the words of William Morris: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” I take the plunge and order the shard light from Pooky, £455. (Ed. note: The aim of NatWest Buy Now Pay Later is to help customers shop responsibly by automatically splitting purchases into four equal monthly repayments at 0% (late fees apply). The service also includes credit scoring, affordability checks and fraud and payment protection to keep purchases secure both online and in store.)
2pm: We head to our local high street for a walk and get caught in surprise flash floods 20 minutes from home! We try to fight it at first before realising there’s no point, so lean into it and get completely drenched.
2.30pm: H has a change of clothes for himself and luckily he also has an extra T-shirt that I wear as a dress along with his size 12 Birkenstocks. I spend the rest of the afternoon waddling around the flat like an overgrown toddler, hiding from neighbours in our curtain-less home.
3pm: My Teams meeting is cancelled and I express my relief on the group chat.
9pm: After finishing my day job and a couple of hours of wallpaper stripping, I put on my soaking clothes and squelch back to the Tube. The squelch is so loud I keep stopping to check it’s actually me making that noise. It is. I sit at the end of the Tube to prevent people seeing me and ending up on some sort of viral meme. £3.65 for the Tube.
10pm: I just want some vegetables but we have nothing in so we decide to order an Indian. I tear up in tiredness and guilt about the unnecessary expense of ordering a takeaway and not eating anything nutritious in what feels like a hundred years but I try and tell myself that I’m juggling a lot at the moment and I just have to do what it takes to keep going. Isn’t that what multivitamins are for? We order samosa papdi chaat, dal makhni, jhodpuri aloo, bindi kaljoni, nawabi vegetable kurma, popadoms and sundries, two garlic naans and chicken biryani so we’ll have enough for leftovers, £27.80 for my half.
10.30pm: The food arrives and we rest while watching Never Have I Ever. H falls asleep as soon as he’s eaten. I wake him up after an hour, tidy up and put a delayed wash on to be ready for the morning to make a dent in our rising washing pile (the flat is completely soundproof so I’m not being an annoying neighbour).
12am: Sleep.
Total: £497.45
*NatWest Buy Now Pay Later is a credit product. Subject to a full credit assessment. To apply you must be 18+, earn at least £10k per year, be a UK resident, a NatWest current account holder and must not already have NatWest Buy Now Pay Later. Maximum credit £1,000 and minimum spend £50. Mobile app required and available with compatible iOS and Android devices and a UK mobile number. Late fees apply.
7.30am: I wake up later this morning as we’re staying put today.
8am: Sip my coffee in bed while doom-scrolling. My skincare routine has fallen by the wayside but I eventually make myself get up to wash my hair, cleanse with Elemis, put in my contacts and apply some CeraVe moisturiser with SPF.
8.45am: I actually remember that I put a wash on last night, wow me! Hang it up and log on for the day.
11.30am: I get an email from the owner of the pad Thai stall at the local market to say he’s brought some bottles for their sauce if I want them. The answer is always YES. They make the best pad Thai in London and while I do get it often, I prefer to get the sauce and do it myself so I can put triple the tofu and veg in for a super quick tea.
12pm: Work is relatively slow at the moment, I think because a lot of people are on holiday and I’m thankful for this small mercy.
2.30pm: Pop to the market before they pack up for the day and the woman working there asks if I want a fresh orange juice for £2.50. This isn’t on general sale so I’m a bit confused but sure, why not? I also get three bottles of the sauce. I put this all on the joint card, working out to £6.95 for my share.
2.45pm: I head to the Asian supermarket and buy the other stuff I’ll need for the dinner: (tofu puffs and rice noodles) and other stuff I don’t need (almond Pepero sticks and potstickers). I put it all on the joint card even though the potstickers are for me, £9.60 my share.
3.15pm: I get home and cook a few potstickers with a soy/chinkiang vinegar/chilli oil dip. Drink the orange juice, which is surprisingly delicious.
6pm: I head to Tesco for wine and fabric softener: the ultimate grown-up combination. I put this on my card as the wine is for me, £9.50.
7pm: H asks if I want to go to the pub for a quick drink. I don’t but I really need to get out as otherwise I will get really down and the pub is an incentive. We get four halves in total and a packet of pickled onion Taytos, £6.80 for my share.
8.30pm: Round up our evening of health and purity by eating the leftover Indian, which is a more exciting event than the first round of Indian.
10pm: Hang up the washing and do practically nothing before heading to bed around 11.30pm.
Total: £32.85
10am: It’s finally Saturday! H nips out to get some juice and an overpriced sourdough to eat. He puts this on the joint card and it comes to £3 for my share.
11am: We watch an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under (the worst in the franchise?) and eat. I’m enforcing a day away from renovations or renovation talk today as we are totally burnt out.
12pm: We have a book called Hidden London Walks that we used through the pandemic and we want to carry on and do all three volumes. We decide on an Islington walk today and take a detour on the way to buy some work shirts for H.
2pm: We only manage half of the walk as it’s a longer one and unlike other walks we have done, this doesn’t include so much about the history of the area so it ends up being a few hours looking through the windows of multimillion-pound properties.
3pm: It’s a beautiful afternoon so we get a great outdoor table at a fancy pub and get half a pint for me and half a lemonade for H. This comes to a shocking £7.20 so we stretch the drink out, finish a bit more of the walk and head home. £3.60 for my share.
7pm: We pass a Latin American shop and get carried away wanting to buy everything. We pick up some blue corn tortillas and habanero hot sauce and decide to come back another day to stock up on more yummy things. My share comes to £2.30.
8pm: I really don’t want to go home yet as I am sick of slumping in front of the TV every evening so we decide to go out for dinner. I feel a bit concerned about how much I’m spending on food at the minute so we opt for a cheap ramen spot, which turns out to be the best ramen I’ve had in London (vegetarian ramen usually tastes like soy sauce and water). The bill comes to £8.50 for my share.
10pm: We get back home and slump in front of the TV (this time with an Aperol Spritz). We’re currently watching Extraordinary Attorney Woo, which has the most stunning interiors. It also has subtitles, which means I have to put my phone down. I can feel my brain thanking me for the rest from repetitively scrolling.
12am: The main character in the programme loves whales so we make Alexa play some whale noises as we drift off to sleep and it’s surprisingly relaxing.
Total: £17.40
8am: Wake up.
9am: We need to pick up some tools today that we hired to break up some flooring (this was paid a while back) and I realise we forgot to renew our car insurance. We cancelled the auto renewal a few weeks ago with the intention of finding a better deal and promptly forgot, eek! I spend a couple of hours searching comparison sites and realise we’re looking at £100 extra this year. I’m not sure how much this is to do with the algorithms knowing we’re forgetful, or just inflation. Thankfully, we have been putting money away for planned expenses like this so we have almost enough money in our car pot to pay upfront (we have different pots for each known expense) so the hit isn’t as bad as it could be. We consider paying monthly but it means an extra £80 over the year so decide against it, £290 for my half.
12pm: We head out to the tool hire shop to collect the breaker. I stay in the car to avoid feeling intimidated by the men who seem to loiter there.
1pm: One of our tasks today is removing the kitchen tiles. I end up trying a few methods including angling crowbars of different sizes, scoring the top of the tiles, whacking aimlessly, but nothing seems to work. I eventually try a new tactic and imagine a guy who really hurt me when I was younger as I bring the hammer up. Somehow this blow does the trick and I power through the rest of the room!
2pm: At some point we go to the shop and get two cans of orange Lucozade, a bottle of water and two overly sweet Starbucks iced coffees, £2.40 for my half.
8pm: We set a goal this week to do some batch cooking and sadly for me, H insists we stick to it. Loosely based on an Ottolenghi recipe, we make a vat of caponata. We already have most ingredients: olives, capers, aubergine, pine nuts, lemon, parsley, onion, pepper, garlic, tinned tomatoes, sultanas, sherry and spices.
8.30pm: We let the food cook away while eating the last of some frijoles negros I made last week. H nips out to buy two avocados and some baby tomatoes to make guacamole. He also buys a pack of millionaire Magnums, £3.20 for my share.
10.30pm: I fry some cubes of potato with tons of spices and MSG, along with the tortillas and hot sauce to go with our sofa dinner. We watch George Clarke’s Old House, New Home for inspiration because we are complete home bores. We criticise everyone for doing everything wrong because we now think we’re the experts.
12am: Get the dishwasher going and leave the rest of the mess for the morning.
12.15am: Sleep.
Total: £295.60
8am: Wake up to coffee and get myself ready.
8.30am: Say bye to H and portion up the caponata from yesterday. I manage to get seven double portions and label them for the freezer. I admit defeat and agree that it was worth all the effort and plan to make some more dishes this week so I can add to the freezer rotation. We are a slave to our Instant Pot and use The Vegan Instant Pot by Nisha Vora as the basis for a lot of dishes.
2pm: The day goes by very slowly as most of the meetings I have get cancelled. I make myself a few potstickers over lunch and browse eBay for more home stuff. I see a brand new ceramic kitchen sink on Facebook Marketplace that the seller wants £100 for (it has an RRP on John Lewis of £275) so I message the seller with a low-ball offer of £70 and he accepts! I’ll pick it up in a couple of days. There’s so many people selling totally unused home appliances so I vow to source as much as possible secondhand.
5pm: Suddenly I have a bit of an afternoon low, which I think is partly because I’ve really distanced myself from my friends, due to stress. I work myself up to texting a couple of people I’ve been terrible at maintaining contact with and apologise profusely for my ignorance.
7pm: After work I spend an hour looking at baby stuff for one of my dear friends who I hadn’t replied to in some time. I didn’t want to burden her with my problems when she has just given birth to a whole child but I should’ve let her know I was okay. I realise while researching that people are probably buying stuff for her beautiful baby all the time so I decide to look at local things I can do with her when I can visit next. I want to make sure she knows how important she is to me, even when I’m not being the best friend I can be for her.
8pm: I spend most of the evening sending emails to tradespeople for quotes. When H comes home he senses I’m down and offers to make us a piña colada and puts on a Sister Sledge record.
9pm: We make the pad Thai from the stuff I had earlier in the week and decide it’s the best one yet, which we say every time.
10pm: Potter around listening to podcasts and tidying bits up.
11pm: Sleep.
Total: £70
6am: Wake up.
6.15am: The most life-changing part of renovating a property is how much time you save when you have no reason to wear makeup or stress over picking an outfit (everything is covered in dust or paint anyway so who cares).
6.30am: H kindly makes me a coffee to go and I set off in the car so I can transport some things we need. I leave super early to beat rush-hour traffic.
7.30am: I start work earlier to make up for being distracted by the work around me. I wouldn’t usually be at the new place in the week this much but the electrician says he prefers his clients to be around in case he has any questions.
10am: While he’s doing some of the super loud drilling through our concrete floor, I take my laptop to the coffee shop so I can focus more on work. I order an iced latte, which is somehow much more than a regular latte? I might as well bring my own bag of ice next time, £3.75.
2pm: I head back to the flat and it turns out there’s been a small disaster – the electrician has drilled through next door’s stairs! Our neighbour is very chilled about it (much more than I would be) and I promise to make it good again. I’m slightly miffed the electrician didn’t offer to do this himself as I really don’t have the time. I make a note to buy the neighbour a bottle of wine by way of apology. When George Clarke said everything costs double and takes twice as long as planned, I stubbornly believed we’d be the exception.
3pm: I head to the corner shop to get a mango iced tea, £1.25. When I get back I carry on working in the garden and my neighbour passes me some tomatoes from his garden, which makes me feel like an Enid Blyton character. I’d like to say I will repay him the favour once we sort out the garden but who am I kidding.
6pm: I finish work and head home. The fuel tank had been beeping at me on the way here so I go to fill it up but I panic just before pulling into the cheap petrol station because it has a tiny forecourt and I don’t want to embarrass myself. The next one I pass is 15p more a litre so I just put £20 in for now. I do this every time, I don’t know why I have a fear of this particular station. £10 for my share of the petrol.
7pm: I park up at home and walk over to the shops to get some razor heads and some washing powder, £16.
7.15pm: I get home and the Pooky light has arrived! I make H open it up for me (I would inevitably break it immediately if it were left to me) and do a celebratory dance at how beautiful it is. The chain is about 6ft long so I need to work out how to shorten it. I will ask the electrician for advice. I can really visualise the room now. For a small flat, it’s completely over the top, which makes me love it more.
8pm: We go to the Asian store to pick up some frozen noodles and some pak choi to make Wuhan hot dry noodles, £2.88 for my half.
8.30pm: We throw together a Reddit recipe using sesame paste, peanuts, chilli oil, lu shui we made months ago, soy sauce, vinegar, MSG, garlic, spring onions, five spice and sichuan pepper. We put on some records while we cook and eat watching TV.
10pm: H makes us a ginger mojito and I spend the rest of the evening obsessing over more home stuff while he updates our renovation budget spreadsheet.
Total: £33.88
Food & Drink: £98.62
Entertainment: £0
Clothes & Beauty: £0
Home & Health: £541
Travel: £28.30
Other: £290
Total: £957.92
Conclusion
“This was clearly an unusual week with some big expenses but most of these were budgeted for using the pots in our joint account and the NatWest Buy Now Pay Later* card. Our weakness is spending too much on food and drink but we don’t currently have a decent big supermarket near us so we often have to rely on the smaller local branches, which are often more expensive. Hopefully this will change when we move and we can easily get to an Aldi. We’ve been spending lots on renovations but we do have a spreadsheet for this so we don’t go over budget. Usually, we buy more bits and bobs to do things ourselves but with the electrician being here this week, we couldn’t be as hands-on as we normally are. At the moment I’m finding it very difficult to strike a balance between being sensible with my money and the life-is-too-short mentality. However, my current mantra is ‘I’m just going to try my best’ as really that’s all we can do.”
Click here to find out more about NatWest Buy Now Pay Later.
*NatWest Buy Now Pay Later is a credit product. Subject to a full credit assessment. To apply you must be 18+, earn at least £10k per year, be a UK resident, a NatWest current account holder and must not already have NatWest Buy Now Pay Later. Maximum credit £1,000 and minimum spend £50. Mobile app required and available with compatible iOS and Android devices and a UK mobile number. Late fees apply.
All information within this article is produced by Refinery29. Please note that the views have not been endorsed, issued or approved by NatWest. Any views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of NatWest.
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