Money Diary: A 30-Year-Old Assistant Headteacher In Worcestershire On 46k

This week: "I am 30 years old and live in Worcestershire (tier 2, yay!). I have temporarily moved back home with my parents after selling my lovely little two-bedroom flat. My boyfriend (N) and I are in the middle of buying a new-build three-bedroom detached house on the outskirts of Birmingham, which will (hopefully) be ready in January. In a previous life, I was a total shopaholic. When I was hopelessly single, I didn’t really think about a bigger picture, just about myself, so would constantly live beyond my means. I met N and all of a sudden it wasn’t just me anymore. I thought of the life I wanted to have and decided to get my butt into gear, pay off my credit cards and start saving. I’m now the proud owner of a LISA and Plum account.

I’ve been a teacher for eight years now and in September took a promotion to assistant headteacher in a school in Birmingham. There are days I love my job and other days when I wonder why I am still in education: the bureaucracy, long hours and mounting pressure from a thousand angles do sometimes get to me. I’ve found the shift from class teacher to a school leader fairly challenging. I have recently had more sleepless nights worrying about anything and everything, from a challenging parent to exam targets to difficult conversations with colleagues. But then I’ll go and read with a 5-year-old or see a newly qualified teacher take my advice on board and it makes that disillusion go away.

I am so lucky to have had a stable job throughout this trying year and have worked throughout the pandemic with key worker children, then identified year groups that returned to school in the summer term. I managed to contract COVID in October and wanted to shout at the TV whenever a politician wondered why the rate of infection began rising in September – yes, schools went back, duh! I had mild symptoms (loss of smell, taste and appetite, cold symptoms and diarrhoea) but luckily haven’t had any long-term effects." 

Industry: Education – assistant headteacher
Age: 30
Location: Just outside Birmingham
Salary: £46k
Paycheque amount: £2,426.27
Number of housemates: Currently three humans (Mum, Dad and N) and two animals (a geriatric dog and feral cat).

Housing costs: Luckily living rent-free for the next month or so with my lovely parents and menagerie of animals.
Loan payments: £187 on car finance, £150 interest-free loan from the Bank of Mum and Dad.
Transportation: Approx. £70 a month on petrol.
Phone bill: £48 including Spotify – really need to rethink this when my contract is up.
Savings? £10,500 in savings from the sale of my flat. Currently in the process of saving £500 a month into a joint account in preparation for our new house; £60 a month into LISA (retirement fund, HELLO); any round-ups into Plum.
Other: £17 for union fees.