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, a 31-year-old woman who works in PR for a high-end beauty brand shares her weekly spend. She is single, lives with one flatmate, never does a weekly shop and spends too much money in the pub [her words]. She tries to save but often transfers her funds back into her current account at the end of the month. She has accepted that she will probably never own a flat in London and is part of the generation that has given up on that dream, spending their money on brunch and holidays instead.
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Industry: PR
Age: 31
Salary: £42,500
Paycheck after tax, student loan and pension payment: £2,469
Housemates: 1 Monthly Expenses
Rent: £600
Household bills: £85
Cleaner: £50
Phone: £40
Contact lenses: £30
Gym: £110
Travel: Estimated £100, as I pay as I go on my debit card
Savings: £100 Total: £1,015
Day One
8am: After a weekend of being fattened up at my parents' house in the suburbs, I decided that I couldn’t possibly go back to London on a depressing Sunday night so find myself commuting back in on Monday morning. Get on the train with the intention of catching up on emails and preparing myself for the week, instead stalk an ex-boyfriend on Instagram for half an hour, and fall asleep for the final 10 minutes. Wake up feeling gross. Train ticket: £14.50 9am: Get a coffee from the independent shop near work, have a chat with the guy who owns it and think about how nice it would be to have a coffee shop. £2.40 9.30am: Eat some smoked salmon and half an avocado stolen from home. 1.30pm: Lunch. Grilled chicken salad from a posh kebab place. £6.90 4pm: Walk to the supermarket with my colleague just for the air and a chat, buy a packet of dates for another colleague. £2.14 8pm: Finish work quite late, it’s been a long day. Call my flatmate, who offers to make dinner but she’s still in a meeting. We decide whoever gets to Sainsbury’s first can make it. I’m there first, I buy tuna, spinach, capers, olives and eggs for a semi-salade niçoise. We eat while watching old episodes of Pulling. £9.15 Daily total: £35.09AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Day Two
9am: Buy a posh tiny coffee, it takes about 30 seconds to drink and I realise I much prefer quantity to quality. £3 9.30am: Eat the same stolen salmon and avocado breakfast. 1pm: It’s the week before payday, so am trying to be sensible and buy a soup from Waitrose to heat up in the office kitchen, and a pack of celery. £3.30 3pm: Have a meeting with my boss, we have a coffee and share a cake. He expenses it. 7pm: Gym class, am really tired but hop around half-heartedly for an hour and feel better for it. 8.30pm: Buy ingredients for dinner: mushrooms, spinach and green beans. I already have eggs at home, so make a kind of veggie scramble that I feel like I’ve seen on a Deliciously Ella-type blog, put lots of butter on green beans and feel reasonably virtuous. Spend the rest of the evening writing some freelance copy. £3.50 Daily total: £9.80Day Three
9.30am: A kindly colleague buys my coffee and puts it on my desk because I'm running late. I love her. 11am: After a particularly dreadful meeting with a client, I smoke a cigarette that I’ve pinched from an intern. Feel a bit ashamed, not to mention lightheaded. 2.40pm: Due to stressful meeting, I’m quite late to eat lunch, I want to eat healthily but eat my feelings instead. Prosciutto baguette from Pret: £3.85 and 550 cals. Whoops. 5pm: Feel like having a little cry, so badger my colleague to come for a walk with me. Buy her some grapes to say thanks and some mango for me. Oh and a coffee, terrible idea. £6.90 7.30pm: Despite earlier protestations about not drinking until Thursday, I succumb and have half a bottle and quite a lot of fried food with some friends at a restaurant in Soho. £25 Daily total: £35.75AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT