A Week In Fitzroy, Melbourne, As A Copywriter On $67,000

Occupation: Copywriter
Industry: Media
Age: 27
Location: North Fitzroy, Melbourne
Salary: $67,000
Net Worth: $6,693
Savings: $75,000
Debt: $62,263.29 uni debt (wow thanks so much indexation), and $6,044.92 for a student start-up loan.
Paycheque Amount (Monthly): $3,945
Pronouns: She/Her

Rent: I pay $1000 rent per month, living with one other person in a two-bedroom cottage. It's a delicious price for the location and the luxury of living with only one other person. The house is falling apart around us but I'm grateful I'm not in rental stress as my rent is less than 33% of my monthly wage. Honestly, I’d probably pay above my means in rent so long as I never have to live in a multiple-person sharehouse again. 
Loan repayment: I believe about $50-$100 comes out of my pay monthly for my student debt. It might change month on month but I don't like to analyse my payslips because I find them distressing. 
iCloud: I pay $4 a month for my iCloud subscription, which will soon become $15 because I've run out of space and I’m not about to go through 40,000 photos. 
Phone:  I pay $30 a month pre-paid for my mobile.
Internet: My part of the household internet is $30 
Subscriptions: I use other people’s Spotify, Disney and Stan. Thank you other people!
Savings: I try to save what I can every month, it usually ends up being about $100. Sad. 

I put all of my tertiary education on HECS. I did half a bachelor, hated it, then started a new bachelor at a different uni and completed that. I then did a graduate diploma which was $22k. That really racked up the debt. When I was younger I believed your uni debt died with you, or you could move overseas and not have to pay it off, so the energy was very much "just chuck it on the HECS". If I wanted to feel bad I would regret being so flippant, and also regret never looking into scholarships, but I don't want to feel bad so I just try not to think about it. I'm just letting it index out of spite, there’s no way I’m paying it off when the crusty politicians making bad policy for this country went to uni for free, and no way am I paying it off when university chancellors are on $1.5M yearly salaries. No. Uni debt will be wiped. It has to go. Something will happen. We will be saved.

My parents weren’t really able to help me with financial literacy — neither of them even have super accounts. But they always heavily encouraged me to save. I’m good at saving but I hate the idea of budgeting and worrying about money. My parents always told me that money comes and goes, and it’ll always come back — any time I am stressing about money that’s what they’ll say. I can’t decide whether this is a healthily optimistic outlook or just a super privileged one, but it has given me a sense of valuing spending time with people, having fun, and living in the moment over saving and budgeting. I'm naturally kinda frugal, but I rarely say no to something because "I'm trying to save money", because it's shit like that you end up regretting, I believe. Being weird about money isn't a good vibe when you're lucky enough to know when the next cheque is coming in. The bottom line is I’m miserable when “trying to save money” and I’ll probably still be miserable once I get the thing I’m saving for, so I may as well enjoy life. 

My first job was at a bakery chain, I basically started working as early as I could, 15 and 9 months, and have worked ever since. I had to pay for the things I wanted, so I worked and saved all through high school and uni.

I worried about money when I was young but mostly because I was always told we couldn’t afford the things I wanted, then again I wanted rich people shit like a horse and a huge house where I didn't have to share a bedroom with my siblings and a swimming pool and a trampoline. I was always scheming get-rich-quick hustle plans as a kid. We couldn’t afford some things I perceived other kids had like nice cars and overseas trips, but ultimately I had a sick childhood and I shouldn’t have been stressed because my parents were fine, they were just super young with three kids and a mortgage to pay.

I don’t worry about money now because I have savings and a job, I am mostly stressed out about being on a low salary at my age. I worry that I’ll be unable to buy a house even though I have savings, but mostly I worry I will have to work 9-5 for my entire life. I don’t think being chained to a desk 9-5 helps anyone. My uni debt scares me but there’s no way I’m putting money into that bottomless pit of indexation horror. I AM WORRIED ABOUT WHERE THIS WORLD IS HEADED? I hope we can overthrow capitalism in my lifetime. We can’t live like this. 

I became financially responsible when I got my first job at 15 and 9 months and I have been paying my way since. I moved out as soon as I could at 19 and paid my way through uni working, and was on Centrelink. My financial safety net I guess would be my family, if anything really went down they'd look after me.

I received $40k from the sale of my grandpa’s property after he passed, it makes up a huge chunk of my “savings”.

7:30am: The day is Wednesday. It’s an office day. I usually get the bus in and never touch on, but today I ride my bike, which my dad recently found super cheap, fixed up, and gifted to me for my birthday. Biking feels very luxurious, $0.

9:15am: I get my first coffee ($6.20), wake-up coffee, with a colleague. I order humongous oat lattes ONLY. $6.20

11:11am: I collect my second coffee of the day, from a different cafe. Their large lattes are even bigger. I don't eat breakfast and this coffee will sustain me until my first meal of the day. I wonder when hunger will hit.

1:30pm: I have a big day ahead, I am convinced I have BV (bacterial vaginosis) again and it's finally time to address it. I plan on going into the sexual health clinic at lunch so I don't need to pay and they can diagnose me immediately and give me antibiotics (the gel did not work for me the last time), but I realise I don't want to go into the city. My colleague informs me of something called Priority Primary Care Centres, which are like satellite emergency clinics that were set up during COVID that not many people know about. Importantly, they're free. There's one nearby, I walk there.

1:35pm: I stop and grab a couple of sushi rolls ($7.93) to consume on my walk, tuna and avo and salmon and avo, hectic times call for a snack lunch. $7.93

1:40pm: After a 10-minute walk in sweltering sunlight I arrive. They tell me they can't see me, but then decide they can. The doctor is very nice and tests me for everything, and prescribes me a seven-day antibiotics course for BV. "DO NOT DRINK ON THESE" he informs me.

2:30pm: I stop by Chemist Warehouse on the walk back to the office and get the antibiotics. "DO NOT DRINK ON THESE" the pharmacist tells me, and the same words are printed on the label. This is unfortunate, as I'd wanted to drink this weekend. I buy a Blistex chapstick ($3.48) because I have dehydrated stingy lips and it's the only thing that works. I'm pleased to see the BV antibiotics are only about $7 – the gel costs a feral $40 – I'm giddy! The rest of the day passes without occasion, I bike home and do a bunch of chores. $12.48

8pm: I make dinner with stuff I have at home, pasta with zucchini from my grandma’s garden and panzanella with the loaf of bread that’s been hardening in my cupboard for a week. Didn’t even need to go to the shops, fabulous. 

10pm: I go into a fugue state oscillating between reading, watching TikToks and staring at the wall until I fall asleep somewhere around 11:30.

Daily Total: $32.81

8:30am: It is Thursday, but I have tomorrow off so it's basically Friday. I get the bus to work and do not touch on $0.

9:30am: I get my wakeup coffee. $6.20

12:00pm: I get a breakfast coffee. $6.90

12:10pm: It's car rego time ($221.83). Painful. The car does not belong to me, it's my sibling's but they live interstate so I pay rego to pretend it's mine. It's the first of the month, yesterday I put all of my remaining money into my savings so I could get interest, I earned $210 all up. Rego takes me down to $30 left in my spending account. $221.83

1:00pm: For lunch, I eat leftovers from last night's dinner, so thrifty.

2:00pm: Continuing my coochie week, I go to get a lunch break Brazilian wax. I never used to do this, and I don't really know why I do it, but I really enjoy the experience. It’s some sort of bizarre bit, a hyper-feminine performance piece I have incorporated into my life. I love the bush, truly, but it's the same price to get it all off so I always just go the whole hog. Or kitty, whatever. My friend recommended a new place close to the office, and they have 20% off on Thursdays. I pay cash for another discount, the total is $41.50. Basically free. $41.50

6:30pm: Post-work, I decide to meet a friend at a cute gastropub I love to eat at. I was going to flake because I can't drink on the antibiotics, but ultimately I'm going away for the weekend so I need to get friend time in. I bike there.

7:00pm: My friend pays for six oysters, a pot for me (surely I can drink just a little bit?) and whipped cod roe with flatbread. I pay for mains ($63.05) – a steak and this bitchy cos salad, kinda caesar style, it's so good. My card declines so I transfer $300 out of my savings and pay. It's two weeks til payday. $63.05

8:30pm: We go for a walk and end up popping in on a friend at the bar they work at. They give me a non-alcoholic beer, and then I have an alcoholic beer, both on the house. I wonder what kind of damage the antibiotics plus beer combination is doing. I feel ok, though.

10:30pm: I bike home to bed.

Daily Total: $338.78

11:30am: Friday. My Big Day Off Work. I sleep in. The guy I'm seeing lives down the coast so I'm going to stay with him for the weekend. It's going to be great weather, I'm happy. 

12:15pm: I pull out the last of my birthday cash, $100, and put it in my wallet. This will come in handy.

12:30pm: My fuel light has been on for weeks, I am worried I won't make it to the cheap petrol station so I go to the closest, 7-11, RIP. The car only takes 98, RIP. It's like $2.35 a litre or something evil like that. I fill up what I hope is just enough to get me to the beach. $41.02. 

1:00pm: My mum's friend does massages and mum has paid for me to get one as a belated birthday treat. It’s in Coburg.

2:00pm: After my massage, the guy texts me and asks me to bring him a vape. I contemplate... He is giving me a free beach holiday. "Yes kitten" I respond, and go for a walk to find a tobacconist. I'm starting to get hungry, but what I really want is a coffee for the drive. I find a vape shop and buy him a good flavour ($28). $28

2:20pm: I go into a sweets shop and order a giant iced oat latte. It's $9. This can’t keep happening to me. $9

4:00pm: I make it to the beach with 30kms of petrol to spare. That's Sunday's problem.

5:00pm: After the boy and I go for a walk I realise I haven't eaten anything all day. We go to a little European deli-slash-restaurant for a snack, which turns into a geriatric dinner because we accidentally order too much – six scallops and bread and prosciutto with melon and a cucumber salad. We hadn’t realised each scallop portion came with three scallops, even though the $22 price tag should have given us a clue. Dropping the plates to our table, the waiter said “oooo you like the scallops”. Yes. We liked the scallops. I'm still "not drinking" but I have a chardonnay and a riesling. He pays, I have no idea how much it was.

7:00pm: We go to a restaurant and I buy us a chardonnay each ($27.48), then another orange wine each ($26.47). I'm pretty drunk, but I'm not passing out so I assume wine + antibiotics isn’t so bad (but what of my liver…). I check my account and see a bill has come out, gas or electricity, whatever, $122.60. I will split this with my housemate when I find the time to go through what she owes me. $53.95

9:00pm: We are mildly drunk and being incredibly obnoxious with the PDA so we graciously go home.

Daily Total: $131.97

11:00am: Saturday! We sleep in until the desire for oat milk lattes wrenches us violently out of bed. 

12:00pm: We go to a little coastal cafe but they’ve just finished breakfast and we are hungry for sandwiches. The guy buys us two big iced oat lattes.

12:30pm: We drive to a different coastal cafe. I order us two more iced oat lattes, avo on toast for him and a salami toastie for I. My card declines. Humiliated, I pay cash ($38). I transfer $500 out of my savings. It's going to be a long two weeks. $38

1:30pm: We drive to the beach and spend the rest of the day there. It’s 30 degrees, perfect. Nature, sun, good company, priceless.

7:00pm: We are booked in for dinner at a schmick restaurant. I'm going to insist it's my buy, cause the boy has paid for many more dinners than I since we've been seeing each other. This doesn't stop us from going hard. We order a bottle of wine (I'm definitely fine!!!!), three entrees, steak, a side and dessert, all to share. It's fabulous, the food is fucking amazing and the company is better. He tries to pay, but I am faster. It's only $238, including a $10 tip. Honestly not bad at all. I won't be paying for the next few dinners, anyway. $248

Daily Total: $286

10.30am: It’s Sunday. I'm supposed to leave today, as we both work full time and I need to get back for work. The thought of buying petrol looms, ominous. We stay in bed until hunger pains force us out. 

11:30: We drive to a crunchy hippie-style cafe. It’s super cute and we sit outside in the blazing sun with the dog. 

12:00: The boy pays for brunch, an order of avo toast each, with vegan cashew cheese and pickled onions, and two iced oat lattes. I’ve never met a guy who orders the same quasi-vegan girly brunch things as I do and it’s so adorable. 

1:30pm: We are going to spend the entire day at the beach again. We need silly girly beverages today. I go into the cafe and select two silly little kombuchas for us ($11.14). $11.14

2:00pm: We arrive at the beach, which is a nudie one. I take my top off and sun my chest. We stay there, reading, giggling and drinking the – actually good – silly kombuchas, all day.

5:00pm: The sun starts setting so we drive back to his house. He opens a bottle of orange wine and we relax. 

6:00pm: I decide to stay the night, I’m having too much fun. I’ll drive home in the wee hours before work tomorrow. 

6:30pm: The boy orders us pizza from a place nearby and, bringing the open bottle of orange and two glasses, we drive to pick it up. I get a capricciosa, craving olives, and he gets pork and pear. He pays. He takes us to a lookout point to eat and watch the sunset. Wow.

9:00pm: We drive back to bed. I need to leave at 6:30am to make it to work in time, so we sleep.

Daily Total: $11.14

6:30am: Horrible Monday. I leave the coast early, stopping at the closest town to get petrol ($66.69). It's grey out and the horrors are creeping in. I'm in such a bad mood, I don't even laugh. I really want a coffee for the road but traffic is looking terrible and I can’t make up my mind on a snack so I just drive. $66.69

8:00am: When the maps lady says "There is 27-minute congestion on your route, you’re still on the fastest route available", that's when you know it's a good morning. I make it home at 8:45am, just in time for a shower before WFH.

9:30am: I get a giant oat milk coffee and a baguette at my local cafe. $9.90 

10:00am: Internet comes out ($59.99). I will eventually split that with my housemate, when I can be assed doing finances.

11:00am: Someone buys the glasses I listed for sale last week, YAY! I'm selling things I never wear basically for what I paid for, so I can buy more stuff. I only buy second-hand, but I’m trying to get rid of stuff before I hit the opshops for a while. Not only did I make no profit on these glasses, selling them for what I paid, $90, I also forgot to list shipping, so I'm down $11. I take the L in my stride... Just grateful to have some income at this point.

12:00pm: I drop the glasses and another pair I sold last week off at the post office. Postage is $23.98. I own businesses! $23.98

12:10pm: I stop in at the supermarket and buy tofu, an avocado, spinach and tomatoes ($12.70). The work day passes without note. $12.70

6:00pm: I realise I’ve forgotten to eat, so I quickly put the rice cooker on. I have a rice bowl with garlic spinach, kimchi and an egg. 

8:00pm: I clean then go into a daze of relaxation.

11:30pm: Fall asleep.

Daily Total: $113.27

7:45am: Office day. Tuesday. 

8:20am: I take the bus to work but don't tap on. This week is not off to a happy start, I’m sad to be back in the city and I miss the boy. I don’t feel like biking.

11am: I get my Giant Breakfast Oat Latte. $6.90

12:00pm: I’m excited for this day to end.

1:00pm: At lunch I ball out on salmon sashimi and a prawn roll ($14.74) from the shopping strip nearby. I love sashimi and I feel like I've earned the luxe lunch because I brought food from home on one (ONE) day last week. $14.74

1:30pm: The doctor from last week calls me and informs me I never had BV after all. In fact, he said, I was perfectly fine and healthy. I’m relieved but also ???? A whole seven-day course of antibiotics for nothing. That cannot be good. My poor body.

2:00pm: I chase up an invoice for a gig I did in prehistoric times (two months ago). It's a hectic chunk of money and the most I've been paid for a freelance job ($1K). I could really use it right now to get me out of the savings red.

5:00pm: The day has finally ended.

5:15pm – I tram into the city with a friend, we have free tickets to go to the cinema through another friend, we just need to post about it on Instagram. The influence.... We do not touch on. 

6:00pm: We get food from an amazing place in the city, and a little bottle of wine to share, toasting to my perfect health. I have a burger and we share a salad and chips. I transfer my friend for my half which is $46. $46

7:00pm: My friend buys me a beer and we share a giant popcorn. 

10:30pm: The film was fucking amazing. This year, I'm trying to go to the cinema once a week. Knowledge is wealth, and there are cheap cinema nights on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so it’s achievable!

11:00pm: We walk home! Free! 

Daily Total: $67.64

On reflection, I'm really grateful because my life is really, really nice. I get a lot of stuff for free, which is also really, really nice. But everything should be free, or close to. We should get a universal basic salary, and all of our uni debt should be wiped. Say no to capitalism!