Money Diary: A Head Of Marketing on £39,000

Welcome to Money Diaries where we are tackling the ever-present taboo that is money. We're asking real people how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period — and we're tracking every last penny.

This week: "I'm a 27-year-old living in the Midlands with my dad and his cat, B. I moved back in with him two-and-a-bit years ago following the breakdown of my long-term relationship with my first boyfriend. Since the split, I have been trying to release my equity in the property we jointly own with little input from him. During this time I got a promotion at work, I'm the head of marketing, which now sees me working from home (instead of a 500-mile-a-week commute!). I love my new job; it comes with challenges as we are a small division of a global corporation, but I’m excited to see how this role develops. I have a really great group of friends who have kept me afloat while I’ve had a tough few years and I love the time I spend with them. I have a bit of an affliction for shoes and since discovering Vinted and Vestiaire Collective, I have grown a wonderful designer shoe collection, some that I have restored and some I have always dreamed of owning! I spend my evenings doing a lot of doom-scrolling, which is a habit I hope to break in favour of exercise classes when I move, but where I live now restricts that unless I travel quite a way out. I'm a bit nervous about money. I like to hoard it and I’m a bit scared of spending it right now, but I love to buy little treats every now and then. I went through a reckless phase just after my breakup and spent all the money I’d make in a month but have since reigned myself in and enjoy a healthy balance."

Occupation: Head of marketing
Industry: Automotive
Age: 27
Location: Midlands, UK
Salary: £39,000 PA plus 20% bonus paid annually
Paycheque Amount: £2,563.34 per month
Number of housemates: One, my dad.
Pronouns: She/her

Housing costs £0. Very lucky to have been living with my dad for the last two years, which has allowed me to save enough for a deposit on my own flat. 
Loan payments: £129.45 car loan.
Pension: I pay 3% into my pension a month and my employer pays 6% in. 
Savings: £21,045.60 in a Trading 212 Cash ISA. £17,750 of this is reserved for my flat deposit.
Utilities: £0
All other monthly payments: £79.02 car insurance, £32.59 phone, £12.77 SIM contract. Subscriptions: £8.99 Amazon Prime, £10.99 BookBeat.

Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
No. I went to college to do fine art, but I went straight into a retail job where I stayed for four years before having a nervous breakdown and then moving into a career in the automotive industry. 

Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? What was the attitude to money in your house?
Growing up my parents worked hard to provide for me and my little brother, J. They weren’t open about their struggles, but I have always been a worrier when it comes to money, I’m very all or nothing. My dad says I have a toxic relationship with money because I’m scared of spending it!

If you have, when did you move out of your parents/guardians house?
I moved out at 19 into a rented flat with my then-boyfriend. We rented various places for years until we bought a shared ownership home together in 2021. 

At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself? Does anyone else cover any aspects of your financial life?
I’ve been financially responsible for myself since I moved out, but since moving back I don’t have to pay for food/housing/bills. 

What was your first job and why did you get it?
My first job at 15 was waitressing in bars and restaurants. I wanted to be able to shop in Topshop *cries in millennial*.

Do you worry about money now?
Everyday. I’m very fortunate to have no reason to worry, but I still do. 

Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?
I received a trust fund which contained around £7,000 when I turned 23. My parents had saved some money every month since they could afford to. 

4 a.m. — Wake up to get ready to head to the airport. This week is a bit of a weird one, I have to fly to Germany to collect a display car for an event we have in two weeks. Realise I am running later than I should be and have to run for my gate. 

10 a.m. — Land. I’m greeted by a colleague and we travel to the German head offices. I get to meet all my German marketing colleagues for lunch, which is subsidised by the company. We don’t get this in the UK!

1 p.m. — On the (wrong side of) the road, ready for a long drive to Calais. Luckily, I got to speak to a friend for most of the way, so it doesn't feel lonely!

6 p.m. — Arrive at the Eurotunnel to find my crossing is four and a half hours delayed as there was a huge automotive event in Poland last week and now everyone is travelling back… gah! Run to Starbucks for something to eat as it is carnage in here and the pizza place I wanted was overrun. I pay for a ham and cheese toastie, which will be expensed.

12 a.m. — Arrive in Folkestone and stay in the worst hotel I’ve ever seen. No energy to catch up on work, I’ll try again tomorrow.

6 a.m. — Forgot to turn my alarm off. I hate past me.

9 a.m. — Back on the road. I decide to drive to work to collect some merchandise ahead of the car drop the following day. Stop off at a fuel station for a Pret baguette and a water (which will be expensed). 

1 p.m. — Spend a couple of hours at work catching up on emails, generally chatting away with everyone and packing the car up with an obscene amount of merch ahead of a long drive down south again tomorrow. 

4 p.m. — Leave work early, travel home and have a much-needed cold shower and lay down in a quiet room. Dad cooks a steak dinner with lots of veggies because he knows food takes a back seat when I’m travelling for work (he’s a good egg). 

8:30 p.m. — Turn in for the night, Monopoly Go-ing and TikTok-ing until I fall asleep (yes, really.)

Total: £0

6 a.m. — Wake up to get ready for delivery day. On the road again by 7 a.m., ready for a three-and-a-half-hour trip down south. 

10:15 a.m. — Stop 20 minutes away from my destination for a Starbucks toastie and a caramel slice as a treat, which will be expensed.

12 p.m. — Car delivered and craned onto the structure (I was having palpitations the whole time!). Afterwards, I’m dropped off at the local train station bound to Birmingham to collect my own car… FINALLY! I’ve missed her.

2 p.m. — My train is broken, then it gets terminated early. I spend the next two and half hours getting on and off the wrong trains/tubes. This ends up costing £9.80 in pointless tube fares (which I will expense) before I eventually end up at Euston, where all trains are heavily delayed/cancelled.

4:30 p.m. — Head to WHSmith for a drink, £1. Eventually, find a train which gets me to Birmingham and get a last-minute invite for a dinner with some friends in the industry.

6:45 p.m. — Steak, beers, and lots of industry chat. Really good to unwind and have a good dinner, plus this was paid for me, so it's a win! 

11 p.m. — Arrive home, very tired, very full. 

8 a.m. — Wake up, shower and make my iced coffee for the day. It’s a WFH day today and I had hoped to be able to have a lie-in after some intense driving days, but I had stupidly accepted a Teams meeting for 8:30 a.m. This is to plan my next trip to Germany for some onboarding and training. Teams calls pre-10 a.m. should be illegal.

9 a.m. — After my call I spend the rest of the day planning travel and dinners for the following week and accepting what feels like 1,000,000 meetings for when I’m in Germany. Must download Duolingo…

10:30 a.m. — Decide that today will be an easy work day, so I take myself for a little walk to the shop for a sweet treat. One bar of Cadbury's, £2.40 (my brother works for the supermarket and this means I get to use his discount card… win!). It’s a sunny day, and I very rarely leave the house for a walk so this is lovely. 

5 p.m. — Turned out to be a far busier work day than I had intended — so much for taking it easy! Spend the evening flitting between TikTok and trash TV while dad makes us dinner. I will really miss this when I move out!

10 p.m. — Crash into bed and eventually fall asleep with my phone on my face. 

7:45 a.m. — Alarm didn’t go off, but body clock woke me up on time! WFH again today, but it’ll mostly be spent doing smaller admin tasks and helping out on the sales side. I worked on the sales side for four years until my new job and the team is very green on that front, so I try and step in where I can and when I can. 

2 p.m. — I manage to sneak an early finish so I can shower and do my hair ahead of tomorrow's antics. I very rarely take any liberties when I work from home, but this is one of my favourites!

3 p.m. — Receive an email from my ex-boyfriend's conveyancers, which makes me cry. I’ve been in a legal battle over selling our co-owned shared ownership house for over two years and the end is finally in sight and I may finally be able to move on soon. It’s been a hugely stressful time and I know how anxious I am all the time about it, so this feels like a really positive step in the right direction. Celebrate by going for a little drive and treating myself to a Le Creuset dish from a local up-cyclers, £38. I could definitely spend a LOT more money in here but I’m trying to save as much as possible. 

6 p.m. — Travel to my mum’s boyfriend’s home for the evening. We cook dinner together and I do my mum's nails before tomorrow, while we all watch Trainwreck Poop Cruise — what a ridiculous show! I am never going on a cruise out of fear!

7 p.m. — Scroll on Vinted for a while and come across some bargain Chanel pumps which have huge potential. Decide to buy them as a little treat so I can restore them, £34.69. These are basically free because I get some expenses paid soon… Girl Math. 

11 p.m. — Crash into bed, scrolling TikTok and Vinted.

8:30 a.m. — Get up and get ready for a drive to Nottingham for a day and night out with my girls. Mum’s boyfriend makes us sausage sandwiches as stomach liners and mum kindly treats us to a Costa for the drive. 

11:30 a.m. — Arrive to our Airbnb, but we quickly realise it’s in a really unsafe and sketchy place and the people who stayed last night warn us off as they had their electronics stolen last night. After a strange encounter with the Airbnb owner who was absolutely steaming, we find somewhere else last minute, which is cheaper, nicer, more secure and more importantly, more central! Phew. 

1 p.m. — First booking of the day is cocktails and mini golf at Golf Fang (which we pre-booked). It ends up being so much fun and bizarrely, there was a Furry Fandom meet-up taking place, so it made the whole experience even more random! 18 holes of pure weirdness, but a must-do if you’re in Nottingham. 

2:30 p.m. — We walk into the centre for lunch at Pitcher and Piano, I pay for mine and mum's, £14. After having a walk around, we then check into the Airbnb, which is (thankfully!) not awful and get ready for tonight. We have pre-booked a boat party across the river, which seems pretty random!

7 p.m. — All aboard and we all eat our body weight in potato salad and BBQ meat. We also drink our bodyweight in watered-down booze. I pick up one round on the party boat, £33.85. 

1 a.m. — Spend the rest of the night dancing in Irish bars, getting too tipsy! I get another round in for £27.20 just before me and another friend call it a night and head to the Airbnb.

6 a.m. — Absolutely not.

8 a.m. — I might have gotten away with it a bit. Laze around and debrief about last night with the girls. One of them had her phone stolen in a bar and is very tearful and another one is still drunk and has no idea what she’s doing! They both got back at 6 a.m. so no wonder they feel so terrible! 

10 a.m. — Pack up our stuff, grab a coffee en route and head back to the car ready to go home! We drive back to my mum’s boyfriend's house to pick up my car, then I head to Lidl for a baguette and some cheese, £5.58. I am the epitome of health. 

12 p.m. — Arrive home and nap/watch TV/scroll TikTok/play Monopoly Go on the sofa until I admit defeat at 8:30 p.m. and head up to bed. I always regret a night out by Sunday because I feel like I haven’t savoured the weekend enough, despite knowing I wouldn’t be doing anything anyway!

8:45 p.m. — Crash out and fall into the deepest sleep I have had for a really really long time. This is punctuated by strange dreams about crashing my car and/or getting lost on the motorway. Maybe the cheese wasn’t such a good idea…

"This was a very spenny week for me, usually I spend less than £20! Since going through some legal troubles, I find myself hiding away in my bedroom and trying to save every penny I can to pay for various solicitor bills or saving for my next home. Getting some good news this week really came at the right time and I enjoyed being able to buy myself a couple of treats to celebrate. I hope that when I live on my own I’ll get myself back into a routine and be able to live a little more freely and maybe treat myself on the odd occasion to! (I don’t need any more shoes though…!)"