Money Diary 28k Edinburgh Marketing

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 we're with a 29-year-old who moved to the UK from New Zealand in chase of change and easier access to travel. She and her husband live in Edinburgh and are saving for more European travel. This is going well as her very generous mother-in-law is currently visiting from New Zealand and they're pretty good at being prepared with their groceries. They're also both vegetarian, which brings down the cost a bit!

Industry: Marketing
Age: 29
Location: Edinburgh
Salary: £28,000
Paycheque amount per month: £1,841
Number of housemates: Just my husband and me

Monthly Expenses

Housing costs: £650 rent
Loan payments: £0 – we left NZ with all our debts paid off, which feels like a small miracle.
Utilities: £194
Transportation: £54 for a bus card, although this month I’m not topping it up since we’re about to go away for two weeks and we are walking so frequently, so I’ll just get some mobile tickets.
Phone bill: £54
Savings: I pay our rent and bills as I got a job first when we moved here, so my husband pays for our gym memberships, charity donations, our savings (roughly £500-600) and a bit more of our social life.

Amount left over: £943