A 23-year-old graduate on how she organises her finances – and why she is putting off travelling

I’ve always wanted to be a teacher, and after Durham university I decided to do a one-year masters at the University of Oxford, for which I got a scholarship. While here I got my first teaching job, and am now in my second year.

In April 2016 I owed the Student Loans Company £41,981.77. In my first year working I paid off £104, but gained £564 of interest. So, from April 2017 I owed £42,441.91. At my current salary I will literally never pay it off. But I don’t see it as a debt, I view it as a graduate tax. I pay more because I went to uni, and I now earn a good salary as a result.

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I’m definitely not going to stay in Oxford – house prices here are phenomenally expensive. I’d look at London before buying here, just because if I moved there my salary would go up. Round here you pay a premium for property, but I am on the same salary as a teacher in Glasgow or York, where property prices are much lower.

In my first year I was on £22,500, and now I’ve jumped an increment of £2,200 to £24,700, but after tax and student loan repayments I only get an extra £100 a month. I live with another girl in a two-bed flat. We chose to live further out, ironically to try to decrease our costs, but we’ve ended up paying more for a nicer flat. I don’t have a need for a car, but I wouldn’t be able to afford one even if I did.

I feel quite lucky with my standard of living, I eat out and go out with my friends, but I don’t spend excessively. A house deposit is about £25,000, and an avocado toast is about £8. You’d have to eat a lot of avocado toasts to outweigh the cost of saving up for a deposit.

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My take-home wage is about £1,600. Out of that £575 goes straight onto rent, £82 on council tax, and approximately £30 on gas and electric. Internet and TV are another £14 a month, union fees are £20. I’ve got a lot of expenditure before I start spending on the basics. Roughly £150 goes on food and toiletry shopping, and then the same on eating and drinking out, and £150 on miscellaneous costs that I can’t plan for. I tend to put aside £50 for travel, and then I save about £100, which is holiday savings or house deposit. I’ve more than £2,000 in savings, it’s now whether I spend it on a holiday or put it into the house fund.

My gut feeling is to split it down the middle: put £1,000 in a holiday fund, £1,000 in a house fund. I’m young at 23, and though I’m worried about housebuying, it’s not what all my money needs to go on.

Travelling is an aspiration. My boyfriend and I thought about a holiday travelling around south-east Asia this summer, and it was going to cost £3,500 each. We were gobsmacked, so that’s not an option.

I was very lucky when I was growing up, I went on holidays, I lived in a nice house. I want to have the same lifestyle when I’m older, but it’s whether I can earn enough to provide for that. I’d like to think money doesn’t matter. I love my job as a teacher so I never went into it with an agenda to earn a high salary.

Friends who stayed at home and didn’t go to university are now buying a house. Other friends’ parents helped them buy a flat, or bought them a flat or let them live rent-free in London. I feel worse off than both sets.

As told to Juliet Stott

We are keen to hear how you spend it: maybe you’re a “squeezed middle” just about coping financially; someone who has invested wisely; or a young adult saving furiously for a home. If you would like to appear in this column, contact spend.it@theguardian.com



