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 am the busiest I have ever been in my life at this current moment. I work full-time with a charity as a financial capability officer which entails delivering financial education in primary schools, high schools and colleges, as well as money management workshops to adult community groups. This in no way means I am amazing with my own money, I just know a lot of different techniques for tracking and keeping on top of managing it, which is useful.
I am also a full-time Open University student, doing my first year of my degree in childhood and youth studies with the goal of being a primary teacher in the next five years. I am taking an odd day here and there off my job to do a voluntary placement in a primary school. Along with working Monday-Friday and studying, I am getting married to my boyfriend soon, which is all very exciting but approaching so quickly with a very long to-do list still to be completed. Like I said, VERY BUSY! I am stepmum to a 6-year-old mini-me who stays with us every second weekend and is my little bestie. My fiancé is a full-time high school careers advisor and works basically every weekend in his other job as a musician in a wedding band."
Industry: Money advice charity
Age: 29
Location: Motherwell, Scotland
Salary: £29,500
Paycheque amount: £1,888
Number of housemates: One and a half (my stepdaughter)
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: £454 – split with fiancé
Loan payments: £158 for my car loan, £140 for my credit card
Utilities: All split with fiancé: Sky TV and broadband £62, TV licence £12.83, gas and electric £62
Transportation: Car insurance £48, petrol £75 (roughly – I get expenses for work mileage, so this varies)
Phone bill: £50
Savings? £250 for wedding, £75 for holiday/hen do – I also do a save the change with my bank account, so it rounds my card spending to the nearest pound and puts the change into a savings pot.
Day One
7am: After a small snooze of my alarm I get up and ache from head to toe. My 6ft New Zealand physio killed me last night with a session to fix my hip, which had seized. I know I sound like my 80-year-old nana but my god it hurts.
8am: Leave the house to drive to the primary school I am volunteering in for the day. I am much more organised than usual and have my lunch packed, a litre bottle of water and luckily petrol in my car (frantic morning petrol runs are becoming too regular at the moment). I will be working with the primary 1s (equivalent to reception class) all day and am really looking forward to it.
12.15pm: Lunchtime and I catch up with my friend who is a teacher at this school. We arrange to meet up soon for her to help me get my head around my next uni assessment as she’s been there very recently. I have my very exciting cheese sandwich and some Frazzles and get a text from Vodafone to tell me I have a VeryMe reward for a Costa coffee.
3pm: Finished for the day and head home via the brand-new Costa just around the corner from our house. Only 45p for the drink thanks to my code. Will need this caffeine boost for the mountain of studying I have ahead of me tonight.
6pm: Start studying after a laze around watching old Grey's Anatomy. Manage to get through a whole lot of online resources and activities about international education. Slightly procrastinate throughout, looking at clothes for our upcoming holiday to Disneyland Paris for my 30th birthday. Resist the urge to hit buy until after payday.
9pm: Finally have some dinner and am tucked up in bed and asleep by 10.30pm – back to sounding like my nana.
Total: 45p
Day Two
6.15am: Alarm is much earlier on work days! Snooze for a little longer than intended but manage to get out of bed, shower, ready and out the door by 7.10.
7.50am: The drive into work is a lot quicker than usual, which means I am early. Park directly across from the office, which costs me £7.40. There is a car park a 10/15-minute walk away that only costs £2.50 but I am still in a lot of pain from physio so opt for the closer one today.
10am: Have been sat at my desk all morning finishing off our monthly newsletter on savings accounts and getting prepped for the primary school I am in tomorrow. Also have a stack of emails I need to reply to so get working on that before my little early finish.
12.30pm: Finish work for the day as had annual leave to use up before the end of the financial year. Go to Country Baskets cash and carry with one of my besties who is one of my bridesmaids to get some wedding inspo. After a good look around but zero purchases our starving stomachs can take no more and we head to Pizza Hut for the lunchtime buffet.
4pm: After a much-needed catch-up and stuffing our faces, my friend and I part ways and I head home. Lunch cost £30 which we split (two buffets, two refillable drinks and two sides 'cause we’re greedy like that), and we had a look around the shops. I saw two dresses and jacket I really liked in Zara and have made a mental note to pop back in to pick these up as soon as I can as they would be ideal with all the events I have coming up this year.
6pm: Procrastinated for a while and watched some Grey's (a theme developing here don’t you think?), then my new strange habit of watching YouTube videos of people either shopping or their shopping 'hauls'. I find it very therapeutic but either it makes me feel like I don’t need to bother going to the shops, or I end up with a list of things I want that I’ve seen in the videos.
9pm: Read some of my child psychology module chapters and work towards my next assessment. Spend time scrolling through social media and chatting honeymoon plans with my fiancé.
Total: £22.40
Day Three (PAYDAY!)
6am: Up EXTRA early this morning to take my fiancé to hospital for a routine procedure. Getting up this early is a killer but I’m winning wifey points.
8am: Arrive at work. Park in the expensive car park again out of sheer laziness but only in for a couple of hours this morning so costs me £3.40. I grab some toast and cheese for breakfast from the café in our building, which costs £1.60, and get started. My manager comes in with two huge boxes of doughnuts for the office as she is Polish and today is Poland’s 'Fat Thursday' – their equivalent of Pancake Day – which means FREE DONUTS, YUM!
12pm: I am in a primary school today and nip out for lunch. Go to local Morrisons and get one of their hot deli dishes to take away. While wandering around I come across the cleaning aisle and for any Mrs Hinch fans out there, I find a Minkeh and Kermit! Far too excited and realise at this point I need to get a life. With cleaning products, lunch and a magazine, my total spend is £13.80.
3pm: Back to the office for the rest of my shift, found a free parking space! Pay my monthly contribution for tea, coffee, milk and biscuits, which is £3. Fiancé has just been taken in for his procedure, not sure when I’m picking him up so decide to stick around Glasgow until I hear from him, which turns into a trip to Primark...
6pm: £100.65 down and an hour late, I leave Primark with a bag full of things. But not for me, no! Clothes for my little stepdaughter for our trip to DLP next month – so many cute Disney themed clothes, I definitely went overboard. Did pick myself up a crop jumper and a nude lipstick. I honestly love Primark’s makeup. At least I’ll be splitting the bill with my fiancé as it's for the little one. Finally heard from him and he is out of surgery and doing fine but cannot be picked up for another three hours so off home for me.
9pm: Off to pick up fiancé from hospital. When I get in the car the low fuel light flashes angrily at me so fill the tank since it's payday, £47.77. Pick up fiancé, he is feeling okay but uncomfortable – I am so glad to get him home.
Total: £120.22 (minus the £50 I’ll get from fiancé for Primark shop)
Day Four
8am: Arrive at work to start my shift (£5.40 parking today) and have a morning roll delivered to my desk – as is tradition on a Friday in our office – which costs £1.20.
1pm: After delivering a money management session this morning I nip and get the best homemade lentil soup from a local deli along with a buttered roll and bottle of Coke. £3.50
3.30pm: We finish an hour earlier on a Friday which makes such a difference. Get a text from one of my bridesmaids who lives around the corner from me, her car is in getting its MOT and she needs some food shopping, can I take her? Of course, I say yes and arrange to get her about 6 when she’s home from work.
6pm: Take my friend to the local Tesco Express. I don’t need anything but spend £4.20 on weekend munchies to fuel my studying.
8pm: Drop my car off at the local garage as it’s been making a horrible growling noise lately – they'll check it for me in the morning. Really hoping this is not going to be an overly pricey thing to fix as I just don’t have the money.
Total: £14.30
Day Five
10am: A very rare lie-in and day of nothing but studying planned.
11am: The garage phones to tell me what needs fixing on my car. Two faults: one major and costing £80, one not so major and costing £200. Opt to get the necessary fault fixed so I’m only paying £80. It won’t be ready until Monday, so I phone my mum and ask to borrow her car on Monday for work. She says yes, as long as I take her to work and pick her up, which is no problem.
5pm: Studied a bit, procrastinated mainly with scrolling through Insta and watching old Grey's again.
7pm: Decide to treat myself to the Zara items I saw during the week and buy both dresses and the coat, £84.97. This is procrastination at its best – me spending money I don’t really have and reasoning that I’m working so hard this year that I deserve a treat.
9pm: Spend the rest of the night sending emails to wedding suppliers to get quotes and prices for cars for the wedding party and buses for our guests.
Total: £164.97
Day Six
9am: Sunday is an extremely lazy day as I have the worst migraine ever. Thank you, hormones and that lovely monthly visitor which has appeared today.
4pm: Have slept on and off all day; just not feeling 100%, which I’m sure a lot of girls can understand on days like this. I drag myself from bed and catch up on new RuPaul's Drag Race on Netflix. Season 11 looks amazing and I am so looking forward to it. My partner and I decide to go for a walk and get some fresh air.
6pm: I decide that the only thing that will satisfy my hunger at this point is a massive pizza so we order a Domino's as my fiancé cannot be bothered cooking either. £20
8pm: We spend the rest of the night honeymoon planning and find hotels we love in Austin and Vegas. We have flights that are perfect times but decide not to book tonight as we want to do some research and see if we can get any discounts. We’ve been to Vegas twice before and just love it, so feel like we can get the best of both with relaxing but having lots to do when we want to. As we both love live music, Austin is a perfect fit – we'll be there while the Austin City Limits Festival is on, which is amazing.
Total: £20
Day Seven
8.15am: Have been up since 6 to get ready and take my mum to work for 8am. I have an hour before I start today so I nip to McDonald's and get breakfast and a coffee. £2.48
12.30pm: In another primary school delivering financial education workshops to the kids, which I really enjoy. Due to work and being out and about a lot I find it hard to bring lunch from home, as I never know if I will have somewhere to store it, so I pop to the local shop and get a small snack and some juice. We have our wedding tasting tonight of four courses, so I don’t want anything big just now. £3.50
5pm: Pick my mum up from work and we get a proper catch-up before heading to the wedding venue for dinner. While driving she reminds me I owe her money I borrowed a few weeks ago, so transfer her £37.
8.45pm: After four delicious courses, wine and canapés, we have made our decisions on what we will serve at the wedding. I am ready to be rolled out of the place as I am absolutely stuffed! My fiancé, little girl and both our mums came and we laughed from start to finish and enjoyed everything we ate, which made the decision much more difficult, but we went with things we are sure everyone will like. This tasting is not included in our wedding package, and comes to £178.61. I am covering this one as my fiancé paid the last couple of deposits on things.
Total: £221.59
The Breakdown
Food/Drink: £233.54
Entertainment: £0
Clothes/Beauty: £135.62
Travel: £143.97
Other: £50.80
Total: £563.93
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