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 dollar.
Today: a consultant who makes $105,000 per year and spends some of her money this week on mixing bowls.
Occupation: Consultant
Industry: Wellness
Age: 32
Location: Salt Lake City, UT
Salary: $105,000
Net Worth: $106,000 (my partner and I keep separate finances, although we do budget and plan together. Everything listed here is my personal net worth. My 401(k) and IRAs: $57,000, ETFs: $6,000, I bonds: $2,580, KBB car value: $16,100, home equity: ~$11,000, high-yield savings account: $19,000).
Debt: $264,499 (mortgage: $258,826, student loans: $5,673).
Paycheck Amount (biweekly): $3,096
Pronouns: She/her
Monthly Expenses
Mortgage: $1,571.91 (this is for my portion. I make more than my partner so we split the mortgage according to income, but all other utilities are 50/50).
Student Loans: $0 (still paused).
City Utilities: ~$60
Gas: $20–$65 (depending on season).
Internet: $44.79
Home Security: $15.33
Phone: $0 (my parents claim that my portion of the family plan is negligible and refuse to let me know what it costs).
Life Insurance: $36
Private Disability Insurance: $84
Pet Insurance & Wellness Plan: $60.99
Dog Walker: $50–$100 (depending on business travel).
Spotify: $6.98
Car Wash Membership: $23.50
Savings: $800 (this is going towards a $10,000 wedding savings goal I have for this year. Our overall budget for the wedding is $30,000; my partner will pay $10,000 and my parents are contributing $10,000. I also get Botox every three months, which brings my contributions down $350 during those months).
ETF Contribution: $350
401(k): $807.70
Roth IRA: $541.67
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
My parents expected all of their kids to go to college so this was ingrained in me from an early age. When I was growing up, we were part of a religion where people tend to marry young. My parents went against the norm by teaching me that I should get a degree first and not marry before the age of 25 so that I would have the chance to chase my ambitions. My parents paid for my undergraduate degree and I also took out minor student loans and have not given my parents the access to pay them off. I make enough to pay them myself and my parents have already helped so much.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
My parents are good with money now but that wasn’t the case when I was growing up. I overheard stressed conversations about not having enough. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that they started earning the big bucks and I feel that I grew up more modestly than my younger siblings.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
My first job was as a cashier at a sports supply store when I was 16. My older sister worked there during the summers and got me the job. I was terrible at it, partly because I was so shy, but I learned how to speak to people and make sales. I used the money I earned for spending. I never received an allowance, though my parents would give us money to buy things. It was nice to be able to pay for things without having to ask them and potentially have a debate.
Did you worry about money growing up?
I did worry about money growing up. I would overhear the stressful conversations my parents had. I don’t believe that they had a budget, which caused tension at times. They both grew up poor and tried hard to give us everything they could. I wish they’d set a budget and then involved us in it so that we could have learned fiscal responsibility.
Do you worry about money now?
I do worry about money now. I take after my mom and love to spend. As an adult, I’ve learned that this is partially due to poor impulse control with my ADHD. My attitude toward money in my early to mid-20s was “You’re only young once.” That was a mistake. I was $17,000 in credit card debt and only earning $37,000 a year. I didn’t think it was a big deal until my boyfriend at the time found out and had a serious talk with me. It’s taken years of budgeting and trial and error to get to where I am.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
During college, I always found jobs to cover part of my living costs. My parents would send whatever money I needed but I tried to wean myself off their help before I graduated from college. After that, I became responsible for myself. If I lost my source of income I have my partner to fall back on, and my parents would also step up. I have enough in my high-yield savings to cover four months of expenses, if not more, but we are saving up for a wedding next year and I am stressed about having enough so that I don’t have to dip into my emergency fund.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
Luckily, I have never inherited anything. The people who I would inherit income from are alive and well, and I hope they stay that way.
Day One
5:15 a.m. — Nothing wakes me up faster than the sound of my dog heaving vomit. It’s going to be one of those days. I start obsessively checking my flight status for later in the morning. A foot of snow fell overnight so there’s no way my flight will be on time, and I want the extra time to take care of my dog and for the plows to work on the roads. Delta, it seems, can operate through any conditions and the flight is on time. I sigh and start perusing the news.
6:45 a.m. — Time to shovel. I’ll spare you the details. The TL;DR version is that if you’re a homeowner in a snowy place, learn from my mistake and buy yourself a snowblower.
7:25 a.m. — Back inside, my partner receives a text from work that it’s a snow day. I celebrate with him and then start checking the traffic cameras. The roads and freeway look apocalyptic and there are messages from the local government asking people to stay in, if possible, until the afternoon. It’s still snowing. I call Delta and change my flight to something later in the afternoon.
11 a.m. — Dinner is chicken and bell pepper stir-fry with cashews. I cook as my partner shovels the driveway (again). I contemplate the wisdom of going on my trip while our dog vomits loudly under the coffee table. Between a record storm and a sick dog, I’m safer staying home. Every hotel is understanding due to the weather and so work is not out any money. I’ll do the trip in March.
1:30 p.m. — I use the Mealime app to throw together a meal plan with low food waste and then import the shopping list to my cart at our local Kroger affiliate. I love this app because it automatically portions recipes down to two people. I place a pickup order for tomorrow afternoon. The total cost for two is $76.68 (split). My partner hides his disappointment well. He loves eating out but we’re trying to save for our wedding so he is supportive of cooking with me to save on food. $38.34
9 p.m. — Before bed, my partner reminds me that I have $30 in rewards from Eddie Bauer expiring soon. I find a pair of hiking pants on clearance. The cost after the reward is $6.45. $6.45
Daily Total: $44.79
Day Two
7 a.m. — My partner wakes me up and coaxes me out of bed. I walk the dog while he gets ready for work. After he leaves, I eat breakfast while reading the local newsletter and realize that our dog’s registration has lapsed. I renew it. $25
7:45 a.m. — I start work and plan projects for the day. I had planned on being with clients for three days so now I need to figure out how to best use this time from my home office. I wanted to move some money into stocks and quickly log into Fidelity to schedule the buy. I only invest in ETFs because I got out of debt not long ago and am not willing to do anything riskier. I schedule my buy of $2,000 and get back to work.
11:30 a.m. — I take an extended lunch break to get my nails done. The woman I go to is an actual artist and charges well below what a salon would for beautiful gel art. I opt for a gorgeous sagebrush color. $55
1 p.m. — I swing by the store on my drive home to pick up our groceries for the week. The sun is out and doing a great job of melting the residual slush and ice. The store doesn’t have the regular jalapeño chips I ordered and suggests subbing in low-fat ones. I’m fairly certain my partner hates low-fat potato chips so I stop at a local grocery chain on the way home and grab the kind he likes. After I pay for the chips and a couple of other items ($15.93), I eye the Starbucks counter greedily and remember that I have two $5 Starbucks gift cards loaded into my app. A latte is a done deal. I also order a birthday cake pop. After the store, I swing through the car wash to get some of the salt off my car (prepaid). $15.93
1:30 p.m. — The dog greets me like he’s been stranded for two days, not two hours. I greet him and unpack the groceries. Somehow I ordered an entire bag of tomatoes on the vine instead of two single tomatoes. A quick text to a friend thread yields volunteers to take the extras. The rest of the afternoon passes uneventfully with a couple of client calls and a lot of task completion.
5:30 p.m. — I start watching the second season of The White Lotus after I finish work. At the end of the first episode, my partner gets home, makes us dinner and then joins the dog and me as we watch. We binge five episodes. Jennifer Coolidge is a legend in her role as Tanya. Suddenly it’s 10 and we still have two episodes left, so we pause until tomorrow night.
Daily Total: $95.93
Day Three
7:20 a.m. — After last night’s watch party, I sleep in until my partner wakes me up. He is very good at helping make sure that I don’t oversleep. The dog and I follow our regular morning routine and I read my book club’s pick to prepare for our meeting tomorrow. I read a little too long, which only leaves me 15 minutes to shower and dress for my day. I set a timer and race to get ready.
9 a.m. — With my hair pulled back so that nobody can notice how wet it is, I log into my team meeting. This meeting is followed by another meeting. And another. Because I often meet with clients and/or travel Tuesdays through Thursdays, Mondays and Fridays get packed with administrative tasks. The day passes without incident, except that I forget to eat breakfast and lunch. I snack on Oreos instead.
5:30 p.m. — My office is right over the garage so the moment I hear the garage door, I leap into action. The Oreo package is sitting on the coffee table and I don’t want my partner to know that I ate Oreos instead of breakfast and lunch. He has spent years trying to convince me of the merits of eating proper meals and not substituting them with cookies or tortilla chips. To my credit, I have gotten way better about eating meals and today is an aberration. I put the Oreos back in the pantry and calm our dog, who thinks that the flurry of activity is an invitation to play.
7 p.m. — We make frozen pizzas, which gives me a chance to redeem myself when it comes to getting fruits and vegetables. It’s Amy’s pizza and it’s a veggie-lover’s dream. We watch the rest of The White Lotus and then snuggle. Post-snuggle, I set an early alarm. My book club is coming for brunch tomorrow and we have a fair bit of cleaning to do. Now it’s lights out.
Daily Total: $0
Day Four
7:30 a.m. — My alarm goes off. Instead of getting up, I alternate between scrolling on my phone, rubbing the dog’s belly and snuggling up to my partner softly enough so that I don’t wake him up. He is beautiful all the time but I love seeing his face when he’s asleep. Cuteness aggression kicks in and I have to mentally talk myself down from jumping on him. I finally roll out of bed at 8 and my partner wakes up and offers to take care of the dog this morning. I wash the dishes from the past few days and blast my audiobook. When the sink is clear, I realize that my partner has cleaned the living room and the guest bathroom as well so now all I need to do is start cooking. The menu this morning is waffles.
10 a.m. — My book club shows up and they’ve brought muffins and multiple types of pastries. It’s a carb feast. My partner and I slice up fruit to give a little more variety to our makeshift brunch. We discuss our current book and choose the next one: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I look for a used copy online. It’s new enough that there are no cheap, used options so I order it on Amazon instead. $16.64
1 p.m. — My friends head out after lots of discussion about upcoming weddings and other life updates. While we’re chatting, my partner quietly does the cleaning so I can relax and hang out. He’s a good human.
6:30 p.m. — We stay in the rest of the night and watch The Wolf of Wall Street while I make fish tacos. I try a new recipe with spicy grape salsa and it is amazing.
Daily Total: $16.64
Day Five
10:30 a.m. — Since we stayed in yesterday, I suggest that we hit up our favorite brunch spot. Due to its popularity, it’s a long wait but so worth it. The owners always recognize my partner and today they ask him about our winter travel adventures. We swap stories about beautiful mountain towns and end up adding a new one to our wish list. We split the bill. $21
12 p.m. — On the way home, we run to Target for a drive-up order. Our mixing bowls have given up the ghost and I found a great new set for $10 through the app. $10.73
12:30 p.m. — The last stop before we head home is Costco. On a Sunday. This probably isn’t the best idea but due to the high number of people in our area who observe the Sabbath for religious reasons, it’s not the worst level of busyness that we’ve experienced. We grab a bag of frozen chicken ($10.32 for my half) and I notice that there are microfiber sheet sets on sale for $15 ($8.08 for my half). We’ve been slowly replacing our old sheets, some of which have been with us for more years than I care to admit. Samples are the real reason I’m ever willing to brave Costco on a weekend and I snag some on our way to checkout. $18.40
1 p.m. — Before we leave Costco, I make sure to fill up my car with gas. $31.67
2 p.m. — We check our mail from yesterday and see a wedding invitation from a friend. I RSVP for the both of us on their website and then I discuss with my partner the fact that flight prices for the wedding have only been increasing since I started tracking two months ago. He agrees that we should buy the flights now. I have a credit from a trip I had to cancel due to a work conflict so my total trip is only $10.60. $10.60
2 p.m. — A medical bill also comes in the mail so I use my HSA card to pay it. $91.36
3:30 p.m. — The dog starts coughing/retching due to his potential gastritis issues. I order a spray to help coat his throat on Amazon for same-day delivery ($11.84). Since the spray doesn’t hit the $25 threshold, I add EltaMD sunscreen because I’m low ($43.97). Apparently it qualifies for HSA spending so the bulk of my total goes onto that card. $55.81
7 p.m. — For the rest of the evening, we chill and cook black bean burger sliders and watch a favorite Twitch streamer. I go to bed early because I have a medical appointment in the morning.
Daily Total: $239.57
Day Six
8:38 a.m. — I check in for my doctor’s appointment eight minutes late (thank you, traffic). It’s a quick visit. I will likely need a very minor surgery. Thank god for health savings! I head home and get to work.
4 p.m. — We meet with a potential wedding vendor to see if our energies jive. She seems awesome and is in our $2,000 budget for this service so we will probably pick her. She happens to know our wedding planner, which is a bonus. We want all our vendors to work well together and believe that good chemistry will help that.
5 p.m. — I meet a friend at a bridal boutique. As someone who did not grow up fantasizing about a wedding or a perfect dress, I almost think it’s been harder to find what I like. I find a couple of solid contenders that are well under my $2,500 budget, which is good because I hear alterations are expensive. In an effort to get me to wear a dress that I don’t buy off Facebook Marketplace, my mom has offered to go 50/50 with me on the cost. Despite having the help of an excellent salesperson, my wedding is still over a year away and I’m not ready to decide yet.
6:15 p.m. — We run out of ingredients for meals so I stop by the grocery store to pick up a few things. If there isn’t a proverb about not going to the grocery store hungry and on your period, there should be. I walk out with the fish and flour we need, plus ice cream and Cadbury mini eggs. $22.39
8 p.m. — I notice that I just got billed for an ebook I purchased via Apple. I’m starting the Crescent City series and the first book had a 15-week wait on the library app. Luckily, I’ll be able to read the second book for free as it does not have a wait time. $15.03
Daily Total: $37.42
Day Seven
7 a.m. — I don’t hear my alarm and my partner makes sure that I get up on time. It snowed overnight and made the streets and sidewalks icy. I walk the dog and do our usual morning routine. I’m wearing real clothes today because I have an in-person business meeting later. I have a busy morning working on projects and answering client questions before I have to leave the house.
12 p.m. — It’s finally lunch! I meet a colleague at a local restaurant and go over project roles and responsibilities. Since it’s a work lunch, I put it on my business card and take home the leftovers. The cheap part of my heart is ecstatic that one free meal will now be two free meals ($52.20 expensed).
1:30 p.m. — I head home and spend the rest of the day in meetings. Such is corporate life.
5:30 p.m. — My partner gets home. I’m still super full from lunch so he orders takeout for himself. I end up eating a bowl of Cheerios for dinner later. We chill and talk. I spend time reading House of Earth and Blood before going to bed.
9:30 p.m. — Lights out.
Daily Total: $0
Money Diaries are meant to reflect an individual’s experience and do not necessarily reflect Refinery29’s point of view. Refinery29 in no way encourages illegal activity or harmful behavior.
The first step to getting your financial life in order is tracking what you spend — to try on your own, check out our guide to managing your money every day. For more money diaries, click here.
Do you have a Money Diary you’d like to share? Submit it with us here.
Have questions about how to submit or our publishing process? Read our Money Diaries FAQ doc here or email us here.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
A Week In Los Angeles, CA, On A $135,000 Salary
A Week In NYC Suburbs On A $550,000 Joint Income
