I am 41, live in Australia, and had an extremely average week
Assets and Debt:
Equity if you're a homeowner:
- Based on recent sales near us, we have at least $400,000 equity. Our area went through a stage of skyrocketing growth a few years back, stabilised, then has seemed to go nuts again over the last six months. But then, the national market finally seems to be softening (thank god!). Who knows what we’d actually get if we wanted to sell, which we don’t.
- We also outright own a block of land worth about $25k (I think, it’s been a while since it’s been valued, although we are thinking of selling it, so we’ll see).
Account balances:
- $88414 available for redraw in our primary mortgage offset account
- $2000 in my husband’s D.’s emergency savings, also an offset
- $300 in a daily in/out home loan account - mortgage payments and insurance for the house come out of this one (offset).
- $1536 in high interest personal savings account - this is being saved for my next quarterly tax installment
- D. has a daily transaction amount, which doesn’t normally have much in it, a few hundred dollars perhaps.
Super: approx $120k in superannuation between the two of us (I know, I know, it’s so low)
Student loan debt/HECS: $5300
Main Jobs Monthly Take Home:
- My pay varies, and I earned 65k last financial year. However, I was laid off at the start of this year, and made the switch to part time work supplemented by freelance clients, and I have no idea what it will be this year. I don’t intend to give details about my work, so if you’re looking for a high-earning, high-octane girlboss to give instructions on how to be a good capitalist worker bee, this diary is probably not the one for you, sorry.
- My husband gets ~65k + occasional overtime + super, and he gets a few ancillary benefits which are equal to about $2k a year. In this village, permanent full time, award pay office jobs (with full benefits, supportive management, ongoing training, and a path upward in D.’s case) are like hens’ teeth, so this job is a godsend. Plus it’s walking distance from home, so our commuting costs are zero.
Expenses
Mortgage: Our current minimum required payment is $67 but we pay $300/week and then make extra payments into offset accounts when possible. We have about $42k remaining on the mortgage.
Private health insurance: $99/week
Home + contents insurance: $147/month.
Council rates: $463/quarter this financial year
Electricity: ~$450/quarter (higher in winter, lower in summer).
Water: ~$400/quarter (higher in winter, lower in summer)
Internet: $90/month
Phones: $55/month x 2 (calls and data, we both own our phones outright - this feels like highway robbery and I really need to take a look at what options are out there).
Car registration + comprehensive insurance (approx $1500 annually together, and then an annual service has been anywhere from $300 to $900, it needs new wheels occasionally etc. ect., so I count the basic costs of car ownership per year as being about $2500 assuming nothing goes wrong)
Cats: My feline overlord (Fatso, 12) and our five-year-old (Pest) cost a combined $108 a month in insurance, and about that again in food, litter, and preventative medicine. Despite being found filthy in a drainpipe (Fatso), and stinking and starving in a dairy (Pest), they are luxury items and drain my purse accordingly.
Subscriptions: Audible at $8/month - all other subscriptions we buy a month then cancel.
Background
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
I have a bachelor degree and postgraduate certificate. I never considered not going to university after high school, and I did the postgraduate certificate to move into my current role.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parents educate you about finances?
My parents are hardworking and frugal, and they have worked their way up from starting with nothing in their youths to being very comfortable now. They’ve taught themselves to be financially literate but the mentality of JUST DON’T SPEND MONEY was hard to break. I’ve learned a lot directly and indirectly.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
When I was 15, I started working at a fast-food store. The job sucked, but I did like having money of my own. I moved over to work in a department store (which was mildly less traumatic to my very shy teenage self) to build up savings when I was 17, and worked hospo/retail jobs through university holidays to keep myself going through term time.
Did you worry about money growing up?
I was conscious that it was a source of stress for my parents. That said, I never thought we’d not have food on the table or a roof above my head, and I did lots of extra-curriculars (mostly sports, although I’m not sure they got their money’s worth as I have two left feet).
Do you worry about money now?
Yes. I feel less and less stress as savings/assets/debts move in the right directions, but I think I’ll always be a bit of a stress-head about money, and losing my income at the start of this year, just as inflation went nuts, did not help.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
About 20, when I began my first full-time job (which overlapped with my last year of university). Obviously, my parents are our safety net but one I really do not want to need.
What family or additional support have you received? Do you support others or have you received a leg up? (This is how I think the R29 question should look).
Yes, I (then we) have received a lot of support:
- My parents paid for me to live on campus for the first year of university and then helped with rent for subsequent years.
- They put 30k towards our house deposit, and this meant we were able to buy years before we’d otherwise have been able to (by the time we’d have been able to save that 30k, houses here would have gone up 50k in value, and then the time we’d saved that extra 20k, prices would have gone up even more, etc. etc. etc.). We’d have missed the boat here otherwise, so the difference this has made is hard to overstate.
- They paid for Invisalign.
- They made a major (10k) contribution towards a complete bathroom renovation we had done. They also talked a qualified family friend into doing the bulk of the reno work with my ex-tradie dad acting as labourer, which massively kept costs down. Trying to coordinate tradies to do the full gut-redo we wanted and needed (when our house only has one bathroom) was shaping up to be a massive pain in the butt, so again, this made a real difference.
Passive/inherited income:
- My husband sadly lost a grandparent recently, and got a small inheritance. 10k of that went against the mortgage, and the rest bought the ticket for an emergency flight home he needed to take.
- Also, I didn’t mention in previous diaries that we rent-vested our house before we moved down to Tasmania, and we got about ten months of rent at $215 per week, which almost exactly covered our expenses (mortgage, insurance, agency etc).
Day One:
6.30am: Ugh, this should be my day off but I took on some extra work to save money for a trip we’re taking in August. I feed my cats Pest (5) and Fatso (12, based on what we were told when we got her, although last annual checkup her vet suggested she might actually be a bit older), quickly shower, have some cereal and coffee and get to work.
10:30am: My weekend starts now! I have a second coffee and listen to some news with my husband, D. (to his credit, D. has had a very busy week but woke up earlyish to do two loads of washing, then vacuumed and mopped the floors before I finished, so I didn’t feel the need to do it).
11.30am: it’s a beautiful day, so we decide to take a drive to a nice bakery in a different village in our valley.
12:30pm: We reach the bakery and order steak + pepper (him) and steak + mushroom (me) pies, along with a lemon meringue pie and a chocolate pie, and cokes (I’m not normally such a caffeine fiend but it’s been a busy week and I’m tired. ($37)
1:30pm: we drive back home the slow way and stop at our local supermarket. I pick up milk, eggs, onions, zucchini, avocados, pumpkin, broccolini (three bunches, it must be in season because it's super cheap at the moment), passata, carrots, spinach, a half leg lamb roast, chicken drumsticks, dried green peas, flour, canned salmon, linguini, Shin ramen, chilli crisp (current obsession), body wash, shampoo + conditioner, kitchen paper rolls, and toilet paper ($170). I’m congratulating myself on a very frugal weekly shop when I realise I forgot cat litter. We stop on the way home and pick up a bottle of wine ($15 I think).
2.30pm: We get the groceries away and washing off the line, remake the beds, and I make some pizza dough for tonight, then I hit the wall and decide I need to take a nap. D. and both cats join me.
4pm: I drag myself back out of bed, and move to the couch and read (the Way of Kings - I know Sanderson is meant to be life-changing for fantasy nerd, but I’m missing something, I’m halfway through and neither enjoying it enough to commit to the series, or bored enough to DNF).
6pm: I put the oven on for pizzas and throw some carrots, onions, and zucchini in the air fryer; I make one salami pizza for D. and a veggie (with broccolini in addition to the air fried veggies, and ajvar mixed into the tomato sauce) one for me. I open a bottle of non-alc sparking wine (foraged from the cupboard) and D has a glass of red from the bottle we bought today.
7pm: we are between series and try to find something to watch. We finally watch the first episode of Euphoria and… um, Americans, surely your kids aren't like this? I have questions… but I also understand now why Sydney Sweeney suddenly became a thing.
8pm: We then try Normal People and enjoy it a lot more. The unbearable awkwardness of high school looks much more familiar in this. It’s a heck of a stretch to imagine any young man being embarrassed to be seen with Daisy Edgar-Jones, though.
10pm: Bedtime with an audiobook (Night Watch, by the late, great, Terry Pratchett. We both love his books and they make great falling-asleep listening for us, as we know our favourites so well it doesn’t matter if we miss half a chapter by falling asleep first).
Day spend: $222
Day Two:
6.30am: I wake up with cat’s whiskers up my nose - Pest knows this is a certain way to get my attention, no matter how deeply asleep I am. I feed the little bugger and her sister and go back to bed.
9am: we wake up properly and slowly get out of bed. I shower, then have breakfast of avocado toast and coffee. It is a glorious day (t-shirt weather in May, in Tassie! I don’t know whether to be delighted or terrified of climate change?) so we get out and mow the lawns, weed the garden, trim the edges and generally do middle-aged-middle-class-homeowner stuff.
11am: I chill with Way of Kings for a bit, then get stuck into batch cooking for the week.
12pm: I spend the afternoon cycling between laying in the sun and cooking, and end up with a Thai green curry (using the chicken legs), a large pot of creamy beans, and a ham and pea soup (I had a stock already made that needed to be used).
1pm: I heat up leftover pizza for lunch. D. is feeling tired so he mostly naps with a book in his lap, on the pretext of doing some further-education study for work.
4pm: we regather on the couch, and listen to what is, for me, a highly enjoyable podcast. We’ve enjoyed The Rest Is History for years, and have recently started enjoying a spinoff with one of the hosts, called The Book Club. I chortle my way through the ACOTAR episode; alas, the enjoyment is a bit lost on D. who loves a stodgy classic above all.
6pm: I box up all the food and organise it in the fridge and freezer - I’m expecting a busy week so basically I want to not cook beyond chucking some stuff in the air fryer or microwave - and then make green curry noodles, using the curry I made earlier.
7pm: more Normal People.
9pm: We have an early night with books.
Day spend: $0.
Day Three
7am: Amazing night of sleep. I wake up, shower, coffee, cereal + yoghurt for breakfast, and am at my desk for what will be my busiest day of work in months - I’m covering a colleague for a few hours this evening, and will have a split shift/half day on Thursday to make up for it.
10am: D. put on a load of washing on when he left this morning, and I pause to hang it out. It’s a gorgeous day, so I don’t rush (D gets this off the line on his way in from work this afternoon).
1pm: I heat up some green curry and rice for lunch, and then get back to work.
5pm: I have a break, and heat up some beans and have them with a fancy loaf of bread that D. has brought home.
7.45pm: Ouch, finally finished and my brain hurts. I crash on the couch for half an hour and listen to the day’s news, then we take books to bed.
10pm: My Fitbit suggests I sleep about this time.
Day total: $0.
Day Four:
7am: You know the routine. Alarm, cats, shower, coffee, food, desk.
1pm: You know those days you’re working hard, but feel like nothing gets achieved? It’s one of those days. I have a longish lunch break and take a nap.
3pm-4pm: I get a lot more done, properly rested, but still decide to finish up early. I bake a load of bread and decide to test-run a chocolate cake, then make some chicken schnitzels to have with the beans and some boiled potatoes for dinner.
6pm: Loaf, cake and schnitzels all work out well (D. took the chocolate cake leftovers to his work the next day). .
9pm: read with books, and early bed, as I’m feeling a little off.
Day cost: $0 - sorry, I’m just remembering why I abandoned my last two diaries on the grounds of me being boring.
Day Five:
7am: My alarm startles me awake. I again roll out of bed, and shower, have breakfast and coffee in record time, and am at my desk early. I am feeling uncomfortable (even on a women’s site, I’ll spare you the detail), and call the local medical centre. By some miracle I snag a 2.30pm appointment and I rearrange my day a little so I can attend.
11.30am: obviously my breakfast toast wasn’t big enough (occupational hazard of baking home loaves and slicing by hand; today I must not have fully accounted for using the heel of the loaf), and I’m starving. I boil some noodles and have an early lunch with some air fried broccolini and tempeh.
2.30pm: Actually it’s 3pm by the time I’m seen but the doctor is very helpful and is a magical unicorn that actually bulk bills! (*i.e the cost is covered fully by the Medicare Levy, and I don’t have to pay out of pocket today to be seen). I head to the pharmacy, pay $18 to fill two scripts, and am back home about 4pm.
6pm: Done with work, and I’m starving. I heat up the last of the green curry, rice and tempeh for us for dinner and crash on the couch. We catch up on yesterday’s budget news - I try to work out if D. and I are positively or negatively affected by the changes, and decide we’re in the middle of the seesaw. Either way, I’d like to see houses go back to being places to live, not an asset category for the wanker class, so I think I approve of the changes.
9pm: We give up on the news and head to bed. It takes me a while to fall asleep but I’m enjoying Night Watch, so it’s all good.
Day total: $18
Day Six
7am: I wake up after a very deep sleep feeling much better. Today is another busier day so I run through the morning routine and then dive into it.
1pm: I have the last of the curry for lunch. It’s still good.
4pm: I feel the need for something sweet so I go fill up the car with petrol, as an excuse to buy some chocolate at the service station ($26). Should have held onto more of the chocolate cake.
6pm: Finally wrap up. D. is in a great mood as his team is hiring for a new role at work, that will make his life easier, and he really likes two of the candidates. He tells me about it, and I pretend to listen and make ‘hmmmm, great’ style noises at the appropriate times while I make some cacio e pepe + air fried broccolini.
7pm: we actually feel like watching something tonight, so we put on Normal People. Why are they both so fucking miserable all the time?
9pm: Bed.
Day spend: $26.
Day Seven
6.30am: The fluffy alarms are determined to be fed and let out early, and I can’t get back to sleep. My morning routine is interrupted by the lack of avocados, which I forgot to buy last shop.
7am: A benefit of being awake early is getting out for a short walk before work.
8am-5pm: Pretty steady work. Nothing bad, nothing particularly memorable, just work.
5pm D. buys a bottle of red wine on the way home ($15, I think).
6pm: I open a bottle of non-alc sparkling (not bad) as I make lamb soup (very good) for dinner.
7pm: We have a raging Friday night with D. catching up with a friend as I read, and then watching more Normal People. This is the episode where Marianne is sad for some reason I don’t understand and Connell acts chaotically while looking at her like he’s a puppy dog wanting to be walked… no wait, that’s every episode.
Total spend: $15.
Total spend: $281, which was pretty good considering that we did a large-ish supermarket shop.