
Mamamia’s What My Salary Gets Me asks Australians to record a week in their financial lives. Kind of like a sex diary but with money. So not like a sex diary at all. In this series we discover what women are really spending their hard-earned cash on, and nothing is too outrageous or too sacred. This week, a 34-year-old senior graphic designer with two kids shares her daily money diary.
Age: 34
Job: Senior Graphic Designer.
Side hustle: Group fitness instructor.
Salary: $125,000-$145,000 per year working as a contract senior graphic designer four days a week.
My side hustle income is working as a group fitness instructor, I work across multiple gyms and fill in for instructors on leave or sick. I get $50-$60 for an hour session depending on where I teach. Becoming a fitness instructor has always been a goal of mine, however, I never had the time to take it on. I decided whilst on mat leave recently that it was a good time to start.
Housing: Husband, two young kids and a dog, in a large family home with a pool living coastal regional, one hour from a main city.
Monthly expenses:
Mortgage: nil (no debt at all).
Health insurance: $150 (for me alone, my husband has different insurance as he has other benefits to me).
Phone: $55 Telstra pre-paid.
Petrol: $200 roughly based on the current $2 a litre. This is with husband doing a drive back to the city and me going into work one day a week. We only have one car as we try to use it as little as possible.
Groceries: roughly $1,600, give or take. I do the main household shop for Monday to Thursday as those are my cooking days (my husband and I take it in turns he does Friday to Sunday).
My shop is usually $150-$200 per week which covers the week's main household things from breakfast, lunch, snacks, household miscellaneous items and four days of evening family meals.
I get my shop delivered which cost $2-$8 depending on the time slot I choose. My husband cooks with the food left in the fridge from the week and will also head to the supermarket and buy things he needs for his nights. Maybe $100-$150 for Friday to Sunday, including some drinks from time to time.
Gym: I enjoy exercising and staying fit. My exercise used to cost me roughly $2,000 per year (so $166 a month). However, this is now an income for me. I also partake in a Monday group strength session with friends run at a local park. It’s about $13 a class, and I can take my kids.
Savings: My husband and I have joint accounts. Everything gets thrown in together, what’s his is mine and vice versa.
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