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 we're with a freelance content producer who lives on a houseboat with her husband in London. Although it means her housing costs are cheap, she does have to move every two weeks and pay to get the toilets emptied. So how much does she save in the end?
Industry: Freelance content producer
Age: 32
Location: London
Salary: £35,000
Paycheque amount: £3k average (£0 some months)
Number of housemates: 1 (partner, also freelance, bills etc. split equally)
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: £68.70. I live on a narrowboat, which I own with my husband, so instead of rent or mortgage, we pay a yearly ‘continuous cruiser’ canal licence (£956.74) and boat insurance (£692.45).
Loan payments: £650. I pay a lot towards clearing credit cards but I also spend on another interest-free card and bounce my debt between 0% balance transfer deals. I try not to think about the house of (credit) cards I have built.
Utilities: £90 in winter, £50 in summer (diesel, gas, coal, logs). Electricity is free from our solar panels.
Transportation: £0-£200 depending on where the boat is that month. I bought a secondhand Brompton on Gumtree for £700 after my sixth bike was stolen. If we’re in a central London location I cycle everywhere, but we have to move every two weeks and cover at least 20 miles in a year so there are periods of time we don’t even technically live in London. When we’re on the outskirts, I’ll spend £11.60 a day (the TfL cap) commuting to meetings or shifting in central, or more if I have to get a train in. I need to be in town most weekdays.
Phone bill: £55. I have a £40 a month contract but always need at least a £15 bolt-on because you can’t get regular Wi-Fi on a boat.
Entertainment: £20.98 for my share of Netflix and Spotify and Audible. We share our Netflix login with our friends in return for their Sky Go one.
Savings? £12k but loads of that is saved to pay my next tax bill so I have no idea how much of it is actually ‘mine’. I sometimes google ‘what pension is best for a freelancer’ but have yet to do anything more than this. I have a Help to Buy ISA but there’s nothing in it.
Other: Toilets £12.50. We have to pay to have our toilets emptied. Glam. It costs £25 for both tanks (we’re super fancy and have two loos) and we do it once a month or so.
Laundry £30. We use launderettes as we don’t have a washing machine. To begin with we did it ourselves, but honestly, who has time to sit for three hours watching the machines so no one steals your pants? An Ikea bagful is £30, between two, twice a month.
Fitness £55. I use ClassPass mostly for the posh showers with Cowshed products, and the occasional go on a pair of straighteners.
Day One
7.40am: Wake up. The boat’s a bit cold because we didn’t leave the fire on overnight. Get ready for work, locating clean clothes in the tiny wardrobe, then boil the kettle to wash my face and douse myself in dry shampoo. It’s not a shower day today. Husband can’t get up until I leave because it’s too stressful to have both of us getting ready in the small space.
8.15am: Cycle to the office I’m working at near Oxford Street. Love cycling in London, so much better than the Tube.
8.40am: Hangover kicks in so I buy a flat white and piece of toast and peanut butter from the café next door to the office. Beat myself up about not having a reusable cup (sorry, planet), and forget to ask for staff discount. Do I hate myself? £3.90
12.30pm: One of the girls in the office has a Nando's Black Card and it’s the best thing ever. Order a halloumi and mushroom burger and all the sides, and pay NOTHING. This is LIVING. Shame it’s my last day here.
3pm: Go for another flat white and another takeaway cup as hangover is a day-long one and Nando's has not cured it. Remember discount! £2.47
6pm: Remember I bought half-price Itsu for lunch the other day and rejoice that I left it in the work fridge. Hope it’s not off. Care not as it’s basically free because I paid for it on a different day. Not sure if that counts (FYI it was £2.50 in the half-price sale).
6.15pm: Cycle to Victoria to get the train to roller derby practice in the arse end of nowhere (Carshalton, £11.70 return). Couldn’t pick a closer team as I don’t live anywhere. Buy another flat white on the way because I read that caffeine before you exercise is good, and a Nakd bar for energy. £4.20. Bank transfer the club my £7.50 subs on the way.
9.30pm: Get the train back to Victoria after practice, then cycle back to Little Venice where the boat currently is. Realise it’s half-price Itsu time and seems a shame to waste it. Buy a couple of boxes of sushi. £6.99
10pm: Husband has put the fire on so we enjoy Itsu with alcohol-free beer we’ve had knocking around for ages and watch Netflix. We’ve run out of wet cat food so I give the cat a bit of sashimi as a treat. You can when it’s half-price.
Total: £36.76
Day Two
9am: Working from home today, which is a good job because the water pump is making a weird noise. Panic for a bit, then turn the entire water system off and go on the Facebook boating group to ask if anyone knows someone who can fix boat plumbing. A guy happens to be nearby so he pops in and promptly says it’s knackered and disappears. Not sure what to do with that information and decide to cycle to the library to work. Forget to eat lunch.
5pm: Get a call from the guy, who’s managed to source a new pump and is at the boat. Rush back to let him in. He fixes the pump, but it’s £130 for parts and £70 for labour. And he prefers cash. Ouch. He also diagnoses a future problem with our electrics, which I choose to ignore for the time being. Pay using the joint account. (£100 from me.)
9pm: To celebrate the new water pump we head out to the local pub in Little Venice, which has a regular comedy night. The tickets are pretty steep at £15 but we’ve moored in the area a few times and it’s always been sold out so we’re pleased to finally be making the most of the area. After all, how often are you living in Little Venice? Dinner is wine and a baked Camembert. The show is ace. £21
10.30pm: When we get home I realise it’s too late to wash my hair. Hairdryers are banned on the boat because they use the most electricity of anything in the entire world (apparently) so in the winter I have to sit by the fire until it’s dry, so I don’t sleep with wet hair and die of exposure. Another dry shampoo day it is.
Total: £136
Day Three
8.30am: Buy a giant bottle of dry shampoo on cycle in to the office, should probably add this to essential boat costs tbh. £5.99
1pm: Go to The Detox Kitchen with my friend and stump up £8.50 for a box of salad. What is life? I’m starting to get a caffeine-withdrawal headache so buy a flat white, £2.47, on the way back to the office.
5pm: Get to the Bridge Theatre early so I can do some work, buy a ginger beer for the extortionate price of £3.50. Regret not getting a real beer. Manage to make it last two hours until my friends arrive for pre-show drinks. We’re seeing Julius Caesar and have standing tickets, which my friend bought, so I give her the cash I forgot to bank transfer her (£25, not bad).
7pm: It’s one friend’s first baby-free night since she gave birth so I buy a bottle of wine to celebrate, £21. We forget to eat.
10pm: Show finishes and we are buoyed by the fantastic performance so we divide another bottle between three of us, £7. I am on the edge of being too drunk to cycle home, but I do anyway.
Total: £73.46
Day Four
8am: It’s Saturday but I get up early to work because freelancers don’t do weekends. Tether my laptop off my phone but this job requires significant data and going to a café requires getting dressed, so I just buy a £20 bolt-on to top up my data allowance. Wonder if watching the entire series of The Good Place really used that much data. They’re only 20 minutes each. Can I write that off for tax? I do write about entertainment…
10am: We’ve been at Little Venice for two weeks so it’s boat-moving day today and a couple of our friends have decided to join us, which is such a novelty I go to a Sainsbury’s Local for provisions. I suck up the inflated price because there are no other shops in walking distance. Buy chilled beer and prosecco because we don’t have a fridge, and general snacks, £31.70. Seems rude to ask them to contribute.
12pm: Because it’s the weekend, the canal is busy and we have to get in the queue for the water point to fill up our tank (free, included in our licence). The flow is bad so it takes two hours. We buy coffee and sit on the roof watching the tourists watch us. £2.95
3pm: Friends join and we have an unexpectedly smooth onward journey, securing a rare spot in Primrose Hill. Delighted, we pop the prosecco and sit on the roof, while the cat explores his new territory and poses for photos with the tourists.
4pm: Run out of booze and head to the pub.
5pm: See the incredible roasts going past.
6pm: Eat giant roast sharing platter between four.
7pm: Things escalate.
11pm: Bill arrives and is huge. Put our half (£109.86) on my interest-free credit card because it has the highest limit, and forget to ask husband to pay me back.
11.30pm: Take friends back to the boat to continue afterparty but there’s no booze left on board and we’re all steaming so we have tea instead. Good decision.
Total: £164.51
Day Five
8am: Too hungover to get up and work.
10am: Still too hungover.
12pm: Husband goes to the football and cat refuses to let me go back to sleep so I get up. Decide I can’t do any concentrating work so decide to do boat DIY instead. There is always something boring and practical to do on a boat.
1pm: Make my own coffee like an absolute money-saving guru. Grind the beans (cheaper than pre-ground) in a hand-grinder (not enough electricity for a powered one on board), and use the hob because we don’t have enough electric for a kettle. Can’t make a flat white because despite the McDonald’s ads I still don’t really know what one is. Have it black. It’s delish. Why don’t I do this more?
2pm: DIY requires power tools so I need to turn the engine on (the engine makes electricity as if by magic and means I can use normal 240v appliances). Crouch outside in the rain in my pyjamas, coaxing the 30-year-old diesel engine into life. For a change, it starts first time. I rejoice and spend a happy afternoon with a jigsaw attempting to create a work area for me to write the novel that will make me my millions – because clearly the only reason I haven’t written it so far is the lack of a dedicated space.
7pm: I’ve made a horrendous mess and neither of us has done the washing up so we decide to go out for dinner. We’re in Primrose Hill so google where to go and eat. After all, how often do you get to live in Primrose Hill? Manage to get a table in Lemonia and share bottle of wine, along with the Greek tapas. We put the bill (£98.72) on the joint account.
Total: £49.36
Day Six
8am: Wake up sweating because we left the diesel heater on all night and all the windows closed. This is a wonderful sign of approaching spring.
9am: As it’s lovely and warm I can sit at my excellent new workspace. Immediately get splinter and wish I were better at DIY/could afford to have someone make me a new workspace. Do work that doesn’t require the internet and then spend an hour working on the fabled novel. Don’t eat breakfast but spend nothing.
12pm: Feel incredibly accomplished so celebrate by going to Camden market and buying something nice for lunch, £6.50. When are we ever in walking distance of Camden market?
1pm: Get a flat white, £3, on the way home because I want to be super productive this afternoon so no time for manually grinding coffee beans. Find cat whoring himself out to passing tourists, taking pictures with him in their arms in front of my boat. We should definitely charge for this.
7pm: Cycle to meet one of the teams I work with for drinks and enjoy the rare perk of company-paid prosecco ‘til it runs out. Make my excuses and leave. Cycle home as not too drunk. If only more days were like these.
9.30pm: Nail half-price Itsu on the way home. Winning at life. £6
Total: £15.50
Day Seven
9am: Working from home today. Want a shower but it takes 45 minutes for the water to heat up. Do I need to be clean, really?
9.30am: Realise I haven’t showered in three days (my self-imposed limit) and remember I have ClassPass so decide to go to an off-peak yoga session. Find one five mins' walk away and it’s TriYoga, which has fancy products. Yasss. Congratulate myself for living the #freelancedream.
Accidentally buy £6.95 mylkshake as I’m leaving. It’s delicious. I regret nothing.
12.30pm: Make my own coffee again like a total boss and miraculously find we have both eggs and bread on board so I have eggs and soldiers, then worry about the lack of greens in my diet.
1pm: Go back out to buy a green juice to alleviate health anxiety. Living in zone one is dangerous. They don’t have green juices in zone seven. £6.95
2pm: Decide it’s time to do some work. Realise laptop is out of juice and we’re moored under a tree so the batteries are low. Go to a café near Camden lock to work. Buy most of their cakes and possibly earn less than I’ve spent. £13.50
8pm: Go home when they close and build the fire in the stove for the evening. Use the last of the kindling and notice dwindling bag of coal. Isn’t it spring yet? WhatsApp Pete, who sells everything, and spend the last of my overdraft on three bags of coal and one of kindling, £35. Hope one of the companies I’ve invoiced pays me soon or we might freeze.
After all that I don’t want to cook so I WhatsApp husband to get Itsu on his way home – how often are you in walking distance of an Itsu half-price sale? Do the washing up listening to a podcast, because obviously, we don’t have a dishwasher.
9.40pm: It’s ITSU TIME! Good haul tonight. We have mastered the art of the half-price Itsu sale – hover 15 minutes before, spend 10 minutes being ‘very indecisive’ holding several different sushi boxes, then give up all pretence and sit with them until it’s sale time. He’s put it on the joint account which I never check, so it’s like it’s not real money. (For the purposes of the diary he tells me it was £19.20 between us.)
9.45pm: Use husband’s tablet that has its own internet connection that I don’t understand to watch Sopranos using our friend’s Sky TV login. Husband has bought wine despite being expressly told not to. We finish the bottle.
Total: £72
The Breakdown
Food/Drink: £278.04
Entertainment: £47.50
Clothes/Beauty: £5.99
Travel: £11.70
Other: £204.36
Total: £547.59
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