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 a Canadian/German immigrant living in Edinburgh. I work in commercial archaeology; I started off as a digger for two and a half years on temporary contracts before transitioning to a permanent office job (at an archaeology company) that's higher paid and requires less travel but means I spend almost no time doing fieldwork, my original passion. My new role involves training people and doing various marketing things because I am somewhat savvy on social media. Having spent a few years in school getting degrees I am now just trying to focus on saving money for future life events (eye surgery, house, wedding, etc.) but am finding it surprisingly hard to rein in spending now that I don’t have to live on a shoestring budget or worry about not having work next month/week (yay for a permanent contract!)."
Industry: Archaeology/Heritage
Age: 29
Location: Edinburgh
Salary: £23,000 – with potential for bonuses
Paycheque amount: £1,540
Number of housemates: 1 – my partner (R)
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: £432.50. We pay £865 a month for a two-bed which is about the low to middle end of the spectrum in Edinburgh.
Loan payments: None at the moment. My parents helped out with university and I have an agreement to pay them back but only when I am financially stable enough to do so (they'd rather I worry about buying a house first).
Utilities: £105.50 – council tax, internet and gas/electricity (my partner insists on a quarterly power bill so I set aside money for it each month).
Transportation: £53 a month for my Ridacard, luckily there is a bus that goes almost straight from my house to work. We have a car but my partner likes to pay all the insurance/road tax for it annually instead of monthly; he is also the one using it 95% of the time so usually pays for the petrol. I still get anxious driving manual (the cars I drove back home were automatic) so I am trying to make myself drive more.
Phone bill: £31.04
Savings? Varies. I try to at least put a couple hundred pounds into my savings each month, but I usually have SOMETHING to pay off. Right now I’m trying to get rid of credit card charges from our trip to Canada for Christmas and save up to have eye surgery in May (I'm not eligible for Lasik so have to get something much more expensive). I’m also putting aside £50 a month right now for spending money on a holiday I have booked in June for my 30th birthday (going to Turkey with my best friend – so excited!).
Other: Stair cleaning £3, Netflix £4, camera insurance £3.49, Historic Scotland membership £3.91, gym £58, sewing class £94 every eight weeks.
Day One
6.45am: Alarm goes off, snooze.
7am: Get up, put on my swimsuit and head to the gym for a morning swim. Put in a half-hour with a mix of lengths and synchronised swimming exercises. Shower, get dressed and head home; getting to work from home today – yay! This is one major perk over working in the field. I used to be away for work from Monday to Friday every week, the fact that I now get to come home and actually live in the place I pay for and see my partner every day is such a nice change.
8.30am: Cook myself a treat breakfast of streaky bacon, Ikea potato rostis, OJ and French vanilla coffee. Settle in at my desk and spend my morning working on training materials.
1pm: Grab some garlic and coriander poppadums from the kitchen as a snack instead of lunch so that I can finish early. Snack at my desk for the rest of the afternoon.
2pm: Dip into my Mini Eggs stash for some sugar.
4.45pm: Cook dinner for me and R: various pasta (truffle and porcini ravioli, spinach and ricotta ravioli, gnocchi) and homemade tomato sauce with a little bit of parmesan. Watch the final season of The Office while we eat.
5.50pm: Leave for my weekly sewing class. I made myself a '30 before 30' list which included making a very fancy dress. I had never touched a sewing machine before but luckily a lady offers dressmaking classes just down the street from me. I might not finish the dress on time but I’m learning a new, useful skill and I enjoy the chat with all the girls.
8.40pm: Back home from sewing. R is out for his friend’s birthday so sit in front of TV and put on a Netflix documentary about Kevyn Aucoin, and waist-gather the skirt for my project.
Total: £0
Day Two
7.15am: Alarm goes off, roll over for a quick snuggle with R before getting up and heading to work.
8.30am: Stop at Bayne’s for a yum yum (80p) and head into office. Turn on my computer and go to the kitchen to make a hot chocolate. I try not to drink coffee on a regular basis so that I don’t end up relying on it to wake me up but since it’s winter I do enjoy a hot drink at my desk in the morning; I’m also not really into tea (sorry Britain!). I usually eat breakfast at work, lately I’ve been bringing in food but we haven’t been grocery shopping in a while, hence the yum yum. It is indeed yum yum.
8.40am: Head into morning meeting with a project manager to review our training materials.
12pm: Order Domino's lunch special – a personal pizza with chorizo and pepperoni for £2. Domino’s is around the corner from my office; I HATE making lunch and dislike most 'lunch' food (ie sandwiches; not big into salads either) so I treat myself once a week to the pizza deal.
4.15pm: Finish work and on the way home go to bank and deposit £106 in change (I recently opened my £2 coin piggy bank and obsessively collect and count my change) to help pay off some of my credit card bills so that I can save more of my paycheque this month for my deposit when I get my eyes fixed in May. We did Christmas in Canada this year which always has a ripple effect on my bank account for a few months after.
6pm: Head down to the Scottish Borders with R for a friend's birthday party who lives in the same town as R's parents.
6.35pm: Stop at McDonald's for dinner. R very generously treats me, I get a chicken McNuggets meal while he gets some fancy burger.
8pm: Arrive at friend's for birthday drinks. Have a few glasses of wine/prosecco and a nice time catching up with everyone before falling asleep on the couch at about 1am.
2.30am: R wakes me up to go back to his parents. He isn’t a huge fan of drinking (rough hangovers + money for drinks puts him off) so always volunteers to drive, which is very considerate. Feel very grumpy and dry-eyed (contacts are still in) on the 10-minute drive to his parents. Arrive and get ready and go to bed as quietly as possible.
Total: £2.80
Day Three
8.18am: Wake up as R gets out of bed (needs his breakfast, the man is a slave to his stomach) and check phone; too early to be up, roll over and go back to sleep.
9am: R comes back to bed for a snuggle.
11am: Finally get up and dressed, take some ibuprofen for my hangover and go chat to R and his mum for a bit.
1.45pm: Head to Melrose to watch rugby with friends. I haven’t had breakfast so order some chicken goujons with chips and salad for lunch (£11.15) and buy a book on my phone’s Kindle app ( Hunter’s Oath by Michelle West, £4.55) for stealth reading when everyone is really into the game. Give R some of my food to tide him over until the half-time pies come out.
5pm: Home after the rugby. R is really craving some ice cream so we each get some, his treat. I get a scoop of chocolate fudge brownie and it is amazing.
6pm: Stop at Waitrose on the way back (not our normal shop but it is directly on our way home). Buy £10 Indian dinner deal (chicken tikka masala, chicken korma, onion bhajis and samosas) plus a few other necessities (milk, tea, etc.). Comes to £28.25, we will half the total cost but for now it goes on the Amex.
7.15pm: Get home and unpack, make some rice and heat up our Indian food, eat while watching Grand Designs.
10.30pm: Go to bed and fall asleep around 11pm.
Total: £29.83 (only counting half the groceries)
Day Four
8am: Snooze alarm, just 15 more minutes…
8.15am: It’s pastry Sunday! Get up, put on sweatpants and a sweater and go get pastries from bakery around the corner. Get an almond croissant for R and a swirly thing with chocolate chips for me (£3). Come home and snuggle in bed for a bit.
9.05am: Get out of bed, make special Maple Spring coffee (from Canada), eat breakfast together and watch another episode of Grand Designs (I am so sick of timber cladding).
10.35am: Head to the gym to meet friend for a workout. She likes to do a spin class but I almost vomited the last time I tried it so instead I warm up with the elliptical and do machine weights until she finishes. We change and have a quick swim, then hot tub. After we’re done, she kindly invites me to hers for tea and cake instead of going out, which was the original plan. Have tea and lemon drizzle cake while watching Say Yes to the Dress.
2pm: Stop at Lidl for some food on the way home. Pick up a croissant for tomorrow’s breakfast plus sausages, a stroganoff instant meal and Scotch bonnet crisps (£5.42).
3.20pm: Time for video games! Recently borrowed Shadow of the Tomb Raider (I am aware of the irony) from a friend and am close to finishing. Can’t decide how I feel about it, the graphics are great and it’s fascinating to see Maya/Inca/Aztec cultures 'recreated' visually but the story is a bit weak, super gory (dead bodies EVERYWHERE) and there is no Croft Manor to play around in like the older games.
6.20pm: Make dinner: pasta and tomato sauce. Use as much leftover stuffed pasta as possible and add some chopped chipolata sausages. Watch the Fyre Festival documentary on Netflix everyone has been raving about.
9pm: I’m away from Monday to Thursday this week (site visit, yay!) so I pack my bags to take into work tomorrow as I’m leaving straight from the office.
10pm: In bed, read for a bit before falling asleep around 10.45pm.
Total: £8.42
Day Five
6.45am: Up and into work early as I have a meeting first thing.
8.15am: Eat Lidl croissant at desk with hot chocolate and go straight into morning meeting.
12.30pm: Steal a slice of pepperoni pizza to eat at my desk. We have lunchtime CPD talks every once in a while and as a bribe to attend they provide pizza. I usually go but I have so much to do before my train today, I can’t afford to take the half hour off.
2pm: Head to train station, pick up lunch at KFC, a medium popcorn chicken meal with gravy for dipping (£5.19). I’ll get this money back through my subsistence pay (£15 a day) for staying away from home.
2.30pm: Find out that my train ticket was booked incorrectly and the machine won’t let me pick it up. Call the office frantically to get it sorted before my 2.52 train.
2.52pm: I made it! Our lovely office admin girl got it sorted straightaway; still had to hoof it to the platform but I make it on time and settle into my first class seat (it was only £6 more than standard when we booked it; you get free food and drinks so managed to convince my manager it was worth the extra few pounds – archaeologists never usually get to travel in 'luxury' so this is a nice treat).
6pm: Trolley comes around with drinks, don’t mind if I do!
7.30pm: Arrive at hotel, shower and spend evening watching TV/YouTube. Between the train and my lunch I’m not hungry enough for dinner. Call R to say goodnight before going to bed around 10.30pm.
Total: £0 (since I will get the money for my food back from work)
Day Six
6.45am: Up and at 'em! Put on my badly fitting hi-vis trousers (they’re supposed to be a ‘ladies’ style but they still don’t fit right) and other work gear then go downstairs for breakfast. It’s a cooked buffet so I help myself to sausages, bacon, mushrooms, hash browns, a croissant and apple juice in order to get away with not having lunch. Practically skip my way to site, I’m so excited to be out of the office. I took my current job so that I could have better pay and more time at home; it is nice to be indoors on a horrible winter day instead of slogging it out in the mud trying to meet deadlines, but I really miss digging. I chose to get into commercial archaeology instead of academia because I enjoyed digging much more than writing papers, but career progression can be slow and after all the time I’ve spent in school I didn’t want to wait another few years for a field promotion. So when this job came up I just couldn’t say no. I don’t regret the choice but I jump at any chance to pick up a trowel and spend my day in the dirt.
8am: Arrive on site and get briefed. Spend morning getting a site tour and assessing the progress of some of the junior staff. Moan a lot about how I wish I could just dig for a day.
12pm: Have Kit Kats from hotel for lunch.
2.30pm: Free Krispy Kreme! Someone brought doughnuts to site and they are passed around, I grab a plain glazed one as they are my favourite.
4.15pm: Back at hotel, have a quick shower and walk around town for a bit to explore. Resist buying some bras at Victoria’s Secret and a new pair of shoes since it’s the day before payday and I’m skint. Tell myself I can buy these things at any time and I don’t NEED them (as in current bras and shoes aren’t falling apart).
6pm: Meet co-worker outside hotel and head to Wetherspoon for dinner with colleagues. It’s steak night (I am not a steak connoisseur so cheap Spoons steak is good enough for me). I get the 8oz sirloin with chips, mushrooms, peas, onion rings, peppercorn sauce and a pint of cider (£10.59). Since this is under my £15 limit I have wiggle room for a more expensive meal tomorrow night when my friend visits.
9pm: Surprisingly tired considering I didn’t do much physical work today. Call R to say goodnight, watch some YouTube and go to bed. Fall asleep at 10pm.
Total: £0
Day Seven
6.45am: Alarm goes off, snooze for 10 minutes.
7am: Time to get up and get ready for work, meet co-worker downstairs at buffet and stuff face with cooked breakfast, apple juice and add a bowl of fruit for some nutrition.
8am: Arrive at work and start day with assessments and shadowing co-worker.
10am: First break, eat half a Nature Valley maple syrup bar that past me put in my bag and a banana generously donated by a co-worker.
1pm: Lunchtime! Eat the rest of Nature Valley bar to keep me going until the end of day when I can have real food. Spend most of afternoon in office working on training materials.
3.15pm: Sneak in some fieldwork helping sieve some samples, yes!
4pm: Head to pub for a drink with some people from work. Half pint of cider is generously paid for by co-worker and I buy myself some chips, cheese and gravy (aka poutine) to tide me over until I can have proper dinner. Don’t intend to eat the whole thing but then it somehow disappears (£3.50).
6pm: Back at hotel for quick shower and change of clothes before meeting friend. She recently moved down south and is only an hour away by train so we thought we’d meet up while I was in town. Go to Wagamama, I have chicken raisukaree and a Coke, it’s delicious! (£15.60)
8pm: While in search of dessert and a quieter place to chat I hear the siren song of Tim Hortons and answer the call of my homeland. Get a chocolate dip doughnut and a 20 pack of Timbits for people at work tomorrow to say goodbye/reinforce the stereotype of Canadian niceness. Grumble about how there are Tim Hortons everywhere but Edinburgh. (£6.78)
9.22pm: Arrive back at hotel, there is a police car across the street talking to some people, try to eavesdrop from my room but I’m too far up to catch any details. I’m going home tomorrow but decide to put off packing until the morning. Call R to say goodnight, put on a face mask, read, take off face mask, and go to sleep around 10.45.
Total: £10.88 (with £15 deducted for subs)
The Breakdown
Food/Drink: £47.38
Entertainment: £4.55
Clothes/Beauty: £0
Travel: £0
Other: £0
Total: £51.93
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