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 business development manager in London. She has recently returned to work full-time after one year’s maternity leave so is really trying to balance work and life, put time into her relationship and maintain friendships. She returned to work willing to put everything in but worries she has gone backwards. In her spare time she tries to fit in exercise but on the weekend her priority is spending time with her family, followed by trying to see friends.
Industry: Consumer Goods
Age: 31
Location: London
Salary: £62,000 but I share a bank account with my husband. We both put 100% of our salary in there and he earns significantly more than me and theoretically we go by ‘what’s yours is mine’ so I’ll add his salary in there, too. For the purposes of this diary I have included shared expenses but not his day-to-day spending. His salary is £121,000 so together that is £183,000.
Paycheque amount: £3,772.58 + £6,401.92 = £10,174.50
Number of housemates: Two. My husband and my toddler.
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: Rent £1,950
Loan payments: I still owe on my student loan in Australia where I studied. I haven’t paid it since I moved to the UK but the government changed its policy so I now pay it back at the end of each tax year in one lump sum. We don’t have credit cards.
Utilities: I pay everything in one go when it comes in so I don’t see it as a monthly cost, rather as an extenuating cost for the month when they come in. We pay £900 council tax and about £1,000 bills per year.
Transportation: £60 petrol per month. Husband spends £140 on Tube for work.
Phone bill: £15 per month. I also have a work phone but choose to have a separate personal one. Husband just has one phone that is covered by work.
Savings? Because we don’t have credit cards, we have some savings that we can transfer over to our everyday account if we have a big unexpected expense or are running low towards the end of the month that I then immediately top up at pay day and which then affects the amount I can actually save each month. We own a house in Australia that is rented out. The rent covers the mortgage but I count my ‘savings’ as the amount that I transfer in extra to pay off the mortgage faster each month. On average it is about £2,700.
Other?
-Nursery fees £1,750. High but it’s the going rate in our area. A friend said you should see nursery as an investment into your future career but I also know that we are really lucky to be able to manage this. I met a lot of mums on my year off who could not return to work as they couldn’t justify the nursery fees. Also not sure what we will do once we have two children...
-Cleaner every two weeks £66 (£33/session)
-Netflix £7.49
-Amazon Prime £6.58 (£79/year) – Husband signed up to the 30-day free trial and forgot to unsubscribe. I have to say it has been pretty convenient though!
-Husband has Apple music £9.99
-Gym membership: I pay £15 subsidised gym membership as a work perk and then pay for ad hoc classes on the weekend, husband’s gym membership £140
Day One
7am: We sleep in! Baby (B) usually wakes up 5.30-6 but today she decides to sleep until 7. This is great but we then rush around getting ready. I eat homemade granola while husband (H) and B have porridge. I fold some dry washing, put it away, try to tidy up and get dressed while getting chased around by a toddler with various books that she wants me to read to her. We make it out of the house by 8.15 and walk together to drop her at nursery whereby H continues to the train and I return home as I am working from home today (yay!).
11.36am: The morning is almost over and I have just been on conference calls all morning! (Still productive, right?) It is my aunt’s birthday on Sunday and I need a present. She has a great career and has pretty much everything she wants/needs so I get her a gift that will hopefully make her feel good and do good for someone too. Sponsor to train an apprentice on Good Gifts and add on eight bowls of rice for £1 (they are good at add-ons!). £46
12pm: Look through the fridge to find something for lunch. End up with some olive bread, hummus, cheese and an egg. Have a dessert of two pfeffernüsse, which are German holiday cookies.
2.39pm: Make a rooibos tea and sit on the couch going through emails while watching Say Yes to the Dress as a mini break from work. It must be an old one, the fashions are highly questionable.
4.20pm: It is Friday and I have a self-imposed finishing time of 4pm on a Friday. I quickly run to the shops before going to get B from nursery and begin the nightly dinner/bath/bed routine. I get chicken breasts, bananas, olive oil and a bunch of other things too banal to mention (£22.58). I then buy a little Christmas gift for my cleaner from Clinique as it is the last service before Christmas next week and they are having 10% off. £13.50
8.30pm: Watch some Netflix while painting my nails and wearing a sheet mask before going to bed at about 9.30.
Total: £82.08
Day Two
6am: Baby alarm clock goes off. It is my turn to get up because H and I alternate who gets up with her. We share a banana, some toast and egg then spend the morning face-timing family overseas.
9.10am: Remember my brother is coming over this afternoon so make a batch of blueberry muffins as I have all the ingredients at home already.
10.30am: Head to a children’s birthday party. I had already purchased the gift so this is free. I make some awkward small talk with other parents that I have nothing in common with apart from the fact that we have a child roughly the same age.
1pm: No food for adults so I eat a chocolate bar from the party and an emergency Naked bar in my bag.
2pm: I sit in the car as B is asleep and I really don’t want to wake her. I read an outstanding article about the takeover of the sandwich in British culture on the Guardian (sounds boring, was SO interesting!) and ask H to come wait in the car so I can go and rustle up something to eat from whatever is in the fridge. End up with avocado and cottage cheese.
3.30pm: Brother comes over to play with B. He feeds her too much muffin and I drink an Earl Grey tea.
6pm: Make an early dinner that we eat with B. I make some chicken schnitzel with the chicken I bought yesterday that we eat with veggies and I have a muffin and some dark chocolate for dessert.
Watch a couple of episodes of Family Guy before going to bed at 9.30pm.
Total: £0
Day Three
8am: Wake up, make a smoothie with banana, frozen berries, yoghurt and cinnamon and pour it over the last of my granola. Remind myself to make another batch later. Drink some breakfast tea and write a meal plan for the week with corresponding shopping list. I do this every week because it’s more efficient to know what you are going to cook when you get home from work and it minimises food waste at the end of the week, which is something I hate.
10am: Go to a ballet barre class at a new studio near my house. I have a trial session so this time it is free but if the class is any good I might return as a paying customer.
11.30am: Stop by Whistles to pick up a dress I ordered on Black Friday. I saw it in summer and loved it but had nowhere to wear it. I got it on sale from £200 to £85, which I thought was a great deal and justified it by telling myself I can wear it to an upcoming wedding in spring next year. Free today as I had already paid. Pop into Boots to get some Nurofen. £2.99
12.30pm: Meet some friends for lunch at a local Vietnamese restaurant. Split the bill. £39.10 (for H and myself) then stop at the park on the way home and let B run around.
3pm: Go to Sainsbury's to do my weekly shop with B. If I have time on the weekend I will go to the supermarket. If not I order online to get it delivered. £93.20 which is a lot more expensive than usual but this includes a cute jumper from the clothing range for B (on sale for £6), and food to cover breakfast, dinner and most lunches for the week for two, which isn’t really that bad if you break it down.
4.30pm: A friend stops by to pick up a scarf she left last week. We dance around the living room with B while H makes a mushroom pasta for dinner. She has just learned to twirl which is super cute!
6pm: Eat dinner early with B then H baths her while I make another batch of granola and prepare a salad for work this week with ingredients from my earlier shop – I roast some veggies and stir through quinoa and feta. Hope I remember it tomorrow!
Watch a couple of episodes of Unreal on Prime before going to bed at around 10.
Total: £135.29
Day Four
6am: Wake up, have a smoothie and the granola I made last night. Pour some smoothie over oats for B and we eat together. Dress and head out. Remember to take my salad so overall not a bad start to the week.
8.46am: I have run out of contact lenses so I order some more online. I order two months’ worth but as I’m lazy and hardly wear them they should last at least four months. £83.96
10.30am: Go with colleagues to get a tea. My work has a subsidised coffee shop and canteen so it costs me 40p which is relatively cheap vs. a regular coffee shop but still expensive when you consider it is just hot water and a teabag! Resolve to BYO tomorrow.
12.45pm: Eat my salad at my desk while prepping for a workshop I am about to lead. Find a mini block of Green and Black’s dark chocolate in my drawer and mindlessly eat the whole thing, which makes me feel a bit sick.
5.15pm: Been in back to back meetings all afternoon and race out the door to try get home in time for B. Eat some almonds on the way home (I usually keep some at work) and reflect on an email I received from my manager that was intended to give helpful advice but was outlining things I had already actioned myself, which makes me feel like I am giving the perception of not doing my job properly and therefore makes me feel bad. Have a mini existential crisis on the way home and a three-minute cry but gather myself back together in time to arrive home. Feeling slightly down but cuddles with B make me feel better.
7pm: H preps the ingredients for a vegetarian stir fry for dinner while I put B to bed. I then cook it and we chat about our day.
I spend the night looking up jobs on LinkedIn then head to bed at 9pm.
Total: £84.36
Day Five
5am: Baby alarm clock is early today. I drag B into our bed to see if she will go back to sleep for five more minutes, to no avail. Decide to get up because I want to go to work early today as I have lots to do this morning.
5.45am: Eat granola with B and prepare dinner for tonight. I put onions, garlic, beef, lots of different spices and some canned tomatoes in the slow cooker which H will switch on before he leaves.
9.40am: I’m starving (probably because I ate breakfast so early) and get an English muffin and jam from the coffee shop downstairs. £1
10.55am: Have a meeting in five minutes so run to kitchen to make a tea. I brought my own Earl Grey teabag today so this is free
12.30pm: Eat part two of the salad I made on Sunday. See an ASOS order that I ordered last week has arrived on my desk (yay!) and my contact lenses (less yay). A colleague has been to Germany and brought in some chocolate biscuits that I eat because I can’t say no to free chocolate biscuits.
4.15pm: Starving after a few hours of meetings. Search my bag for almonds but I must have finished them. Buy a small packet of crisps and add a pot of hummus to make it more nutritious. £1.20 before rushing out by 5 as I am on nursery pick-up duty and London traffic sucks.
7.15pm: Add spinach and dates to the slow cooked beef that I prepared this morning and make some couscous to go with it. Delicious and warming as it is freezing tonight. I made heaps so I put aside the rest for dinner in a few nights' time.
8pm: Meet a friend at a local wine bar for a quick catch-up. Can’t believe how busy the bar is on a Tuesday! Have a glass of wine and leave feeling warm and happy. £8.50
Total: £10.70
Day Six
7am: Wake up, have my usual smoothie/granola combination. Throw on some leggings as I am working from home today and plan to do exercise at lunch.
8am: Cleaner arrives so I prep B to go to nursery. We give her a card with £20 in it and the Clinique gift I bought last week.
11am: I make myself some cheese and crackers and a chai tea using my very special loose leaf tea. It is almost finished so I am rationing it. Hang up some of B’s washing and question who I have become as I admire my laundering finesse. Get a text from my PT cancelling today’s session as she is sick. I try to see her every second week if I am working from home. I’d love to do it more often but I think it is expensive to do every week when in theory I could do most of the exercises myself. Feel sorry for her that she is sick but at least I have saved £25.
12.15pm: Run to the high street to buy some fresh salmon for dinner £7.40 and some bananas and frozen berries as we have run out £3.02.
1pm: Make a salad for lunch with ingredients from the fridge and have another tea with some chocolate.
1.30-5pm: Drink copious amounts of hot water and lemon.
7.30pm: H cooks salmon with green beans while I put B to bed. Manage to stay away from chocolate by eating grapes. Remember to fake tan my legs ahead of my Christmas party this Friday night (I prefer the two-day look as opposed to the colour when it is done the night before) then surprise surprise, head to bed around 9.30.
Total: £30.42
Day Seven
5.30am: Wake early. Make porridge and eat with B. Slowly get ready to take B to nursery as H has an early morning work call. Drop her at exactly 8am when nursery opens and race into work.
9.15am: Realise I’m tired and need some caffeine. Make a classic English Breakfast. A colleague brings in some chocolates to a meeting but it’s too early for chocolate so I save one for later. Another colleague comments on how good my tan looks. We have a very in-depth discussion about the best way to fake tan (consensus: use a tanning mitt).
12pm: I’m starving today. Go to the canteen at work to get lunch. I get a mozzarella and tomato toastie with pesto. It is the ultimate comfort food with the melted mozzarella but I will need gum afterwards because of the pesto so I add that to the purchase. £3
12.45pm: Detour to my desk via Boots. Pick up some toothpaste and a hair mask. £7.02
3.30pm: Our team leader has returned from Geneva with two MASSIVE blocks of Lindt. Would be rude to say no but I regret it. Have eaten more than average chocolate this week. Run to get a tea. 40p
5.30pm: Leave work and go home via the gym. I was planning to do a pump class but I have pulled a muscle in my shoulder so instead I do cardio then lots of squats and sit-ups.
7.30pm: Get home and have leftover slow cooked beef from the other night. Spend the rest of the night pottering about: plan what I am going to make on the weekend when friends come over for brunch, paint my nails for my Christmas party tomorrow night and wrap some Christmas presents.
Total: £10.42
The Breakdown
Food/Drink: £179.80
Entertainment: £0
Clothes/Beauty: £7.02
Travel: £0
Other: £166.45
Total: £353.27
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