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 23-year-old living in West Yorkshire, a year out of university and working in the banking sector as a complaints manager. She recently bought her first house for her and her mum, after years of renting.
"Me and my mum try and juggle the bills and household costs between us; we try and keep this separate from our mother-daughter relationship (this can be extremely difficult sometimes as my mum doesn’t work due to her mental health). We also car share. Money can be a sensitive subject in my house, as I earn more money than my mum gets each month, which can leave me feeling guilty about spending money. It also means I try and pay for anything and everything I can so my mum doesn’t have to. While our situation isn’t a usual one, it works well for us. When I bought our house it meant that my mortgage payments were half our rent."
Industry: Banking
Age: 23
Location: West Yorkshire
Salary: £16,500 (plus a yearly bonus and overtime)
Paycheque amount: £1,300 this month
Number of housemates: One, my mum. And my dog.
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: Mortgage £348.20
Loan payments: £100 towards my credit card and £100 towards a loan payment for my new car.
Utilities: Gas, electric, TV licence and internet covered by my mum as part of our housing arrangement.
Transportation: £40 fuel each month (car tax and insurance paid yearly on my credit card) and £60 for my bus pass to work.
Phone bill: £16.50 sim only contract
Savings? Having just bought my house I depleted ALL my savings and then some. I’m now trying to get back into the habit of saving, after having a couple of months splurging.
Other: £22 house insurance, £5.99 Netflix, £9.99 gym membership. My mum contributes around £200 per month towards the mortgage and car.
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Day One
9am: Wake up early, feel awful as I caught a chest and lung infection on holiday in Turkey and was discharged from a four-day hospital stay two days ago.
10am: Visit the doctor who recommends I stay off work for at least a week. Call work who have been surprisingly supportive and let them know I won’t be back until next Monday.
12pm: Mum makes lunch of chicken and chips. Immediately need a cat nap.
4pm: My friends text me about our trip to London on Saturday for a concert. Realise I haven’t even thought of what to wear. Decide I’ll wear something from home as I’ve bought way too many clothes recently not to have something I could wear already.
5pm: Cuddles on the sofa from my dog for the rest of the evening.
11pm: Realise I forgot to take my antibiotics. Spend the next three hours feeling sick because they're stuck in my throat.
Total: £0
Day Two
12pm: Wake up still feeling like death. Decide to have another day in front of the TV in PJs, binge-watching Lucifer.
3pm: Realise I’ve been paid today and I’m due to send my second deposit for my holiday in March by the end of the month. Message my friend and transfer the £125.
5pm: Best friend messages me regarding her birthday party next month. Panic that I haven’t thought about arranging her birthday present. Quickly get online to try and sort it out.
7pm: Find a girl on Depop selling Glamglow masks very cheap, and remember my friend saying she loved the one I got for my birthday. End up purchasing three for £53. Usually £49 each in Boots. Two for me, one for her.
8pm: Decide to also buy her a Morphe palette as part of her present. Order two as I can’t decide on the colours. She’s trying to improve her eye makeup and I did promise to get her an eye makeup lesson for her birthday, but all the ones I’ve seen are so much more expensive than I realised. So I decide to get her that at a later date and make part of it her Christmas present. £38
Total: £216
Day Three
8am: Wake up, roll over, back to sleep.
11am: Decide I need to make a move as I’m doing a friend's hair extensions later. Head to the kitchen for beans and toast. Sit down and drop my plate all over the floor and myself. What. Is. Life.
2pm: Finally ready, realise it's pouring with rain and windy AF but I need to change the number plates on my car. Free blow dry. Yay! Head to the post office and send my doctor's note into work. £1.77 first class recorded.
5pm: Finish doing my friend's hair, she gives me £45 to fit her a full head of micro bond hair extensions (probably a third of what she would pay at a salon). Wondering why I never decided to make a go of it as a business but realise I’m just happy with the extra couple of quid every now and then.
5.30pm: Treat myself to a burger and chips, £4.59. I eat it in the takeaway car park like some sort of criminal. Immediately feel bad as my mum texts to say have a safe journey home and that she has made food for me. *cries*
7pm: Decide I want ice cream and we have none, still feeling guilty from earlier so I treat my mum and brother to ice cream from the ice cream parlour around the corner, £6.60. Spend the rest of the evening cuddled up with my dog on the sofa.
Total: £12.96
Day Four
11am: Wake up and head into town to get my nails done. Realise I’m starving and should probably have eaten before I left the house. Grab a toastie and hot chocolate from Costa, only £4.95 if I get a packet of crisps too.
1pm: Finish getting my nails done and pretend I love the colour (burgundy/red) even though I’m pretty sure I hate it. £22
1.30pm: Head to Primark to buy some tights and some ankle boots for my trip to London tomorrow, £10.50. Also grab us some snacks for the journey and three umbrellas so we don’t get drenched queuing up. £8
2pm: New lip balm from Boots, this weather is making my lips 100 times more dry than usual. £2.69
3pm: Mum asks me to collect my brother's retainer from the dentist. Arrive and they’re closed. Nip across to Home Bargains and grab a case of Lucozade so it wasn’t a complete waste of a journey. £3.50
5pm: Decide I should probably have a bath and pack my case for tomorrow as we are leaving early.
9pm: Stress because I literally threw things into my case and I’m not quite sure I’ve packed everything. Too tired to care. Hot chocolate, biscuits, then bed.
Total: £51.64
Day Five
9am: Make a hot chocolate and pack the cookies my mum made for the four-hour journey down to London. Give £20 to my friend for petrol.
10.30am: Arrive in Leicester to collect our other friend and go for some food. Get a tuna and sweetcorn baguette and a drink. £5.25
2pm: Arrive in London and check into the hotel. Hotel and tickets for the concert we’re going to were paid for two months ago. We forgot to add late check-out, which I split with my friend who I’m sharing a room with. £5
4pm: Decide we are starving and order a pizza, chips and garlic bread to share. Also get two drinks. £15 for my share.
5.30pm: Get a taxi to the arena, which my friend pays for. I agree to pay for the taxi back.
11pm: Had a great time. Head to Tesco and get drinks and snacks for the way home tomorrow, witness a girl try to get in and the security guard almost crush her in the doors trying to keep her out. £4
12am: Order food to the hotel and pay for half the taxi back. £12.50
Total: £61.75
Day Six
12pm: Wait for my friend to wake up so we can order food as I’m starving. Decide to order bagels from UberEats. £6
2pm: Check out of the hotel. Our other friends woke up earlier than us and went for breakfast, which means they’re now hungry. Head to Nando's and get a chicken in pitta with chips and a drink. £12.65
5pm: Drop my friend off in Leicester and head to Costa for a pit stop before continuing our journey. Get a hot chocolate. £2.65
7pm: Arrive home and head straight to bed. Long drives are exhausting.
Total: £21.30
Day Seven
12pm: Wake up after a restless night. Have an extra lie-in as I’m back at work tomorrow. Remember I need to make a doctor's appointment before going back.
3pm: Head to the doctor, who advises me not to go back to work as I’m not fully recovered. The doctor schedules some more tests at the hospital for tomorrow. Yay.
3.30pm: Speak to my friend and have a little cry that I still can’t go back to work.
5pm: Decide to do something useful and do the weekly shop. Buy fruit and chocolates, as well as some basics so we can make some different meals during the week. Why is cheese so expensive? £22.67
7pm: Eat and spend the rest of the evening being lazy and looking at new décor for the house. Decide it's too expensive to redecorate just yet as I’ve not been able to do any overtime.
Total: £22.67
The Breakdown
Food/Drink: £95.86
Entertainment: £0
Clothes/Beauty: £126.19
Travel: £32.50
Other: £131.77
Total: £386.32
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