Cash Confessional: A week of spending in Charlotte on a $90,000 salary

To see the other installments of Cash Confessional, click here. This series is completely volunteer-based; if you’re interested in keeping track of your own spending and having it featured, email Kylie at [email protected]. This week, I spoke with a 23-year-old woman that makes $90,000 a year. Here’s how she spends her money. -Kylie

The basics:

Industry: Finance
Position: Analyst
Salary: $90,000
Extra income: My end-of-year bonus, which is TBD.
Who you bank with: PNC and Synchrony
Savings: I automatically put 5% of my salary into my 401K since my company matches up to 5%. I also put a minimum of $600 a month in my savings, and $100 a month into my investment account. At the end of the month, if my checking account has more than my rent payment left I transfer the extra into savings.
Age: 23

Monthly expenses:

Rent: $1,450
Number of roommates: None
Neighborhood: Uptown
Utilities:

Electric – Between $40 and $60 per month, depending on the season.
Cable and internet – $110 per month, but I never even use my cable.
Water – Around $12 per month

Student loans: My minimum payment is around $200 per month, but I try to pay as much as I can (as much as $500 if I’m feeling responsible).
Car payments: None
Car insurance: $78 per month, which includes my Renters insurance
Transportation: The occasional Uber will run me around $15 per month
Phone bill: $56. I’m on a family plan, but make sure to pay my family monthly for my portion.
Insurance: Around $25 pre-tax out of my paycheck
Amazon Prime: $100 per year. I share my Prime with my family, and in return, they share their HBO, Netflix, etc. with me. That’s what family is for!
Gym: $120 per month, even though I have one in my building…

Three financial goals:

Pay off my student loans.

Keep 3-6 months worth of expenses in my savings account.

Save up for a down payment on a house. Eventually.

Money Diary: How I spent my money last week

Day one: Sunday

Started my day by picking up paintings I bought from David French. His Charlotte paintings are unbelievable! $140

I met a friend for brunch at Napa on Providence. A rough night on Saturday meant it was light on mimosas and my wallet, so I spent $25.

Spent the afternoon at Harris Teeter doing my weekly grocery run, but this trip included some staples that will last me more than just this week. This one was more expensive than usual, at $101.85.

The rest of the day was a marathon meal prepping session, so I treated myself to some Chipotle for dinner for $7.04.

Total spent: $273.89

Day two: Monday

I brought my breakfast from home, and had coffee from the machine in my apartment building. Lunch was also from home – a salad with mixed veggies and homemade falafel. I’m not a bad cook when I try!

I stopped by the post office in the afternoon to mail a package to a friend ($7.20) before having dinner, courtesy of work.

Total spent: $7.20

Day three: Tuesday

Breakfast was a homemade smoothie (using my Sunday groceries) and free coffee from my apartment.

Time flew by and it was already time for lunch, so I broke out the taco salad I brought from home.

I was really in the mood for pizza tonight, but reasoned with myself and settled for a salad at home instead.

Total spent: $0

Day four: Wednesday

Breakfast from home once again. This time, I had oatmeal with berries and apartment coffee!

Lunch was once again a taco salad from home, but I walked to Walgreens for some dishwasher detergent and to stock up on La Croix. I bought the La Croix last week so my coworker got them this week ($5.35). How was this more than $5…?

Dinner courtesy of work again!

Total spent: $5.35

Day five: Thursday

This morning’s breakfast was a chocolate smoothie from home and since work was so crazy today, lunch was a piece of avocado toast that I brought from home.

Dinner was on work again, and I’m keeping the healthy streak alive by going to Grabbagreen.

Total spent: $0

Day six: Friday

It’s finally almost the weekend! Overnight oats was breakfast of the day.

Since I’ve been doing pretty well with the spending this week, I treated myself to a coffee with my team ($1.93).

For lunch today, I had a massive salad with all of the veggies from home that I didn’t use this week. I didn’t want them to go bad!

There wasn’t much time to between work and meeting up with friends, so I skipped dinner – oops!

A night out with friends was just what I needed. We went to a few different bars and had a lot of fun ($24.66).

Total spent: $26.59

Day seven: Saturday

Today was probably the laziest day I’ve had in a long time. I slept in late and had a tropical smoothie for breakfast (basically lunch at this point) before heading to the gym.

I spent the day doing laundry, watching TV and mindlessly eating the snacks in my apartment until meeting up with a friend at a pregame. I had a ton of beer left over from a party a couple of weeks ago, so I didn’t have to stop on the way.

I skipped the bars tonight to recover from the long week I had and resisted the urge to order Chinese food – the Chinese food in Charlotte is subpar anyway.

[Editor’s note: The Agenda is also struggling to find a go-to Chinese spot, but thanks to our readers, we’ve found some good ones.]

Total spent: $0

Total spent: $313.03
The breakdown:

Food and drink – $160.48
Miscellaneous – $152.55

What I learned:

This was a super light spending week for me – most of my bills autodraft on the first of the month, so those weren’t really included here. I was really mindful of what I was spending since I was tracking it all week, and I should probably track my spending more often. I’ve also saved so much money since I started packing all of my meals. Meal prepping for 2 hours on a Sunday is really annoying, but totally worth it in the long run!

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