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 moved to London nearly six years ago, straight from university. I was hellbent on independence post-graduation and my rationale at the time was that if I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I might as well get paid as much as I can while I figure things out. As it turned out, the banking job I landed out of university wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, and I’ve stayed in the industry ever since.
I recently bought a flat in central London with my boyfriend with no help from either of our parents. The deposit and refurbishment costs (it’s a bit of a doer-upper) took a healthy chunk out of our savings, which was a bit scary, but I’ve since managed to rebuild them thanks to last year’s bonus.
Day to day, I’d like to think I’m pretty good with my finances. I grew up in a relatively low-income immigrant household where some degree of penny-pinching was the norm and nothing was taken for granted, and this has rubbed off on me. I keep an eye out for good savings accounts, have recently started taking lunch into work, and spend more time than is normal thinking about my pathway to retirement. That said, I do frequently succumb to 'treat yo'self' moments, which my parents would definitely frown upon, if they knew..."
Industry: Finance
Age: 27
Location: London
Salary: £100k + £100k bonus
Paycheque amount: £4,400
Number of housemates: 1 (boyfriend)
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: £1,260 mortgage (split equally between me and BF)
Loan payments: £70 minimum payment on an interest-free credit card, where I've put a selection of random large purchases. It's nearly maxed out and I'm in no hurry to pay it off – it's interest-free for another two years, and I have enough savings to cover the amount outstanding. I put the money I would otherwise have spent into a savings account instead, so I basically get free money through interest arbitrage. I paid off my student loans a couple of years ago.
Utilities: £380 for council tax/ internet/ gas and electric/ service charge/ TV licence/ home insurance (all split with BF).
Transportation: £80. I top up my Oyster on an ad hoc basis (I have my 26-30 railcard linked to my Oyster, which gets me 1/3 off during off-peak hours).
Phone bill: £69
Savings? Varies month on month, recently it's been around £1,000 due to holidays/ redecorating, but hoping to increase this in the next few months. £400 goes into my pension (taken directly from my paycheque), but this works out to around £1,000 into my pension pot once taxes and work contributions are taken into account.
Other: £50 taxes on private health insurance through work (taxable benefit), £35 ClassPass, £50 local gym, £15 Spotify Family (split between myself and BF), £7.99 Netflix, £14 contact lenses, £0.79 iCloud subscription, £80 cleaner.
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Day One
7.30am: I wake up just before my alarm, which practically never happens. Not that it makes much difference – my boss is away this week and I’m not super busy, so I'm in no rush to get into work. Eventually get out of bed about 45 minutes later, make myself an espresso with a dash of milk using my Nespresso machine (not very eco but very convenient), throw some leftovers into my bag for lunch and head to the Tube.
8.45am: Detour by post office to return an ASOS parcel. I vowed a while ago to shop less and break free from the vicious cycle of fast fashion, but I think all that's happened is that I'm now buying more higher value items and justifying them as 'investment pieces' while still indulging in the odd ASOS/ H&M spree. Goal going forward is just to shop less, period.
8.50am: Jump on the Tube and instead of heading straight to work, decide to stop by a sample sale (so much for that shopping goal). Realise when I get there that it hasn’t opened yet... Maybe the shopping gods are trying to tell me something. (£2.90)
9.30am: That espresso was a while ago now, and I’m starving. Walk past a McDonald's on the way to the Tube station and succumb to temptation in the form of an egg and bacon McMuffin. (£2.39)
12pm: Spent the morning going through emails and working out the logistics of an upcoming business trip. As one of my colleagues pointed out a while ago, we basically come in every morning, sit down and email people who sit 50 metres away from us all day. This morning involved shooting emails to our lawyers and tax team regarding a deal we are looking to sign this week.
1pm: Hold off on lunch and head downstairs to the gym. I tend to go over lunch on most weekdays and find that it’s a great way to break up the day and take some time out for myself. It’s all about balance, right? Work out and...eat at McDonald's.
2.15pm: Shower and head back to my desk. Eat last night's leftovers for lunch while messaging my friend about an upcoming trip to the West Coast of the US. I travel for work a few times a year and it’s always nice to bolt on some additional weekend trips. Work covers accommodation during the week, but I book a couple of nights for a potential weekend trip to a neighbouring city. My plans aren't set in stone yet, but because of the free cancellation policy I can always change my mind. (£339, to be paid later.)
3pm: The afternoon’s punctuated by the arrival of my internet shopping – I tend to get everything delivered to the office since there’s never anyone in the flat to take deliveries. Most of the time it’s bog standard Amazon parcels and ASOS orders, but I did accidentally have a radiator panel delivered last year.
3.30pm: Nibble on some 99% dark chocolate from a work friend (tastes a bit like cardboard, for anyone who’s wondering). It’s been a pretty slow afternoon, so I do some more holiday research. My day job involves analysing companies in detail in order to make an investment decision. It tends to be pretty cyclical and since one of my deals ended up on life support earlier in the week, the last few days have definitely been quiet. I don’t tend to give myself too much grief or feel guilty during the down periods since, when it does get busy, it gets seriously busy.
4pm: Woohoo, email through confirming an insurance reimbursement for a dental hygienist appointment yesterday. Go for a bit of a wander to stretch my legs and grab a snack from the fruit bowl in the kitchen.
6pm: Spend a couple of hours doing work which I probably could have done earlier in the day, including figuring out what happened to the legal docs sent over to the lawyers yesterday afternoon, and shopping for plain white dinner plates. We have some friends coming round this weekend and it’s just dawned on me that we don’t have enough crockery because I accidentally smashed a couple over the past few months...
6.15pm: Call it a day; relatively early finish given the quieter week. Stop by the supermarket near the office for dinner (pizza) plus eggs for breakfast on the weekend, along with spinach, tomatoes and vitamin tablets. I used to be a pretty lousy cook but have recently got into batch cooking. That said, both my BF and I succumb to convenience food every few days. (£11.09, split with BF via Splitwise. We’ve been using the app instead of a joint account for a good couple of years now, only because we still haven’t got around to opening a joint account.)
6.30pm: Head to Argos for the crockery and pick up some milk (which I forgot earlier) along the way (£8.80, split). Book a ViaVan because plates are heavy and ViaVans are cheap (£6.56). End up picking up some flowers from the same supermarket on the way out to replace our dying bunch (£3).
7.30pm: Get home at last and throw the pizza in the oven. I toss together a salad for lunch tomorrow while it cooks, using up some vegetables in the fridge along with olives, couscous and tuna.
11pm: Chill out for the rest of the evening. Spend a few mins every couple of hours on email. It’s a combination of necessity and habit, and it’s not helped by the amount of time I spend on my phone for non-work-related issues too (I’m looking at you, Instagram). Get a bit peckish late into the evening and end up eating the salad I made earlier…
Total: £24.80
Day Two
7.20am: Wake up to the sound of my alarm, earlier than usual due to a breakfast meeting. Drag myself out of bed 10-15 minutes later, feeling abnormally cranky, make a Nespresso and at the last minute help myself to some chocolates lying around in the kitchen. I blame it on PMS, but it’s probably just greediness.
8.30am: Walk to breakfast along the river. We bought our place about a year ago and prioritised location above all else; it’s times like these when it’s totally worth it.
9.45am: Good catch-up with a former work friend over coffee, eggs and smoothies. It’s a relatively small industry and I’m starting to find that the relationships I established earlier on in my career often develop in unexpected ways as people move around. We spend half our time talking about work and the other half sharing gossip (£40, expensed). Get the Tube into work (£1.60 on Oyster).
11.30am: Deal with a few more emails and book a lunchtime class at the gym. There’s a lot of general admin towards the tail end of a deal, and that’s what’s taking up a lot of my time at the moment. The good thing about having a gym close by is that I can be there and back in around an hour. I pop to the supermarket after my spin class and grab a sandwich to eat at my desk. (£2.90)
4.30pm: Suddenly the afternoon has got busier: the counterparty lawyers are saying that their client wants to sign today, and we now have a call at 5pm. Help myself to a peppermint tea from the kitchen and get to work.
6.50pm: Classic Friday fiasco. Last-minute comments to our lawyers on documentation, chasing down internal approvals, etc. Usually I finish a bit earlier on Fridays, but not today. I’m meeting a couple of friends for drinks and dinner this evening, and I head into the supermarket for a bottle of water and a small box of sushi as a snack on my way over. Although we’re going for dinner later, experience has taught me never to go to drinks on an empty stomach. I am not embarrassed to say that I am totally turning into my mother. (£4.40)
7.50pm: Greeted with two large glasses of wine on arrival as my friend took advantage of happy hour for me. Dinner delayed as one of my friends is still stuck at work, and I am so glad for the snack earlier. We grab some small plates at the bar to snack on while we wait; I pay since she got the drinks. (£26.31)
8pm: Dash outside to take another last-minute work call. Luckily I’m not leading this one, as I’m now onto my third glass of wine. BF messages me about breakfast items and picks up some orange juice and bread on his way back. (£1.77 for my share)
8.50pm: Finally DINNER! We missed our reservation so opt for Nando’s instead: fino pitta and sweet potato fries. (£10.40)
10pm: Absolutely knackered so decide to head home. Order an Uber and crash almost as soon as I get back. (£11.61)
Total: £58.99
Day Three
10am: Wake up naturally. I used to be able to have epic lie-ins on the weekends, but have lost that ability. Not a bad thing this morning, since BF and I are meeting my cousin and her husband for lunch in Winchester, about an hour away from London by train. Running a bit late, we decide against making a full breakfast and knock up a few fish finger sandwiches instead. Nothing fancy, just the bog standard frozen Bird’s Eye stuff, which I’m totally addicted to at the moment.
12pm: Get our train, pick up lunches from Pret (£14.83, split) and train tickets (£52.40, split).
2.30pm: We catch up over a pub lunch (£50 for myself and BF, split), followed by a country walk (following in Keats' footsteps!). I love living in a big city but it’s always nice to head out into the countryside – it’s sometimes worth reminding myself how many lovely places there are in the UK.
5pm: Time to head back to the Big Smoke. Check phone for the first time this afternoon and see that a work call for my deal has been scheduled for 6pm. I can probably get away with not listening in, but it could be quite interesting. I dial in as we pull into London.
6.15pm: Pop into a supermarket near the station to buy time since I can’t go underground because of the call. Get some last-minute wine and more food for the party we are hosting tomorrow, as well as dinner tonight (£37.98, split). The call’s running on, and we’re both getting hangry so we decide to get a cab. I’m on Three and the network is a complete fail; for some reason neither of us can get Uber or ViaVan to work. Hanger gets the better of me, and I insist we get a black cab instead. (£23)
6.45pm: Get home, throw a lasagne we picked up earlier into oven and chill out on the sofa for the rest of the night. Travelling is exhausting and we opt for a wild night in front of the TV, feeling very middle aged.
Total: £100.61
Day Four
11am: Despite having an early night, we still have an epic lie-in. Eventually get up and cook a full breakfast with ingredients from Friday (eggs, toast, avocado and smoked salmon), before doing a quick tidy-up before people come round.
2pm: Friends arrive and we crack open the prosecco and wine. Show people round our flat – we moved in a while ago now, but I’ve been reluctant to have people round since I’m paranoid that it’s not quite 'ready' because of the amount of refurb work I thought it needed. A year later, renovations are still ongoing and it’s finally dawned on me that we should probably just get on with it as we’ll probably always have some excuse to put off hosting. Unsurprisingly, nobody is bothered by the fact that we haven’t yet got round to repainting the hallway or changing the carpets, reasons I previously used to put off hosting.
6pm: Spend the rest of the afternoon drinking, chatting and snacking on cheese and meat and hummus. It’s nice to have everyone round, and I vow to do this more often in future. After people head off, we throw everything in the dishwasher, which is a total lifesaver. Quickly knock up a risotto for dinner/ next week with ingredients we already have, while BF does the laundry.
8pm: Not particularly hungry so chill out and make an early start on packing for a work ski trip next weekend. All my ski stuff is in a box under the bed, so it’s just a matter of throwing everything in a suitcase (thank you, past me). I do some quick googling for ski socks but decide to postpone buying until tomorrow because I can’t find wallet. Spend the rest of the evening lounging around.
Total: £0
Day Five
7.50am: The usual start to the week: alarm, snooze, alarm, Nespresso, pack lunch (leftover risotto). Out of the door slightly earlier than usual, leaving some time to dash into the supermarket on the way (£2.90 Tube). Pick up a couple of Greek yoghurts for breakfast and a pack of face wipes for the ski trip. I get free breakfast through work, but it tends to be pretty carby so I usually get my own (£3.59).
12.45pm: Busy morning! I sometimes forget how busy days can be even when I’m between projects. Spend most of the morning on deal admin and making sure we’re okay to sign papers on the deal from last week, along with some other bits and bobs for my portfolio companies.
1pm: Head downstairs for a quick boxing class before a 2pm meeting.
6.10pm: Where did the day go? Finally get a bit of time to myself, so I order some kitchen surface wipes and a pair of ski socks off Amazon (£15.99 + £3 for my share of the wipes).
7pm: Decide to call it a day. There’s always more that I can do and sometimes I have to fight the temptation to stay for another half hour and accept that work is never-ending. What can wait 'til tomorrow will wait 'til tomorrow. Head back on the Tube (£1.60).
7.30pm: Can’t resist the temptation of buying more food (I guess one of the reasons I go to the gym every day is so I can eat more) so pop in and grab some crisps (on offer!), fish fingers and a bag of oranges (£4.65, split). BF also picks up some antipasti on his way back (£3, split).
10.30pm: Come back to a dinner of pizza left over from the get-together on the weekend, which BF has already heated up. Whoever’s back first usually sorts out dinner, but often this just means heating something up as we do most of our cooking on the weekends. Head to bed early and catch the first episode of the latest season of The Bachelor. First time I’ve watched this, and damn is it entertaining! Drop a reminder in my calendar for tomorrow’s episode, much to the chagrin of BF.
Total: £30.91
Day Six
8.50am: Late start for no good reason, I just really struggled to get out of bed. It’s fine though, since I have no meetings this morning and nothing urgent to do. My team is pretty flexible on start times, and people generally show up anywhere between 9 and 9.30; I’m probably at the later end of the spectrum today. I make myself a Nespresso, pack lunch (more risotto) and get on the Tube (£2.90). Help myself to another coffee at work to try and wake myself up a bit.
10.30am: My phone tells me that the Outnet has a sale on. Damn you, app notifications. I haven’t bought that much stuff from the site in the past, but have a browse anyway. Luckily for my bank balance, nothing catches my eye.
12.30pm: Gym time. Notice a pancake stand in the office as it’s Pancake Day, and make a mental note to come back post-gym. Unfortunately I come back too late and miss out on free pancakes. Genuinely a little bit upset, especially since I more than earned it after a super tough spin class.
2pm: Eat lunch in the kitchen with my colleagues and discuss Free Solo, the film about the guy who climbed El Capitan in Yosemite without ropes. It’s absolutely insane, and insanely good – I have no idea how he does it, my palms were sweating just watching him.
3.30pm: Large Amazon order arrives...and unfortunately I ordered the wrong kitchen wipes. Reorder correct ones while trying to unsuccessfully return incorrect ones. Oh well, I’m sure we’ll find a use for them (£8, split).
6.55pm: Call it a day and head home after a surprisingly busy afternoon. While I wait for the Tube, I check the technical definition of 'off-peak' which, even after nearly six years of living in London, I am still a bit confused about. Turns out the fare charged depends on when you tap in, which means I could have saved myself over a quid by hanging around for a few more minutes. Every little helps, right? (£2.90)
7.30pm: Stop by the supermarket again and pick up some stuff that I forgot yesterday (sponges), some stuff that I thought could be useful (tissues, rice) and a cottage pie for dinner, just because (£8.50, split). BF is out with friends this evening, so I heat up dinner for one while tossing together a tuna salad for lunch tomorrow.
9.30pm: Knock up some pancakes! I demolish half as soon as they're ready and force-feed BF the rest as soon as he’s back. Fed and watered, just in time for the next episode of The Bachelor …
Total: £14.05
Day Seven
8am: Try to get up somewhat promptly. I have back-to-back meetings this morning and it would be good to have some time to prepare. Nespresso, pack the salad I made yesterday and head for the Tube (£2.90).
10.30am: Coffee meeting with a contact in the industry. The café we agreed to meet at is packed so we head elsewhere. Grab a coconut water (expensed).
12pm: Eat the egg in my salad before jumping on another call. I’m going to a HIIT class directly after, so need something to tide me over until lunch.
2pm: Crazy tough class, partly because of how exhausted I was after the session yesterday! Inhale food and begin working on some slides for a meeting tomorrow morning.
4pm: Decide to book myself a manicure ahead of our work ski trip tomorrow. The old polish on my nails is starting to chip, which really bothers me. Head to a salon for a basic shape and polish since I’ve got a bit of free time this afternoon (£10). Stop at the travel money place on my way back and pick up some euros too. I have a no-fee travel credit card, but it’s always nice to have some cash on hand for a coffee or Aperol on the mountain (£100).
7pm: Decide to go home. Pick up protein bars and snacks for the trip tomorrow on my way (£12.50), along with some general food shopping (£5.46, split). I’ve probably bought way too many snacks for the trip, but I’d rather not run the risk of hanger and, besides, both of us will happily eat anything that’s left over. Hop on the Tube (£1.60).
7.30pm: Get back just before BF, who went to the gym, so I’m on microwaving duty tonight (paella from the freezer). I finish packing ahead of tomorrow’s flight and cuddle up with BF for, you guessed it, another episode of The Bachelor.
Total: £129.73
The Breakdown
Food/Drink: £132.03
Entertainment: £0
Clothes/Beauty: £25.99
Travel: £86.67
Other: £114.40
Total: £359.09
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