So I have heard a lot about these ‘money diaries’ lately, it was brought up in my fav podcast ‘Keeping it Candid’ and I also read a hell of a lot of them on Refinery29, which I think is where they originated from? Also, one of my best mates Georgia over at ‘The Brightoner‘ also did a post exactly like it and I loved it. So, I have used all these 3 sources as inspiration and created my very own money diary for a week of this month and it has been so much fun coz I’m a massive nerd who loves tracking things.
It’s worth noting that the prices I have put in the first section about my rent, bills & food shop is my half of what I pay as me and my boyfriend live in a rented flat together.
Occupation: Marketing Coordinator
Location: Brighton
Age: 21
Rent: £475
Bills: £117
Bus pass: £64ish
Average weekly food shop: £20
Other (Amazon Prime, Gym, Phone, Netflix & Spotify): £78
Day one (Monday):
6:30am – Snooze snooze snooze my alarm
7:00am – Wake up after snoozing for a little too long (as per) my hair and makeup doesn’t take me very long to do now that my skin is clear of acne so I don’t need layers of makeup to cover my spots.
7:45am – Leave the house to get the bus to work. I buy a 3 month pass as it’s the most cost-effective way to do it, this pass is £190 with my work discount for 3 months, so works out about £64 a month which isn’t too bad at all!
8:30am – Arrive at work, I have some porridge that I brought with me from home so breakfast doesn’t cost me a thing.
11:00am – I am starvingggg. I have some snacks in my office drawers which are pre brought in the weekly food shop from last week.
1:00pm – Lunch time. I basically live on soup and fruit at work as I try to be as healthy as possible in the week. Most of the time I take lunch to work with me which I buy at the weekend in the food shop. Today I have soup and a homemade fruit salad. I then go for a stroll with some collages after eating my lunch, we go to the shop and get a leaving gift for our colleague who is leaving tomorrow, he pays, I will give him some money towards it tomorrow.
5:00pm – I made it through Monday at work woo! I get changed into my gym clothes at work and get the bus straight to the gym.
6:50pm – Workout done and I am knackered, still can’t believe I’ve gone the whole day and not spent a penny!
7:00pm – Luckily it only takes me 10 minutes to walk home from the gym. I then get home to a cooked meal by my Mark, yum!
8:00pm – Finally pull my tired body off the sofa, do a few jobs round the flat and have a shower. I then call my mum for a catch up.
9:00pm – Crawl into bed and watch celebs go dating, I know it’s trashy telly but I love it haha.
Total: £0.
Day two (Tuesday):
6:30am – Snooze my alarm
7:10am – Wake up wayyyyy too late, rush like crazy to get ready.
7:50am – leave the house and literally RUN to get the bus to work!
8:30am – Arrive at work, I have some porridge the same as yesterday. I give my colleague a bit of money towards a leaving gift for someone at work. £3.
1:00pm – Lunch time. It’s my colleagues last day at work so we order pizza from Fatto a Mano (soooo good) and hang out at lunch as a team. I share a pizza with someone so it only costs me £4.50 – bargain!
5:00pm – Work done. Jump straight on the bus home.
5:45pm – I’m trying to become more flexible as my flexibility is shocking and I wanna try to manage to do the splits by the end of the year (lol), so when I get some I do some stretching before taking a shower, washing my hair and cooking a green thai curry.
7:00pm – Me and mark have dinner and watch the news to try to work out what the hell is going on with Brexit. We’re still clueless.
7:30pm – Once I’ve had dinner I get my laptop out, do some freelance work. Also, breaking news today – I have officially finished my acne medication, Aaccutane!!! After doing a bit of freelance work I start googling how long it takes for the drugs side effects to leave my system.
9:00pm – After falling into a deep hole of internet forums, I go to bed and watch celebs go dating… again.
Total: £7.50.
Day three (Wednesday):
7:00am – Wake up and get ready for work.
7:45am – Leave the house and get the bus to work.
8:30am – Arrive at work, I have some porridge the same as the last two days – yawwn.
1:00pm – Lunch time. I have some soup I brought from Aldi at the weekend, not impressed with it at all, very boring and tastes of nothing. Very sad.
5:00pm – Work done. Jump straight on the bus to the gym.
5:45pm – Arrive at the gym, Mark is also there, I speak to him for a bit then crack on with my stretching and work on the weights for my legs – ouch!
7:00pm – Get home from the gym, have a shower and make dinner.
8:00pm – Eat dinner, and then watch telly till I go to bed – such a rock n roll lifestyle.
Total: £0.
Day four (Thursday):
7:00am – 5:00pm – literally the same as the last couple days.
5:30pm – stop off at Waitrose on the way home and buy a ready meal for lunch tomorrow and 3 bars of chocolate (whoops, they were on offer okay don’t judge) – £6.35
6:15pm – Get home and make one of my fav dinners ‘chipotle chicken flat breads’, it’s super easy, cheap and healthy.
7:30pm – After having dinner and a shower I grab my laptop, do a little freelance work then pay off the rest of mine and mark’s holiday which is so so exciting!!! – £1,800 (this is such a one off that I’d spend this much in a week especially on just one thing so not sure I’ll include this in the overall weekly total haha – also Mark is gonna be paying me back for his half of the holz)
8:30pm – After faffing around on my laptop for a bit mark and I watched telly and went to bed.
Total: £6.35 (£1,806.35 with the holiday).
Day five (Friday):
7:00am – 5:00pm – Again, literally the same as the whole week so far.
5:00pm – It’s one of my colleagues leaving drinks so we all head into town to the pub for a couple drinks – I only end up buying one round which was £16.
9:30pm – Leave the pub and speed walk to McDonald’s. I get a Chicken McNugget meal and a double cheeseburger, yum! – £6
10/10:30pm – Get home from the pub with my maccys in my bag, quickly take off my makeup get into my pj’s and jump into my bed. I eat my McDonalds in bed whilst watching Broklyn Nine-Nine. What a way to end a Friday night ❤️
11:30/12am – Fall asleep full of McDonald’s and very content.
Total: £22.
Day six (Saturday):
8:00am – Up early for a Saturday to get ready and meet my friend in town for coffee and cake.
9:30am – I get to town a bit before my friend so I pop into Tiger (such a good shop) and get my Mum a few bits for her birthday, which is tomorrow, and some new sunglasses, who would have thought of all places Tiger would have such stylish sunglasses! £11
10:30am – After wondering around town for a bit with my friend Georgia, we stop off at Blend & Brew which I believe is a new coffee spot in Brighton just down from the station. I order a cappuccino and a HUGE chocolate brownie – £5
12pm – the weather is grim, super windy and drizzly rain so we I pop to Churchill Square after saying goodbye to G and buy my mum a book from WHSmith – £8.
1pm – I spend the afternoon cleaning the flat and doing ‘life admin’ jobs.
3:30pm – Mark and I are starving so decide to be naughty and grab food from KFC – £8.
4:00pm – We decided to stay in on for the rest of the afternoon/evening as the weather is horrid. We get VERY invested in a new documentary on Netflix and end up binge watching it till we fall asleep – crazy Saturday night!! \m/
Total: £32.
Day seven (Sunday):
9:00am – Wake up for a lovely long sleep and make some breakfast
11:00am – After watching many episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Mark and I drive to tesco’s where I buy some lunch bits for the week and some chocolates for my Mum to complete her birthday present. £12
11:30am – Once we get back from Tesco I start getting ready as we are meeting my family at a pub in Brighton for my mum’s birthday!
12:45pm – Jump on the bus to town with Mark and head towards the pub.
1pm – Meet my family at the pub for a drink, then head to the restaurant for Mum’s bday meal. I buy a round of drinks for Mark and I. £10.
4pm – After our meal we head to another pub, watch the end of the football and are surrounded by people celebrating St. Patrick’s today. I buy a round of drinks for everyone. £20.
6pm – Head back home, do a few bits around the flat and then spend the rest of the evening watching Netflix.
Total: £42.
Weekly totals:
Food & drink: £87.85
Clothes/accessories: £5
Beauty products: £0
Other: £17
Grand total: £109.85
Overall, I am sooooo impressed that I only spent just a little over £100 in a week, I try really hard to budget myself, especially when I’m at work and I do this by not buying lunch everyday and buying a monthly bus saver ticket. I try to limit myself to around £100 a week so it gives me chance to actually start saving as well as this is one of my goals for this year. Obviously the majority of my money goes on food and drink so if I cut this down I could save even more, but hey, I love food sooo it’s unlikely that’s gonna happen. I’m also super proud of myself for only spending a fiver on a paid of sunglasses all week, which really isn’t like me at all haha. However, saying that this is a very quiet week for me with a lot of staying in and watching Netflix, so will be interesting to compare this to a busier week.
I’ve really really enjoyed doing this post and it’s something very different to what I’ve done before so I definitely think you’re gonna be seeing more of them. Let me know in the comments if you liked this style of blog post, or if you’ve done a money diary yourself!
Megan Griffin 
I love this post! It’s so interesting to see how other people spend their money and bills they pay. I’ve never written a money diary myself but I have a Monzo card which sort of does the same thing, it tells you exact how much you spend day by day, monthly and where/what on e.g entertainment, food, expenses etc. I would highly recommend checking it out and if you do, sign up using my link and we’ll both get £5 Hey, I think you should get a Monzo account. Get one through this link and we’ll both get £5! Just follow these instructions: https://join.monzo.com/r/mm18j72
Fran | http://www.franciscarockey.co.uk
Ahh thank you! Ah ooh yes I have heard of Monzo! I’ll check it out x