After 13 years of living in London and having to move every year from one mouse-infested flat to another, I hit a point last summer where I couldn’t take it any more. I was so fed up of living in rundown buildings with too many flatmates and dealing with greedy landlords constantly ripping you off.
Saving towards a deposit for a property felt futile – it would have taken me about 100 years. Instead, I moved in the other direction and upgraded my living situation. I now live with my friend in a lovely two-bedroom flat in Bermondsey, just two minutes from my office at a vintage fashion auction house.
At £850 plus bills, it’s substantially more than the £565 I was paying in Harringay, but this way I save on travel, too. I was so fed up of commuting over an hour each way. It was making me miserable.
My outgoings have also shot up because of my beloved Rafiki, an ex-racing greyhound I adopted earlier this year. He eats and dresses better than I do. His gourmet all-natural frozen dog food costs about £100 a month. It might sound like a lot, but he was significantly undernourished when he moved in; now his fur is radiant and his skin is in a much healthier condition. As I’m a nervous new dog mother, I spend about £50 a month on pet insurance. I worry that if I scrimp on his insurance and he injures himself, then I might land a bill I can’t afford. As I bring him to the office with me, it’s important that Rafiki is well-dressed. He wears a Hermès silk neck tie, which cost £45.
I definitely have champagne taste on a beer budget – my credit card and overdraft combined comes to about £2,500. I always start my day with an oat milk flat white, which I think costs £3.50. I’ll often stop to buy another one in the afternoon. I tend to eat lunch and dinner every day in Bermondsey. I guess it sets me back about £500 a month. I never cook at home any more. I might spend £20 a week filling up a basket with items such as hummus, wine and chocolate. To mitigate all of this, I spend about £100 a month on a gym membership and ClassPass.
I worry about my finances all the time. However, years of expertise in my field are starting to pay off and have drastically changed my fortunes after I spotted a rare piece of vintage which had gone unidentified in another auction. I bought it for £180, and recently sold it on for five figures. I plan to put the majority of it into a savings account – maybe into a help-to-buy scheme – and I’ll use most of the rest to pay off a credit card and my overdraft. I’ll also set aside some money to reinvest in other vintage finds.
I know I should be saving every month for a property, but quality of life is more important to me. Living on my salary in London is stressful and frustrating at times – I have two hefty student loans which combined are somewhere in the region of £40,000, and expensive rent.
Yes, maybe I could be saving £200 a month if I dramatically cut back on my social life, didn’t go to the gym and moved to a grim little room in Zone 4, sitting in the dark eating Pot Noodles and staring longingly at photos of dogs on the internet. But life is too short for that. Now I walk to work with my dog by my side and a cup of coffee in my hand. I consider that money well spent.
As told to Suzanne Bearne
