Lifestyle

How I Save: A trainee solicitor with £13,000 saved shares how she spends her money during the coronavirus pandemic


How is our spending and saving changing during the coronavirus pandemic? (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)

These are strange and uncertain times (if you’re reading this in the future, right now team Metro.co.uk are working from home amid the coronavirus pandemic, schools are closing, and the threat of a full lockdown looms).

It feels a little strange to continue onwards with our usual weekly series and features, such as How I Save, as though nothing’s out of the ordinary.

But we reckon it’s actually sort of important. As we become more isolated, being able to glance into someone else’s life, whether that’s nosing around their rented property, hearing inspirational tales of all they’ve overcome, seeing where they work from home, or reading how they’re spending their money, can feel like a bit of a lifeline to outside our self-isolation cocoons, connecting us when we’re physically far apart.

So, today we have an edition of How I Save, our weekly series that looks at how people handle their money.

This time we’re looking at the outgoings of Mandy*, a 22-year-old trainee solicitor living in Norwich. Below she’s shared her approach to money and a diary of her spending from last week, when coronavirus panic began to hit the UK and stockpiling started to creep in.

How Mandy saves:

I earn £23,000 a year. In my savings account right now I have £13,000.

I save money by preparing a packed lunch on Sunday evenings, which I take a portion of every day. It’s usually something easy like a quinoa salad. The majority of the food I buy is from Aldi.

Additionally, I only buy things I completely love or things that are necessary! There is no point buying something that you think is nice but has room for improvement – such as buying a jumper that you like the colour of but is made from a really scratchy material.

I’m saving for a property deposit. I have a monthly standing order of £200 to my Help to Buy ISA and £300 to my savings account.

I acknowledge that I could probably put away another £200-300 a month, but unfortunately I max out the monthly limits on both my Help to Buy ISA and my savings account. It is so difficult to find a savings account that has a decent rate of interest that does not have conditions attached such as having a current account with the bank.

Also, I find weekends particularly difficult as the majority of things adults can do for fun cost money – such as eating out!

How Mandy spends:

Monthly expenses – living expenses are shared with my partner so these are my half:

  • Savings account: £300
  • Help to buy ISA: £200
  • Train home twice a month: £41.10
  • Gym membership: £19.99
  • Phone bill: £6.92
  • Rent: £385
  • Council tax: £60.91
  • Gas and electricity: £20.83
  • Wifi: £13
  • TV Licence: £12.88
  • Protein powder: £7.50
Low on cash this month? (Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro. co.uk)

A week of spending:

Monday: I spent £3 on a gym top (I joined the gym last month and go too regularly to only have one gym top!) and £6 on some sandals. The sandals are a neutral colour so will go with everything, and I know they will be the only footwear I take on holiday as well as some trainers for walking.

Total spent on Monday: £9

Tuesday: I spent £2.30 on some vitamin tablets to try to boost my immune system in light of the current coronavirus situation.

Total spent on Tuesday: £2.30

Wednesday: I spent £11.68 online on some food flavouring drops to use instead of sugar. I am trying to cut out sugar and increase my protein intake so I can build more muscle from working out at the gym. Greek yoghurt is too sour to have on its own! In theory, these drops should last a couple of months at least.

Total spent on Wednesday: £11.68

Thursday: I spent £35 on a session with a personal trainer at my gym. This was my first ever session. I only plan to have about two sessions to give me a bank of exercises to use in the future and to teach me correct form. I see this as an investment for my health and fitness.

Total spent on Thursday: £35

Friday: I spent £3 on bar soap (a pack of four, which will last me for some time) and a juice.

After work, I took the train home to my family home. I like to visit my family back home at least every fortnight. I had already bought my train ticket as they are generally cheaper if you book in advance.

I spent £2.69 on a Subway to eat on the train.

Total spent on Friday: £5.69

Saturday: I spent £11.45 on toilet roll for my family’s elderly neighbours who were not able to find any as a result of other people panic buying toilet roll from shops.

If I was not at home my partner and I would have almost definitely eaten out at a cost of £15-40 for both of us, depending on whether we had something like a street food Mexican or a sit down Indian meal at a restaurant.

Today, my family kindly paid for a takeaway for all of us.

Total spent on Saturday: £11.45

Sunday: No spend day!

Total spent this week: £75.12



How Mandy could save:

We spoke to the experts over at Plum, an AI assistant that aims to boost your bank balance, to find out how Mandy can save better (and what we can learn from her spending).

Here’s what they said:

Hey Mandy, thanks for sharing your week in money with us.

And what a week it’s been! The spread of coronavirus has created a lot of uncertainty, but your diary is cool, calm and collected in the face of the crisis.

When things are changing fast, it’s important to take stock of the parts of our life we can control. There are small changes we can all be making right now to help us be financially ready for whatever may be lying ahead in the coming weeks.

You’ve already laid a great foundation for this, but let’s take a closer look!

Savings

To have racked up £13,000 in just a few years of work is a great achievement, so give yourself a big pat on the back. Your commitment to your house deposit goal is admirable and you’re well on the way with good saving habits already in place!

One thing you could consider doing in these more uncertain times is making some of your savings more easily accessible and separated out into different pockets.

For example, having a clear, designated ‘Emergency Fund’ is something most money experts recommend. This would usually be at least three month’s essential expenses in case you couldn’t work for whatever reason. Taking into account your average monthly spending, this would be around £2,000 for you. It’s a good idea to keep this easily accessible and totally separate from your other saving, in case you need it in a hurry.

If you’re able to carry out social distancing measures and stay home during this period, you may find that you’re able to save more than usual. Use an auto-saving app like Plum that can adapt its saving algorithm to your changing outgoings and ramp up where possible. That way you’ll build up an extra stash very quickly without even noticing!

Spending

You seem like you’ve really got a handle on your spending, with the majority of your outgoings on essential items.

It’s great to see that you’ve got everything under control to the extent that you can still allow yourself spending on treats, like your personal trainer. That session will have been very handy guidance if you find yourself on coronavirus lockdown in the coming weeks.

Normally we’d recommend working out a solid monthly budget to help you plan your spending. While a budget is still really important, you might want to do this on a weekly basis right now so you can adapt to the changing circumstances. The best place to begin with budgeting is doing a thorough and honest review of your income and outgoings.

And well done for looking out for your elderly neighbours. We all need to be looking out for each other at the moment!

How I Save is a weekly series about how people spend and save, out every Thursday. If you’d like to anonymously share how you spend and save – and get some expert advice on how to sort out your finances – get in touch by emailing ellen.scott@metro.co.uk.

If you want more tips and tricks on saving money, as well as chat about cash and alerts on deals and discounts, join our Facebook Group, Money Pot.

*Name has been changed.

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