This week: “I’m a 24-year-old engineering bid executive, living and working in Newcastle. I love the mix of city and country the northeast has to offer but given that I have lived my whole life here, I sometimes feel like I haven’t branched out enough. I struggled to choose whether to go to university and study a topic I wasn’t heavily invested in or do an apprenticeship, and I’m so glad I chose the latter. I’m aware my wage is good but it has only gone up in the past six months after years of being on very low apprenticeship wages. Seeing my friends struggle to find jobs after uni only reinforced how grateful I was to have a good few years’ experience under my belt. The money is not great at all when studying on the apprenticeship but there are no loans to pay back, which is great.”
Occupation: Bid executive
Industry: Engineering
Age: 24
Location: Newcastle
Salary: £29,000
Paycheque amount: £1,897
Number of housemates: Two: my parents plus one dog.
Pronouns: She/her
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: I pay my parents £200 to cover housing costs.
Loan payments: I did an apprenticeship so have no student loans.
Pension? I pay 5% and my employer pays 9%. I have only added into it for 18 months as 22 was the minimum age to start.
Savings? I have £30,000 in savings and £2,000 in a Help to Buy ISA.
Utilities: Included in housing costs.
All other monthly payments: £14 SIM only phone contract, £40 car insurance, £27 gym membership, £2.79 phone storage, £40 charity donation, £20 dog care split between parents and me, £15 coaching fees and £30 match fees.
Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
I did a night class at the local further education college after leaving school, which was paid for by my parents. This was an investment to get a good form of apprenticeship as they expected me to go to university.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money?
My parents have always worked hard in the public sector and we were always lucky enough to go on a holiday each year. We have lived in the same house since I was young and I know my parents struggled in my younger years but have since received pay rises, which has taken the pressure off. My siblings and I were taught to save money first and foremost and I have taken that throughout my adult years by always adding to my savings before giving myself a disposable income.
If you have, when did you move out of your parents’/guardians’ house?
I still live at home but have saved hard for a house deposit and hope to have bought a flat by the end of the year.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself? Does anyone else cover any aspects of your financial life?
I am not financially responsible for myself as I still live at home. I pay my parents a set amount and contribute to food shops each month. I have asked to contribute more but they want me to save for a house deposit.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
I worked in a pub from 16 and I got it to have money to spend with my friends. The tips were very generous and so with the weekly wage I was able to buy my first secondhand car. I also worked as a maths tutor for £5 an hour cash in hand, which supplemented my cash tips. People probably thought I was running a cartel as I only used cash from age 16 to 19!
Do you worry about money now?
I am a constant worrier and overthinker so worry about most things. I know I am very lucky to be able to live at home and don’t worry too much about money in the sense that if I continue to work hard, money will come every month. I know I will worry a lot once I buy a place of my own due to rising costs.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?
On our 21st birthdays, my sister and I each received £5,000 from family that they had saved up over the years. This is in my savings and will go towards a house deposit. My grandma also gave me £1,000 towards my first car.
8am: Wake up slightly hungover at K’s (the guy I’m seeing) flat. He has already left to visit his family an hour away so I shove on my sports kit, eat a banana and drive 15 minutes to play a hockey match.
10am: We unfortunately lose 3-1. It was an amazing game though and everybody made such a great effort. There’ve been some new joiners recently and we have gelled so much as a team over the past year.
11am: Post-match drinks at a nearby pub where I buy Diet Coke, £2.85. I fill my car up with petrol on the way home, £55.15.
1pm: Walk dog quickly in pouring rain. I then shower and do makeup ready for our hockey team bottomless brunch. I bloody love a bottomless and I have been so excited for today with my friends. Drive and leave car at K’s as I’ll be staying over later as we are heading to Leeds in the morning.
5pm: Many, many glasses of prosecco later and I am having the best time. Get carried away with my five besties and we book a long weekend to Scotland next summer that we have been talking about for a while. No payment needed yet, phew. Pay for brunch, £30.25.
6pm: Leave restaurant and head to nearby bar where I buy a double for £6.20. All of us are extremely tipsy and having a great time.
8pm: Six of us leave the bar and trip and fall into a nearby pizza shop, £6.40. I’m too many proseccos down and have started an argument with K over text, oops. Walk back to his with my best friend and he picks me up from the station (whip cracked).
10pm: The prosecco has kicked in and I’m crying to K about my confusing feelings for him. Bedtime methinks!
Total: £100.85
9am: Wake up, shower and start rainy drive to Leeds with a pit stop for Tesco pastries first, £1.55.
12pm: We arrive at K’s friend’s flat and take their adorable puppy for a walk in Roundhay Park. All of us get hot drinks and K’s friend pays.
2pm: Wander around a market where K buys us cookies and also a cupcake for my mum as she broke her foot at work last week. We then chill in the flat watching the football before our roast reservation.
4pm: I am absolutely stuffed from the most amazing roast beef I have ever had in my life. K pays my share while I’m in the toilet. I hate not paying my way despite him earning significantly more money than me. My inner feminist is beginning to feel uncomfortable with how much he has paid for me today.
6pm: Drive back north where K tells me he has booked us a weekend away as my birthday present. He is an extremely generous person but I’m starting to feel even more uncomfortable with how much he is spoiling me. I vow to make it up to him.
8pm: Arrive home where I am immediately sent back out on my ear to buy horseradish sauce. I add a bag of Maltesers to the basket for my poorly mum, £2.25.
11pm: See on Insta that my ex has a new girlfriend. I broke up with him six months ago after not feeling happy for a while but the way I’m feeling sets off some overthinking about where I’m at with K. I’m not sure whether I’m ready to go on weekends away with someone new. Bedtime methinks (again).
Total: £3.80
7am: My alarm goes but as it’s a Monday I snooze it until 8am. I should be leaving the house at this time. Race to get ready in some sort of presentable way.
8.45am: Arrive at work where I am greeted by a beautifully full inbox. We are a global team, which means some of our offices work in different time zones. I start prepping my to-do list for the week. My manager is on paternity leave and a mix of sickness, babies and annual leave led to some very late nights last week with a skeleton staff. The stress is real.
10am: Have a team call where we are asked our opinion on some controversial projects we are taking on in the Middle East. The way work has been recently has led me to struggle to give a shit about what I say so I speak my mind about how I feel. Hang up and immediately ring my manager’s boss back as I feel I may have overstepped the mark.
10.45am: That call was a success! Not only did he agree with what I said but I have been given some time off in lieu for my late nights last week and some praise for my effort recently. Construction and engineering is a well-paid industry but the hours are loooong. My company doesn’t pay as high as it could but the work-life balance is far better than in other places and we are rewarded for hard work.
12pm: Message K and ask him to get me some prawns to add life to the Aldi grains I have in my drawer. Transfer him the money, £3.
1pm: I’m in a slightly odd mood after last night’s ex revelations and feel like I am slightly snappy to K by the kitchen microwave. Did I mention we work together and nobody out of the 120 people in our office knows we have been dating for nearly three months now?
2pm: Work is less full-on than last week and it’s nice to take my projects at my own pace this afternoon instead of feeling on the verge of tears.
5.30pm: Make tracks and head to a pre-booked gym class. Our normal instructor has quit and I find her replacement to be slightly annoying. Leave feeling sore and tired but with endorphins released from the weightlifting.
7pm: My tea is the portion of roast I didn’t eat last night. My parents and I all enjoy cooking and when we’re all home, take turns on an informal rota to cook something we feel the others would like.
9pm: Spend the rest of the night on TikTok and wrapped in a towel, staring at the wall. Nice.
Total: £3
8am: Earlier start than yesterday. A lovely morning of progress calls awaits.
10.30am: Get bored listening to a call about goal setting so hang up and wander into the kitchen for a snack. My company supplies fruit for the week on Monday and it’s mostly rotting or gone by Tuesday so I snaffle an orange and head back to my desk.
12.30pm: K returns from a site visit and asks if I have brought lunch today. I haven’t so I suggest a cafe near the office. We decide to sit in as an informal daytime date and I pay £17.65 for two panini and two soft drinks. I beg him to tell me where he’s taking me on our trip away but no luck.
1pm: Our mutual work friend wonders where we got to at lunch and K tells him we went for lunch together. This is greeted by a “finally” so I don’t think we’re keeping our secret dating as secret as I hoped.
4pm: Break from some intense email writing to look at my phone. The girls are wanting to buy tickets to a DJ event at a bar. I went to the same event in 2019 and didn’t rate it at all but begrudgingly buy a ticket, £16.50.
5pm: Leave work for spinning and realise my football sweepstake team are playing. Ring gym to cancel spinning class as I am so invested in winning this sweepstake £50 prize. I sweet-talk the woman on the phone to avoid giving me a gym strike for cancelling late.
7pm: May as well have shredded that sweepstake fiver. Stress levels are high. How football fans do this full-time I will never know.
9pm: Walk dog, eat homemade curry and show Mum some flats I’ve seen on Zoopla. We’re often not all in at the same time so it’s nice to have nights where we’re together. I’m desperate for a place of my own but know I’ll miss these days when they’re over.
10pm: Send best friend videos of piglets. She’s a high-flying solicitor on her training contract and works stupid hours so I’m hoping this will cheer her up. We text about maybe booking a comedy show at the weekend but both balk at paying over £20 for a bunch of amateur comedians.
Total: £34.15
8am: Roll out of bed and make me and my parents a cup of tea before logging on. I don’t work from home much at all so I have an awful habit of staying in my dressing gown until around 11am when I do. A friend texts to say her talking stage is over and I listen to her podcast-length crying voice notes while editing my to-do list for the morning.
10am: Half the engineers are late for a kick-off meeting. Grumble and postpone the meeting.
12pm: Time in lieu starts! Bang my laptop shut, shove on a warm coat and take the dog out for a long stomp around the fields near mine.
3pm: Walk at the pace of a snail down the road with my mum on crutches to take her for a coffee and cake at a local garden centre, £10.90.
5pm: My hockey training is cancelled tonight because of the cold weather. I’m a bit gutted as it’s a good run around and a laugh with my friends. Fingers crossed the match isn’t cancelled at the weekend.
6pm: Head to the gym and immediately see a boy from my spin class who I was dating over the summer and who unceremoniously ghosted me. I tell myself no amount of exercise can fix a dickhead personality and head to my class (prepaid with membership).
8pm: Home to make mince and dumplings, proper northern comfort food! Shower and order my sister and her fiancée a cake tin as part of their wedding present and a blanket, £17.45.
Total: £28.35
8am: Another office day means minimal makeup and hair. I pop on a jumper and trousers (I found out recently that someone voted me best dressed in the Christmas party awards and I intend to keep up that reputation) and drive the 15 minutes to the office.
11am: Have not looked up since I got here. Make my friend and I a cup of tea. The placement student who sits near us has brought cookies in from a recent trip so snaffle one of those.
12pm: Lunchtime walk around the streets near the office, where I am persuaded to go out for lunch with my work friend, £9.
1pm: I have no meetings at all this afternoon. Bliss. I crack on with my projects at my own pace ahead of usual Friday deadline day.
5.30pm: Home via shop to pick up milk, cream, apples and Maltesers, £6.64.
6pm: Another weights class beckons. I love the instructor who does it on a Thursday, and she definitely lets it slide when she sees me lower my weights halfway through the hour.
8pm: Home to shower and log back on to work before tomorrow’s deadline. Work stress has really been getting to me recently and I can feel myself struggling without my manager’s support.
10pm: Earlier night as I can feel a sore throat coming on. I was hospitalised with quinsy a month ago and I am terrified about it coming back as it was so, so painful.
Total: £15.64
7am: Wake up and get ready for work. I am staying at K’s tonight after date night so I lug more bags to work than usual.
8am: Log on and see all the edits I made last night need to be changed. I can feel the tears come on but get distracted by some chocolate on my desk. I’m not usually this stressed at work but we’re working with a skeleton staff at the moment.
12pm: The morning passes in a flurry of calls to make last-minute edits. Two deadlines out and I can breathe finally. I heat up leftovers for a lonely lunch as I realise most of my work friends have been taken out by their bosses on bonus lunches (drawbacks of having a manager in a different city).
3pm: It is someone’s birthday in the office so I take an orange and almond cupcake and have a discussion about animal testing. I have only just found out at the age of 24 that animal testing isn’t shampooing the bunnies and putting lipstick on rats and I am scarred.
5pm: Friday beers beckon and I head to the pub with some friends for a couple of wines, £10.
7pm: Hop on the train to meet K in town for a cinema trip. I buy us both mac and cheese, £18. He bought the tickets so I buy us a glass of wine each to enjoy the film, £14.50.
10pm: I’m not good with horrors and spill most of the wine over myself. Back to K’s, makeup off and into bed.
Total: £42.50
Food & Drink: £139.19
Entertainment: £16.50
Clothes & Beauty: £0
Home & Health: £17.45
Travel: £55.15
Other: £0
Total: £228.29
Conclusion
“Looking at my spending this week has shown me I spend too much on eating and drinking out. This is my vice as I only buy clothes secondhand and rarely at all. I am a very sociable person and going out for meals/drinks/coffees is my favourite activity but I think I need to start cutting down and making it an occasional treat.”
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Money Diary: A Marketing Manager On 33k