Welcome to Money Diaries, where we're tackling what might be the last taboo facing modern working women: money. We're asking a cross-section of women how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period – and we're tracking every last penny.
This week...
"I'm a 31-year-old living in Worcestershire and working in Birmingham as a community development officer in a not for profit, where I spend most of my days working with volunteers, developing new opportunities and resources for them, and attending committee meetings. I travel a lot with work so try and take the opportunity to do at least one fun thing in every new place that I go.
I live with my boyfriend of 12 years and we have recently bought our first home together, a three-bed Victorian end terrace in a popular area of the city. We have only recently moved back to Worcester where we grew up, having previously lived in London, Birmingham, New Zealand and Canada.
Having a home of our own was a dream that we worked hard to make happen and we saved for around eight years to make it a reality. The house was a little dilapidated when we bought it, but it has some fantastic features and we fell in love. Our families couldn’t help with the buying costs but have thrown themselves into the renovations and the house is finally feeling like a home.
My boyfriend and I are from very different financial backgrounds; he grew up in a reasonably well-off family whereas I grew up firmly below the breadline. This can sometimes cause tension between us – we have very different attitudes to money, he is more of a saver and I a spender, and I think as we have got older our differences have become more apparent. Another source of tension is that I sometimes have to subsidise my family when they are short of money (I cannot see them suffer when I have more than I need) and my boyfriend gets frustrated with their lack of planning and my apparent complacency in allowing the situation to continue. Conversely his family tend to presume that we have heaps of money and put pressure on us to go to expensive dinners, which we love, and expensive resort family holidays, which we do not enjoy. It’s a topic that we have had to really work on in our relationship and I think have finally reached a nice balance.
When we aren’t working we tend to spend the majority of our money on travel and try to go abroad at least twice a year. I take language lessons and am doing a distance learning course paid for by work for a recognised qualification within my field."
Job: Community Development Manager
Age: 31
Location: Birmingham
Salary: £31,800
Paycheque amount: £2,021.20 after pension contribution, student loan and season ticket loan
Number of housemates: 1 (boyfriend)
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs, utilities and food: £970 (split between two). We transfer £520 each into the joint account to cover rent, food and utilities.
Phone bill: £45
Savings: Most of our savings were eaten by purchasing our first home and decorating it in full. We have around £2,000 left and transfer £600 each into a savings account each month. I contribute £100 a month to a stakeholder pension and put any leftover money from my salary into my own savings account, which is mainly used for travel; currently I have £1,500 in there after it took a huge hit on a recent trip to Norway.
Transport: Ad hoc petrol top-up of boyfriend’s car if using it, around £10 per month (I walk/train everywhere and can go quite some time without using the car).
Other: Google Play Music £9.99, Netflix £5.99, Gym £17.99, Spanish lessons £50.
Day One
8am: Wake to blazing sunshine (cream blinds, it’s a nightmare). Have a shower and eat breakfast of orange juice, toast and marmalade.
10am: Drive to Ikea with boyfriend and sister, spend a couple of hours wandering around and head to the café for a quick pitstop. I have water and can’t resist buying a bag of Daims to share. £5.95
1.30pm: Sister and boyfriend have a dispute about how much stuff can fit in the car, am suddenly left alone in kitchen area of the showroom with two trolleys and no phone signal. Find boyfriend admiring dining room tables and make him push one trolley until we find sister lurking in the garden section, make them apologise and carry on shopping.
2pm: Finally leave Ikea, car full to the brim with house things including unit for the kitchen, lampshades, desk and lots of lovely decorative things. Boyfriend and I spend £349 total, which I put on my credit card; we are keeping track of all decorative expenses and will work out later in the week who owes who what.
3pm: Drop sister and half a car load off and arrive home to find flatpacked bookshelf, my desk and a giant box of cushions have been delivered. Spend the rest of the afternoon putting up furniture, arguing about cushions and snacking on crisps, hummus, carrots and three quarters of a bag of Daims (I’m so ashamed but they are so delicious).
7pm: A family friend arrives to look at the work that needs to be done to the garden, spend an hour or so planning our dream space and then rope him into helping us put up shelves, pictures and installing a new light fitting. Order pizza and I pay to thank him for helping (£36) and the three of us have a feast on the sofa.
11pm: Offer to pay for friend’s time but he insists it's not necessary and we send him on his way happy and full. Head to bed and watch a film on the laptop.
Total: £390.95
Day Two
6am: Wake up to glorious sunshine streaming through the curtains but am gutted that I woke so early on my last day off. Boyfriend is back at work today so try not to disturb him as I gather some clothes for the gym. Grab a pear from the fridge and walk to the gym.
9am: Back from the gym and devour cereal and an apple. Shower and head to the garden centre to pick up some plants (£69.50), soil (£3.59) and a wooden trough (£10.80) I’ve been eyeing up for weeks. Impulsively buy a hosepipe (£10) which is on special offer but very pleased with purchase as everything in the garden is thirsty and starting to wilt. Boyfriend will pay half.
12pm: Pot the flowers in the new trough and different pots in the garden, it makes all the difference and the space looks really lovely and colourful. I can’t wait to get a bench and a table so we can sit out and enjoy the garden properly.
3pm: My mum pops round to bring some pansies and roses that she had left over from planting in her garden, the rose is a shocking pink colour and a climber, it's beautiful. Spend an hour showing Mum around the house. We’ve almost finished decorating and it seems to change from day to day.
4.30pm: Jump in the shower as filthy from the garden, quickly get dressed and pick up boyfriend and two friends from work and head to Birmingham to see Flight of the Conchords.
6.30pm: Meet seven other friends in restaurant before gig, we all eat, drink and have a good catch-up which is lovely as we don’t get to see each other all that often. I have a burger and chips with a lemonade. We split the bill 11 ways (£15 each) and have our parking validated, which takes it from £20 per car to £2!! (£2)
8.05pm: Walk down to join the massive queue for the gig, see several friends and colleagues in the queue and stop to chat and say hello. Finally join the back of the queue, which seems to snake halfway around the arena. When finally in the arena it's so hot I buy the world’s most expensive bottle of water (I try not to buy bottled water as it’s such a waste of plastic) (£3.95) and the next few hours are a blur of laughter and singing along to some of my favourite songs.
11.30pm: Say goodbye to friends and head home. Boyfriend drives, and I end up falling asleep in the back of the car. Drop off two friends and pop into Tesco to get milk and spinach (£2.39).
1am: Pour ourselves into bed and pass out.
Total: £117.23
Day Three
7.15am: Wake up to glorious sunshine and a grumpy boyfriend. Sit in the kitchen and have bacon sandwiches and orange juice for breakfast. Talk about the gig and laugh about the latest gossip from last night. Jump in the shower and walk to the train station, holiday is over and it's back to work!
8.30am: Trains either cancelled or delayed indefinitely so text boss to say that I will be working from home instead of the office today. Pop into Marks and Spencer and pick up some bedding (£58) and some cheese scones, carrots, yoghurts and onions from the food hall (£6.60). Walk home and set up work for the day. Attempt to tackle the 1,238 emails that I received while on holiday (4 days' leave + 2 days' weekend = 206.33 emails received per day, it’s insane!).
1.14pm: Break for lunch, have chicken salad and an apple. Sister pops by for some help with interview prep as she is going for a big promotion and is very nervous. Spend some time in the garden asking her questions and as a reward we have ice cream. I have faith in her, but she is still a bit dubious of her ability to interview well, so set her a task of writing answers to questions while I crack on with work.
5pm: Finish work and go through wardrobe to find a smart suit jacket and shirt for sister. Spend an hour trying on clothes and laughing about how grown-up she feels, reassure her that she will be fine and go through the interview questions again.
6.30pm: Boyfriend arrives home, the three of us cook dinner together (homemade chips, salad and quiche) and eat on a picnic blanket in the garden. Boyfriend spends time reassuring sister about interview and she leaves a little happier at her prospects for the job. Spend the rest of the evening pottering around the house.
10.30pm: Head to bed but it’s so hot in the room that we end up planning our summer holiday and 10 days away in December as well. We are both former backpackers so tend to move around wherever we go but have decided to try a beach holiday in the summer (Croatia) and a backpacking holiday in December (Jordan). I can’t wait and honestly it was a mistake thinking about it as I end up too excited to sleep. We are both feeling the pinch from decorating the house so will book after payday.
Total: £64.60
Day Four
5am: Alarm goes off and it's another beautiful day. We both get up and head to the gym, I grab two cereal bars and an apple and eat one cereal bar and the apple on the walk over. I swim for an hour, jump in the shower and walk to the train station, eating my second cereal bar on the way.
8.50am: Arrive in office and immediately accosted by colleagues to help bring equipment up from the basement so head down to help them carry things. Settle down at my desk and write a blog about our latest volunteer conference and answer emails.
12pm: Break for lunch. It's such a beautiful day that I go and get a burrito from the local food truck (£4.89) with a couple of colleagues and sneak onto the roof garden of the building next door to my office. We spend an hour chatting and then head back inside.
1pm: Continue fighting with my emails (812 to go).
4.30pm: Leave work and walk to the station to catch train home. I love this train as can always get a good seat.
5.40pm: Arrive home, have quick dinner of pasta and salad and then walk into town to meet boyfriend and friends for our regular pub quiz.
7.30pm: Boyfriend buys me a lemonade and pays for my entry into the quiz. We try not to take the quiz too seriously as have never won but I’m pretty competitive and can’t help getting a little sassy during the proceedings.
9.30pm: Quiz is over, we came fifth out of 14 teams; take solace in the fact that we won cinema tickets for identifying the theme tune to Steptoe and Son.
10.30pm: Walk home and each have a cheese scone, grilled in the oven with butter, yum! Head to bed.
Total: £4.89
Day Five
8am: Woken up by boyfriend so we can have breakfast together before he leaves for work. Have toast with marmalade and a fruit smoothie in the garden; it’s another beautiful day and it's payday, so the sun is shining that much brighter! Say goodbye and have a shower. Text sister good luck for the job interview and receive 'I can’t do it' back. Tell her to be brave and to let me know how she gets on.
10am: Log in to work laptop to answer emails (624) and take a call from my manager about how to implement actions and wrangle staff contributions from the volunteer conference last week.
12pm: Pack bag for the weekend and walk to the station. Hop on a train to Birmingham and then to York, charge this journey to the work credit card (£66.20). Buy some picnic food from Marks and Spencer in Brum, again to be charged to my work card (£12.90). I continue to answer emails on the train (498) while snacking but it’s difficult as space is so limited. Receive a call from my sister to say that the interview went well and she thinks she’s got the job (phew!!).
4pm: Check into the hotel and immediately go out. It's such a lovely day and York is so beautiful that I walk around the city walls and have a nose around the centre. Take a call from a friend while walking around who tells me all about her recent holiday and her interview for a master's at Oxford.
7pm: Have a solitary dinner at a Chinese restaurant (work card £19) and then head back to the hotel to prepare for tomorrow's event.
10.30pm: Spend an hour chatting to boyfriend on the phone about our days. He has paid the council tax and water bill (£159.77 each from the joint account, so not included) and wants to book flights for our holidays asap. Decide to book when I get home but task him with finding the best ones to keep him at bay. Head to bed as early start in the morning.
Total: £0 (of my own money, at least)
Day Six
7am: Thank goodness for blackout curtains, manage to sleep in until 7am. Have a shower, pack my things and have breakfast (bacon, eggs, toast and hash browns) to set me up for the day.
8.30am: Check out of the hotel and walk to the venue, meet with volunteers who are excited to see me and have a quick chat about the event and how I can help. Help them set up and then jump on the registration desk. Once everyone has arrived I man an information stand and have some really good conversations with members, including convincing someone to volunteer and to write a blog about their experiences in changing specialities within the profession.
11am: Present a 30-minute update on various aspects of the organisation and its future, take questions, and contribute to panel discussions about the future of the profession and its promotion.
1pm: Duck out of the room to grab some food and head back to the stand for the networking portion of the day. Answer a few more emails (322) and talk to delegates for an hour or so.
3pm: Event over, help the volunteers pack up and bask in the success of the event. Stay for a little party afterwards to celebrate the contribution and success of an exiting volunteer. We have cake, present her with gifts, which include a beautiful scrapbook, and watch a video that the other volunteers have made to commemorate their time together. Contribute to the kitty for her (£10) and the scrapbook (£3.50).
4.30pm: Say goodbye and walk to the station, hop on the train and tackle more emails (229).
8.30pm: Boyfriend meets me at the station and we go for dinner at our local steakhouse. Boyfriend pays, and we have a lovely meal together. We then go for a drink in a local bar, I buy three rounds (£18.30) and we end up staying late and enjoying the evening.
Total: £31.80
Day Seven
9am: Wake up to clouds. Have cereal for breakfast and clean the house. Pack lunch for the day that consists of salad, leftover picnic food from my journey to York, sandwiches and fruit. Resolve to have a 'free day' – no money allowed!
11.30am: Shower and pick up my family dog and brother. The dog is very sweet and is getting a little old but still runs around in circles to greet us whenever we see her. Drive to the Malvern hills and walk to the top of the Beacon; the poor dog gets tired halfway up the hill, so we stop to have a picnic and take in the view.
4pm: Head home, dropping dog and brother on the way. Waste time watching YouTube videos and water the garden.
8pm: Plan our itinerary for Croatia – seven days at the beach, seven days travelling around – and book hotels that are payment on arrival. Work out finances from all the things that we have bought for the house and I am ahead by £1.03 so the money I spent this week is not shared (boo!).
Total: £0
The Breakdown
Food/Drink: £93.08
Entertainment: £0
Clothes/Beauty: £0
Travel: £2
Other: £514.39
Total: £609.47
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