Money Diary 26-Year-Old Civil Servant On £24k

Welcome to Money Diaries, where we're tackling what might be the last taboo facing modern working women: money. We're asking a cross-section of women how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period – and we're tracking every last penny.

This week: "I’m a 26-year-old civil servant living in Durham with my partner and our dog. We’re both from Durham and moved away for university before moving back together five years ago. I loved Leeds, where I studied for my undergraduate degree, but felt like living in a bigger city just wasn’t for me. When we moved back I did a master's degree over two years at Newcastle University then fell into working at my current department as a bit of a stopgap in 2018. It turned into more of a career than I expected and after a recent promotion I’m planning to stay put for a while yet! The cost of living here really cemented us wanting to move back: I feel very lucky to have been in a position to buy a house with relatively low stress. I used to live paycheque to paycheque and often relied on my overdraft to keep me going each month, however having such a small mortgage puts me in the strongest financial position I’ve ever been in, meaning I can now save for big things and spend on fun things with much less guilt. My salary feels like a lot, which I’m very grateful for.

I’ve been really lucky through COVID-19 and have been working a mixture of in the office and at home so my pay hasn’t been affected. I was due to get married to my partner this August but we postponed by a full year to make sure we can have the celebration we want. It’s a shame but for the best."

Industry: Civil service
Age: 26
Location: Durham
Salary: £24,108
Paycheque amount: £1,580 after deductions
Number of housemates: Two: my partner and our dog

Monthly Expenses

Housing costs and utilities: My share of the mortgage is around £125, however my partner and I put £500 a month each into our joint account. This covers the mortgage, utilities, council tax, weekly grocery shops, various insurances (life, home, breakdown and pet), entertainment subscriptions (Netflix, Disney+, English Heritage etc) and most expenses for our dog.
Loan payments: £100 a month to pay off various student overdrafts and credit cards. I recently consolidated all of my small debts into one loan and it's made a huge difference as it comes out on payday so I don't even notice it.
Transportation: £60 a month for parking at work, split with my partner as we work in the same office. We usually spend around the same on petrol but this has been nearer £30 a month since lockdown. No other monthly payments for transportation since we bought our little used car outright and also paid our insurance and tax upfront this year.
Phone bill: £23 a month.
Savings? I put away between £200 and £600 depending on the month. I use an app that calculates how much I can afford to save but tend to top this up regularly. I currently have around £3,500 in savings across various accounts. Most of this is allocated to our wedding, which has been moved back a year due to COVID-19.