This week: “I’m a 31-year-old territory manager living in Aberdeen. I’ve recently moved back to the area as my husband and I bought our first home seven weeks ago. I only just started my new job and it means me being out all day, visiting different sites. It has been a busy time for me but I’m so happy we finally have our own home as a few years ago it felt like it would never happen. Due to mental illness and covering all expenses for a period of time when my husband was unemployed, I ended up in a very large amount of debt. At its worst it was £18,000. I buried my head in the sand for quite some time and felt a lot of shame over how bad the situation was. Luckily, my husband was very supportive and we tackled the problem together and although we are not entirely debt-free, I can see the end of the tunnel. The result is that I try to be conscious of what I’m spending and I attempt to avoid impulse-buying. My husband’s salary is much higher than mine so we keep the same amount of money from our paycheques for ourselves and then the rest goes into the joint account, which covers all of our joint expenses including food shops and activities. Whatever is left goes into joint savings. My contribution works out at 37% so that is what I’ve made my share of everything joint in this diary.”
Occupation: Territory manager
Industry: Retail merchandising
Age: 31
Location: Aberdeen
Salary: £23,500 + company car + £68pm lunch allowance + up to 10% bonus (biannually).
Paycheque amount: I’m not 100% sure yet as I’ve not received my first paycheque but I’m thinking it will be £1,500.
Number of housemates: Two: my husband (J) and my cat (C).
Pronouns: She/her
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: £438.41 for my share of the mortgage.
Loan payments: No loans but I have £2,880 on an interest-free credit card that I pay £200 on a month. Once it is gone, I’ll be debt-free.
Savings? £3,110 in joint savings account and £1,370 in my Plum account.
Pension? I have three different workplace pensions. I know two of them are in the same place but I don’t know about the third. I’ve always just done the minimum contribution but once my pension in my new job starts, I’m going to increase it and start taking saving for retirement seriously.
Utilities: For my share it’s £53.28 gas and electricity, £14.06 internet. We haven’t had a council tax bill yet but we’ve been putting aside £200 to cover it.
All other monthly payments: £10 SIM only plan, £10 phone insurance, £21 contacts, £21.99 gym, £32.89 car insurance. For my share it’s £75.83 for the car and £49.76 for building, contents and pet insurance. Subscriptions: £31.52 for my share of Netflix, Prime, Disney+, Spotify, Now Sports and Now Entertainment.
Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
I have a university degree in sociology. I lived at home so I didn’t take out any student loans and the fees were paid by the Scottish government.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money?
My mum always taught us to save our money but that was about it.
If you have, when did you move out of your parents’/guardians’ house?
I moved out at 23.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself? Does anyone else cover any aspects of your financial life?
I’d say once I moved out at 23. However, I was fortunate to have my dad give me £50pm for a little bit while my husband was unemployed.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
Babysitting. My mum was a childminder so I got most of my babysitting jobs through her.
Do you worry about money now?
Not as much now. It was a huge worry for me when my debt was at its highest and I was incredibly stressed out all the time. It is better now.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?
£500 when my granny passed away.
4.30am: Get a nice early wakeup call from the cat, C, wanting to go outside. We stand at the door for a couple of minutes for him to decide that he doesn’t actually want to go out in the rain. Sometimes being a cat mum is hard.
5.30am: Give up trying to get back to sleep and scroll Instagram. My husband, J, leaves for work and I get a kiss goodbye.
6.15am: Get up, washed, dressed, skincare (cleanse, serum, moisturiser, SPF). Gather all my work stuff together. Hop in the car and blast some throwback clubbing tunes — it’s Friday!
7.25am: Arrive at my first site and log in for the day. This is the end of my second week at the job and I’ve been plagued with IT issues. Some of them seem to be fixed now. Happy days.
11.10am: At my second site and all my IT issues now seem to be fixed. Head to the café to input some activities and displays. A cup of tea and lemon muffin are required, £2.58.
11.50am: Heading home for an afternoon of Teams calls. Stop in Aldi for some bits for my friend, R, who is coming round for tea and cocktails. Get pancetta, grana padano, a bottle of Asti, Maltesers cake bars, lemons and a EuroMillions ticket for tonight (fingers crossed), £23.10. On my way out I realise I’ve forgotten ice and spaghetti but I don’t have time to go back.
2.15pm: First meeting over but not everything was covered so another is scheduled for Tuesday. Have time to stick a wash on and grab a snack of a Babybel and grapes before the next Teams call. This call is a national meeting so I mute and turn my camera off and put the cricket on in the background. A lot of the meeting is about how well the past year has gone so I don’t pay close attention… I may or may not doze off at some point.
4.15pm: The call is over so I log off for the day. I quickly get changed and head to Aldi for the forgotten ice and spaghetti. I also pick up another bottle of Asti and get some full fat Coke as I might need it tomorrow morning, £12.72.
5.45pm: Sip limoncello spritzes with R and start cooking carbonara. We catch up about what’s been going on in our lives. J joins us later after he has been to the gym.
9.30pm: R books a taxi home. J hops on the PlayStation and I think about cleaning the kitchen but decide to make it tomorrow’s problem. Head upstairs and do my skincare routine, brush teeth and go to bed. I fall asleep straightaway so I don’t hear J come to bed.
Total: £38.40
6am: We both forget to turn our alarms off. Lie in bed and scroll through my emails and delete a whole bunch.
6.30am: J gets up. I hear him starting to clean the kitchen so I decide I’d better help. Grab a load of washing on my way down.
7.15am: Somehow me helping J turned into me cleaning the whole kitchen while he’s in the toilet. He kindly turns on the dishwasher. Enjoy a well-earned cup of tea and watch some TV as J goes for a walk.
8am: J gets back and we discuss getting a new shoe rack. Do a quick Google search and find one we like at Argos so I order it for click and collect. Use the joint account, it comes to £27.75 for my share.
10am: Finally get washed and dressed. We then head to Argos to collect the shoe rack. Once home and unboxed, we find a broken part. J gets annoyed while I email for spare parts.
11.15am: I’m hungry and have a nail and eyebrow appointment at lunchtime so I season a chicken breast and pop it in the air fryer and stick some tattie slices in the oven. Once cooked, I cover the tattie slices in Nando’s chilli jam and Perinaise. Epic combo!
12.15pm: Walk to my appointment and pray the rain stays off. Nails and eyebrow wax, £30.
2.30pm: Head to the cinema to see No Hard Feelings. We bought the tickets online with a gift card a few days ago. When we get there we get two drinks, popcorn and sweeties using the rest of the gift card money.
5.30pm: Get home and I’m not hungry so J orders himself a Chinese and we watch the rest of the cricket. Then we watch Harry Potter and I do some cross-stitching.
9.45pm: We are both super tired so we head up to bed.
Total: £57.75
6am: Our alarms go off. This is intentional today as our plan is to get up and head to the gym. We both decide we can’t be bothered.
7am: Get up, strip the bedding and get it in the wash. Think J is doing the dishes from last night but no — he sticks a couple of plates in the dishwasher and wanders off. Do the dishes and give the kitchen a sweep. Have a cup of tea.
8am: Get washed, do skincare and get dressed. J hangs out the washing and we head off to do our weekly shop. First stop is Asda for Coke Zero, a nacho kit, tinned beans and spaghetti, £6.75 for my share.
8.50am: Aldi and Home Bargains aren’t open yet so we go into McDonald’s. I get two hash browns and a small drink, £3.11.
9am: Aldi is open so we get the majority of our shop, £26.89.
9.30am: We then pop to Home Bargains for cat treats, toilet roll and cleaning products, £7.68.
10am: Home and shopping away. J goes out to cut the grass and I clean the en suite while listening to La Belle Sauvage on Audible.
11.30am: J eats his leftovers and I munch on the prawn crackers. Then we crack on with some DIY jobs. I supervise while J makes a mess.
1.30pm: Feel hungry so cut up some baguette and have it with aioli. We sit down to watch the F1 and C curls up in my lap. Once the race is over we switch to the cricket.
4.30pm: Pack up the cardboard and grass cuttings and head to the recycling centre. We’re the only people there so the staff help take the stuff out the car and we have a wee chat with them.
6pm: Sunday nights we always make our own teas. I have Heinz tinned spaghetti with two slices of toast that I spread with butter and garlic granules.
6.30pm: Remember that I’ve not planned my routes for Tuesday onwards so get on with that. Give myself a headache trying to work it out and have a rant to J about it.
8pm: Feel bad I didn’t go to the gym this morning so I go now. Once I arrive, I realise my headphones are out of battery. Do tricep dips, walking lunges and planks. Can’t be bothered doing any more so head home for a shower and to wash my hair.
9.45pm: Climb into bed. Have cuddles and kisses with J.
11pm: Off to sleep.
Total: £44.43
5am: Wake up to J’s alarm but luckily get back to sleep.
6am: My alarm goes off. Get up, do skincare routine and get dressed. Head downstairs and pack my lunch. Clean up after myself, do the dishes, sweep the floor and empty the cat litter. Make sure I have everything for work and head out the door.
7.20am: Log in for the day and it seems all my IT issues have now been fixed. Hallelujah.
9.30am: Feel sleepy and have a long drive ahead of me so I buy a Red Bull, £1.50. See that Plum has sent me a notification of what it’ll save me this week. I much preferred the old Plum that took small amounts every few days but I still love how easy it has made it to save. In the time I’ve had Plum, it has saved me over £7,000. I mostly used it for paying off chunks of debt but it’s money I probably would have just spent otherwise.
10.40am: That drive felt like it took forever.
11.50am: I’m struggling to find things to do in this site so I head to the café and do some online training. Get a cup of tea and am tempted by the lemon muffin, £4.50.
12.30pm: Park at my next site and have my lunch break. Only eat my sandwich as I’m full from the muffin. It’s chucking it down so I’m feeling a little miserable.
1.15pm: Fitbit tells me I’ve hit my step goal. I think I’m going to increase the goal as I’m reaching it pretty easily when working.
4pm: Log off for the day and call J to say that’s me on my way home. Feel a little peckish so eat some Mini Cheddars before I start the drive.
5.45pm: J cooks nachos for tea and I clean up after. We then head to B&Q as he needs some screws. We also get wheelie bin stickers and a knee pad for when I’m gardening, £12.33.
8pm: Realise I’ve been mindlessly scrolling TikTok so do some cross-stitching instead.
10pm: Skincare, brush teeth, get into bed and I’m out like a light.
Total: £18.33
6am: Alarm goes off and I hit snooze.
6.20am: Wake up in a panic. I must have hit dismiss instead of snooze. Rush about to get ready. I don’t have time to make a proper lunch so chuck random bits into my lunchbox.
7.25am: Get to my first site later than intended. Have a Teams meeting at 8.30am so try to get as much done as I can before then.
8.30am: Sat in the car on Teams. Apparently this 30-minute call shouldn’t last much longer than an hour. I can just see my colleague R’s face and I know he’s about to put a sarky message in our chat. My phone pings and there it is. It’s only the start of week three but I’m getting to learn some people’s personalities.
9.25am: Call is over but apparently there is a 30-minute video that we need to watch…
10am: Have a longish drive ahead so I nip back into the site to use the toilet and grab a meal deal, £3.40.
10.50am: Arrive at the next site. It takes me longer to get here than I’m meant to spend here…madness. Confirm C’s grooming appointment and head on in.
4.15pm: My afternoon just flew by. Log off for the day and call J to say I’m on my way home and to get C in his carrier, ready for me to take him to the groomer’s.
4.30pm: Get home to find J unable to get C in his carrier. I do it and J marvels at how easy I make it look. I just hope this doesn’t make us late.
5.20pm: C is groomed and did really well for his first time. Use the joint account, £14.80 for my share.
6pm: J puts on pizza, garlic bread and salad for tea while I put a wash on. Afterwards J plays PlayStation and I do my cross-stitch.
9.30pm: Get ready for bed.
Total: £18.20
6.30am: Alarm goes off and I get up and ready for the day.
7.15am: I start my day and watch yesterday’s video. While it’s on I hang up the washing I forgot about last night and put another wash on. J is WFH today so I tell him to hang it up once it’s done. I then head to my first site of the day, which is just 10 minutes from my house.
1.15pm: Second site finished. It’s hot and I’ve drunk my whole water bottle already so I buy a bottle of fizzy juice and some salt and vinegar crisps, £2. Eat my lunch in the car and read some of my book.
1.45pm: Third and final site of the day.
3.30pm: Finish a little early but I can’t finish my day until 4pm so I sit in the car and do some more online training. I also start planning my routes for next week.
5.20pm: Get home and instantly trip over the footstool in the living room. Feel something crack and land crying with the pain.
7pm: Call 111 and get an appointment at the minor injuries unit at 9am tomorrow. I then call my mum to see if she can take me to A&E tomorrow as J doesn’t drive and I doubt I can drive myself. I keep my foot elevated with an ice pack and J orders pizza for tea from our favourite place and gets me chocolate cake to make me feel better, £12.95.
9.20pm: Head to bed. Getting there involves some undignified crawling up the stairs. C looks at me weird and J has a laugh about it.
Total: £14.95
5am: Wake up and can’t get back to sleep so I scroll Instagram and Facebook. My foot is still sore but I don’t think it is broken. I’ll still get it checked.
7am: Phone in sick to work (pretty embarrassing to have to do this only three weeks in) and then have a quick shower. Mum arrives super early so I quickly get dressed and we have a cup of tea and catch up.
9am: God, A&E waiting room chairs are so uncomfy. My bum is falling asleep and it’s only been ten minutes.
10am: The X-ray comes back clear so there’s no broken foot to deal with. I just have to rest for a few days so I call in sick to work for tomorrow as well. I then camp out on the sofa with my foot up and an ice pack while watching The Rookie: Feds.
1pm: J is WFH today so he has been checking on me regularly. He grabs me a glass of diluting juice before he leaves for a walk.
3pm: Still on the sofa and still watching TV but I’ve started also doing my cross-stitching. C has curled up on my lap.
6pm: Neither of us is hungry so J plays PlayStation and I continue to cross-stitch. I put my headphones in and continue listening to La Belle Sauvage.
8pm: I feel peckish so eat a Babybel and some mini chicken skewers. We continue watching The Witcher.
10.30pm: Do my skincare routine, brush my teeth and get into bed. I switch my alarm off as I know I’m not going to work. Normally I’d jump for joy at a long weekend but not on this occasion.
Total: £0
Food & Drink: £99.50
Clothes & Beauty: £30
Home & Health: £47.76
Entertainment: £0
Travel: £0
Other: £14.80
Total: £192.06
Conclusion
“I feel like it was a fairly typical week in terms of the amount I spent. I’m not surprised that the majority of my spending was on food. Obviously there were expenses in there that don’t come up every week, like the cat getting groomed, but I didn’t buy any clothes or put petrol in the car so it’s all swings and roundabouts. I’ve really enjoyed keeping the diary, not just for tracking my spending but also for seeing how I spend my free time. I definitely need to cut down on Instagram. The only change I’m going to make is making my lunch the night before so if I sleep in, I won’t have to rely on meal deals.”
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