Whenever my husband and I review how much we need to earn in order to live, I’m struck by how much lower our expectations are than those of our friends. Most seem to expect a holiday abroad a couple of times a year, new clothes and meals out – whereas we go for a few drinks in the pub at the weekend and eat out less than once a month.
There have only been a couple of times in my life when I’ve not had to worry about money and, unusually, one of those periods was when I was a student. I juggled jobs as a childminder, shop assistant and nightclub attendant and could earn £150 a day, going into bars asking people about cigarettes and alcohol for a market research company.
My bank balance dipped when I left university, married and bought a house. I dreamt of a career in journalism and took on freelancing jobs for a local paper. When in 2012 my husband and I decided to move back to London, we swapped our three-bedroom terraced house in Frome – which sold for £205,000 – for a wreck of a flat in Clapton, east London, and money was tight.
My freelancing wasn’t earning enough for anything other than bare essentials and after a year of spartan living I realised my chosen life wasn’t working out. I put my journalism ambitions to one side and took a full-time contract job copywriting for a tech startup. At its peak it earned me £250 a day. Suddenly I didn’t have to worry about money any more. I didn’t get paid leave so in my two years with the company, I rarely took a day off.
That flush period was short-lived. When I gave birth to our three-year-old I lost the job. I was told my post would be kept open for me but they wouldn’t put it in writing – and it wasn’t. The statutory maternity pay of £137 a week and the £10,000 I’d saved kept me going for 10 months, and when it ran out I took a part-time job on a magazine, though that only paid £75 a day. Luckily, my parents were very generous when it came to childcare.
When my daughter was one I set up a digital parenting magazine, theearlyhour.com, for new parents, like me, who felt lonely in the early hours of the morning. I learned how to monetise it, and it now earns me between £500 and £2,000 a month. Setting up the business has led to consultancy work – I do it once or twice a month, and charge £500 a day. There have also been brand collaborations and photoshoots, which can pay up to £1,000 a job. I earn £200 a month blogging for BabyCentre and £600 copywriting for women’s app Clementine. Recently I was given a £5,000 advance by 4th Estate to write The Freelance Mum, a guide for other mothers looking to fit freelance work around family.
I now have two young children and choose to work around them rather than forking out for full-time childcare. My daughter is at pre-school from Monday to Friday, and my one-year-old son has a childminder two half-days a week, which costs £400.
Although my income has improved and we split the bills, we still have to live fairly frugally because I don’t have a predictable salary. I need to earn about £1,200 net to pay my bills and on months when I exceed this I put the extra into a holiday fund or a savings account to cover the lean times.
We’ve cut out meat from our diet to save money. I reckon that’s reduced our food bills by a third. We cook from scratch to make food go further and typically spend about £600 a month in supermarkets.
We allocate about £200 a month for family spending at the weekend. My husband pays the mortgage, utility bills, weekend days out and for the car. I cover childcare, food during the week, clothes for the children and me which averages at £100 a month, my £45 a month phone bill and subscriptions to Netflix and Spotify.
As told to Anna Tims
