Poppy is a freelance writer living in London. She has £12 saved and is facing significant debt. (Picture: Metro.co.uk)

Saving money is hard, especially in London.

You might have the best of intentions; saving to buy a house, getting yourself a cushion to fall back on if anything goes wrong, sticking to a budget and bringing lunch from home.

But then you’re hit by expensive rent. Oh, and transport. You fancy treating yourself to a cocktail? That’s £13 gone, sorry.

As easy as it is to judge millennials for spending cash on coffee and avocado toast, it’s pretty reductive to assume all our money woes are down to a wasted £3 here and there.


To explore the reality of the ways we actually spend and save, we launched How I Save.



Each week we take a look inside a different person’s finances, then get expert advice they (and we) can learn from.

This week we’re nosing around the bank account of Poppy (not her real name, as people can be mean about money), a 25-year-old freelance writer living in London.

How Poppy saves:

I earn around £31,200 a year. In my savings account right now I have… £12.

I’m saving for a holiday and a rainy day. Or at least I plan to.

I’m not great at saving, but I used to have a Chip account (a savings app) which helped when I needed my rental deposit for my flat. Have got it back recently, hence the small amount of money saved.

I struggle with saving because without a safety net – and with a few pretty catastrophic events that drained my cash over the last few years – I’ve ended up in pockets of high-interest debt that eat into my disposable income.

I know I have enough money to save eventually, but getting out of this short-term debt is the priority right now. It’s extremely frustrating, but I’m trying my best and chipping away at it slowly.

I needed to borrow a fair bit of cash a few years back to get out of a toxic relationship (we lived together and he owned the house). Then, just as I got back on my feet, my flat burned down so I needed to start all over again. My parents aren’t rich, so these things that might have been easily fixable for some were pretty much a paddleless creek of sh*t for me.

I owe around £1,000 on credit cards, and I pay off £50 a month. Then I finish paying off one old loan this month which was £500 in total, paying back £57 a month. Then one final loan which I got to consolidate my other debts was £1,500 in total, and I pay £143.24 a month.

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

How Poppy spends:

Monthly expenses:

I put £180 a week into my boyfriend’s account, which is my half of rent, gas and electricity, council tax, and other bills. This comes to £720 a month.

I then pay £50 a month towards my credit card, around £200 a month towards old loans, up to £15 a month for Monzo’s overdraft fee, and whatever interest my other overdraft charges.

Amazon Prime is £7.99 a month, and I spend roughly £140 a month on travel to and from work.

And postcode lottery is £10 a month which comes out as a direct debit

My monthly income is around £1,800 after tax and student loan payments. I get paid £450 a week, but as I’m on a freelance contract a day off can affect this a lot.

A week of spending:

Monday: Hungover but up for a doctor’s appointment and meet a friend for coffee (£2.80). Go to Iceland on the way home for dinner and lunch stuff for the week (£15.20).



Tuesday: £2.80 for an iced latte from Costa on the way to work. I know this is a frivolous spend but it’s so entrenched in my routine now I don’t think I could go back to a sad mug of instant in the office. 75p for a Coke Zero to go with my lunch, which I brought from home.

My lunches I batch cook on my days off. It tends to be something big and hearty like a chilli, goulash, or pasta dish. Sometimes if I didn’t get a chance to do that, I’ll just make extra dinner and pop it in a tupperware for the next day.

We need a few extra bits from Asda but my boyfriend pays.

Wednesday: £2.80 on an iced latte. I am nothing if not consistent. Forgot to bring my lunch to work so get an egg and salmon pot, soup, and coffee from Pret (£8.64). Go to Slimming World after work which is £4.95, and grab some veg on the way home (£2.50).

Thursday: £2.80 on an iced latte. 50p on a satsuma and 75p on a Coke Zero.

Friday: Iced latte (£2.80), egg and spinach pot and fruit (£2.30) for breakfast. Lunch from home with a Coke Zero (75p). Meet my boyfriend’s family for a ‘drink’ but I’m on softies only as I’m up early for work tomorrow. They pay.

Saturday: Omg kill me please, another iced latte (£2.80) and fruit (£1) for breakfast. Still eking out the last of this veggie lasagne I made for lunch, and get a Coke Zero (75p) for lunch.


Have stuff at home for dinner, but get eggs and bacon to make for breakfast tomorrow (£3.45) and am completely knackered so no social activities for me.

I get paid weekly and most of my bills came out this week so I’m trying to take it easy on the spending – which often consists of rounds at the pub.

Sunday: Meeting a friend at the flower market, and get a really nice palm tree for only £8. We also go to the city farm and buy coffees and snacks,£5.80. Get cigarettes and steaks on the way home from Tesco – £17.02 – as my holiday stash of cigs has finally run out and I need to buy them at a normal price again. Cry cry.

Total spent this week: £89.16

How Poppy could save: We spoke to the experts over at money tracking app Cleo to find out how Poppy could save better. Note: the advice featured is specific to one individual and doesn’t constitute financial advice. Especially on a London budget. Debt is awful. But don’t worry, you’ve got options. Lots of options. Sweet, milky options. No sorry, I’m thinking of lattes. What you’ve got is lots of lattes. Good news is that £12 will get you a holiday to at least one section of UK coastline. The world truly is your oyster! Where you’re going wrong: One route is not to make eye contact with your debt and pay it off as quickly as possible. Just focus on a version of you in the future (probably with a latte) enjoying a debt free life and plough on towards it. But this might be harsh to hear: you literally can’t afford to do this. Freelancing without at least a month’s salary backup is pretty scary. You need to look after yourself to avoid burning out. This means I’m budgeting in at least one holiday a month (Aberystwyth, here you come!!!) I’m not going to add up the £1 fruit and 75p diet coke spends and pretend that’s even slightly a problem. You’ve done well. You’ve underspent by 42% this week (to say this in terms you’ll understand, that’s 22 and half lattes). The problem is more on our financial model. You’ve been screwed over by a system that enjoys you being in debt. Even challenger banks are prone to fronting higher overdraft charges than their predecessors… we’re looking at you, Monzo. Budget plan (after bills and monthly costs): As much as I’m enjoying roasting your coffee spend, being a creature of habit might help you. You aren’t as prone to impulse spends, and you can build good habits into your routine that can keep your momentum going. You can get through this in the long run. Safe to pay off: £265 a month Note: I’m not touching this number. Keep at the pace that’s working, you’ve got this. Safe to spend: £15 a day /£110 a week / £410 a month This is your groceries, pub trips, snacks (and you’ve typed the word iced latte out enough times to know this includes coffees) Safe to burn: £150 a month This is to spend on one wild long weekend each month to get you through the trudge ahead (btw this comfortably factors in losing £90 by skipping one day’s work a month) Final question: do the iced lattes carry right on into winter?

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.

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