Mamamia’s What My Salary Gets Me asks Australians to record a week in their financial lives. Kind of like a sex diary but with money. So not like a sex diary at all. We still find out the best kept secrets though. We discover what women are really spending their hard-earned cash on. Nothing is too outrageous or too sacred. This week, a 32-year-old data analyst from Melbourne, Vic, shares her money diary.
Age: 32
Job: Data Analyst
Salary: $90k
Housing: Renting a large studio apartment.
Regular expenses (monthly):
Rent: $2000
Phone: $70
Gym: $140
Utilities: Roughly $60 on gas quarterly, $200 on electricity
Internet: $70
Stan: $10
Netflix: $10
Debt: $2000 on a credit card
Savings: $20,000
MM Confessions: The fashion items we’ve blown too much money on. Post continues after video.
Monday – Day One
I don’t rise until 7.15am which is late for me. I walk to the office, grabbing a coffee and avocado on toast on the way ($21.10). I’ve bought a tuna salad from home for my lunch but do buy a packet of cheese and crackers on my break ($6). After work, I walk home, stopping at Coles to grab some chicken breasts, vegies and other bits to see me through the week ($35).
Top Comments
It seems crazy to me that she has $20K in savings but is only chipping away at a $2000 credit card bill that she's had since last year? Why not just use your saving to pay it all off? There's no need to be paying credit card interest.
I thought the same thing. Maybe her 20K is tied up in a term deposit at the moment, that's the only reason I can think of.
Part of "shopping smarter at Coles" might be including the cost of food and household goods in your monthly budget! Again, another diary with a huge blind spot in the monthly break down.
I'm not sure these people are actually doing a weekly/fortnightly shop, though. Most of them have a couple of entries where they 'pop into the supermarket for stuff for tea and a few other things', and I suspect that is when they buy their Windex and loo paper etc.
Shopping for food and household goods should be considered a regular monthly expense, no? It's a recurring expenditure, the same as rent, utilities, gym and Netflix are (which everyone remembers to factor into their list). It's irrelevant whether shops are performed daily, weekly or monthly - what is relevant is the cumulative average outgoing cost.
If you don't consciously and deliberately include it when you're writing out a budget, it's not surprising when people wonder where their money is going each month.
I suspect it’s because rent, Netflix, gym, etc are all defined costs each month.
I’m in the ‘double income, no kids’ category & only budget for mortgage. Utilities, groceries, household goods I just pay when it comes up.
Some months we save quite a bit, other months we dip into savings a bit. Mortgage is the only thing we specifically set money aside for each week