This week: “I’m a 30-year-old interdisciplinary researcher and communicator. I fought through higher education and received my PhD three years ago. I have a complicated, portfolio career crossing multiple research intersections but I’m proud of myself for forging such a unique niche. I have an equally complicated health situation with a veritable alphabet soup of diagnoses, which impacts my ability to work. I have a genetic disease that causes chronic joint instability/dislocations and pain, alongside a heart and nervous system disorder. I am neurodiverse and currently undergoing specialist NHS treatment for a complex mental health condition. My variable health means I really benefit from a freelance and atypical portfolio career as I can make my time work for me (and frequently work from bed).
I am currently in a less than ideal housing situation due to chronic neglect of our historic flat, meaning I am trying to save to move. My partner, O, and I take a relatively lax approach to splitting expenses but this needs to change as we’re quite bad with money between us. My Personal Independence Payment (PIP) covers my private physiotherapy and osteopathy, hEDS specialist occupational therapist, pre-prepared food, adaptive equipment, paying my friends for their time if they help me with tasks around the home, keeping my car on the road and ADHD tax (late fees, missed payment fees etc.). I wouldn’t be able to work without it and it helps me maintain a relatively independent lifestyle.”
Occupation: Researcher and science communicator
Industry: Academia and third sector
Age: 30
Location: Scotland
Salary: £28,200-£37,200. This is very dependent on my contracts, including PIP.
Paycheque amount: £1,850-£2,600 plus £501 PIP. PIP is not subject to tax and my monthly income has only ever topped out at the highest end once.
Number of housemates: One: R.
Pronouns: They/she
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: £475 but this is likely to change as I am trying to find a one-bed.
Loan payments: I have £63.40 left to pay on an interest-free credit agreement I took out to purchase a musical instrument, and £1,500 on an interest-free credit card, used for travel expense reimbursement. Academia loves to make people pay upfront and reimburse later, which can be very costly during conference season. I have never had any student loan repayments taken, even though they said they’d start. I put this down to my salary being unpredictable? I am scared to find out.
Pension? According to USS (Universities Superannuation Scheme, the main academic pension provider), I have around £5,000.
Savings? £1,500 stocks, £2,000 for freelance project tax (it is never this much, but just in case), £2,000 emergency fund, £4,500 easy access savings, £1,500 travel fund, £150 car repair fund, £400-odd in a LISA, £8,000 locked away for a deposit on a flat, which I am hoping to buy when I have a permanent job, and £10,000 in additional savings, which my parents are holding onto.
Utilities: I pay £153.20 gas/electric and internet. My flatmate pays council tax (water included, thanks Scotland).
All other monthly payments: £16.50 phone, £104 private physiotherapist/osteotherapist, £75 private occupational therapist, £25 car tax, £2.50 tenants union dues, £5 Landworkers’ Alliance supporter dues, £15.04 renters and contents insurance. Subscriptions: £1.49 Google storage, £1.49 iCloud storage, £25.99 Squarespace, £9.99 Spotify, £9.60 Patreon, £8.99 Audible, £5 Monzo Plus, £2.99 Plum Premium, £2.51 Couchsurfing membership, £16.49 Adobe Creative Cloud.
Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
I participated in higher education so voraciously that it is now my job (nerd). I covered my BSc with maxed out maintenance and tuition loans, and after a year off due to ill health, ended up smacked with £9,000 annual fees. I worked three jobs during my BSc to save money for my MSc tuition and living expenses but I was very privileged to have my rent supplemented by my parents for my MSc year. MSc loans weren’t available for a research master’s but luckily the fees for research were much lower. I received a full stipend (approx. £1,250 p/m) for four years of my PhD, and added to my savings with teaching and freelance opportunities.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money?
Money in my family was often a point of contention, even though we were mostly financially stable. My dad is very financially savvy but frugal to the point of hindrance, constantly using points, loyalty schemes, balance transfers to maximise savings. I was never specifically educated beyond “don’t get in debt, avoid credit cards, buy secondhand”.
If you have, when did you move out of your parents’/guardians’ house?
Aged 19 to go to university. I spent summer holidays there working before moving to Scotland fully when I was 22.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself? Does anyone else cover any aspects of your financial life?
When I got my PhD stipend, aged 23. My dad still insists (to this very day) on sending me £50 a month for a treat. It is always very welcome and often spent on date night with my partner, O. My mum pays £12.50 of my phone contract and does the same for my sister. She won’t stop. We tried.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
The local shop, aged 16. Everyone in my village worked their first job there as a rite of passage. It was also a rite of passage to get fired by the unhinged manager (I lasted four whole months).
Do you worry about money now?
Not day to day but certainly about the future. I am already working close to the maximum income limit of my freelance skillset and the only way to get paid more is to set up a business or consultancy. I worry about this due to the unpredictable nature of my health and my scatterbrained financial management. I am also very concerned about having enough of a cushion to support me if my health gets worse again, though I would be comfortable claiming the Universal Credit health element if I were eligible.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?
Yes. I am incredibly privileged to have £10,000 from my parents (which is for a deposit on a house) and an undisclosed sum from my grandparents after a house sale (split between four). This sum went to my parents and was used to contribute to my savings above and pay my MSc year rent.
8.30am: Wake up next to my partner, O, who dozes through my 9am therapy call. I am currently receiving NHS specialist treatment for a complex mental health condition. We check in by phone once a week in addition to weekly in-person sessions.
9.20am: Take my variety of medications for managing my physical and mental health symptoms. Do my physio and osteopath exercises.
9.30am: It’s payday for my part-time position at a local university. I made the job for myself and it’s rewarding but the funding runs out at the end of December. I begrudgingly transfer rent to my landlord, who is mismanaging our home into the ground.
9.43am: Steve-O is playing a venue up the road tonight. Jackass was a massive part of my (misspent) youth; I nab one of the last tickets, £35.50.
10.50am: I drive O to work and realise I haven’t eaten. I stop for a Greggs vegan sausage roll on the way home before trying to start my conference presentation for next week, £1.20.
12.02pm: Send some different presentation slides to the hiring coordinator for a new (permanent) position I am interviewing for on Monday. I am two minutes late sending them and die inside as I would love this position. I grab a Diet Coke and finally start working on my conference presentation.
12.43pm: I get an email letting me know my Disabled Railcard has expired. I don’t have any upcoming train journeys but make a mental note to renew in the nebulous future.
1.40pm: Have some mini feta and spinach pastries with cucumber and pickled cabbage.
1.53pm: A good friend and old student of mine needs last-minute help with moving. I jump in the car and am rewarded with a huge chocolate bun as payment. I can’t lift, carry or lug — but I can drive!
2.36pm: The nebulous future has arrived sooner than expected as I remember I am indeed getting the train to my interview on Monday. I renew my card, £20.
6.13pm: My eBay auction finishes. I have made £46 selling a pair of shoes that made my toes dislocate. I have a few more pairs I need to list. The perils of being disabled but wanting good trainers — you need to trial them all!
7.30pm: I drive up the road to the show. I park up nearby and use my blue badge. Crowds make me anxious so I prefer an easy escape route if I need to leave. The buses after shows are always rammed and I can get injured.
8.45pm: Five people have fainted so far. I’ll never be able to look at a Shewee in the same way again.
9.36pm: Realise I’ve not got anything for dinner so stop by McDonald’s on the way home and grab a wrap of the day and a Happy Meal, £6.18. Vegetate in front of GeoWizard on YouTube.
10.32pm: Brush my teeth, quick skincare routine (Fresh Soy Face Cleanser, The Ordinary Buffet Serum, Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cream). I then take some drops of CBD oil and a few puffs of my CBD vape.
10.45pm: Read my botanical philosophy book and make notes for a workshop I’m running later this month.
11.12pm: Lights out.
Total: £62.88
1.32am: Painsomnia strikes. I am recovering from shingles (my fifth time). I take a co-codamol and put on a podcast. I consider getting the vaccine, especially as the rash is sitting on my trigeminal and facial nerves, but it’s £400 per dose!
8.51am: Wake up groggy. O calls me from work to wish me a good morning. Text with one of my best friends, K.
10.19am: Make breakfast: Greek yoghurt with a scattering of granola with strawberries, a nectarine, half a banana and squeezy peanut butter. I make an iced oat mocha with my Aeropress and milk frother. Listen to my audiobook and starfish in bed while thinking about interview prep.
10.55am: The coveted Uniqlo crop bra top is back in stock in my size. I have huge boobs for my frame so cross my fingers that it’ll fit, £19.90. I try to avoid fast fashion but cozzie livs ‘n’ all.
12pm: Pick my friend G up for a swim. I top up the car with petrol, £25. We drive an hour to an outdoor pool on the Clyde estuary. I arrive to find a text from my flatmate, R, letting me know the boiler has stopped working and nearly scream as it means more interaction with the landlord.
1pm: G pays the swimming entry fee and we swim laps for an hour while getting rained on. The view is beautiful and the water is far warmer than my usual lochs. Bliss! G very kindly covers our meal afterwards as I paid last time.
4pm: Drop G back home and head to O’s.
5pm: We doze for an hour then head to Lidl to pick up bits for a roast and some supplies for me. O covers the vegetables and I get chicken, gnocchi, filled pasta, tomatoes, granola and cereal, seeds, eggs, yoghurt, oat milk, crème fraîche, salady bits, apples, cucumber, potatoes, nectarines, bananas, chocolate, batteries, tofu, aioli and extra things I do not recall, £31.45.
7pm: Decide I need to make Ravneet Gill’s cookies as a matter of urgency. I struggle with food preparation so I like to take the opportunity when it arises. I sublux (partially dislocate) my wrist stirring the batter. Ice my wrist and switch hands, blame the not-soft-enough butter.
8pm: O heats their leftover KFC and chow mein, I have filled pasta from Lidl with brown butter and garlic. We watch one of my favourite films, Woman At War.
10pm: Decide against overnight chilling of the dough. Bake cookies and eat two while watching Muscles and Mayhem on Netflix.
12am: O cuddles me to sleep.
Total: £76.35
10am: Wake up in a cold sweat. I am so fatigued that I’m shaking. Try some breathing exercises and pain meditation. I wait for our landlord to show up at 11.30am to fix the boiler. I anxiously switch between interview prep and conference presentation prep.
11.56am: O and I woefully realise how much money we’ve not saved since we got together. It’s so hard to save when you just want to have fun all the time. We resolve to stay indoors today.
2.06pm: Begin our roast. I struggle with eating meat but take it as a challenge to make the most of our chicken.
3.30pm: I am still flitting between interview preparation and conference presentation prep while sipping a Sunday cider. O prepares caramelised onions, sweet potato mash, schmaltzy roast potatoes, chilli carrots, charred cauliflower cheese, braised leeks, cabbage and tenderstem broccoli (I am so lucky). I make a pastrami roasted chicken from Molly Baz’s Cook This Book (highly recommend). My wrist is still bad but thankfully no chopping required.
5.03pm: We feast like kings (is there a non-monarchist version of this phrase?).
7.45pm: Trim my hair. DIY or die, baby!
9.30pm: Drop O back home. Eat another cookie. Promise myself that I am a strong candidate for this role while imagining how much experience everyone else must have (I’m just a baby).
10pm: Watch Bones on Disney+ (my sister’s subscription).
10.30pm: Nerves kicking in. Skincare, CBD oil and vape, progressive relaxation meditation. I text my cousin C for last-minute advice and photos of my niece.
Total: £0
7.46am: Alarm goes off. I am so fatigued I feel sick. My ankle subluxed in the night so I massage it and take a painkiller. I decide to rot further in bed and listen to The Infinite Monkey Cage podcast.
8.55am: Allotted rot time complete. Make coffee and breakfast of yog, strawberries, seeds, PB. Read more queer ecology theory and make notes.
9.13am: Practise my interview presentation. Check emails for my part-time position. I am in charge of applying for my department’s gender equality charter so I email a list of demographics data I need to my administrative support team.
9.34am: I HAVE TO LEAVE THE HOUSE I HAVEN’T EVEN SHOWERED. Meds etc.
9.51am: Get the bus using my National Entitlement Card, free.
10.16am: I miss my train by one minute. Try to style it out but instead throw up from stress in the toilets, fun. Get the next one. I will be reimbursed by the company.
10.56am: My dear friend J is staying with me this week. He lets me know he’ll meet me at my interview location, which is very kind. We try to see each other as often as possible but considering he lives in Cornwall, this is a rarity. Catch up with some work on the train.
11.35am: Grab an (expensed) taxi so I don’t have to battle through Edinburgh’s inaccessible and byzantine, tourist-filled streets on this ankle.
12pm: Interview. I won’t have got the job but it was a good experience and I enjoyed speaking to the interviewers about their career histories.
1.15pm: Head to an art gallery/café near the station. The hiring institution covers lunch on interview days so I make the most of it with a burrata, heritage tomato and basil salad, an iced coffee and a slice of gluten-free chocolate cake. £20.15 but I will only ask for £10 to be reimbursed because I don’t want to take the piss.
2.45pm: Train back home.
4.30pm: Decompress with J. We watch a bad ’80s film, Urban Cowboy, and overanalyse the camera angles.
4.50pm: Email from an old employer offering me £150 to talk about my lived experience as a disabled researcher. Can and will cannibalise my health trauma for cash.
8.15pm: J heads out to get us fish and chips for dinner and refuses to take any money. I get a fish supper with mushy peas. We watch Storror on YouTube and plan a film we’ve been wanting to make but are too tired to properly catch up.
9.30pm: Chat to O on the phone and catch up on our days.
10.15pm: Skincare, brush teeth, bedtime. Listen to a podcast about lupus (sometimes, contrary to popular belief, it is indeed lupus).
11.30pm: Wake up in pain. Put on another podcast, this time about floral mimicry.
Total: £10.15
2.45am: Wake up in pain again. Get out the weighted blanket and pop three fingers in the process. Lol. Podcast about fossilised bryophytes.
5am: Ughhhhhhhh.
8.30am: Everything hurts. Scroll socials, melt brain into TikTok. Meds, painkillers etc.
9.34am: Head 30 seconds down the road to buy a bag of coffee beans from a local roaster. The bag comes with a free coffee — I get an iced oat latte. I also get an oat flat white and two cannoli for J, and a croissant to share, £15.20.
10am: Have an online meeting with a collaborator for a residential science communication summer school we’re running in two weeks. Thankfully my preparation and to-do list is small and easy. I try to avoid freelance meetings on Mondays and Tuesdays but needs must.
12pm: Meeting with my boss for my part-time job (I switched this meeting to online to help me manage my fatigue). Discuss our departmental equality recertification, website redesign and edits to a training resource I’ve developed.
1.15pm: Uniqlo top arrives, I’m never taking it off. Plan some statistical analyses.
2pm: Meeting with another collaborator and friend, B, for an in-person ecology programme we run at a local urban garden. I have a dysautonomia flare mid-meeting and finish it lying on my back in the grass. B drives me and J home.
5pm: I still haven’t posted the shoes to the auction winner so head to the closest shop with an Evri counter, £4.32.
6.30pm: Having spent the past 90 minutes lying down with my feet in the air to regulate my PoTS (postural tachycardia syndrome), J presents me with a goat’s cheese and walnut salad with loads of veg. I season it with tears of gratitude. Remind myself that living with PoTS is likened to living with end-stage heart failure and try not to beat myself up for needing rest and adjustments.
8.30pm: I check through Glasgow Zine Fest’s 10th anniversary programme. I want to go to all of the events but pick one on nature immersion and journalling on Sunday. Pay the solidarity price of £13.50.
9pm: O drops by and we all watch Nope together. I flick through my conference presentation and decide to wing it. I’m the expert, allegedly.
11.30pm: Skincare, CBD, sleep.
Total: £33.02
6.30am: Conference day! Meds, osteo and physio exercises. This will contribute towards my hours worked for my part-time job.
7.15am: Scarf down yog, banana, granola, PB, make coffee.
8.56am: Park on the recommended street by the conference centre. I have my blue badge, meaning it’s free.
9am: Rush through conference registration.
10.30am: First half of my session was great. Learned a lot about global majority degree attainment gaps in the UK. Head down to the coffee and biscuits and exhibitors hall, bump into a horde of people I know from work and a couple from last year’s conference. I do not have the energy to be social.
11am: Pick up a free coffee mug, notebook, tote, T-shirt, lots of pens. I donate my free conference spoils to my undergraduate students or friends in need but I keep the T-shirt this year.
11.30am: Showtime! I talk for an hour about disability, accessibility and proactive inclusion in academic research. The attendees have a wonderful and nuanced discussion after.
12.30pm: Head to lunch and chat to other people on the education, outreach and diversity working group. Free (and quite good for a conference lunch, the dessert was banging).
2pm: Continue to chat about new ideas. Run into a presenter from my session earlier and offer her a lift to the airport — it’s on my way home and gives us an excuse to chat further. Leave J in Edinburgh to catch up with other friends.
2.15pm: My car has a ticket, aaaaargh. I check the code online and fear it’s because I left my tyre on the kerb but I’ll need to check photo evidence from the parking officer tomorrow. Edinburgh Council has just put its fines up massively and I am annoyed (at them and also at me, especially).
2.45pm: Refuel (my miles today will be reimbursed). Drop my new conference friend at the airport. They waive the £4 fee if you’re a blue badge holder, which is a nice surprise.
4.04pm: Receive an email inviting me to be featured in a film about plants. Jump at the chance then realise as I can’t work in a laboratory anymore, I might not be able to be involved. Email back and cross my fingers.
4.06pm: Pick up a hungover O from theirs and head home. Receive a belated birthday card from my aunt, containing a £100 cheque. I take this as a sign from the universe to pay the parking fine regardless and be grateful for the remaining £50. Triumphantly tick this off my 10-jobs-deep to-do list. £50
6.25pm: After two hours of in-bed vegetation and catching up on my part-time job, O orders McDonald’s. I get a Happy Meal and eat some cucumber, carrot and apple to stave off scurvy.
7.30pm: We watch a really questionably bad horror film on Netflix.
8.30pm: J arrives home with more fish and chips for himself and we discuss housing instability, nomadic living and feminist politics. O heads home.
10pm: I climb into bed, reflecting on my dream of living off-grid in a boat or van and how it seems to be slipping away as my health deteriorates.
Total: £50
8.30am: Feeling a little more human than the past couple of days. Listen to my audiobook (The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet) in bed and do breathing exercises.
10am: Coffee, breakfast, chat with J.
11.10am: Osteopathy appointment. She is the only healthcare practitioner in Scotland specialising in my condition so she is worth her weight in gold. We book in for next Monday, £52.
12.15pm: Start making a potato, pepper, onion, cabbage and feta frittata, crisping the potatoes in the chicken fat from earlier in the week (decadence!). J makes a salad with cucumbers, tomato, apple, radish, greens and walnuts. It is so delicious and relatively easy. I plan to make another for my lunches next week. Wrist behaves.
3pm: Psychotherapy time. Psychologist politely informs me I look exhausted. They are entirely correct.
4pm: Make some edits to an outreach document. I then receive remittance advice from a science festival with my fee and travel reimbursement of £250. Hopefully it’ll arrive soon.
6pm: Yoga in a barn at a local park. I am so overloaded at the moment, I just need an hour to lie down while listening to a gentle voice. Yoga is contraindicated with my condition but it gives me space to enjoy some very gentle stretching, child’s posing and presentness, £7.
7.20pm: Grab two pineapple Schöfferhofers from the offy to take to dinner, £4.20.
7.30pm: Me and J head to a local, delicious and tiny Vietnamese restaurant. I get chicken satay and rice with salad, J gets caramelised pork belly and dumplings. Split ice cream for dessert. J insists on paying, reminding me I bought us lots of dinners when I was last in Cornwall. I hide £10 in his bag regardless.
9pm: Dinner was amazing. I play on my synth to give J a backing track while he reads a piece of writing on non-human kinship.
9.30pm: We decide to watch How To Blow Up A Pipeline. It’s on Amazon Prime (sigh) for £4.49 so I rent it.
11pm: Some tears were shed as we reflected on our own experiences of navigating political and union organising. Feel grateful to have experienced so much life before my health really started deteriorating.
11.15pm: Brush teeth, skincare. Call O to wish them goodnight.
11.30pm: Conk out but not before making preparatory notes on a citizen-science engagement project I am running tomorrow. Phew!
Total: £77.69
Food & Drink: £78.38
Clothes & Beauty: £19.90
Home & Health: £59
Entertainment: £53.49
Travel: £45
Other: £54.32
Total: £310.09
Conclusion
“Wow, what a busy and exhausting week (with a career and health conditions, there is no other kind). Saying that, it’s not often that I am travelling twice in a week for work, hosting a friend for an entire week (who kept insisting on paying for our food) and having meals reimbursed. Often, I’d spend more time socialising out of the home and more time in active rest (e.g. reading, embroidering, making music), and would be eating more freshly prepared food. It’s underlined to me how much freedom my car gives me and how grateful I am for that, while highlighting how thankful I am for my friends and my partner’s support. I certainly would not be able to work if I didn’t have PIP to support my car and health support costs — these keep me functional. I am frustrated that my NHS-provided specialist support was defunded as not everyone who relied on it can still work like me. I need to stop eating like crap though, no wonder I am struggling with additional tiredness! This week was especially bad for hitting the convenience panic button as I was run off my feet and exhausted by the evening. The McDonald’s has to stop. This experience has been enjoyable but has made me realise I need to be stricter with my budgeting and really prioritise looking after myself, regardless of what’s going on in my life.”
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