I'm 29 years old living in Manhattan and
I work as a talent director making a
hundred and forty five thousand dollars
a year and I make an additional one to
two K a month doing freelance work I
work with a lot of brands to secure
talent for commercials social media
projects after taxes I make eleven
thousand two hundred and sixty-eight
dollars a month half of that goes into
my savings account and the other half
goes into my checking account which is
the primary account that I use and spend
throughout the month out of the five
thousand six hundred and thirty four
dollars that goes into my checking
account one thousand and fifty three
dollars goes to my rent sixty one
dollars goes to utilities twenty three
dollars goes to subscriptions like
Amazon Prime and Apple music and I pay
one thousand three hundred and twenty
six dollars in student loans so that
leaves me with three thousand one
hundred and seventy one dollars a month
to spend I have about twenty six
thousand five hundred in my savings
twenty thousand in 401 K and roughly
6,500 in my savings account
I have zero dollars in credit card debt
lastly a hundred thousand in student
loans I recently got engaged and that's
what triggered me to cut back on my
spending my fiance and I are paying for
the wedding ourselves and let me tell
you a New York City wedding is not cheap
we have budgeted twenty five thousand
for the wedding and have had to tap into
our savings to pay for the majority of
that and then we also really had to cut
back on our spending in order to come up
with the rest of the money here's my
last statement food town is the grocery
store in Harlem that's near my apartment
84 dollars and 86 cents I realized that
I was spending a lot of money eating out
and wanted to figure out a way to save
money in the food department so what
I've been doing is utilizing my time on
Sundays to meal prep and I spend about
maybe two to three hours just cooking
for the week 'über fifteen dollars and
74 cents another you've heard twelve
dollars and thirty nine
since my most frequent purchase is ubers
I like comfort and also with the weather
being so cold and there's a lot of snow
and rain it's hard to like dress for
winter one and then to look cute and go
to meetings legacy records $35 this had
to have been the day we went to check
out Legacy Records as the wedding venue
and we stayed to get a drink at the bar
before meeting with the Events
Coordinator there's gonna be 25 people
at the wedding and it's all intimate
family no friends which I'm kind of sad
about but due to budgets we've had to be
selective about who we're inviting El
Toro Blanco great bar that is right on
the corner from work 54 dollars and 12
cents they have really good margaritas
and tacos Apple music alright this is 42
dollars and 94 cents I feel like I
bought the Hamilton soundtrack and a
couple other other songs that I liked TJ
Maxx for a hundred and forty four
dollars and ninety two cents is my most
expensive purchase which is kind of
crazy
I guess I really am doing a good job of
cutting back Sahra a hundred and nine
dollars and 80 cents this is how to
better treat myself moment Bazaar was
really the only place that I shop for
like fashion and then Marshalls and TJ
Maxx I would say I go for like basics
and everyday apparel venit area is this
really delicious restaurant in Harlem
it's my favorite restaurant so I can't
resist the urge to go there and spend
about 42 dollars and 67 cents it's
Italian and they have really great
cocktails and it's also black owned
restaurants so like the fact that it's
like Italian inspired food and owned by
an african-american woman
it's kind of interesting to me Paris
Soho 450 7.90 one sentence I want to say
that this was a date night because it's
halfway between where me and my fiance's
office is and sometimes I'll treat him
for good behavior cues now and Spa $40
this is the nail salon that's right
around the corner from my job so it's
pretty convenient for me to go there
Senate Fitness this is the club fee for
ten dollars and forty-five cents it's a
monthly recurring fee used the gym
whenever I want and it's for one
location only I was actually at Equinox
before this and the equinox it was about
like almost three hundred dollars a
month to work out at Equinox and it was
just a huge charge going obviously from
three hundred dollars to ten dollars is
a no-brainer
Starbucks this one actually makes me
feel bad because I have a Keurig at home
and spending four dollars and 63 cents
on coffee out when I know that there is
coffee in the office this should not be
happening but it is dry bar in Hoboken
okay $69 that was a lot but this was
Valentine's Day weekend and we went to
the W in Hoboken
to have a small staycation and I needed
to get my hair done I feel like I wasn't
taught about money at all growing up I
was taught to go to school and go to
work and then a man would provide for
you but I was never taught to save money
or to put money aside for a rainy day
all of those things I would HIGHLY
encourage women to start thinking about
early on versus waiting until you're in
you know your mid 20s early 30s and you
don't have any savings and maybe you're
like me and you have a big expense
coming up and then you're like what's
going on