Cash Confessional: A week of spending in Charlotte on a $48,000 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 26-year-old woman that makes $48,000 a year. Here’s how she spends her money. -Kylie

The basics:

Industry: Construction
Position: Marketing Manager
Yearly salary: $48,000
Extra income: I’m a web design freelancer when I’m not working my 9-5. I have completed 2 websites this year, putting me at about $3,000 extra
Savings: I try to save 10% of every paycheck, however it often dwindles down to nothing, like when I recently moved places (it’s expensive to move!) and bought new tires in the same month – over $2,000 spent right there.
Age: 26

Monthly expenses:

Rent: $587.50
Number of roommates: 1
Neighborhood: South End
Utilities: Around $110 in the warmer months
Student loans: $235
Car Payment: $263
Car Insurance: $69 (saving over 50% with Geico! :P)
Transportation costs: Uber, Lyft and gas, usually puts me around $150. I drive a lot for work, but we get reimbursed $.50/mile, so with that, I’d say $110.
Phone bill: $104
Health Insurance: $140 for health insurance through work
Gym membership: $40 for YMCA. Pro tip: If you make under a certain amount a year, YMCA will charge you a “fair price” based on income.
Hulu: $8
Spotify: $10.71

Three financial goals:

Pay off student loans. The obvious. At the rate I’m going now, I will have them paid off in 23 years (yay). I don’t want to be that person, but until/unless I get a raise I can’t pay anymore than I am now.

Put 3 months’ worth of paychecks into savings. Again, this is hard when I already spend over half my income in bills. However, I am motivated to continue moving up and be able to do this!

Save up for backpacking in New Zealand/Australia. My biggest goal before 30 (only 4 years away… scary!) is to take a month away to explore/backpack in New Zealand & Australia.

Money Diary: How I spent my money last week

Day one: Sunday

Got a late start and had a protein bar and a banana from home for lunch. For dinner, I went out to eat with my boyfriend and mom for a splurge at Captain Steve’s Seafood Restaurant in Fort Mill. My boyfriend & I split a Captain’s Platter and salad and I drank an unsweet tea, totaling $14.32.

Hulu payment: $12.83

Total spent: $27.15

Day two: Monday

Banana & peanut butter for breakfast from home.

Haven’t done my weekly grocery shopping, so I went to Harris Teeter for their amazing salad bar for lunch. $5.56

Boyfriend & friends take turns making dinner. We made (or attempted to) tuna sushi for dinner – things got messy, but at least the picture looks decent! Since it wasn’t my turn to buy, my total for dinner was $0.

Total spent: $5.56

Day three: Tuesday

Made a peanut butter and banana wrap for breakfast and a salad with leftover burrito fillings for lunch.

It was my stepdad’s birthday, so I bought him a gift from Bed, Bath & Beyond using a 20% off coupon. The gift totaled out to $35.

For dinner, we had a cookout at my brother’s house for my stepdad’s birthday. I was in charge of bringing beer, salad stuff and the birthday cake. $31.23

After the cookout, I went to The Rabbit Hole to see my boyfriend’s band play. I try to limit my drinking to once a week on weekdays and this was my splurge. $20

Total spent: $86.23

Day four: Wednesday

Guess it looks like I’m officially boring… peanut butter & banana wrap for breakfast, 3 days in a row!

I filled up my gas tank on the way to work, totaling $41.

For lunch, I went to Harris teeter to buy sandwich stuff, carrots and hummus for the rest of the work week. $10.71

On Wednesday night I take an art class from 6-9 with CPCC, so I always have a quick and late dinner. I ended up making a sandwich with the stuff I got earlier in the day and called it a night.

Total spent: $51.71

Day five: Thursday

I’m a little tired of peanut butter and bananas, so I stopped by Chick-fil-A on the way to work and got an Egg White Grill. It was well worth the $3.35. For lunch, a sandwich, carrots and hummus.

My boyfriend and I got takeout from Mad Greek Café on South Blvd for dinner. I got a greek salad with chicken. We typically buy groceries & do a meal plan at the beginning of the week to save money, but this week was so busy we just didn’t have the time! $13

Total spent: $16.35

Day six: Friday

The best day of the week: PAY DAY!

(…and the Stranger Things 2 premiere!)

Every Friday, I wake up and transfer $150 into my savings account, then I decide on a budget for the weekend and don’t spend more than that budget (or try not to). This weekend I gave myself a budget of $80, which is higher than normal, but it’s Halloween weekend SO WHATEVA-ER.

For breakfast, I had – you guessed it, a peanut butter and banana wrap. For lunch, I had the rest of my sandwich meat on a bed of spinach with carrots and hummus.

I spent Friday night in, binge watching Stranger Things and making chicken hibachi. Total spent on groceries for dinner was $8.09.

Total spent: $8.09

Day seven: Saturday

Saturday: The day of the bar crawl my friends successfully talked me into going to. Typically, I don’t like the bar crawl scene because it’s way too crowded and there are too many crazies running around. However, this year my friends had a hilarious idea for a group costume and I couldn’t miss out.

🎃👻🍺@richandbennett’s Halloween Bar crawl

A post shared by Axios Charlotte (@charlotteagenda) on

I spent $9 on a bottle of Fireball for the pregame and by the time we got to the bar crawl I didn’t really need to buy any other drinks. I ended up buying one drink at Flight for $5 and just had a fun time dancing with my friends in our onesies.

Ubered home after the bar crawl for $14.76 – I only live like 2 miles away, but there was, of course, a surcharge on Halloween weekend.

For dinner, I had a coupon for a free pizza from Fuel, so I just paid for the tip and the a side of garlic knots. $8

Venmoed my roommate rent money for November. $587.50

Total spent: $624.26

Total spent: $819.35
The breakdown:

Food and drink – $128.26
Transportation – $55.76
Bills – $600.33
Miscellaneous – $35

What I learned: I’m as stingy as I thought I was. Haha… but really, it is interesting to see how quickly eating out adds up. I would have saved a lot more money this week if I had gone to the grocery store on Sunday and bought all my food for the week.

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