A Week In Boston, MA, On A $53,000 Salary

Occupation: Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Industry: Hospital Setting
Age: 26
Location: Boston, MA
Salary: $53,000
Paycheck Amount (4x/month): $695
Gender Identity: Cisgender Woman (she/her/hers)

Monthly Expenses
Rent: $950 for a three-bedroom I share with two roommates. I am moving in with my girlfriend in a few months (!), and my rent will be increasing to $1,050 for a two-bedroom we will have to ourselves and her cat.
Student Loans: $400
Savings: 10% of each paycheck is deposited into two savings accounts, my big life-expenses account, and my "fun" savings.
Car/Renter/Jewelry Insurance: $138 (My parents made a deal with a family friend and gifted me a 15-year-old Subaru last year. I'm still getting used to having a car in Boston.)
Public Transit Pass: $63
Utilities (electric, gas, and internet): $80-$150 depending on heat
Health Insurance: $0 (work covers)
Spotify: $10
Hulu/Netflix/Amazon Prime/HBO: $0 (Between my parents and brothers, I have access to all of these on their plans.)
Phone: $0 (Still on family plan)
Autostraddle: $6 (love to support gay lady media and get access to more content)

6:30 a.m. — My morning routine when I am alone is pretty regimented. I make a pot of coffee, drink my pre-made kale smoothie (meal prepping has truly saved my life when it comes to spending less money, eating food that actually nourishes me, and saving time during the work week). Today's is delicious — it has some of the strawberries we picked at a farm last weekend. I put together my snacks and lunch for the day, a thermos of coffee, and head to the bus by 7. I take a bus and train into work and get in around 8 today. I spend my morning mostly in meetings with my team and supervisor. In between, I return calls to patients, read the news/have multiple brief existential crises about the state of our country, and have a snack from my desk stash. I also follow up with a Kickstarter about an item I never received and will hopefully get a $40 refund soon.

12:30 p.m. — Lunchtime: meal-prepped veggie grain bowl! This week's bowls have: wild rice, roasted Brussels sprouts and asparagus, sautéed red/orange/yellow peppers, crisped chickpeas, purple sweet potatoes, red onion, seasoned with garlic, pepper, and paprika. I also refill my water bottle at one of the hospital cafeterias that has nice crushed ice after my weekly supervision. Today's topics were: changing my schedule officially to 8-4:30 instead of 8:30-5 (approved!) and whether our department would pay $700 for a couples' counseling workshop I want to attend next year. I sent my supervisor the information, and she will review it with her supervisor before confirming if they will pay some or all of the class.

2 p.m. — Text from a friend: Do I want to go with a group to opening night of Lion King next month? Honestly, I don't care a ton about the movie despite my love of Beyoncé, but going to opening nights with this group of friends is always fun, and I'm the type of person who benefits from advanced scheduled social events. I respond, “I'm down!” and complete her Venmo request for the ticket. $16.10

5 p.m. — Leaving work to head to spin class! The one perk of having an office with no windows is I change into my gym clothes in there before I leave. If you were to ask me the one aspect of my life that is potentially out of my means, I would readily answer my SoulCycle obsession. I have been going to spin classes there for two and a half years. It took trying three other gyms and two other spin studios for me to admit that I just haven't found another workout that makes me feel this good. Realizing working out should be a celebration and not a chore was revolutionary for me, as a recovered eating-disordered human, so I prioritize it in my budget. I buy class packs of six classes for $138 ($23 per class) every three or so weeks — luckily I purchased one last week, so I'm good for a little while.

7 p.m. — I arrive home to find a care package from my parents of fresh apricots. They have a tree that produces thousands of fruits and realized a USPS flat-rate box can get them places still fresh, so they've been having fun sending them to tons of family and friends — very wholesome. Opening the box, I realize in a few more days they'll be overripe. I have a quick dinner — fresh garlic and shallots and whatever veggies I can find in a pan with a few eggs cracked over, PB&J for dessert — and get to work. A few have been bruised from travel, but I salvage enough to fill one of my larger Tupperware containers for the freezer to add to smoothies and use the rest to make some homemade fruit leather. I recently got a dehydrator, and it's been a fun obsession. I blend them with a lemon and sugar, pour the mix onto parchment paper in the dehydrator, and leave it to run overnight.

9 p.m. — I put together my bag for tomorrow. Staying at my girlfriend, B.'s, place means double the planning. Two meal-prepped lunches, snacks, a kale smoothie in an old Talenti jar for public transit–safe transport, and a change of clothes — I will definitely feel like a pack mule. I thank the sweet lesbian Jesus we are six weeks away from living together. I'd planned on going to bed early, but got sucked into the nostalgia of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants on Netflix (what can I say, the books were very formative for me as a tween). I fall asleep thinking about how great young adult fiction is.

6:30 a.m. — My new work schedule won't shift my morning at all, it'll just help me feel less guilty leaving work before 5. I wake up and realize I started my period, delightful! Now, I'm not here to tell anyone what to do with their body, but I am a menstrual-cup loyalist and have been for years. They're better for the environment, better for the pH balance of a vagina, and a lot cheaper. I've spent less than $100 on my periods in the past seven years. How there hasn't been a revolt against the patriarchy on the basis of tampon costs alone is beyond me. After the same morning routine (with the addition of storing the fruit leather — it turned out well!), I decide to lean in to my period feels and listen to my Spotify “Sad Summer Jamz” playlist for the commute, which turns out to be exactly the right amount of time between leaving and getting to work. I take that as a sign that it'll be a good day, despite my having some challenging patients coming in.

1:30 p.m. — A patient yelled at me, and a coworker reply-all responded to me implying I was dumping a patient on him. Love getting publicly shamed via email with doctors and supervisors involved. I am tempted to get a fancy hospital gift-shop chocolate bar, but satisfy myself with one of the fruit leathers I made yesterday.

4 p.m. — As part of a hospital initiative to reduce social-worker burnout, I signed up for an eight-week free mindfulness course. In terms of the material, most of it has been review, but I've really enjoyed the camaraderie with social workers in other departments. Someone brought in homemade peanut butter cookies, which makes me feel even better about not spending $8 on a candy bar earlier. Today's session is about humor as a coping skill.

6 p.m. — I head to B.'s apartment and stop at Whole Foods on the way. She had asked me yesterday if I could pick up a few things for dinner tonight. My lovely girlfriend is not great at asking for help, so I'm always super excited to do something when she does — gotta reinforce that healthy behavior! I get a bell pepper and fresh oyster mushrooms to complete the lettuce wraps B. is making with veggies from her CSA. They are unsurprisingly delicious — God, I love dating someone who can cook. I recently learned that she views cooking dinner for me as a way she can create a space where I am being cared for and nobody is asking anything of me (a rarity for a helping professional), which truly warms my heart. The rest of the night involves cuddling and Great Interior Design Challenge on Netflix. $5.63

7 a.m. — Sleeping at B.'s means a slightly later start. I grab the coffee I made in her pour-over last night and head out. This is a newer practice, as B. doesn't own a coffee pot (I know, but I love her anyways), and it was becoming increasingly difficult to avoid confronting my caffeine addiction if I was buying two to four coffees on days I slept at her place. I finish that cup by the end of my train ride and buy a second one at the Au Bon Pain near the hospital — $1.58 when you bring in your own mug. The .4 mile walk between train stop and hospital makes me wonder yet again why people like summer. Do they just not sweat? $1.58

8 a.m. — Direct deposit has hit. I immediately Venmo $950 to my roommate, who pays rent. We're five days away from July, and I know she needs some time to get the money into her account.

9:30 a.m. — Email from department head: Our market-rate adjustments will go into effect NEXT MONTH!!! This means I will have a salary increase, but nobody knows the exact amounts yet. We had been having issues because other hospitals in the area increased their social-work salaries, and people were turning down job offers at mine due to lower compensation. Praying it's enough to cover my new rent. I grab the kale smoothie I brought in yesterday (with apricots from the care package!) for an energy boost.

1:30 p.m. — I'm on call today, which means the clinic I work with can page me for any crises. I respond to a page, and my session with the patient includes the phrase “I've never told this to anyone before,” which always means you're about to have a very intense hour of your life. I eat lunch in my office to sit with the feels and get prepared for the afternoon therapy sessions.

4:30 p.m. — I head out of work and go to a boutique lingerie store that is collecting donations for a local organization that offers aid to LGBTQ+ adolescents experiencing homelessness. I donate eight bras. I present pretty masculine but also love femme underwear — isn't gender presentation fun? This store is truly my kryptonite, and I decide to play a dangerous game where I let myself try a few things on (ranging from $50-$150 per bra). The bra I was most excited about from their Instagram looked terrible on, and the other two were cute but not cute enough to warrant dipping into my "fun" savings account. I take a few thirst-trap photos to send B. from the dressing room. She responds very enthusiastically, and honestly that's enough for me. I leave feeling cute, good about my donation, and having spent $0.

6 p.m. — Get home from the bus and make a quick dinner (same egg and veggie concoction, with granola for dessert tonight). I spend a little time putting together books I want to try to sell at a secondhand store before the move, then head out. I'm going to a friend's tonight and find a few loose beers in the fridge to bring.

8 p.m. — I stop at CVS on the way to my friend's apartment to pick up a prescription ($0, thanks health insurance!) and a snack to bring (decided on snap-pea chips because they're a future dehydrator project I want to try). I have a friend group that gets together weekly to consume gay media of some kind. There are six of us tonight, but anywhere between three to 12 people may come on any given week. We all bring whatever and throw it on the coffee table. Today's spoils include homemade banana bread, snap peas, beers, and a local hard cider. We had intended to watch Pose, but then remember tonight is the premier of a new MTV dating show where all 16 contestants are sexually fluid. I feel vaguely guilty about missing the first Democratic debate, but that guilt quickly dissipates as we scream at the wonderful, messy nonsense unfolding that only reality TV can create — made even better with a queer cast. I head home feeling renewed by my lovely community and look forward to next week. $2.49

6:30 a.m. — Feeling a little lethargic this morning — going to bed at midnight during the work week is not my forte. That feeling is intensified by some of my muscles feeling a bit off. I stretch a little and reaffirm my potential plan to go to yoga after work, then text B. so she knows when to come over later.

10 a.m. — Department-wide staff meeting. We're informed that the market-rate adjustment will be a range of 0-4% increase of salaries, depending on a multitude of factors. I'm in the lowest salary bracket (new hire, not independently licensed), so I'm hoping that means mine will be more toward the 4% increase. One of my team members, who is European, slides over a chocolate bar she had been telling me about, which helps quell some of my budgeting anxiety that goes spiraling any time I think too much about my life's bottom lines.

11:30 a.m. — I go down the hall to a coworker's office and trade fruit leather for some of her instant coffee. If anything, my Money Diary is truly a testament to community and support networks. The rest of the day goes uneventfully; lots of paperwork catch-up, applying for food assistance and dental coverage on behalf of patients, arguing with insurance, trying to navigate complicated workplace dynamics/hierarchies, and day four of this week's grain bowls for lunch (I typically make six at a time).

3 p.m. — A client no-shows, so I have some downtime. I browse Depop (an app where folks sell secondhand clothes) to see if anything catches my eye. I find a denim Madewell jumpsuit in my size, the same style as one I tried on last weekend — a slightly darker color, which means it's probably from last year's summer line. I message the seller a few questions, then notice her profile says she's out of town for a week. I'll probably buy it when she gets back; she's selling for $35, and they retail at $145.

4:30 p.m. — I get changed and head to yoga. I don't do yoga with any regularity, but I like to hit a few classes a month at least to feel like I'm not abusing my muscles with too much spin. A studio half a block from the hospital offers discounts to employees, so I buy packs of ten classes for $140, and they last me a while. This was such a good call; my hamstrings were painfully tight all day. The instructor shows me some stretches to do before and after spin in the future.

7 p.m. — I have a grain bowl for dinner before B. comes over. I don't typically like to have the same thing for lunch and dinner, but it's all I have at the moment and there has been variety the rest of the week, so I'm okay with it. I make chocolate milk for dessert (life hack: homemade Nesquik is just equal parts cocoa and sugar, or 1:2 cocoa to sugar if you like it sweeter — you're welcome). When B. gets over, we discuss some logistics for the weekend — where we are sleeping when, whether that means additional planning/packing, what other social engagements we have, making sure we both get our self-care in terms of alone time, workouts, and meal prep. The planning results in me putting some stuff together for her to bring back to her apartment in the morning, so my bag isn't as full tomorrow. We cuddle, talk about our days, and wind down for the night.

6:30 a.m. — Happy Friday!!! Today's bag includes: my last meal-prepped bowl, copious amounts of coffee, and a change of clothes because I'm heading straight to a party after work hosted by B.'s company. I get to my bus exactly on time instead of early, because I got a little distracted by B. and I discussing how much we would rather hang out all day than go to work. Standard morning at work. Helping a client go through the grief of an ailing parent, strategizing for a support group I run, coordinating a discharge plan for a patient who has been hospitalized, etc. My client uses up the rest of my office tissues, so I restock it from the supply closet and briefly consider the ethics of having our admin order supplies to then use for myself.

12:30 p.m. — I spend my lunch hour browsing Depop and Poshmark for swim trunks. I have a trip in a few weeks that I know I'll want one or two pairs for. I sort through the categories and “like” contenders, then send a few messages to sellers to feel out their price points/bundle discounts. No purchases as of yet. I look back into the history of the seller for my top pick and notice she seems to accept low offers, so I might throw one out just to see if she'd accept.

3 p.m. — Afternoon coffee, because I'm a wild youth on Fridays. It's instant coffee from a coworker's desk stash, taken with permission as we gossiped about some of her questionable romantic choices.

5:30 p.m. — I change and head to B.'s work party on the train. I'm excited — we had a blast at the holiday party, and tonight's is at an outdoor event space. B. works in tech, for anyone who is wondering. I push away memories of my social-work holiday party that consisted of homemade cookies in the cafeteria break room as I use one of my drink tickets to get something fancy involving St-Germain and grapefruit juice. I used to be an introvert, but then I went to social-work school, so now I'm not too bad at parties if I say so myself. We have dinner, mingle, and I end up talking at length about the ocean and fish with someone once we realize we're both water signs.

7:30 p.m. — We head out of the party and decide to go to a local brewery with a few friends from B.'s work. It sounded like a good idea, but the second we get there my week's late nights catch up with me and I get a bit tired/grumpy. We stay for a couple of drinks, and B. picks up our tab (two beers for her, one for me). We're pretty equal on going back and forth paying for outings, but are also practicing having me ask her to pay for things, because it makes me deeply uncomfortable. It was good to spend more time with friends, just not the best combination of a loud space and being exhausted.

9:45 p.m. — We go back to B.'s via public transit (though I check the Lyft app, comparing time/prices just to see if it'd be worth it for how tired I am — it wasn't). After getting ready for bed, we have a moment where we decide whether we need to discuss an interaction from earlier before sleeping. The verdict was yes on both sides, so we spend a couple of hours processing each of our perspectives on what happened, how we felt, and how our communication could be better in the future. We finally sleep.

9 a.m. — We sleep in and slowly wake up to the world. Our original plan had been the beach, but the weather thought differently. We have a slow morning making coffee, putting things together (I want to take home the assortment of clothes/Tupperware that has ended up at her place to wash), and head out.

11 a.m. — We decide to go to one of B.'s cafés to spend a few hours. Each of us pays for our own order, I get a delicious egg-and-asparagus sandwich, a coffee, and a scone for later ($17.33). We settle into our table and our respective activities: B. has her journal and tablet out, I have my journal and a book. I end up spending the bulk of the time journaling reflections from the month and intentions for next month. This spurs a conversation about how we have handled some of the conflict of the month and what we think might come up when we move in together. My discomfort around discussing finances is something we both know is a potential conflict point, so we're trying to figure out ways to preemptively work on it. Maybe I'll ask her to write a Money Diary for me to read and give her mine. $17.33

1 p.m. — I get our second round of coffees. $3.75

2:30 p.m. — There's a little time before B. needs to meet up with some future classmates, so we decide to take a walk around the river and stop by a local university library (she has access through her job). I get the second and third books from the Tales of the City series. Since it came out on Netflix, I decided to go back to the 1970s originals, and let me tell you, they are wild. I transit app how to get home via bus and train, and we say goodbye for the night.

4:30 p.m. — Meal-prep time! I drive to Whole Foods with no real grocery list, just a vague idea of knowing I need to make dinners, smoothies, and snacks. I grew up in rural Arizona, so even though I've been in Boston for years, I still have moments when I go to stores like Whole Foods and I feel overwhelmed by having access to things like that. I browse the produce section for sales and what looks good and end up with: cherries and nectarines for fruit, greens for smoothies, and for this week's bowls: green beans, zucchini, asparagus, shallots, green onions, chickpeas, and sweet potatoes. I also pick up some extra sweet potatoes and snap peas for some dehydrator experiments and a few other pantry staples. All in all a successful trip. $66.21

5:30 p.m. — Head home and start prep. I put in laundry (we have units in the basement that take quarters, $2 per load in each machine, so $4 total), then browse streaming sites to find a movie. I land on Mamma Mia 2 as the evening's background entertainment (Christine Baranski, need I say more?). I munch on cheese and crackers as I cook, and it takes about two hours to make six bowls. I also make two smoothies and impulsively decide to try out a new chia-seed pudding with the cherries. I don't have the ingredients listed online, so I added some coconut extract instead of vanilla — tbd how it'll turn out. My dehydrator is happily humming away with some salted snap peas and sweet potato chips — the sweet potatoes will be heading to my parents with some jam made by B. to thank them for our apricot care packages. I will check on them in the morning and see how everything turns out. $4

8 p.m. — I settle in with some Talenti and watch Juliet, Naked on Hulu. I had seen the trailer a while back and feel like watching something new tonight. B. and I text a little; she's cleaning and spending time with her cat. Productive self-care evening with an earlyish bedtime.

8:30 a.m. — I finally let myself get out of bed. I had woken up at 6:45 and 7:30, but knew I could get more sleep if I tried — love that circadian rhythm. I make coffee and get stuff together as I drink a smoothie. The chia-seed pudding is delicious. It doesn't taste a whole lot like cherries, though. Good to know coconut extract makes coconut chia-seed pudding and overpowers everything else.

11:45 a.m. — Spin class! I'm trying out a different instructor today. My favorite Sunday instructor is out (which is a bummer; her Sunday class is hands down the best workout class I have ever experienced in my life). Verdict: This instructor was pretty good! Loved her playlist — she had Chance the Rapper for the second song, so that definitely helped. She said something along the lines of "Do the hard thing now and feel good about it later," which made me think of some of the things I'm working on with my therapist.

12:45 p.m. — I shower and get ready at the spin studio, then head to a meet-up with a friend. We have been texting this week about the atrocities in the news, and we need some nourishing social time to counteract the hopelessness.

1:15 p.m. — One of our most frequented restaurants has monthly $5 drink specials, and this month's is a margarita, so naturally we end up there. We get margaritas and dinner and commiserate about life and world happenings. How she is handling being a maid of honor, how I am feeling about the impending move, how we are both holding on to the weight of the collective trauma being inflicted by our country. We toast to community, to love, to life, and to the last day of Pride month. I steal her Tinder for a while and initiate messages with boys on her behalf. She asks if I want to get an Uber together home and agrees to go with me to look at swim trunks first. $38.69

4 p.m. — We go to Bonobos. I had been getting anxious about some of the things I was looking at on Poshmark because I wasn't sure what would fit. A few things are immediately clear when we enter the store: This is out of my typical price range, and as the only woman trying clothes on, I will be slightly uncomfortable. I ask a sales associate about a size availability, and she tells me this is "a showroom," which means it's all to try on and not to bring home with you. I stress because I have no clue what a showroom is, and I continue to feel a bit out of place. I tell my friend I'm nervous I'm about to spend too much money, just because I'm uncomfortable, and she responds, "Or you're about to spend some money because you're an adult who is allowed to buy clothes that feel right on your body!" She continues to bolster me up as I try things on. I end up choosing a pattern and size that feels good and spend $54.40 on a pair of swim trunks, figuring worst-case scenario they don't work and I return them. $54.40

6 p.m. — I head to B.'s place (with breakfast/lunch for tomorrow as well as my work clothes) to spend the rest of the night. On the T ride there, I browse Poshmark anxiously to see if I can find similar swim trunks for less. None of them are exactly what I would want, so I commit to keeping the order if I really like them once they arrive.

6:45 p.m. — I get to B.'s, and she's made us a delicious spread: salad with sautéed squash (and triple the garlic because she loves me) and a cold chickpea/apple/fennel spread on toast. I honestly don't even know everything that was in it, it was just delicious. After dinner we watch the next Great Interior Design Challenge and yell at a woman for painting over original hardwood flooring.

11 p.m. — Bed time, getting ready for a new week.