What My Salary Gets Me: A mum-of-two working part time on $35,000 a year.

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 mum-of-two working part-time shares her weekly money diary.

Age: 39.

Job: Part-time worker doing night fill around 25 hours per week. My husband does warehouse work.

Salary: $35,000 per year; my husband earns $65,000.

Housing: Living in a house in midland Perth with my husband and two daughters, aged four and seven.

We have a very affordable mortgage of $1,100 per month. We bought 13 years ago in a low income suburb, and refinanced back to 30 years when we had our first child, bringing our repayments down.

My husband works days and I work nights and weekends, so we don’t need to juggle daycare, appointments and school pickups. 

Our oldest child does speech and occupational therapy weekly with a diagnosis of autism level two - therapy costs are covered by the NDIS, thankfully.

We have personal debt of a car loan, personal loan and family loans, totalling around $60,000, all which we are working through.

On balance, even though I earn less, we are paying 50/50 for household costs.

Monthly expenses:

Shopping: I buy bulk supplies - toilet paper, paper towel, cat food (we have two), washing powder, dishwasher pods and Coca Cola (my only bad habit!) via Amazon which varies from $250-350 - this is my shopping contribution.

Food: My husband pays around $1,000.

Mortgage: $1,020.

Bills and the rest: $920 a month into main account - saving up, rego, rates, utilities, insurances, and one personal loan. They all pay themselves out of this account.

Debt: Mine - Zip Pay ($30 a week minimum... I’m trying to get this down!). Husband - personal loan ($50 a week), car loan ($92 a week), Zip Pay ($25 a week).

My husband is also a smoker, and this habit costs him close to $200 a week. I don’t doubt the difficulty in giving up and I’m so glad there aren’t two smokers in this house.                       

Watch: Four money hacks that don't cut out your daily cup of coffee. Post continues after video.

Monday.

We're on school holidays and don’t have a lot of money this week, so I’m working through organising and decluttering. 

We are also all a bit sick so it's better for us to stay home. I get paid tomorrow, so it's going to be a home day today.

The girls are happy to stay home and lounge anyway, it’s been a long term of school. Monday is a work night for me so my husband gets home early.

I start work at 8pm and only do three hours because it's a quiet month at work - my contract is 10 hours minimum (around 350 a week) but I try to work additional hours if there are any to bring my pay up to the $650 a week mark.

Daily total: $0.

Tuesday.

Well... more cleaning catch-up today. 

I received the youngest's birthday gift from Big W which I paid for by Zip Pay and stashed it away for next month. 

I'm trying to buy Christmas and birthday presents over the next few months so I know it's covered and I won’t go overboard and buy too much getting swept away by the season! 

I love buying gifts but our budget this year needs to be kept sensible if we are ever going to get out of excessive debt .

Work again tonight, and it's pay night ($662.59). Phew! 

Daily total: $0.

Wednesday.

I pay my Zip Pay weekly minimum payment (one of $10 and one of $20) and I pay back some money I borrowed ($150) back into our joint bill account. 

We aren't going to cover bills coming out this week so I needed to [pay these], plus my regular $285 contribution.

I also pay our internet bill ($75) which is supposed to come out of the bill account but bounced last week. This comes off of what I owe the bill account as well. 

I purchased children's vitamins online which have been helpful in getting my daughter to sleep - she’s struggled with sleeping since she was a newborn ($65).

I also buy some cheap printer cartridges ($12) because all of mine are empty and I need to print stuff occasionally for school.

On request, I make a dress for Teddy Bear out of an old cloth and he looks very stylish if I do say so myself. We play some games and the girls are getting ratty after three days of coughing and sneezing and staying home - we are fairly well enough to leave the house (we don't have COVID) so I get them ready and we head to McDonald's.

They have a play in the playground and eat some french fries, and then they want to buy a donut and an ice cream cone, so I send them up to the counter by themselves (with my card) to learn some independence in buying what they want.

They come back with a hamburger and not a donut so I send the little one back up to ask for the donut she actually wanted (we take the hamburger home for Daddy). 

It's getting cold so time to head home - it’s my weekend night so I can relax at home with the family in the warm.

Daily total: $649.25.

Thursday.

I have a lot of cardboard and cans to donate, so we make our way to the recycling centre.

I get $16 for the cans and clear out all the cardboard which makes my back room look a lot better! I also borrow $50 off my husband because my petrol tank is on empty. 

It's still a tricky money week. 

An app I subscribed to on a free trial gets deducted from my account ($12) - I have been caught a few times by apps I forgot to deactivate. 

I put $30 of petrol in and we go have a look at the Tip Shop. 

The girls pick out some treasures ($8) and they buy a drink each from the vending machine (they really just like to press buttons) - $6.80.

It's supposed to be my night off, but I get called in to work - it's ok, I’ll get Friday night off instead (we can work maximum five days per week).

Daily total: $56.80.

Friday.

My mum has an appointment - she doesn’t drive so I go and collect her when she needs.

Today, it's me, plus both kids. We go to the appointment and drop my mum off. Kids are not particularly welcome in medical places these days due to COVID, so we go and play at the park nearby. 

The girls meet some friends and we enjoy the sunshine, then we collect my mum and she buys us lunch on the way back to her house.

A bit later, my mum's friend calls in so we get to see her as well.

It's a nice day, but I get called in to work again tonight so it's time to head home so we can settle down and I can get ready for work.

Daily total: $0.

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Saturday.

It's my step-mum’s birthday coming up, and I find an awesome gift for her online. I need to order it now or I won’t get it in time.

I combine it with my mother-in-law’s birthday present to get free shipping and put it on Afterpay - this costs me $27 this fortnight, and I’ll worry about the rest later. Two presents sorted!

I usually work on Saturday early afternoon through to midnight, but I am due for a day off so it's my first family Saturday off in a long time! 

Sadly, my husband informs me he's going to work Saturday morning... the one day we get to see each other.

My eldest daughter is also looking for new clothes - a lot of her shirts either have holes in them (she bites them) or they have paint on them that won’t come out. 

The youngest has plenty of clothes - hand-me-downs - but some are a bit shabby too. 

My mum-in-law needs to be picked up from the shopping centre (she had an appointment and caught the bus down but it’s raining). 

I make an executive decision to extend my Zip Pay account credit limit, and the girls and I head off to Kmart to get some clothes that fit and look nice. 

Kmart is great fun but the girls are more interested in toys - I tell them they can choose one thing, and I set about finding clothing for them. 

I pick out a variety of things, some of the winter pjs are only $6 on clearance. Yay! 

I appreciate buying good quality items, but when kids pick and choose what they like and only wear a few times before destroying them or growing out of them, I feel like Kmart is quality enough for us right now.

We spend around $100 on kids' clothing which gets me a range of leggings, t-shirts, pjs and play dresses to last them both until the end of the year. 

I also let them choose those toys which they love ($48). 

I buy myself some snacks ($30) and some markers and other things ($20). 

All up it costs me $210, but the system won’t let me use my Zip account. I quickly ring my husband and ask him to pretty please transfer me some money - I have nowhere I can transfer money from. 

He agrees and I’m paid up and ready to go. I need to get that money back to him on pay night because his loans will come out. Still juggling money! 

We collect mum-in-law and that day is done.

Daily total: $237.

Sunday.

Sunday we take it easy in the morning, watching YouTube movies, and I head to work around 3pm. Early finish tonight, around 9pm. 

We don’t spend any money today. 

Daily total: $0.

Reflection.

Not every week is this tight, but we are trying to be careful to get our loans down. 

Also, my husband was changing jobs about a month ago, so he didn’t get paid for a while. This meant that he now owes a bit of money to our bill account and to his mum.

So, we are watching the coins right now, and hopefully as we get our personal debt down and continue to be careful, it will ease up a bit for us.

We still try to give the kids fun things and activities in between and enjoy the little things like visiting family and walking to the park. 

Want to contribute your own anonymous money diary for What My Salary Gets Me? Email submissions@mamamia.com.au to get involved.

You can catch up on our previous What My Salary Gets Me articles here:

• What My Salary Gets Me: A 26-year-old social worker living in regional Victoria on $75,000 a year.
  
• What My Salary Gets Me: A 21-year-old student working part-time on $50,000 a year.
  
• What My Salary Gets Me: A 35-year-old in PR earning over $100,000 a year.
  

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