LEGO and comic books: What an administrator on $66,000 spends in a week

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This article originally appeared in Refinery29 Australia.

Welcome to Money Diaries, where we ask real people how they spend and save their money during a seven-day period, tracking every last dollar. Anyone can write a Money Diary! Want to see yours here? Here’s how.

Today: an administration officer who makes $66,300 a year and spends some money on LEGO. Content warning: This article discusses abuse in a way that may be distressing to some readers.

This week on Money Diaries, an administration officer who makes $66,300 a year and spends some money on LEGO.Credit: Refinery29 Australia

Occupation: Administration Officer
Industry: Pharmaceutical
Age: 37
Location: Canning Vale, Perth
Salary: $66,300
Net Worth: $1.42 million (A house worth $703,698, $353,000 in super, $178,865 in shares, a car worth $155,718, $20,000 in savings, an account for upcoming bills and holidays with $13,300 in it, and a tax return worth about $815).
Debt: My credit card averages $2,000 to $3,000 per month, but I pay it off in full each month.
Paycheque Amount (Monthly): $3,313
Pronouns: She/Her

Monthly Expenses

Mortgage: $0. I own my three-bedroom villa outright and live alone.
Salary Sacrifice: $1683
Holiday Savings: $1100
Bills Fund For Health, Home, Car, Strata Insurance, Council Rates, Car, Water Rates & Football Membership: $850
Dinnerly: $210
Collector Fair: $100
Foxtel Broadband (Includes 12 Months Of Disney+): $100
Gym: $60
Gas: $25
Electricity: $40
Patreon: $30
Harmony: $40
Pet Circle: $65
Birthday/Christmas Presents: $50
Emergency Funds: $50
Mobile: $15 (Yearly Data SIM For $180)

Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?

I did two years at TAFE for an Advanced Diploma in Tourism & Event Management. My parents paid for the course enrolment and I paid for books, resources and transport to campus.

Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?

We didn’t have many conversations about money. I was present when my mum would ask my dad for grocery money that he would give it to her in cash and I acknowledged the amount increased over the years. Anything else my mum wanted, she would pay with her credit card — she was a spender who would spoil our family with small things that weren’t needed. I knew my dad was frugal, but I hadn’t realised until going through his business finances that he never paid himself a wage — he paid for their joint credit card to be paid off each month rather than a wage. They did encourage saving over spending when giving us pocket money.

What was your first job and why did you get it?

My dad was a vet so I worked at his clinic doing reception/cleaning duties on the weekends during the last few years of high school and TAFE. It wasn’t until after TAFE (when I was 20) that I scored a job at KFC part-time. My parents always wanted me to focus on schooling, but I felt left out when school friends all had jobs. I now fear that me getting a job so late had somewhat of an impact in the lack of socialisation I now have in my life.

Did you worry about money growing up?

No. I sensed my family was well off compared to my school friends. We got to travel domestically once a year and went to the UK for three weeks when I was 10. Birthdays and Christmas presents were plentiful thanks to Mum’s need to provide us with gifts.

Do you worry about money now?

Yes. I’m in a great financial position. I have a set monthly budget for everything I buy and ensure I’ll cut back in the days leading up to payday if my ‘splurge’ or groceries/petrol accounts are looking low or empty. But a lot of my worry is around the fact that I’ve spent so much effort getting myself into a great financial position that I’ve ended up sacrificing my social life. I don’t have a lot of connections to people and suffer from loneliness.

At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?

I became financially responsible for myself at 25, when I moved into my own house. I have $2000 in emergency money, as well as $4500 in travel savings that I could tap into if I needed to. I could also always sell my shares if it came to it.

Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.

When my dad passed away nine years ago, my mum gave both me and my brother $100,000 each. I would give it back in a heartbeat for him, though. I put it on my mortgage and it encouraged me to be mortgage free. My grandfather passed away three years ago, with my brother and I receiving $85,000 each, which would’ve been our father’s inheritance. I used $5,000 for solar panels on my house and invested $80,000 into shares (I already held $60,000 worth at the time). My shares dividends are re-invested into purchasing more shares

Day 1

6:30am — My cat, K., gets up from lying on my legs and dashes out of the bedroom. Snooze until K. rushes back, reminding me to feed her. Because in the 12 years I’ve had her, I’ve not once forgotten to feed her when I’ve been at home, but it’s still her daily ritual to remind me. I get dressed. K. wants me to hurry up. After I feed her and clean her litter box, I go for a 30-minute walk around the local neighbourhood and zone out while listening to a podcast.

7:30am — I make a pot of T2 Brisbane Breakfast tea, toast a Turkish roll, and slather the slices with margarine, Vegemite and half an avocado. During breakfast, I pay off my credit card that’s due Monday ($1935.01) already accounted for and deducted from my savings. Then I get ready for work. I’m WFH today, but I have a meeting, so I do my makeup and hair. I log onto my laptop a little after 8am, identify some urgent tasks to do and make a start on them.

11:00am — My manager has asked me to meet her at my local cafe. She’s going on long service leave for six weeks and she wants to reach out to each team member to make sure we’re comfortable with our workload. I order a hot chocolate. Manager pays with her work credit card. We grumble about the cafe charging $7 for it.

1:30pm — I arrive home and see my Dinnerly box has arrived. I put all the ingredients in the fridge and heat up the last serving of pork Thai fried rice from my last box for lunch, adding a scrambled egg I cook up, before sitting back to the laptop and continuing with work. I have podcasts playing in the background that get paused every time a colleague calls with a query.

4:00pm — I turn off the laptop but keep my phone around in case anything urgent comes through. I prep dinner. Beef-loaded wedges. Oven bake a serving of wedges and cook up the beef, beans, capsicum, and barbeque seasoning using all the ingredients in the box. I usually select recipes that come with extra veggies, opting to pay a few extra dollars. One box will usually last me for eight to nine day’s worth of lunches and dinners. By day five or six, I’m sick of rotating the same three recipes, but I have to remind myself that it’s cost-effective.

6:00pm — I attend a gym class for an hour — a great way to end the working week. I get notified that my pay has hit my bank account, yay! When I get home, I heat up a serve of beef-loaded wedges and sit down for dinner whilst doing my banking, splitting my pay into ‘buckets’ and updating my spreadsheet. This helps me keep track of what all the money sitting in my savings account is for. After savings are accounted for, I have $280 to splurge on myself on whatever I want this pay month. I do what I can to resist dipping into savings, especially when I allocate myself a set amount I can freely spend.

8:00pm — I start winding down for the evening with a shower, skincare, social media scrolling, and give the cat a fresh litter tray. Then I watch the finale of Riverdale — the trash show that deserves a trash ending. I’m a completist and couldn’t stop watching this trash after its excellent first season. I curl up in bed, reading Pretty Little Liars for half an hour with K. on my lap. I’m rewatching this trash show (I have a type, okay?!) and thought I should give the book series a go.

10:30pm — Asleep.

Daily Total: $0

Day 2

6:30am — K. jumps on me before curling up against me. I get up, to her annoyance. Then she realises she needs to remind me to feed her as I get dressed. I feed her, change her litter tray, and go for a walk around the neighbourhood for 30 minutes. Back home, it’s the same breakfast — Turkish roll halved, toasted, with margarine, Vegemite and avocado.

8:15am — I head to the gym early today for a free launch session of Reformer Pilates. I usually do a Konga class but I can’t make it today. Gym staff try to upsell me $20 a week to take as many Reformer Pilates classes as I want with three weeks free. I think about it as I can reduce my holiday savings rather than reduce my monthly splurge, but the class times clash with Konga and I’m not sure I want to get up for 6am classes until later in the year, so I opt to get my butt into gear and to get back into jogging on the weekends down at the local lake. If I fail to do so, I’ll sign up to Reformer Pilates in a couple of months.

9:30am — Back home. Put on an episode of Pretty Little Liars while doing a few chores around the house. Then I get ready to go out for an early lunch.

10:30am — Head off to Victoria Park, podcasts playing while I drive over. I drive up an extra 200 metres from the paid parking zone to the free street parking. I meet up with a couple of acquaintances for a meal and we catch up. I order a chicken, cheese, and avocado roll with a side of chips and a chocolate drink that tries to be fancier than a milkshake, with a Freddo Frog you’re meant to add to the drink ($24.90). I pocket it instead. I pay for it on my credit card and round it up to the closest $5. When I pay off my credit card, that round-up gets transferred into a mini emergency saving fund, as well as any interest I earn on my savings accounts. It’s about $20 to $30 a month rounded up and $60 interest. If I just left it in my splurge account, it would be spent each month. This way, I avoid dipping into my savings. $25

3:00pm — After chilling at home for two hours, I get ready to go to the footy tonight. I make sure my cat has extra food and litter trays as I won’t be back tonight. I stop by Subway to pick up an Italian BMT footlong for dinner during the game ($14.35). Head to Mum’s house — I’m taking her as she’s no longer driving. But before I arrive, I head to Coles to do Mum’s grocery shopping and pick up dumplings. Get back to Mum’s — she’s annoyed I forgot to buy milk. She forgot to write milk on her shopping list, but that’s still my fault. The shops are now closed and I tell her that I’m not coming back tomorrow just to buy her milk she forgot to ask me to buy — she’ll need to wait until I can come over again for grocery shopping. We drive to the train station and catch the train to the stadium — transport is free with our footy membership. $15

9:45pm — I get Mum back to her place and remind her that I’m not driving out to hers 30 minutes each way just for milk and that I have plans tomorrow. She doesn’t show any interest. I tell her we’ll go for brunch next Sunday.

10:30pm — I’m staying at Mum’s beach house tonight as I’m attending a collectors fair and it’ll save me an hour’s drive in the morning. I go to take a shower only to realise there are no clean towels. I remember past me put all the towels in the washing machine last time I was up here, deciding I’d wash them next time I was here. I hadn’t thought I might turn up at 10:30pm, shattered from a big day and could do with a shower. I transfer the money I put on my credit card today from my splurge account to my savings account to stop me overspending when that account is empty — that’s it for spending on myself ’til I get paid. Head to bed, realise we could’ve picked up milk from the petrol station (why didn’t I think of it earlier?!). I find the Freddo Frog in my pocket. It’s gone quickly.

Daily Total: $40

Day 3

6:45am — I get up. Miss the morning routine of K. reminding me to feed her as I get dressed to go for a walk down by the beach. I drive the two minutes and walk by the beach for an hour. My mum was hospitalised five months ago for a month and has required a lot of personal care. I’ve had to take time off work to take her to all her medical appointments after she was discharged. She turned a corner last week. This is only my second Sunday off any carer duties and I’m working my way back to focusing on my life. After promising myself I would get back into jogging, I manage five minutes, but the blisters on my feet from my new runners halt my progress. Baby steps.

8:15am — Back at the house, breakfast, rinse, repeat. Same meal every day along with a mug of tea. I listen to podcasts then change out of my gym clothes. Learn from yesterday’s stuff up with the towels and get them in the washing machine, then hang them out to dry. Head off for the collectors fair at Joondalup.

9:30am — Getting out of the car, I notice my handbag’s strap has nearly snapped from the bag. I’ve found my next mini-emergency to spend money on! A new handbag! I just spent my mini emergency funds on runners that split two weeks ago. The handbag will need to wait til next week when I get the interest on my savings account.

10:30am — I have a good haul at the collectors fair. Pay entry ($5). I bump into a couple of acquaintances and catch up with them. As it’s mostly local businesses or people selling their own collections, most only take cash. I took out $150 in cash the other day for this fair. I purchase two coasters ($18), two pop vinyls ($60) and three Lego mini-figures ($9). $92 paid in cash with $68 leftover to put towards the next fair. $97

10:45am — Wait for the towels to dry while watching an episode of Pretty Little Liars. Towels dried, I fold them and put them in the linen closet. I pack up the night bag and head home. I stop at the comic book store to pick up four issues, paid for with my splurge money ($43.96). Then I fill up my petrol tank ($66.61). I put $300 into my groceries/petrol account when I get paid so I don’t overindulge in food I don’t need. When the account is empty by the end of the pay cycle, I can take money from splurge but that means less money I get to spend on wants. I’ve always been a person who saves for everything important first, then spends whatever is leftover. $110.57

1:30pm — Home. When I open the door, K. rushes out to roll around the garage floor before settling herself on top of the car bonnet. It’s nice to feel missed! Unpack and get another serve of potato wedges in the oven for lunch, add heated-up beef mixture, mayo and spring onion for lunch.

2:30pm — After I’ve unpacked, I head to Coles for Turkish rolls, avocados, band-aids and a block of chocolate ($11.25). When I get home, I transfer the funds I’ve spent today to my savings account, ready for when they come through on my credit card statement. I do a few chores around the house before chilling out listening to podcasts and eating half the chocolate block. $11.25

6:00pm — I cook up my next meal — vego pesto pasta with roasted veggies. I roast up the full serving of veggies and cook two servings of pasta. Add feta and put the leftovers in the fridge. Eat dinner, shower, skincare, eat the rest of the chocolate block — oops! I watch a single episode of One Tree Hill, Glee and Gilmore Girls. I’m in a podcast TV rewatching era as I’m listening to TV recaps for a bunch of 90’s/00’s shows which are from fans of the shows or from cast members. I watch an episode the night before the podcast about the show drops. Who needs to binge TV when you can go back to watching TV week to week? Pretty Little Liars is the show I’m watching in between the week-to-week TV show podcast releases.

10:00pm — Curl up in bed with K. lying by my legs and read a comic book before going to sleep.

Daily Total: $213.82

Read the rest on Refinery29 Australia here.

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