This week: “I’m a 30-year-old finance manager living in the West Midlands with my husband. I would say that I’m good at saving while also living in the moment, usually by finding good deals and keeping my costs to a minimum. I own a house with my husband, but we are currently looking to move to somewhere bigger as we hope to start a family in the next few years. I love travelling and hope to go on a few more big trips before we have children.”
Occupation: Finance manager
Industry: Higher Education
Age: 30
Location: West Midlands
Salary: £47,000
Paycheque Amount: £2,700
Number of housemates: One (my husband, B)
Pronouns: She/her
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: £0 (we recently paid off our mortgage).
Loan payments: £116 student loan repayment.
Savings?: £45,000 in Cash ISAs which I will use towards our next house. I’m trying to build up my emergency fund now as a buffer to keep even when we do move.
Utilities: My half is £17 electricity, £45 gas, £12.40 water and £106 council tax per month.
Pension?: I have a defined benefit pension that I salary sacrifice 6.1% of my pay into, but I have also recently started contributing 3% into a defined contribution scheme. My employer only contributes to the defined benefit part.
All other monthly payments: £104 home insurance for my half, £600 unlimited annual yoga membership and £1,200 car insurance per year.
Subscriptions: None.
Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Yes, I did a bachelor’s degree with my student loan covering my tuition fees. Everything else was covered by my parents plus a maintenance bursary. I also took a master’s course with my parents paying both the tuition fees and maintenance. I’m very grateful that they were happy to pay for this as I wouldn’t have been able to afford this otherwise.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money?
We didn’t really discuss finances, instead my parents would say that if you studied hard then you would get a high paying job and be financially stable. Only as I’ve gotten older have I realised that it’s not as simple as that! Looking back, my mum would try to encourage saving whereas my dad struggled to not spend all of his paycheque. As they were self-employed, they had their ups and downs, so they always encouraged me to get a stable job to avoid this and make monthly budgeting easier.
If you have, when did you move out of your parents/guardians house?
I moved out for university at 18. I briefly returned at 23 to my parents’ house then left again when I was 24 when I bought a house with my husband.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself? Does anyone else cover any aspects of your financial life?
I’ve been financially responsible for myself since I left university. However, I did spend over a year living at my parents’ place and didn’t pay rent as they wanted me to save up for a house deposit and didn’t need the money. I share costs with my husband since we moved in together at 24; the only exception is the £7 phone bill that my mum still pays as they have a great deal.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
My first job was working at Boots during the holidays at university to boost my spending balance for the term ahead.
Do you worry about money now?
Although I know I shouldn’t, I do still worry about money. I worry about what would happen if we bought our next house and I lost my job, even though it’s very stable. I worry about having enough savings for our future children and for maternity leave. I’m very fortunate financially but do tend to be a worrier, which I’m trying to work on.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?
Yes, all my grandparents have passed away and I received around £20,000 in total which went towards our mortgage, and a secondhand car as I only recently passed my driving test. B has been fortunate enough to receive money from his parents, which helped us in buying our house and later paying off the mortgage.
7:45 a.m. — I wake up later than usual, so I’m rushing to get ready before work. I make a quick breakfast of honey on wholemeal toast and a cup of breakfast tea. I’m working from home today so I don’t need to worry about dressing up for work.
8 a.m. — I log on and start working. I’ve been on annual leave for a few days, and I’m always surprised by how many emails I come back to! I start to make my way through my unread emails, and as I don’t have any meetings today, it’s a good day to get through them.
10 a.m. — I start working on my main tasks for this month, which mostly involves working on several different spreadsheets for multiple accounts that I manage. The time really does fly by once I get stuck into them.
12 p.m. — B makes a quick lunch of instant noodles with sausages. Not the healthiest, but we don’t like food waste and try to use up whatever we’ve got lying around before it goes out of date. We do try to plan our food for the week ahead when we’re at home.
4:45 p.m. — I finish work and get ready to give B a lift to the train station as they’re seeing a friend tonight.
5 p.m. — Friday night traffic is terrible as usual! Drop B off then head back home to have dinner.
5:45 p.m. — I have another quick meal; this time spinach and ricotta ravioli before rushing to get ready for my yoga class.
6 p.m. — I start walking to my yoga class; I’m lucky that this is only a ten-minute walk away from my house.
6:15 p.m. — I start my one-hour yoga class, which is a very relaxing way to end the week. I can’t believe that 10 years ago I’d be getting ready to go out clubbing at this time! I rarely go out on Friday nights now; instead, I’ll do a yoga class followed by a chilled out evening spent watching TV with B.
7:30 p.m. — I arrive back home. It’s very cold outside now so I ran back to keep myself warm in my leggings. I get changed into my pyjamas and put on some easy watching TV. I make a decaf coffee and a hot water to drink and have a couple of Hotel Chocolat chocolates that I was gifted a couple of months ago for my birthday.
10:30 p.m. — I pick B up from the train station and he tells me how his night went on the way back.
11 p.m. — We head up to bed and fall asleep.
Total: £0
8 a.m. — Wake up, make some honey on wholemeal toast again with tea and hot water. I have my breakfast whilst watching Alan Titchmarsh’s Love Your Weekend.
9 a.m. — I usually do a parkrun at this time, but the weather isn’t the best and I don’t want to catch a cold; instead I go to the gym with B. I don’t pay for gym membership as B has four free guest passes a month with his membership, and I wouldn’t be going to the gym more than this anyway. I’m trying to get back into lifting free weights so I start with this, and then use the machines focusing on arms, abs and chest.
10:30 a.m. — I see that there’s a sale on at our local Homebase so we head inside. We then drive to Lidl to do our usual weekly shop which includes fresh bread, fruit, pastries, milk, vegetables, a corn-fed chicken for our roast tomorrow, and ingredients for baking gingerbread men. We split all our expenses 50:50 so this comes to £23.50 for my half.
12 p.m. — We have a mixed lunch of grapes, blueberries, cheese, sourdough bread dipped in olive oil, mixed beans, scrambled eggs and a nice coffee from our coffee machine. We put James Martin’s Saturday Morning Kitchen on whilst we eat.
2 p.m. — I start some job applications as I’m looking for a new role. I always find these very draining as they take up so much time, and you might not even hear back. I plough on anyway and tell myself that I’ll take a break soon.
3:30 p.m. — I take a break from applying for jobs to walk to the charity shop with B to donate some old clothes and games. We end up taking a long walk and popping into a few shops along the way, but don’t see anything that we want to buy.
6 p.m. — I spend some time with B making a spaghetti bolognese, which we have with some red wine that we already had at home. We have a good chat whilst we eat and decide to find some films to watch afterwards.
8 p.m. — Eat dinner with B and we end up watching two films to relax for the night. We chose two very different films, but both were really good, definitely recommend! The first was Officer Black Belt and the second was Kneecap.
11 p.m. — Head to bed and fall asleep.
Total: £23.50
8 a.m. — Wake up, have the usual breakfast tea and hot water whilst having some sourdough bread that I dip in olive oil. I feel a bit tired this morning so end up watching TV while eating.
10 a.m. — Scheduled video call with my friend who lives in Hong Kong and another who lives in London. This ends up being a two-hour call but the time flies by as we chat about everything going on in our lives. We decide to have our calls once a month in future as it’s been nearly five months since we last spoke.
12 p.m. — Make a strange mixture for lunch of Weetabix, cheese, tomatoes, peppers and a coffee. Have lunch with B and chat about the updates from my phone call as B knows my two friends well.
1:15 p.m. — I start baking some gingerbread biscuits with B. I’m not usually a baker so even this simple recipe is new to me. I use honey instead of golden syrup, half the amount of sugar and add more cinnamon and ginger than the recipe says. I didn’t manage to find any stencils for gingerbread men so end up using my Easter stencils instead. It does look strange to have eggs and bunnies, but I tell myself this will only be a practice run.
3 p.m. — The gingerbread has baked well, we try a few and they taste really good! As the oven is already heated up B decides we might as well cook the roast now so we prepare everything together for an early dinner.
5 p.m. — The roast is ready, we have the corn-fed chicken, potatoes, squash, carrots and Brussel sprouts. The meal tastes lovely, and we decide to have some of the leftover wine from last night with our meal. I’m not a fan of gravy and B is happy to have the roast without this, so we decide not to make any this time.
6 p.m. — We decide to watch an old classic film that we haven’t seen before The Last Samurai. It is a good watch and it’s nice to watch films that you’ve heard about before. We usually have a walk after dinner but there is still heavy rain so we decide to stay inside instead. I have a quick shower after the film and we decide to look at something else to watch.
8 p.m. — We start to watch a new TV series whilst I pluck my eyebrows and have a face mask on.
10 p.m. — We head to bed as we are both very tired, even though we haven’t really left the house today!
Total: £0
7 a.m. — Wake up to my alarm but still feel tired so I lie in bed for a while.
7:15 a.m. — Finally get up and get ready to go into the office. I have some breakfast tea, toast, grapes and blueberries for breakfast and decide what to wear to go into the office. I only live 15 minutes away from my workplace which is convenient so I drive in and park nearby to avoid the £2.50 daily parking charge onsite. This adds around 10 minutes of walking to work which I enjoy as I get fresh air before going into the office all day.
8:15 a.m. — Start work at my desk, preparing for two one-to-one sessions with staff that I manage this morning. Both are lovely and we catch up on their work and personal lives, it’s very rewarding managing staff and I try to be the type of manager that I’d want to have. I let everyone know that I’ve brought some gingerbread biscuits in and the team rush in to try them. I receive some good reviews which makes me happy as I did deviate from the recipe I found online.
12 p.m. — Have some lunch at my desk of chicken, cheese, banana and sourdough bread.
12:45 p.m. — Start work again, this afternoon I’m mostly checking my team’s work and sending this back via email for them to rectify any errors.
4:45 p.m. — Leave the office and start my walk to the car. The sky looks pretty and I’m it’s nice to see some light before I head back.
5:30 p.m. — I have an early dinner of leftover potatoes, squash and spaghetti bolognese whilst watching some YouTube videos. I also have another gingerbread biscuit with this and some hot water. Relax for a while until I have my yoga class later.
7:15 p.m. — I have a one-hour yoga class, which is a 15-minute walk from my house. As I have an unlimited membership I don’t pay for this session.
8:45 p.m. — Prepare my lunch for tomorrow, catch up with B on how their work is going and then get ready for bed.
10 p.m. — Fall asleep.
Total: £0
7 a.m. — Wake up, have my usual tea, hot water, sourdough bread and olive oil along with some blueberries and strawberries. I pop some morning TV on in the background and then get ready for work.
7:30 a.m. — Drive into work and park in my usual spot, which means a cold 10-minute walk but it wakes me up.
8 a.m. — Start work, today I’m focusing on having an overview of the finances of a few different accounts to see if there are any issues and making some notes before my one to one meeting.
9 a.m. — Have my one to one meeting with my manager, they’re very happy with my work and how I’m leading the team. We go over some ongoing issues with a few accounts and go through upcoming deadlines over the next few months.
10 a.m. — Have a biscuit from the office kitchen and a cup of tea to take back to my desk.
12 p.m. — I have some lunch: soup, a bread roll and an apple while I chat to some colleagues.
1 p.m. — Continue working on my accounts as well as answering questions from my team and checking their work.
4:45 p.m. — Leave work to walk to a study that I’m taking part in nearby. I get paid £30 for this and I enjoy being part of different research studies throughout the year.
5 p.m. — The research study starts; this involves looking at a computer screen and answering a question after reading a sentence. This continues for around two hours, and I start to feel very hungry during the session as I usually eat dinner by 6 p.m.
7 p.m. — I head to my parents’ house to have some dinner as they live nearby. They’ve made a fresh lamb hotpot which I eat quickly as I’m very hungry by this point. I catch up with them about what they’ve been up to recently. I usually try to visit my parents once a week as we only live a 20-minute drive away from each other. They are both retired now and are enjoying having more free time.
8 p.m. — Head to a local Waitrose to pick up a click and collect order. This includes wide leg jeans (after wearing skinny jeans for most of my life). I already paid for this last week.
8:30 p.m. — Finally home.
10 p.m. — Fall asleep.
Total: £0
7 a.m. — Wake up, make a tea, hot water and have some porridge with blueberries and strawberries mixed in. Start getting ready for work and catching up on the latest news.
7:30 a.m. — Head into work and do my usual 10-minute walk in.
8 a.m. — Start work and speak to someone in my team that’s having an issue with one of their accounts reconciling some costs. We spend an hour working through this and finally resolve the problems.
9 a.m. — Grab another cup of tea and get my head down with work that’s due by the end of the month.
12 p.m. — I head to a local café to meet an old school friend as they’ve recently started working in another team at my workplace. As this is still a part of our workplace, we are allowed to sit here without ordering so we just sit with some tap water from a water fountain there. We catch up about relationships, holidays and work.
1 p.m. — Quickly have my soup, bread roll and some cheese as I’ve already had a lunch break. I try to answer some emails whilst I’m eating. I start again on the work that’s due for the end of the month.
4 p.m. — Leave work and head back to my car.
4:30 p.m. — Get home and start getting ready for a yoga class that I’ve booked.
5 p.m. — I start my yoga class, which is a mix of yoga and pilates, for an hour. The class has a lot of ab work today, with planks and boat poses, and I can really feel it! I push myself to get through the class without needing to take a break and feel proud once I’ve finished. As the class is part of my unlimited pass, I don’t have to pay for this.
6 p.m. — Start walking back to the house. I call my parents on the way back to find out what they want for dinner as they’re coming to mine in a couple of days. I offer to cook and so we plan to have a chicken casserole.
6:15 p.m. — I start making dinner with B of fish, rice, green beans, carrots and mushrooms in the air fryer. We chat about our day whilst we prep everything and set the timer for 15 minutes once everything is in.
6:45 p.m. — We have dinner whilst watching TV.
8 p.m. — We go for a walk after dinner round our local area, whilst chatting about where we want to go for our next holiday.
9:30 p.m. — We get home, get dressed and ready for bed.
10 p.m. — Fall asleep.
Total: £0
7 a.m. — Wake up, as I’m working from home today. I have a more interesting breakfast of pancakes with fruit along with some tea and hot water. I watch some morning TV and chat to B who is also working from home.
8 a.m. — Start working. I prepare for a few meetings that I have this morning with one that I’m leading on.
11 a.m. — Grab a cup of coffee and a biscuit after my meetings.
12:30 p.m. — Boil some premade ravioli and then cook this in a tomato and basil sauce to have for lunch with B. After this I go for a walk to the Post Office to drop off a return parcel for B.
1:30 p.m. — Answer some emails that have come in before my meeting at 2 p.m.
2 p.m. — I lead our fortnightly team meeting, going over updates from senior management.
2:30 p.m. — Start work again, checking work that my team have on and answering some more emails.
4 p.m. — Finish work and go for a walk as the weather is nice and it isn’t dark yet.
5 p.m. — Start making dinner of a chicken thai green curry with rice, with courgettes, aubergine and green beans. I put some music on whilst I prep dinner, and B comes to help after they’ve finished work.
6 p.m. — Eat dinner with B whilst talking again about our holiday plans, we start researching Sri Lanka as a possible destination.
7:15 p.m. — Head to my yoga class.
7:30 p.m. — Start my one hour yoga class, which is a relaxing style and by the end has calmed me that I’m ready to sleep.
8:30 p.m. — Head back home.
8:45 p.m. — Chat to B about our weekend plans, I have a lunch with friends whilst they have a birthday party to go to. We have a shared calendar and try to organise meetups with friends at the same time if we can.
10 p.m. — Fall asleep.
Total: £0
Food & Drink: £23.50
Clothes & Beauty: £0
Home & Health: £0
Entertainment: £0
Travel: £0
Other: £0
Total: £23.50
Conclusion
“It was interesting to record my spending as I feel that I do a lot during the week but this diary shows that I don’t spend that much. As I use B’s free gym guest passes weekly, take part in parkrun which is free and have an unlimited yoga pass that I paid for at the start of the year, so I don’t spend any more money on my fitness. I don’t usually buy clothes or makeup anymore (the jeans that I mentioned in this diary are the first item of clothing I’ve bought in over a year) but I will buy skincare every few months when I run out. This week I spent less than usual because we had a weekend relaxing at home, usually we would go out once or twice a weekend to see friends (probably around an extra £30 a week). We had just been away for a few days before this with my parents, where we spent around £150 so we had a lower spend this weekend because of this. However, the weekly shop is an average spend for us, and we usually make our own food and lunches rather than buying these out. I don’t think that I will change anything in the future as we are trying to save up for our next house and for children in the future, so I’m glad that my spending is low whilst still being able to do a lot during the week.”
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