Welcome to Money Diaries where we are tackling the ever-present taboo that is money. We’re asking real people how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period — and we’re tracking every last penny.
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This week: “I’m 26 years old and living in the North East of England with my boyfriend. We have been together about three years and bought our current house last summer, having rented for a year prior to that. I work in the business development side of a construction company and have been in this industry since I started my first apprenticeship at 19. My role involves a high amount of trying to win new work — business development teams are responsible for creating and overseeing bids/tenders — a detailed, costed and persuasive proposal — on behalf of an organisation to win business contracts and projects. In terms of saving, my boyfriend and I are putting money aside for a big, long-haul holiday at the end of the year — the trip of a lifetime!”
Occupation: Senior Business Development Executive
Industry: Engineering/construction
Age: 26
Location: North East England
Salary: £55,000
Paycheque Amount: £3343
Number of housemates: One, my boyfriend A.
Pronouns: She/her
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: £536 for my half of the mortgage.
Loan payments: £30 for my share of interest-free monthly repayments on the sofas we purchased when we first moved into the house.
Pension?: I have a work pension which I pay 8% into, which my employer matches. I currently contribute 8% but since going into the higher tax rate I will be upping my pension contributions in a bid to pay less tax, so my monthly paycheque amount will be less. I’m not really sure how much I have in my other pension pot from my previous employer!
Savings? My boyfriend and I do not combine our savings. I have around £32,000 in an easy access savings account and have recently started investing into a stocks and shares ISA so I have about £500 so far in there.
Utilities: £80 for gas and electric, £20 for water, £94 for council tax, £15 for internet, £5 buildings insurance, £18 income protection and life insurance (all split equally, the values shared here are my half of the cost).
All other monthly payments: £400 into stocks and shares ISA, £100 mortgage overpayment, £21 gym membership, £10 cat and dog shelter donation, £15 SIMO phone contract. In the winter months, £41 coaching and match fees for the team sport I play. I also pay yearly for car insurance and car tax as it works out cheaper and this year it’ll be about £500.
Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
I didn’t go to university and started an apprenticeship aged 19 on £12,000 a year.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money?
Both of my parents came from fairly well-off backgrounds but have spent much of their lives worrying about money, living modestly, always saving, over spending and working in the public sector which has limited chances for pay rises. They are now what I would consider to be comfortable financially since my sibling and I left home, but they continue to live a modest life and struggle to allow themselves to spend money or splurge. Growing up, meals out were reserved for birthdays and we were never spoilt materially but we were spoilt with love and affection and our parents saved hard to be able to take us on annual holidays. My sibling and I were able to go to music lessons and sports clubs which I want to be able to do for my children if I am lucky enough to have them in the future.
If you have, when did you move out of your parents/guardians house?
24, when I started renting with my boyfriend.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself? Does anyone else cover any aspects of your financial life?
At 24, when I moved out. I rented my first flat in Newcastle with my boyfriend and lived there for a year, before buying a place together with him. Nobody covers the cost of my life now but I am extremely fortunate to be able to split all living costs by half. I know that I earn enough that I would most likely be fine should anything happen to cause me to need to live alone.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
I got my first job at 16, working as a glass collector in the local pub near where I grew up and I also worked as a maths tutor. Getting my cash-in-hand money and tips in a little brown envelope was the highlight of my month — I wish tips were more of a thing in engineering!
Do you worry about money now?
Not particularly — I know that I am well paid for my age and my boyfriend has a good salary of his own, with the potential to significantly outearn me in the future in his particular field, so I know that I could be supported by him should anything ever happen with my job. Although it is important to me that I am financially independent and earning my own income. I also take comfort in knowing that I have a decent level of savings to fall back on, as well as several protection policies in place, like income protection and life cover. My boyfriend is very financially literate and takes on the role of financial manager of our household, paying the bills and sorting out direct debits etc. We want to hopefully have children in the next four or five years so I am aware that my disposable income now will not stretch very far while supporting a family.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?
I received £10,000 from my parents for my 21st birthday that they had been saving up since my birth which went towards my share of the deposit we paid for our house last summer. I feel extremely lucky that my parents were able to gift me this and I know they are happy it went towards something of use!
Day One
9 a.m. — Wake up and make a banana, frozen berry, mango and oat smoothie. Give half to A and head out to the door to my 45-minute circuits class (this is included as part of my gym membership).
10 a.m. — The class includes a range of mountain climbers, ski erg, ball throws, squats and lunges so I really get a sweat on — perfect way to start a Sunday. I make a new gym friend as we have to pair up and our chats make the time definitely go quicker!
11 a.m. — Return home and immediately throw open the back doors to sit out in the garden. The weather is looking beautiful for the coming week and I can’t wait for this mini heatwave to arrive. A has been doing some stellar planting, patio and building work in the garden over the winter and his hard work is finally paying off. We recently bought a garden table and chairs for a steal on Facebook marketplace so I persuade A that we need to do a joint effort of sanding it down and re-staining it to make it last longer.
1 p.m. — The ‘joint sanding’ effort has turned into A doing all the outdoor work and me going inside for a shower, putting a wash on and changing the bed sheets. It is so nice to have all the windows open to let fresh air in!
2 p.m. — Decide to bake cookies using my trusty Jane’s Patisserie recipe, which sadly goes horribly wrong. I take one of the sad cookies out to the garden to enjoy an hour with my book.
3 p.m. — We did our food shop for the week yesterday and are really strict with sticking to a list of what we need for that week’s meals as I hate food waste. However, A hadn’t decided what he would want for tea tonight as I am out, so we head to the supermarket to grab him some bits for a chicken Caesar salad. I see a newly released paperback of a book I have been wanting to buy for ages and grab it to save for my holiday in June. Put the salad bits and book on the joint account, £5.25 for my share.
5:30 p.m. — I am heading to my friend’s new flat for a housewarming fajita night. Wrap up her gift my friends and I bought her a while ago and grab some already-open wine from the fridge. Add the Tupperware of cookies to my bag in case any friends fancy food poisoning and walk the 10 minutes to her new flat.
10 p.m. — Home after a lovely night of chilling with my best friends and eating fajitas. It was a lovely change from my usual Sunday evenings. I have an amazing friend group of six of us and we range in age from 26-30, so naturally some are thinking of starting families soon. I have a little sad moment on the sofa with A that while I am excited for them, we are nowhere near ready to have children and so I feel sad that our friendships will inevitably change if we are on different journeys soon. Melancholy vibes to end a Sunday with!
11 p.m. — Watch an episode of the new series of You (so unnecessary for there to be five series but it is still my guilty pleasure!) and get ready for bed and a new week. Order some new claw clips off Amazon as mine broke earlier, £5.99.
Total: £11.24
Day Two
7 a.m. — Woop woop it is payday! Do life admin from my bed and transfer £1,100 to our joint account to cover all bills, mortgage and little extra treats, £1,100 to my savings and £400 to my stocks and shares ISA. I also transfer £40 to A to cover something from last week. Up and dressed for the warm weather and some light makeup.
8:20 a.m. — Walk the 10-minute walk to my office and the streets are buzzing with teenagers walking to school. Get verbally abused by a teenager who asks me ‘what the **** am I looking at’ as I wait to cross the zebra crossing. Happy Monday.
8:30 a.m. — Arrive at work and discover I have forgotten my laptop! This never happens and after my incident walking to work, I am beginning to think today is not my day. I phone A who is working from home to drop it off for me as I have a meeting in the office very soon. The little gem arrives in the car park five minutes later with my laptop as passenger princess.
9 a.m. — Morning passes in a blur of meetings, calls and pulling together various case studies to try and win a major project.
12 p.m. — Walk to Greggs to get a ham and cheese baguette and a novelty bun. These are so expensive for their size but are my total sweet treat weakness! Walk back to the office and eat in the kitchen with some work friends, £4.60.
1 p.m. — Transfer my mum £42.50 as mine and A’s share of airport parking for our family holiday this summer.
3 p.m. — Break from working to order some new makeup quickly. I don’t wear much base makeup but have finally run out of the Bourjois CC cream I have had for ages which has been discontinued. Buy the Bourjois BB cream (if the brand ain’t broke don’t fix it) and find a discount code online, £10.99. Have a banana from the work fruit box.
5 p.m. — Rudely disturbed from typing by a leak from the ceiling dripping directly onto me and decide to call it a day. Head home and change into gym clothes ready for a lower body gym class.
7 p.m. — Arrive home to A sanding down the garden chairs outside, second time today being a little gem. Start making a creamy garlic prawn linguine and eat outside with a Diet Coke.
8 p.m. — Shower, hair wash, gradual tan and PJs on and get through another couple of episodes of You.
10 p.m. — Do evening skincare and read some of my book before bed. I always read if I’ve had a day full of screens as I feel it helps me wind down. I am signed up to the local library which is so good for being able to get through a range of books without having to spend a lot at Waterstones. Current read is a juicy affair-ridden Elizabeth Noble called Other People’s Husbands.
11 p.m. — Lights out and bed.
Total: £98.09
Day Three
7 a.m. — Wake up and remember I need to order an outfit for a sports award dinner for my team sport next weekend. Have a vision in my head of an outfit so scroll Vinted until I find the perfect silver satin skirt, £8.34. Get up and dressed, minimal make up and hair straightening done. Today is going to be a warm one, apparently — both the weather forecast and a morning text from my mum saying ‘today is going to be a warm one!’ tell me this.
7:45 a.m. — Walk to the office for an 8 a.m. global team call. These calls used to be 7 a.m. with the Australian time differences so I am grateful for the clocks moving forward!
9:30 a.m. — Head to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. Feel a bit disheartened after that call as I feel my immediate team got a lot of flack for support we were asking for.
10 a.m. — I get an email saying that my application to be a mystery diner has been accepted. I applied after a woman at work told me about the great perks she gets but after taking a quick look at the app, it seems like she may have overegged it!
12 p.m. — Head to the library close to my office to return a book and take a small walk round the local park to soak up the sunshine! Return back to the office and heat up my lunch of last night’s leftovers.
4 p.m. — The afternoon passes in a blur of calls and edits to work I have asked to be reviewed. Head off a bit earlier today as I have been putting some long hours in over the last few weeks. Return home and chill in the garden for a bit before heading to my circuits class, pre-paid.
6:30 p.m. — That class was disgustingly sweaty. Walk home past A’s favourite Lebanese restaurant and the smell tempts me in! Buy some hummus and Lebanese flatbread to take away, £5.90.
8:30 p.m. — Shower, hair wash and blow dry and come down to A’s cod Keralan curry which we eat on the sofa watching another episode of You.
10:30 p.m. — Bedtime! Watch some of A’s TikTok videos over his shoulders but his FYI is dreadful, so swiftly turn over and fall asleep.
Total: £14.24
Day Four
8 a.m. — Today is a work-from-home day. Log on for a morning of calls and A brings me up a bagel and cup of tea.
12 p.m. — Craving a mozzarella, pesto and tomato wrap so walk via the shop to get an extortionately priced one, £3.65. Eat it for 10 minutes and then crack on with work as I need to finish early today.
4:45 p.m. — Another earlier log off as my friend texted me earlier to see if I fancied going paddleboarding at the coast later! A bought me a paddleboard for Christmas and it has not yet been used so I am super excited. Stop off to get petrol on the way as my light is flashing, £40.
6 p.m. — We meet, pump up our boards and set off. The weather is definitely a bit cooler at the coast but the sea is so flat. Sadly, no dolphins were spotted but you can never get everything you wish for.
7 p.m. — Paddle back to shore, deflate our boards and head off for a well earned burger, £14.50. Paddleboarding is definitely a workout for the arms!
9 p.m. — Arrive home and hose the salt water off the board and leave it to dry in the garden. Absolutely shattered after my fun evening, so I shower, get PJs on and take my book to bed before lights out.
Total: £58.15
Day Five
8 a.m. — Another gorgeous sunny day to work from home in! Log on early and make a cup of tea and bowl of porridge with golden syrup and immediately realise the milk is off.
12 p.m. — Get changed into some leggings for a quick 5k lunchbreak run. The route I run is through a lovely bridle path, but I really struggle in the heat and return home bright red.
2 p.m. — Quickly pop round to our next-door neighbour. She apparently came round last night when I was out and asked A to feed her cat while she is away for two weeks. This is of course, fine, but of course A didn’t get any details like her number, what the cat eats and even what the cat is called! She seems so grateful and I feel so bad for her as it sounds like her cat hotel really let her down. Walk to the shop after this to buy more milk, 60p for my share.
5 p.m. — Log off work and start packing a weekend bag as we are seeing some of A’s old uni friends in Yorkshire this weekend.
5:30 p.m. — Quickly get changed for a meal out with a couple of friends tonight. Drive half an hour to park at my parents and pop in to say hello.
6:45 p.m. — Have a lovely catch-up with my two friends. Our mums have known each other forever and it is so nice that we have made friends independently and kept the friendship going! The restaurant we are at has quite an expensive menu, but the food does look delicious. I have enough disposable income to treat myself but I will always stick to things that I think are good value and this doesn’t really hit that mark! I choose a pie and a crepe for pudding and have a Pepsi Max, £34 including service.
9 p.m. — Walk back to my parents’ place and stay for a cup of tea and a gossip with my mum and a play with the dog. It is so nice living close to them and we make sure to see each other at least once a week.
10 p.m. — Return home, fake tan (force A to do my back) and bed.
Total: £34.60
Day Six
7 a.m. — Earlier wake up as I need to wash my hair and wash the tan off. Blow-dry hair, bit of makeup and choose a black midi dress and white cardigan as it’s Friday!
8 a.m. — Make a smoothie with banana, mango, frozen berries, milk and oats and walk to work feeling like I have my life together because I am drinking a smoothie from a plastic bottle.
9 a.m. — I get a notification from the joint account that A has been to the supermarket, £3.10 for my share.
10 a.m. — Team call starts with a bit of upsetting news about a team member. I focus on work after this but can tell my work friend is a bit shook up so we go for a walk around the park just to get some fresh air and clear her head.
11 a.m. — Today’s deadline is progressing well with only minor edits to correct, phew. Fridays are either the easiest or most hellish day of the week, depending on which deadline I have going in!
12 p.m. — A is working from home so he picks me up and we drive to a local bakery to pick up a range of baked goodies for our weekend with friends. Pick my work friend up to cheer her up, £11.25 for my share.
12:30 p.m. — A (aka Gwen from Gavin and Stacey) quickly whips me up a spinach and cheese omelette and I walk back to the office after this.
3 p.m. — Break for a cuppa and to share the cookie with my friend.
4:15 p.m. — Deadline has gone in so I feel free to slip away a bit early. Last Friday’s finish was late so I am happy that has not been repeated today!
4:30 p.m. — Arrive home and finish packing up. Get on the road quickly with Sara Cox on the radio to try avoid the weekend rush hour on our journey to Yorkshire.
6:30 p.m. — Arrive at our friends’ house (L and O) and are greeted by their two adorable greyhounds! Bring the bags in and immediately get given a glass of wine for us to chill in the garden with and start catching up about their upcoming, very exciting-sounding, wedding!
8 p.m. — We have a reservation at an Indian restaurant with a load of A’s other uni friends who I don’t know as well, but are still so lovely and head for some drinks beforehand, I buy mine and A’s drinks, £30.25.
8:30 p.m. — Arrive at the Indian restaurant and the entire menu looks delicious. I order a mango margarita, masala cauliflower and something called ‘Grandmother’s curry’ with steamed rice. A has already insisted in the car that he is treating me but when the final bill comes and it is spilt equally which means he ends up paying around £40 more than he should because we both had far less alcohol than the other couples. I bite my tongue but I feel strongly that bill splitting is only fair if everyone has eaten/drunk similar amounts.
10:30 p.m. — Head to another pub and A gets me a single G&T but my eyes are drooping and can see that L’s eyes across the table are doing the same!
11 p.m. — Head back to their house and play with the pups for a bit before heading up to bed.
Total: £44.60
Day Seven
10 a.m. — Lazy start to the weekend with a lie in. I would normally wake much earlier than this but you feel a bit trapped to your bedroom in someone else’s house!
11 a.m. — Cup of tea, shower and we take their dogs out for a long walk round a big park near their house. The sun is shining and looks like it is going to be a beautiful day!
12:30 p.m. — Get home, slap some makeup on and change into my linen trousers and head to the city centre. A is obsessed with the film Chef and must have seen it over 20 times so our friends take us to a new Cuban sandwich shop that has opened near them where I get us a Cuban and New York style sandwich each to share, beer for A and Diet Coke for me, £26.50. It is my first time having a Cuban sandwich as I can sometimes be a bit fussy with pickles but it was absolutely amazing!
2 p.m. — Move on to another outdoor terrace bar to make the most of the sun and meet L’s brother and his friends. Do the drinks in rounds between the four of us and I am hooked on the £5 Aperol spritzes! When my round comes I get some pizza slices in from the canteen downstairs, £16.60 as the slices are half price til 5 p.m.
7 p.m. — Get an Uber back to their house with everyone, A pays for ours and we sit out in the garden for the night with rose wine, plenty of beers, cards and blankets when the sun goes down.
11:30 p.m. — We are all starving so make some chicken wraps to keep us going — it’s been a bread-heavy day!
1 a.m. — Everyone leaves as a few have work the next day, I am beyond shattered so just about manage to take my makeup off before flopping into bed.
Total: £43.10
Conclusion
“This is quite a lot of money for not much significant happening. The majority of my money went on eating and drinking out this week. I would say a large amount of my money goes on socialising each week but having five days in a row without a home cooked meal is very rare for me (a weekend away at someone else’s house does take your autonomy away) and I was craving doing some cooking by the time this week was up! I am happy with how much I spend and save but will endeavour to maybe eat at home a bit more!”
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