A Week In Cleveland, Ohio On A $257,500 Household Income

Occupation: Director
Industry: Nonprofit
Age: 39
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Salary: $160,000
Household Income/Finances Setup: $257,500. I live with my partner, D., and we split bills and living expenses 50/50 but do not combine finances and manage our money individually. She is freelance, so her salary changes drastically but averages around $75,000 to $120,000 a year (for the purposes of a household income for this diary I’ve averaged it out at $97,500).
Assets: I own a home — I don’t have an exact idea of its worth but based on the comps in the area it is about $190,000 (although honestly this could be way more with the housing market right now). Car: $7,000; HSA: $5016.00; 403(b): $159,946.36; deferred comp account: $12,374.70. I had a lot more emergency savings but I just poured over $20,000 into a new foundation for my house so…
Debt: Mortgage: $101,471.53; credit card: $927.55; student loans: $21,018.91.
Paycheck Amount (2x/month): $3,652.76
Pronouns: She/her

Monthly Expenses

Housing Costs: Mortgage: $880 (split with D.). I put the half that D. gives me for the mortgage towards utilities and it basically evens out, which is why you don’t see a utility breakdown in my monthly expenses.
Loan Payments: $218.40 for my persistent undergrad student loans.
Auto Insurance: $175.24
Phone: $101.95
Gym: $97.20
Peloton App: $44.00
Subscriptions: $31.84 (NYT games, Paramount+, Spotify, Netflix, Apple storage, and sometimes Nuuly, but I just paused that).
Acorn Investments: $59
Giving: $103 (ebbs and flows based on mutual aid/friends/family needs).
403(b): $287.11 (10% of salary taken out of pre-tax paycheck).
Health Insurance: $280.60 is taken out per paycheck — this also covers my partner, but she pays me half each month.

Annual Expenses

Amex: $650 (TBD if I’ll keep this this year but with heavy work travel this pays for itself in lounge access!).
Costco: $65
AAA: $39.55

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?
Yes. The expectation for good grades was very high and that naturally translated into the expectation to go to college… Otherwise what is the point of good grades? I also had a strong drive to leave the area I grew up: it was pretty economically depressed and I couldn’t see opportunities there. From the time I was about 13 I hyper-fixated on becoming a lawyer (maybe a Law & Order and Ally McBeal effect?) and held true to that fixation. I paid for undergrad and law school completely on my own through a mix of need and merit based scholarships, lots of loans, and working numerous jobs through school. I graduated with soooo much debt, lol.

Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent(s)/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
I grew up with a large family and we were very cash strapped all the time. That led to a full scarcity mindset and that is what I took away as a financial education. I was taught that if you just work hard it will all work out but that did not really translate into how to work smarter. The only other serious conversations about money were to avoid credit cards at all cost. I received no information on investing, saving, budgeting, or other practical aspects of money management.

What was your first job and why did you get it?
At 14 I started work at a laundromat where I was paid a whopping $4.15 under the table in cash. From that day on I held two or three jobs until my early 30s (see above: working harder not always smarter). I got my job to be able to afford anything over the bare minimum that my parents could not afford. I have a big family and it was very clear that hand-me-downs and packed lunches were your fate unless you got a job to afford something else. I would have liked to save for college but the reality is that I spent that money on things like prom, senior pictures, and other things that were hard for my parents to afford but that felt like a necessary part of the high school experience.

Did you worry about money growing up?
Yes, for sure. While my parents provided a lot of safety for us in their love, care, and interest in our lives, we always knew we were barely scraping by. It was very scarce when we were little kids and we had very set meals with no leftovers and had to pray for furniture we needed. As we got older, it got a bit more stable and all our basic needs were always met but we were told “No, we can’t afford it” almost always. There was still a lot of effort put into giving us happy, fulfilled memories. We took road trips to camp and hike, had regular family game nights, and had lots of quality time as a family. These helped counteract the stress, but we knew from a young age that when you turned 18 you were on your own and needed to start to prepare for that fate.

Do you worry about money now?
Yes. I am federally funded at work and am really worried about losing my job. I have just gotten to a really stable financial place where I have a high salary and have really reduced my debt. I have only had this high salary for about a year and it is a huge jump from where I was, so please don’t come for me when you see how little I have saved! I have been working on my own financial literacy and where to prioritize decreasing debt, savings, and investments. Right now I am hyper focused on rebuilding my safety net while I still have a job.

At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
I teeter between saying 18 and 23. At 18 I went to college and all financial management was on my own. I went to all the financial aid meetings, applied for loans, and paid for every expense. But I was able to go live back home for free during breaks from school and remained on my parents car insurance until after graduation. I also lived back home for nine months or so after law school at 23 while I studied for the bar, but was responsible for contributing to bills and buying my own groceries. The stress feels like it started at 18 though!

Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
No, lol.

7:15 a.m. — Alarm goes off and I snooze until 8:30 a.m., which will be a major theme of this diary. Who can really get up at the first alarm — and can you share your secret powers with me? Brush teeth, wash face, do skincare (caffeine solution and Buffet from The Ordinary, plus a generic SPF 15 moisturizer). Take the dog for a walk. It is a very cold and icy day so we don’t make it to our intended destination, which is the park a few blocks away that is part of my HOA (not a normal HOA, a cool HOA). Listen to The Daily, NPR Politics Podcast, and Up First while I get ready. Make my favourite smoothie de jour which is banana, spinach, frozen strawberries, almond milk, and protein powder. Make my coffee and head to my home office.

9:30 a.m. — Meditate. It took me a long time to get into this habit but for someone who stuffs emotions deep deep down, it is a really nice way to release and reset my nervous system (20-year-old me would have rolled my eyes at this so hard). I use my Peloton app for this (listed in my expenses above).

10 a.m. — Start meetings…. Have a few minutes to get a string cheese and refresh my coffee… Then more meetings. At some point I grab a salad to eat during a marathon meeting. I work at a nonprofit that is facing some serious barriers based on the federal funding crisis and we had to move an in-person meeting to virtual to save on travel costs, so I sit through a three-hour meeting...

3 p.m. — Do an hour of an arm workout before my last meeting of the day — again, using the Peloton app (shout out to Adrian Williams, who I honestly consider to be my personal trainer). Walk the dog, finish the work day, and heat up dinner for me and my partner, D.

6:30 p.m. — D. and I head to my little brother and sister-in-law’s house to see their one-month-old baby. He is the perfect antidote to what is happening in the world, just a tiny cute innocent baby making little squeaky noises! All my siblings live within an hour of me and it is the greatest thing in the world. We like and love each other — which is amazing, given there are six of us with a wide age range. My brother makes us some delicious cocktails while we are there.

8:45 p.m. — On our way home we stop by our local bar. I have two beers and a shot of whiskey (Wednesday is the new Saturday??). D. gets two non-alcoholic beers. She pays and puts it in Splitwise, which is how we divide all expenses — highly recommend ($25 for my half). $25

10:30 p.m. — Home and decompress with some Arrested Development and then call it a night!

7:15 a.m. — Alarm goes off, snooze until 8 a.m. because it is dark and gloomy and I’m feeling that last drink, which was obviously unnecessary for a Wednesday night. Finally drag myself out of bed at 8 a.m. and get up, brush teeth, wash face and do skin care, take the dog outside (lazy walk today but in my defense it is very cold and icy), start my coffee, make the same smoothie as always, and maple chicken sausage. Meditate — thanks Chelsea Jackson Roberts and Peloton.

9 a.m. — Start meetings. In the middle of many meetings I take a break and eat string cheese and try to comfort D., who is having a moment about the current climate we live in and how much we have to be scared about (losing my job, any LGBTQ+ sentiment, anti-women legislation). 

12:30 p.m. — I have another looooong meeting. At some point I eat my salad for the week (kale, sweet potatoes, apples, brown rice, goat cheese, pecans, balsamic vinaigrette) and break to eat goldfish crackers. I also update my YNAB app. After we wrap up I nap — Zoom fatigue is real (I mean fake, because we do it to ourselves, but nonetheless it wears me out). I love napping and think it should be considered a real hobby. After I power through the last meeting of the day with a professional face, I head out to walk the dog. We make it to the park despite the cold.

5 p.m. — Do a 45-minute Peloton ride with Ally Love. It does do a lot to help relieve the stress of the day, even on the days it is hard to convince myself to start working out.

6:30 p.m. — Make dinner for D. and me. Tonight is a wrap with curry potatoes, roasted chickpeas, cauliflower, spinach, and mint chutney. It is so good but I am a terrible burrito roller. We eat while watching TV and wait for the 8 p.m. drop of Traitors, which is seriously the best show on TV right now (I am a reality TV connoisseur so I would know). We eat some Honey Nut Cheerios as a snack.

10 p.m. — Head to bed and read a bit of my current book, Wool (the first book in the Silo series). It is a borrowed book, which helps me curb my incredible love for purchasing books. D. and her friends read the whole series and it came highly recommended. Zero spend day!!

7:15 a.m. — Alarm goes off and you know I snooze the shit out of that. Up at 8:15 a.m. and do the usual skincare, coffee, smoothie, dog walk. It is only 16 degrees here but we do power through to get to the park and stare at our beautiful lake. The lake is fully frozen and it is so trippy! Also maybe I could walk the 25 miles to Canada if needed?

10 a.m. — It’s payday! I pay $2,201.57 to finish paying off my recent foundation work. This has really put a dent in my savings, which I drained to pay the first portion of this work. It was totally necessary but a hard pill to swallow, given my work uncertainty. Then I pay off my credit card bill. I hold a small balance here mostly due to my inability to use YNAB well (it’s a work in progress). (I haven’t added my credit card balance to my daily total because it reflects previous spending and then this is just me paying it off at once. Everything I spend throughout this week is on my credit card and then I’ll pay it off monthly. It isn’t enough of a balance for me to need to budget out paying it down, it’s just random carry over from month to month that gets close to $0.) Once I finish up my budgeting I send out some texts to plan a resistance brunch. My little sisters and I started this in 2017 and since I’m back in Cleveland I have picked it up again. We eat, educate each other on issues, and write our legislators. We have a lot of concerns… $2,201.57

11 a.m. — I am not doing any work due to lack of motivation and focus, so I head out to run some errands before I have any meetings. Go to Old Navy to return a ridiculously expensive lotion I bought without checking the price ($17.76 returned to my AMEX). Head to Aldi for half our groceries for the next week (cheese, feta, chicken sausage, almond milk, black beans, tomato sauce, wine, seltzer, and frozen pineapple, $20.06 for my half). I also get gas ($44.04). $64.10

12:30 p.m. — Home and head back to work. Log on to some meetings. Make lunch during a break in Zoom, which is leftover wraps from last night. Meetings wrap around 4 p.m. and my inspiration to work is also gone, and short lived for the day, so I head out to walk the dog. I cannot get warm today so this walk is a bit short, since it is still 10 degrees out. Try to warm up with a 45-minute full body workout with my personal trainer (aka Adrian) and then stretch a bit.

5:30 p.m. — Make some brown butter cookie batter; halfway through the power goes out to the whole neighborhood. Our power company could really use some improvement — we had tons of rolling outages this summer. Pretty annoyed because I had a very important evening of watching reality TV and drinking wine alone scheduled. D. and I light a bunch of candles and plop on the couch to read and wait it out.

7:30 p.m. — D. left to hang with a friend and I read until the power comes back on. Night is saved! I promptly put on the newest episode of Summer House and make my little cheeseboard (Tricuits, cheddar cheese, carrots, hummus, apples) and pour some wine. I know girl dinner is a stupid term... But it is very accurate for my preferred method of eating snacks as meals. Sip wine, watch TV, and relax until bed.

9:30 a.m. — Snooze and wake up slowly. Shower, skin care, walk the dog, then sit for my favorite weekend activity: reading with coffee and half a cookie. Morning cookies are the best and I will not be taking feedback on that. Really getting into my book and recommend if you like apocalypse/sci-fi.

12 p.m. — Make my favourite smoothie but add pineapple this time (adventurous!). Head to my little sister’s to give her kitties some meds and food since she is out of town. Take the opportunity while I’m on that side of town to go to this electronics store to sell my spare monitor. I get a whopping $3.26, but I do pass a protest in front of the Tesla, so I call it a win! Stop on the way home for coffee for D. and I ($16) but she pays since it was her craving.

1:30 p.m. — I decide to forgo working out and dedicate my afternoon to finally painting my home office. I started this like two weeks ago and then left it. I finish as much as I can and break for some food since I realize I haven’t eaten since that smoothie this morning! D. makes us some tamales from our freezer and I snack on some carrots and hummus.

7:30 p.m. — Head to get drinks and dinner with one of D.’s old coworkers and his wife. We could only snag an 8:45 p.m. reservation so we head to a cute spot nearby for pre-dinner drinks. I buy the round for D. and me: I get a very expensive cocktail and she gets an non-alcoholic beer ($26.25). Go grab our reservation; the place is really cute with delicious small plates. Get cocktails, two glasses of wine, and a ton of food. D. pays but will put it in Splitwise ($75 for my half). We head home to watch Arrested Development and congratulate ourselves on being out past 10 p.m. like young people, haha. $101.25

8:30 a.m. — Alarm and snooze as is my nature. Finally get up as D. is leaving to play pickleball (very ambitious of her). I have a nice slow morning of walking the dog, sipping coffee, and reading the second book in the Silo series. I have my usual smoothie plus some chicken sausage and string cheese. I get some chores done and get ready. Run the dog to the park to get out some of her energy and let her enjoy the snow.

1 p.m. — Head out to play Whirlyball! This may be a Midwest thing, but it is basically bumper cars plus lacrosse — look it up. Stop on the way to feed and medicine my little sister’s kitties. Whirlyball is so fun and some of my siblings plus D.’s friends come out, even though it is a literal blizzard (can’t stop Cleveland). D. and I each buy a round of drinks ($11 for mine). $11

4 p.m. — A few of us head to a wing place nearby and get two beers and a sandwich. We regale each other with our Whirlyball conquests. $32.97

7 p.m. — We make it home after a bit of a treacherous drive. I mean, D. drove because I am well known as the worst driver, but I was there for moral support. Look up where to buy this curl cream I am out of since I am trying not to go to Target (this happens to perfectly marry my political protests with my spending goals) and find it right from the source with a 20% off coupon! Buy two since this is a one-time coupon ($25.60) — this ends up being way cheaper than buying in store. Also order more dog food from Chewy and sign up for auto-ship to save $11 ($27.68)! The refund for the absurdly priced face lotion came through, so I basically got my curl cream for free… $53.28

8:30 p.m. — Spend the rest of the evening nursing our sore necks from Whirlyball and watching the SNL 50th anniversary show. Head to bed ridiculously early, which I love.

7:30 a.m. — Alarm… And no I do not get up. Sit and scroll my allotted time on Instagram right away. I have been setting a 30-minute limit and it is really good for me. It’s a holiday, so I’m off work. Eventually the dog is sick of waiting for my lazy self and whines until I get up to take her out. We wade through huge piles of snow; she is in heaven and I am cold.

9 a.m. — Make my smoothie and chicken sausage, listen to The Daily, NPR Politics, and Up First while I do some budgeting and work on my résumé. I get a payment from work for $2,45.97, which goes towards my credit card bill, since that is where that balance sits. When I travel, I often put work expenses on my Delta card for those sweet points. I also get $289.57 back from our recent vacation. We used Splitwise as a large group and this is what came back to me after we all settled up — this goes to my general travel fund that covers travel or outstanding credit card bills from prior travel. 

10:30 a.m. — Do a long home workout (10-minute core, 50-minute glutes and legs, 20-minute full body stretch) — all Adrian, all the time. Lunch is a leftover wrap with variety of contents from the fridge which I eat while I watch the first half of the reunion of RHOP (Potomac is one of my favorite Housewives cities).

1:30 p.m. — Go run some errands. Get new windshield wipers and the guys at the auto store are impressed with my knowledge of what I need and kindly offer me a part-time job… So there are options if I lose my job! I would love to seriously know how to work on a car… ($64.78). Head to the grocery store and get produce, crackers, cat litter, and a few items for my friend J. who just had surgery. Everything minus the groceries for my friend are split with D., since its groceries for us for the week ($30.29 for my half). $95.07

3 p.m. — I get home and start dinner, which is chickpea tikka masala with rice and pita I already had leftover. I make a lot since I’m taking half of this to J. to feed her and her wife. I also pick up Happy Meals for J.’s kids ($11.18), since I absolutely know they will not eat the food I made. Bring all the food over and hang out and help with J.’s kids for a bit. They are super cute but have lots of energy. We cover rainbow strings, fossils, and the merits of listening to your mom post surgery (jury’s out on that one). $11.18

7 p.m. — Finish the day by organizing my linens, which is as satisfying as it sounds. Make the beds, hang with D., and catch up on Survivor. Read before bed and eventually remind myself I’m back at work tomorrow, so lights out.

8:15 a.m. — Wake up and the first thing I see is my BFF had her baby! Happy and healthy and I’m so excited for her. Send her some love and text my oldest sister with updates on the newest little baby. Wash face, brush teeth, skincare, dog walk (it feels like -2 so we do not make it far), smoothie, coffee, podcasts. I take time before I meditate to make some calls to my representatives. If you are stuck on what to say or are nervous, I love 5calls.org — it gives you the background on an issue and a full script if you want help.

9:30 a.m. — Meditate and then dive into work.

10 a.m. — Spend all morning in meetings (back-to-back from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.) and hear some truly unhinged information on the federal guidance for the newest executive orders. Big sigh.

1 p.m. — D. brings me a pistachio oat milk latte from our neighborhood coffee shop because she is an angel. I heat up the last of leftovers for the wrap I’ve been eating for a week. Dive in for more meetings. While in a low-interest meeting I reach out to Chewy because I sent my dog food order to my old apartment… in New York. They respond so quickly with a refund and ask my dog’s name, so I am now a loyal customer for life.

3 p.m. — Break to take the dog to the park but it is so cold the electric gate is frozen shut. Leave dreaming of summer.

4 p.m. — Work, work, work. Tuesdays are my busiest meeting day and I often have meetings straight until 5:30 p.m. Unclear how I am supposed to get the rest of my work done. I’m supposed to go to a yoga class (free with gym membership) but am feeling tired, overwhelmed, and just sad about the world. I do objectively know it will help, but am opting to skip and try to rest at home. I also have a social week ahead of me and could use the alone time (D. is headed to pickleball).

6 p.m. — Read after work and decompress. Eat dinner, relax, and revel in my last day being a no-spend day!

“I loved writing this and it did help me think about how to include more no-spend days into my routine! I look like I spent a lot based on the foundation, but absent that I was happy with the choices I made. Being concerned with future unemployment definitely colored these decisions and I would love to compare this to a week where I was more carefree!”