Money Diary: A Fundraising Officer On 33k

This week: "I'm a 27-year-old fundraising professional living in Manchester. I moved here four years ago with my then boyfriend, who I broke up with in January. I’m now living with a flatmate, G, and my cat, S. Following the breakup I am trying to balance having a good time with redefining my financial/long-term goals. Buying a property is now much further away than it was and all of my expenses have gone up so I am still working out how much I can save each month. I’m focusing on padding out my emergency fund, setting new goals for my finances and career, booking my first ever solo holidays and going on fun dates with women. I'm queer but I've not fully explored that side of my identity before now.

Overall I'm pretty good with money but occasionally fall prey to small impulse purchases online (thanks, ADHD). I also love going to gigs, theatre and festivals so I prioritise booking these with my disposable income."

Occupation: Senior charity fundraising officer
Industry: Nonprofit
Age: 27
Location: Manchester
Salary: £33,000 + approximately £2,000 per year from a cat-sitting side hustle.
Paycheque amount: £2,057.36 from my main job. Cat-sitting is ad hoc and ranges from £0 to £300 a month in busier periods. All my cat-sitting money goes straight into my LISA.
Number of housemates: One: G (and my cat, S).
Pronouns: She/her

Housing costs: £635 rent. This includes wi-fi and use of a coworking lounge and gym downstairs.
Loan payments: £43 comes out of my payslip pre-tax for my student loans.
Savings? £17,000 in a LISA (£13,800 saved by me, £3,300 government bonus) and £4,000 in an emergency fund. I had to use some of this recently to move out of the flat I shared with my partner before our lease was finished and replace some of our shared furniture etc.
Pension? I contribute 5% of my salary pre-tax, matched by my employer.
Utilities: £19.25 water bill, £46.60 electric, £93.50 council tax, £14.20 TV licence.
All other monthly payments: £10.45 pet insurance, £10 worm and flea subscription, £21.99 gym, £140 personal trainer (ouch), £19.60 contact lenses, £10 phone. Subscriptions: £15.99 Netflix family plan, £9.99 every six weeks for razors.

I did a three-year BA in English literature, paid for by student loans. I got the lowest maintenance loan, which didn’t even cover my rent, so I paid for everything else through working. I also received a £2,000 one-off academic grant from my university for achieving certain marks at A-level, which seemed like a fortune at the time.

My parents were extremely frugal but they didn’t talk to us about money so I don’t know what their actual financial situation was. I imagine it was tight sometimes as my mum worked part-time and they had three children who were very into sports and hobbies. My parents’ financial situation is now better than it was as my mum has a well-paid job and they have made investments (I still don’t know any details though). They’ve started passing on some of what they’ve learned and my older siblings have also given me advice on saving, investing and purchasing property.

I moved out about six months after I finished university at 21, when I got my first paying job in London. In the interim I lived between my parents' and my godparents’ houses as I was doing an unpaid internship and they kindly allowed me to stay there four days a week to be closer to the city.

I'm currently completely financially responsible for myself. For the past four years I was living with a partner who paid more rent than me, which allowed me to save a bit more as I wasn’t earning as much at that time.

When I was 16 I trained and got a job as a lifeguard at a local pool as my parents had made it a rule that we all got a job as soon as we could. They paid for the training course, which was around £300. It was a natural choice for me as I was a competitive swimmer at the time.

I do get stressed about money, especially now that I am single, but I know it probably isn’t justified. I make a decent salary and although my expenses are quite high, I have some savings and manage to put a little away each month. I'm also very fortunate that if I needed to, I could get help from my parents or siblings, who are all in good financial positions and better paying careers. This is a great source of comfort. They all offered me help when I broke up with my partner recently but luckily I didn’t need it and used some of my emergency fund instead.

My grandparents gifted all of us £1,000 around five years ago on a big wedding anniversary, which I used to start my LISA. My parents did the same thing last year and gifted us £1,000 as well, which I used to pay for a private medical thing that I had been waiting two and a half years for on the NHS.