This week: “I recently moved to London to start my industrial placement as part of my uni course, something I would definitely recommend to everyone. It also gives you an extra year of uni and you get paid for it! Fair warning: it took me six months, dozens of applications and five interviews to get this job so if you don’t get one straightaway, that’s fine, keep pushing. The life I dreamed of having in London while on placement is definitely not what it is now due to the pandemic. I thought I would be going to art exhibitions and museums every weekend, going for walks down the Thames when, in reality, I can’t just vibe my way through my weekend – if I want to go to the Tate I have to book in advance and that is a whole faff.
Money-wise, growing up I was taught to buy only what I needed and if it was something expensive, I could find it on eBay for less. Both my parents are teachers and worked their way through their degrees, which I admire very much and am very privileged not to have had to do as they funded my living costs at uni. I did not get a maintenance loan (though I have one for tuition) because my mum wanted to spare me from debt. For my placement year, I am fully financially independent and plan to save enough to continue this in my final year, as well as getting a job on the side to help with costs. I think my approach to money is the same as my mum’s: I try to save most of it and use the rest to live cheaply.
I still have one year of uni after I finish this job in August and I have no clue what I will be doing when I graduate. I’m quite lucky that the medicines and healthcare industry is one of the ones that has grown due to being at the centre of the infrastructure tackling the pandemic, so I am sure I will find something in a field I enjoy.”
Industry: Student biomedical scientist in medicines and healthcare
Age: 21
Location: London
Salary: £16,000
Paycheque amount: £1,333 (before NI deduction). I pay £64 per month in NI and I don’t pay tax as I am not over the personal allowance yet.
Number of housemates: Two: my boyfriend D and my friend B who is on the same placement as me.
Monthly Expenses
Housing costs: £1,325 rent split between three.
Loan payments: £0
Savings? £1,000 in a Nationwide Flex saver and £1,000 in a Help to Buy account. I have a boyfriend of two years, we don’t have any shared finances at the moment.
Utilities: £7.27 each for water, £6 for Wi-Fi and around £4.30-£15 per week each for electricity (we have a pay-as-you-go meter and can’t top up more than £50 at a time).
Transportation: £15 max. I walk to work and don’t really use transport because of COVID.
Phone bill: £10
Other: The Atlantic news subscription £24 for the year paid in a lump sum with 50% off, Netflix £6 and Spotify £12.99, split between me and D.
6.40am: I wake up to the sound of birds chirping from my ‘wake up’ lamp that I got off Facebook Marketplace (my favourite place to buy things atm). Snuggle with D, then drag myself out of bed and start prepping some porridge and rice. Porridge for breakfast and rice for lunch. I have been having toast for breakfast but the mornings have started to get a bit colder so porridge with peanut butter, frozen raspberries, chia seeds and a bunch of sultanas has replaced toast and jam.
7.40am: B and I leave for work. We both got the same placement and live about a 10 minute speed-walk away. We work near an industrial site and often get honked at on the walk, which is infuriating, so I flip them off and continue with my day. At work I put my mask on before going in the door, then we have a two-step process to enter: temperature check, hand washing, then you are allowed to clock in. Following that I have a lovely climb to the third floor where the lab is. I’m usually quite hot by that point so I stand under the AC to cool down a bit before I go into the lab and cover myself with PPE (lab coat, gloves, visor).
9.20am: Morning tea break. I am constantly forgetting that I need to go at 9 or 9.20 and have to be reminded – not today though, time is going so slowly. I eat a banana and a slice of cinnamon poundcake I made last night and brought from home. It’s been less than a month since I started so I won’t be buying anything until I get my first paycheque. Moving has already been expensive and I don’t want to dip into my savings any more than I need to until they’re back to pre-London levels.
12.45pm: Finally lunch. This day is going by so, so slowly, not sure what it is but I just can’t concentrate. I eat a pile of lettuce and then heat up my lentil and potato curry and rice in the microwave. While I eat, I delve into my current read: Naked by David Sedaris. We can’t really talk to anyone because all the tables are socially distanced but it does mean I get to read all those books I’ve had on my list for years.
4pm: It’s time to go home. B and I walk with our other friend doing a placement as she goes to the Tube which is on our way home. Back at home, I relax with two chocolate digestives and check the address for a table D and I are going to pick up. We are going to take the Tube there as it’s about a 40 minute walk from us.
4.50pm: Leave to get the Tube and travel the two stops and walk another 10 minutes. We get the table and carry it home looking like absolute idiots. We don’t have a car and it wouldn’t fit on the bike, it takes us one hour to walk 3km. £1.70 each for the Tube ride, the table was free from Facebook Marketplace. Now we can actually eat dinner at a table instead of on the floor. Still missing dining chairs though.
6.40pm: Time for dinner, the soup we had planned to eat had gone off (oops I left it out of the fridge) so we fried some bacon (first time eating it in almost a month) and made a salad to go alongside some homemade frozen chips. Homemade frozen chips isn’t usually something I would make but we got 7.5kg of potatoes for £2 from Asda on the weekend so I thought it would be worth it.
7.30pm: Settle down to watch some Gossip Girl as D has never seen it before, we make fun of all the characters because they are so toxic and ridiculous. I decide I’m still hungry so I make myself ramen with shiitake mushrooms and add the leftover dipping sauce we made for dumplings on the weekend (rice wine vinegar, soy sauce and sesame oil). I feel stuffed but pleased.
9.30pm: I finish up a call with my mum who I haven’t seen in over a year, a global pandemic didn’t help that. I cry but we move on. Snuggle with D for a bit and watch TikTok compilations on YouTube. One of my favourite pastimes before I sleep.
Total: £1.70
6.30am: Wake up and fall straight back asleep.
6.50am: Wake up properly and force myself out of bed. Less time for breakfast today so I just make myself some toast with strawberry jam made by D’s mum. That along with a lovely ol’ cuppa is my breakfast while I rush about watering my plants, making rice for lunch and choosing an outfit for work.
9.20am: I have my morning tea break and eat the date and cashew bars that B made on the weekend. DELICIOUS! Will definitely be wanting more of those. I also brought the other half of the banana I had for breakfast. I reply to a couple of emails, then head back to the lab for some paperwork.
12.45pm: It’s lunchtime and guess what I have. That’s right: lentil and potato curry with rice. It’s really boring but it tastes good and is easy to batch cook on a Sunday. After I eat, I read some of Naked until my 30 minute break is up.
4.30pm: Back home from work. We have been informed that we won’t get a free food waste bin – another potential expense – from the council. Send an email to our landlord about some broken things in the flat and then go out to the garden to see how my garlics are doing. One was dug up by a squirrel or something. D found it and planted it again, what an angel.
6pm: Start cooking, realise I need mushrooms for our bacon, potato, fish and sausage pie so nip out to get some. While I’m there I pick up some dairy-free butter and a lime (for coleslaw – Rachel Ama’s recipe, she is amazeballs). My local Co-op is also doing a book swap and I find Nine Perfect Strangers, telling myself I will pop by with a book from my own library. Do you think anyone will be interested in a 1,000 page cell and molecular biology textbook? Total comes to £3. It will be £1 for me though because it’s split between the three of us.
7pm: Sit down to eat our potato and sausage pie with a side of coleslaw for myself and B. D doesn’t like mayonnaise. We watch an episode of GBBO which is amazing, horrifying and thrilling. Afterwards it’s time to shower and head to bed. Answer some emails before dropping off.
Total: £1
5.30am: Woken up by loud rain. It’s been relentless all night and as I try to get back to sleep, the neighbour turns on her light. Urgh. It streams right into our room. D wraps me up in his arms and I fall back asleep.
6.50am: I get up and walk to the kitchen, only to find a puddle in the conservatory. The landlord said it was fixed! Take photos and email the landlord to let him know. Water all the plants that need it (bay leaf, lemon herb, parsley, basil), make a breakfast of toast and strawberry jam and a mug of tea. Meanwhile I’m also putting dishes away from last night. It’s nearly time to leave – time goes so quick in the morning.
7.45am: Get completely drenched by a lorry on the motorway on my way to work. Not ideal.
9.15am: Go for my brea. Have a banana and scroll through my phone, I forgot my book today and no one is around to chat to. Today is muffin day and there are some really delicious-looking Nutella ones, also spinach and ricotta (odd choice), but I’m sticking to my plan of not buying anything until my first paycheque comes in at the end of next week.
12.45pm: Go for lunch break and have leftover pie and coleslaw and go on my phone as none of my friends are on break with me. Afterwards we have our first lab meeting which is a bit scary and we’re told that due to our lab taking on more COVID test samples, we will have to start doing overtime. I’ve literally been working three weeks but it’s got to be done.
4.20pm: Back home and get my bike from the garden because I have run out of deodorant. I head to Boots, a 15 minute cycle, and pick up a toothbrush. £2.64 but I used my Boots card which has £16 worth of points so it was technically free. Then I go to The Body Shop to buy a hand cream (all this hand-washing) and a concealer. I don’t know much about makeup and have never bought one but I thought it might be good if all you can see *due to mask* is my eyes. £15
6pm: D has very kindly cooked up a load of pasta sauce which means no cooking for moi (I am head chef and get anxious when other people cook but this actually turned out okay). We watch some Gossip Girl and then half the sockets stop working after B plugs in her hairdryer. 30 minutes later without lights and sockets, I go to check the mains and the water heater switch is off. Stress over and onto my Zoom conference call.
9pm: Have a quick shower and prep my bag for tomorrow before getting into bed and reading some more of my book. Then I remember that tomorrow is bin day. We don’t have a recycling bin yet so we put our stuff in other people’s bins.
Total: £15
6.10am: Wake up and it’s still dark. I get up at around 6.20, take it easy and read a bit of my book until 6.30 when I put pasta on for B and I to take for lunch. I decide to throw in some broccoli that B bought yesterday (37p reduced) so we have something green and healthy. I cook up some porridge for myself and make tea because it is FREEZING. While having breakfast I check my uni and personal email accounts to check the coronavirus newsletter from The New York Times that I’m subscribed to and The Atlantic newsletter I get as well (I subscribed this year, £24 for the whole year ~50p/week). £0.12
9.20am: A pretty chilled morning at work, I have some admin tasks to complete for my line manager and I’m allowed to take a break whenever I want to. I end up having to buy a banana (£0.40) from the canteen because I forgot to pick one up from home.
12.45pm: Lunch is pasta and broccoli from home. I try to get info from my friend who works in the office about the allocations for the coming week. There was promise of overtime from the seniors but she won’t let anything out of her lips. After lunch we finally get a lab meeting and are told it won’t technically be overtime unless samples are delivered late to the lab because those who have special assignments will actually start later in the day. Very cheeky. Not that we could really say no to helping out though.
4.25pm: B and I arrive home. FINALLY IT’S FRIDAY but instead of joy I feel drained. I don’t want to cook, I just want beautiful food delivered to me. Before we do that, I call my parents who are just sitting down to dinner even though they are four hours ahead of me (they are eating takeout burgers and chips). We have a lovely catch-up and I learn they have both started in-person teaching and it’s all a bit up in the air due to lack of testing etc.
5.45pm: We decide on getting pho through Deliveroo (£11.95 for my share). It only takes about 30 minutes to arrive, score. D goes to the Chinese store to buy some dumpling wrappers for tomorrow (60p for my share). We eat our fulfilling dinner while watching more Gossip Girl, where we learn that Bart Bass has – SURPRISE SURPRISE – been keeping tabs on everybody, Blair gets Thanksgiving with her dad and Jenny comes home to Brooklyn.
8pm: Get ready for bed. I don’t shower because our flat is way too cold and I’m not planning on doing anything tomorrow because it’s the weekend.
Total: £13.07
7.20am: I wake up and lie in bed snuggling with D. Then I make a pot of coffee which we have with scrambled eggs and toast. While D preps this, I go outside to cut some pieces of wood I found on the street. They are to be the legs of a desk I am making using scrap from the streets because I’m only in this flat for a year and I didn’t want to spend any money. I found a tabletop and a small bookshelf-type thing, which are both part of it, on the street as well.
11am: We prepare the filling for the dumplings we are going to make for lunch and make a shopping list before we head to Asda on our bikes for our weekly shop. We pick up a load of veg, some sausages (we try to be meat-free but sometimes cravings must be satiated), loads of avocados and all the classic stuff e.g. bread, toilet bleach. Total comes to £35 (almost the total of our Deliveroo yesterday, yikes). My share is £11.60.
12pm: When we get back to our street we notice four dining chairs someone has left outside their house. This is perfect as we need chairs to go with our table! We take all the food upstairs and then go back for the chairs. We prepare the dumplings, half go in a shiitake mushroom and seaweed soup, the other half we fry and steam – Americans call them potstickers. A lovely lunch accompanied by season four of RuPaul’s Drag Race. We’re down to the top five now.
5pm: We settle down for some Carcassonne, a board game where you build cities, roads and farms. One and a half hours later we finish, with me in the lead (260 points). I spent the last half hour going between the kitchen and the living room because I was cooking enchiladas so I’m happy I won while multitasking. Our enchiladas are scrumptious with a side of guacamole and sour cream.
10pm: We decide on one last episode of GG before we go to sleep. We are now on the episode where **SPOILER ALERT** Bart Bass has just died – or has he?
Total: £11.60
8.15am: Wake up, it’s the latest I have gotten up in over two weeks which is kinda crazy. D makes us toast with bacon while I clean off the aphid community that has taken over my parsley plants.
10am: B makes us brunch of spelt flour pancakes with all sorts of sides e.g. bananas, cinnamon sugar, raspberry compote. Tis all delicious, especially as the weather outside is awful.
4pm: I prepare a late lunch of cajun baked fish and a mango, quinoa salad (Rachel Ama again) which is lovely and light and allows us to be indulgent without feeling stuffed, especially as we have just been lying around all day.
8pm: I have spent the entire day on the sofa doing absolutely nothing, moving only to cook. The final recipe of the day is a cannellini bean and greens stew with parsnip crips (another Rachel Ama). It goes down a treat and there’s some left over for mine and B’s lunches tomorrow which is great. Then it’s off to sleep because even though I am starting work later this week, I want to maintain my early wake-ups.
Total: £0
7am: Rent comes out today, I wake up and realise I have £5 less than is needed for rent in my account (where the rent is paid from). Transfer that five over and continue with my morning. It’s D’s first proper day at his new job but he only starts at 10 like me so we have a chill morning. I have to wash my hair this morning as it is GREASAYYY. Then I pack up my lunch (soup + slice of bread with butter) and a snack (banana + the rest of my porridge) and get my bike to head to work. This week I need to be in at 10am.
9.40am: I leave for work, these days I ride my bike in. I make it in about seven minutes and head up to the lab to deal with the previous night’s delivery of COVID swabs. Most are ‘fit to fly’ tests. I honestly don’t understand people travelling during this time, I get people want to travel and see family (I do too) BUT there is a pandemic going on.
2.45pm: Lunch break. I don’t get a morning break since my shift starts later so technically I should have lunch at the normal time but because we have swab deliveries at 12 (more like 12.30 or 1) we are late. I eat my soup cold because the only microwave available apparently doesn’t heat up your food. Pretty quiet lunch, reading my book.
5.45pm: Break time. I didn’t bring extra food and I’m hungry so I go to the fast food shop nearby and get chips (£2). Then it’s back to the lab, waiting for the samples to arrive.
9.27pm: I leave work after three hours of overtime. The samples arrived over an hour late, which meant we left even later. Overtime means more money but also more tired. I am home and ready to sleep, D has cooked up pasta and B made curry for our lunches this week. I end up watching GG for way too long and go to sleep around midnight, whoops.
Total: £2
Food & Drink: £27.55
Entertainment: £0.12
Clothes & Beauty: £15
Transportation: £1.70
Other: £0
Total: £44.37
Conclusion
“Overall I did very well spending-wise. It’s definitely nice to be aware of what you’re spending, I am one of those people who says they will keep track of spending but after a month completely forgets to update their spreadsheet. The week I did the money diary was right before I got my first paycheque so I really was trying to be as careful with my money as possible. Currently I am still spending about the same per week with maybe a little bit more in the budget for a nice bottle of wine but that’s a treat I give myself and I am definitely on track with my savings. I do need to make a strong commitment to track my spending long-term though. Wish me luck!”
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Money Diary: Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner