A Week In Phoenix, AZ, On A $50,000 Salary

Occupation: Marketing Coordinator
Industry: Construction
Age: 20
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Salary: $50,000 + $2,000 sign-on bonus
Net Worth: $10,000 (Savings, HSA, 401(k))
Debt: $6,000 (I bought a 1973 VW Bug, because fun car?)
Paycheck Amount (1x/week): $800 (post-tax)
Pronouns: She/her

Monthly Expenses
Rent: $550 for my half of a two bedroom two bathroom apartment I share with my fiancé)
Car Loan: $145
Car Insurance: $50
Horse Boarding: $715 (I have two horses)
Internet: $60
Gym: $25
Electricity: Fiancé pays
Savings: $600 (Sometimes more depending on the month. I am slowly trying to save to buy a home and/or land within the next few years. My fiancé makes $35,000. We split finances right now, but I recently got a raise so we are looking to split costs according to our income %. We have about $8,000 in combined savings right now. I just started an HSA and 401(k) plan in March, so there is very little in those accounts.)

5 a.m. — Up for work! Traffic in Phoenix isn't my most favorite, so I choose to work 6:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. to avoid this. I get up, get dressed, and wash my face (Proactiv because that's the only thing I can find to work on my dry face..). My office environment is pretty casual, so jeans and a nice shirt is all I throw on. I'm not a big makeup person either, so my routine stays pretty simple. I feed my cats and fish, nudge my fiancé, E., awake to tell her I'm leaving, then head out the door.

6:30 a.m. — I arrive at the office. We're still reporting to the office as of right now and taking precautions due to COVID-19. I work in a pretty secluded part of the office and keep the door closed most of the day to avoid contact with others. Construction must go on... I make breakfast and a cup of tea, then settle in for a quiet day. The last few weeks have been pretty slow due to the virus, so I'm working on organizing files and taking this opportunity to learn some material.

10:30 a.m. — Aaaaand I'm getting hungry again. I snack on some pistachios and raspberries at my desk while reading my email.

12 p.m. — I find out I have a project due tomorrow and have a small panic attack. I calm down and am thankful for something to work on, especially because I've been having issues focusing during the pandemic. I coordinate with my manager to go over tasks for this project and hop on a conference call to ensure all my boxes are checked.

2:30 p.m. — Out for the day. My commute is roughly half an hour during non-peak traffic times, so thankfully I get home pretty quickly. E. is working from home some days, so I go for a run to stay out of her way. I typically go to the gym five or six days a week, but since they're closed, I've been taking advantage of running at my complex.

5 p.m. — E. finishes up her work and we head to see our horses. We board at a very small facility and go see our horses daily to take care of them and ride. We typically spend anywhere from one to three hours every night at the barn (I know, we have no social life, haha!). I've ridden horses for the past 12 years and it's definitely a mental relief for me. We enjoy the time to be outside and both of us owning horses makes life a ton easier.

8 p.m. — We arrive home from the barn, very smelly. I hop in the shower while E. makes dinner. She typically cooks a lot more than me, mostly because I have a habit of burning things. We settle in on the couch and watch I Am Not Okay with This (this is the strangest show, but I can't look away). We finish dinner, clean up, feed the cats and fish, then head off to bed by 10. We're both early risers for work so I take advantage of an early bedtime.

5 a.m. — Up for work. The routine: dress, wash face, feed critters, and out the door. I drive to work and listen to the radio to hear the daily gossip from the news, then arrive at work at 6:30. I'm typically the first person to arrive, so it's nice to get first dibs on the coffeemaker. E. texts me an adorable photo of our cat in bed, so that brightens the day even more. She's working from home again today, so I expect more cat pics all day.

10:30 a.m. — I have my typical midday snack and try to gain a little extra focus for the rest of the day. My project is due today, so I'm finalizing details on that to ensure it's ready for presentation this afternoon. I've been at my job for a little under a year and absolutely love it. I especially like the flexibility because it allows me to stay in school (taking two classes every eight weeks) — I have a little over a year before I graduate.

2 p.m. — I complete my project, thankfully! I head home and call my mom on the way. I try to talk to her at least every other day on my way home. She lives in the south, which is where I'm from, and I don't get to see her very often. She is currently working from home due to the pandemic because my home state has much stricter stay-at-home orders than Arizona.

5 p.m. — I practice my electric bass while my fiancé finishes her work for the day. We do our usual evening routine, heading to the barn then back to cook dinner. I go for a run once we get back to relieve some built-up energy. I moved to Arizona with my fiancé in last year for a new start and I've noticed with the constant beautiful weather, my energy level has skyrocketed.

9:30 p.m. — I know, I know. We're old ladies. In bed by 9:30.

5 a.m. — I think you know the routine by now! Arrive at work at 6:30 and go through my project. We have a lot of quick, short deadlines in the construction industry so sometimes projects aren't always to the quality I'd like them to be. I take time after the project is complete to review mistakes and "lessons learned" with my manager. I'm still new to a lot of this, so learning the industry and techniques is a large part of my process.

12 p.m. — I'm starting to crash. Instead of fixing my usual eggs for breakfast, I opted for a Pop-Tart and the sugar rush has finally worn off. I take some time to walk around the main part of the office and recoup my energy.

2:30 p.m. — Off work for the day! I promise my days are much more exciting when there isn't a pandemic. Typically the office is bustling and I have multiple projects to complete at once, but COVID-19 has slowed down a lot of them. It's a hard transition going from a higher stress environment to having free-time during my day. I arrive home and work on homework online until E. is able to clock out. We head to the barn, work our horses, then do our usual nightly routine. We're almost done with I'm Not Okay with This and the tension is killing me!

10 p.m. — We're in bed by 10. I choose to read for a while before falling asleep. I've been reading Daisy Jones and the Six and it gives me major Fleetwood Mac vibes, which I love. I admire the writing style of the author and enjoy how it flows, so it's easy to get caught up in. I'm asleep by 11.

5 a.m. — Typical routine. I arrive at work at 6:30 and disinfect my workspace. I try to disinfect and clean daily, and we have a cleaning crew who comes in and does the same. My office is in a very low traffic area, so I'm typically the only one who comes in contact with anything. There's an early conference call with the entire company to discuss the response to COVID-19.

11 a.m. — I get a much-anticipated call! I purchased a 1973 VW Beetle in September as a "fun car" to enjoy the sunny Arizona weather in. It's been in the shop for the last two weeks due to some clutch and pressure plate issues, and I just got a call that it's ready for pickup. The payment came in two parts, the first part already paid for was $1,200 and then the final cost for completion was $305. I pay over the phone with my credit card which earns cashback and will pay it off as soon as the bill processes. $305

2:30 p.m. — The anticipation is killing me, so I go over to pick up my car as soon as I leave work. I leave it at my office and drive my other car home. Once home, I go for a run and once I return, we head to the barn. E. drives me back down to the office to pick up my car. There's no gas gauge, so I run to the gas station across the street to fill up just in case. Only needed three gallons! $15

9 p.m. — We're pretty tired from constantly running around, so I make a quick microwave meal before heading to bed by 9:30. E. stays up a little longer scrolling through her phone and loving on our cats. Since moving here, we've both had a bit of a difficult time making friends in our age range, so our cats have been really important. How does one make friends as an adult without going to bars??

5 a.m. — You know the routine :) I tell each cat goodbye (because they're people too!) and let E. know I'm leaving. It's Good Friday today, so the office is even quieter than before. I'm doing some social media work this morning and taking some photos in office, so that makes the time pass by fairly quickly.

12 p.m. — We get an email at 11:45 that our office is closing at noon for Good Friday! That's exciting and it will be nice to have a quiet evening. I head out the door by 12:30 after finishing up some work. I daily drive a pickup truck, so I head over to fill up before the weekend. $80 for 91 octane gas, because truck. E. had to go into the office today, so I go to the barn by myself. $80

4 p.m. — I finish up at the barn. I thankfully got to ride a long time today and enjoyed the quiet outside time. It got up to 80 degrees here and my truck's A/C currently doesn't work. I need to call about that. Since it's Easter weekend, E. and I decide to go ahead and go out to the grocery store for essentials. We typically grocery shop once a week because we have a small kitchen and can't fit really any more than a week's worth of groceries.

6 p.m. — We finish up at the grocery store ($70) for our weekly essentials. Fruit, yogurt, black olives, vegetarian meals, and some other food items. We were happy to see other people social distancing and being very polite at the store. We typically only see each other until we go grocery shopping. Even with me going to the office, I can go all day without seeing anyone at all. Sometimes it's nice, but other times it can be lonely. $70

11 p.m. — An unusually late night for us! We stay up finishing our show on Netflix and enjoying some time sitting on our patio. We head to bed around 11 and talk about our plans for doing absolutely nothing this weekend. Those are the best kinds of weekends.

6 a.m. — Dear brain, it's the weekend. Can we sleep in? Just once? No? Okay, sounds good. I lay in bed for an hour before getting up. I mull around the kitchen for a while, trying not to be too loud. My cats scream at me for breakfast (what's new??). E. stays asleep until around 8:30.

10 a.m. — Once E. and I finish making breakfast, we head out to an empty parking lot nearby in my Beetle. E. is learning how to drive stick, so I figured this was perfect. We spend two hours in the parking lot driving in circles and I show her how to shift smoother, downshift, and that you can use the brakes in cars with three pedals! She finally gets it and I trust her to drive home. She does very well for this being only the second time driving stick shift.We hang out at home together for a while, just talking. E. works on editing some photos she took a few weekends ago and I practice on my bass for a bit.

2:30 p.m. — We head out to the barn for the afternoon. We help out around the barn on Saturdays, feeding and cleaning stalls. E. works with her horse while I get to work on cleaning stalls. I put in headphones, jam out, and enjoy some pony time. There are about 25 horses we take care of and each one has a different personality, which always makes for a fun evening. We finish up by 6 and head home, ready for a shower.

7 p.m. — Shower complete! We start to make dinner and finish our show on Netflix. What a crazy ending! Now we have to find something else to watch because it seems season two won't be out until 2021...bummer.We spend the evening being rather lazy and are in bed by 10.

6 a.m. — I'm wide awake, so I get up to get ready for the day. Since it's Easter, we're going to go to the barn early. E. wakes up around 8:30, gets dressed, then we head out the door.

11 a.m. — We have a really great ride today! One of my horses has had some attitude issues in the past, and those are finally getting resolved. Sometimes owning horses is a lot like owning a toddler with four legs. We head home and start preparing a small Easter lunch/dinner for ourselves. I have a group FaceTime with my grandparents and mom for Easter. We have a FaceTime chat and then hang up around 1. I had plans to fly home toward the end of the month for my 21st birthday and to see my family, but due to COVID-19 I decided to postpone that until further notice.

3 p.m. — E. and I make our Easter dinner. Butternut squash and deviled eggs for me. A baked potato, broccoli, and steak for her. We sit down to eat together and talk about our families. E.'s family is in the midwest and mine are in the south, so it's sometimes difficult on holidays to be away from them. We still appreciate each other's company, though.

6 p.m. — We spend the rest of the day lounging around. R. and I spend some time together on our patio, enjoying the weather. She works on editing more photos while I read. We've worked really hard to balance our independence and together time. It's so important to do things together, but apart. We head inside as it gets dark, lay on the floor with our cats for a while, and head to bed around 9:30 to prepare for another manic Monday.