Money Diary: An English Teacher In Scotland On 37.7k

This week: "I’m a 30-year-old English teacher living in central Scotland. My now-husband and I moved to our semi-rural village in 2020 and are in the process of buying the flat we have been renting since then. We are expecting our first baby in early summer so we're adjusting now to a different pace of life. In some ways I am keen to take advantage of spending time with friends in a way I won’t be able to as much when I have a tiny human to look after; in others, I’m wanting to be more cautious with money as we will need to make changes to our DINK lifestyle, especially if I don’t return to work full-time after my maternity leave (which is my current hope). On top of that, I find it difficult to get through the day without a nap at the moment so I can't be too crazy at present!"

Occupation: High school teacher
Industry: Education
Age: 30
Location: Central Scotland
Salary: £37,700
Paycheque amount: £2,155
Number of housemates: One: my husband, S.
Pronouns: She/her

Housing costs: £265 for my share of the rent of our three-bedroom flat. Our mortgage will technically be lower but we hope to keep up our overpayments to at least this amount. 
Loan payments: £92 student loans.
Savings? £24,400 in a joint savings account (not including what we have ready for the flat deposit). This has been built up by S and I pretty equally over the past three years. Neither of us had much put aside before then.
Pension? I pay £273 monthly. Rather than creating a 'pot' as such, I will get a pension based on my average salary when I retire (or at least that’s how I understand the situation).
Utilities: £26 for my share of the electricity. We have an oil tank rather than gas, which we have to fill up once a year: it was £1,074 altogether last spring (no idea what it will be this year). £75 my share of council tax and water, £13 my share of the internet payments.
All other monthly payments: £24 phone, £40 charity donations, £14 union payments, £2.49 iCloud storage, £17 my share contents insurance. Subscriptions: £13.25 TV licence, £7 Netflix.

I did a four-year MA in English and theatre straight after leaving school. The government/SAAS paid for the course fees and my parents kindly covered my living costs. I then got a scholarship to do an MLitt in theatre at the same university so I stayed on for that. All it did was make me less keen on working in the industry! My parents covered rent for this year and I worked to cover other costs. Then, three years after that, I did my PGDE to become a teacher. Again, the government paid for my course fees and this time I took out a student loan to cover living costs.

My parents are of the opinion that it’s rude to talk about money so I had a fairly hazy understanding of our situation. We were similar to the people I went to school with though, and had everything we needed plus luxuries like foreign holidays every couple of years. The attitude was always that it was always better to save for one nice thing than lots of cheap things. I don’t think I ever saw my parents impulse-buy anything, which I try to emulate but don’t always manage.

I moved into halls when I was 17 and starting uni, and have lived with friends or S since then.

I became mostly financially responsible at 22 when I finished my MLitt, however I am conscious that, between us, S and I are very lucky to have parents who can act as safety nets. The two families have also helped us out significantly with some of the big costs of our life together like the deposit for our flat and our wedding. I also realised this week that my mum still pays for my contact lenses so there are probably lots of little ways that I am leaning on others.

Other than babysitting at high school, my first job was when I started uni, doing supporting artist work in pretty much anything filming in Scotland at the time. I also worked part-time as a waitress, shop assistant and front of house while I was at uni to fund non-essential spending.

I didn’t really until S and I started thinking about starting a family and that has heightened since I got pregnant quicker than expected. The reality of maternity pay (if I take a full year, this will work out at about a third of my working salary) and then thinking about childcare and dropping days at work afterwards is a real signifier that our lives are going to be totally different. Although I know that we are in a comfortable enough situation to keep ourselves and our baby safe and healthy (the Scottish baby box itself can do a lot of this), I’m already being bombarded with advertising for the kinds of things I should be buying to give them the best start in life.

No (other than the aforementioned gifts towards the wedding and flat purchase, if those count).