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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 newlywed who got married last month, who reckons she's pretty good with money as saving for the wedding (and buying a house before that) made her fairly strict. Saying that, she's also looking forward to having some disposable income and is sure that after Christmas is out of the way she'll start treating herself.
She doesn't live in a busy city so her weeknights are pretty much all the same, which means she doesn’t tend to spend a lot during the week – although at the weekend when she's out socialising she spends a lot more.
Industry: Marketing Manager
Age: 26
Location: Derbyshire
Salary: £30,200
Paycheque amount per month: My pay differs slightly from month to month as my job involves some evening and weekend work but luckily I get paid for this. My standard pay is around £1,960 but as I tend to do the same amount of overtime each month for events I have to attend, I often pick up around £2,160/pm after paying tax etc. Next month I’m going to start paying into my pension so I’ll see this go down. I wanted to wait until after my wedding as that extra £100 or so each month that I’d be contributing to my pension pot helped me when saving for our wedding.
Number of housemates: One. Me and my husband bought our house a little over two years ago.
Age: 26
Location: Derbyshire
Salary: £30,200
Paycheque amount per month: My pay differs slightly from month to month as my job involves some evening and weekend work but luckily I get paid for this. My standard pay is around £1,960 but as I tend to do the same amount of overtime each month for events I have to attend, I often pick up around £2,160/pm after paying tax etc. Next month I’m going to start paying into my pension so I’ll see this go down. I wanted to wait until after my wedding as that extra £100 or so each month that I’d be contributing to my pension pot helped me when saving for our wedding.
Number of housemates: One. Me and my husband bought our house a little over two years ago.
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: Our mortgage is £550 a month and we go halves. What we do is each put £700 into our joint account every month and we know that will cover our mortgage, household bills and money for food shopping. Then we pay any other bills (phone contract, gym) separately.
Loan payments: I pay £100 on my credit card. I had the worst luck with my car last Christmas and ever since I’ve been chipping away at my credit card. Only £500 to go...sigh. I also have a £116 bank loan repayment that I took out to buy a new car. The bad luck I had last year resulted in me packing it in and buying a new car, which I took out a personal loan for.
Student loan: £110
Utilities: £11 gym
Transportation: I spend £80 on average on diesel a month.
Phone bill: £36
Savings? Before we got married we were saving £320 each a month for the wedding. Some months were harder than others but we managed to be strict and commit to saving that amount each and every month. We want to keep this good habit up so we’re putting aside £250 each a month now.
Loan payments: I pay £100 on my credit card. I had the worst luck with my car last Christmas and ever since I’ve been chipping away at my credit card. Only £500 to go...sigh. I also have a £116 bank loan repayment that I took out to buy a new car. The bad luck I had last year resulted in me packing it in and buying a new car, which I took out a personal loan for.
Student loan: £110
Utilities: £11 gym
Transportation: I spend £80 on average on diesel a month.
Phone bill: £36
Savings? Before we got married we were saving £320 each a month for the wedding. Some months were harder than others but we managed to be strict and commit to saving that amount each and every month. We want to keep this good habit up so we’re putting aside £250 each a month now.
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