How Much Did Sarah, a Marketing Manager Who Lives in Madrid, Spend Last Week? | A Guest Money Diary

(Estoy muy celosa)

When Anchor Baby reader Sarah saw that I was featuring guest money diaries, she reached out and offered to contribute her own! I’m really fascinated reading about people’s lives, and Sarah’s seems so lovely – croissants! Spanish sun! friends meeting for dinner just across the road! – not to mention how interesting it is to read about how differently they do things in other countries. I hope you enjoy! (Bah humbug to that total though; why is no one throwing €150 at fancy mugs these days?!)

I’m Irish but have lived in Madrid, Spain for more than 10 years. I’m married and we have a four-year-old son. Our financial situation changed a year ago when we decided my husband would be a stay-at-home dad (I was the higher earner) – and since then, we’ve been a one-income household. I haven’t kept much track of our spending since (whoops!) so this year I decided to write down everything we spend so we can see where it goes... As I write it down, I sometimes imagine a “money-diary” style voiceover in my head, so here it is, down on paper.

I work in marketing and work from home four days a week. We live centrally and don’t own a car. My husband does 90% of the food shopping, cooking and cleaning (he enjoys it!) and some extra childcare during the week while I work.

Monday

Alarms go off at 7.50am and we rush around, leaving the house together at 8.58am and walking-slash-running to my son’s school. School starts at 9am and luckily it’s one block from the house. (Those that live closest arrive latest…etc.)

I love that we do the school run together and it gives me a bit of fresh air before I sit for the rest of the day. I open my laptop and am on Zoom calls all morning (turning my camera off briefly to make some eggs for breakfast).

My husband makes chicken, rice and broccoli for lunch and I eat it at my desk while he’s at the gym.

After lunch, I nip out to buy a takeaway coffee for a screen break. (€3.80)

My husband collects our son at 4pm (four-year-olds do a 9am-4pm day!). He goes to the local public school so it’s free, except for €100 a month to cover his hot lunch. The other option would be to collect him every day for two hours, feed him at home and then bring him back (a couple of people do it but it seems like a lot of work, and packed lunch isn’t allowed).

Once they’re home, I tend to hide for a few more hours, working in the spare room until I finish work. I usually eat lunch at my desk so I can finish at 5.30pm (instead of 6.30pm which is what’s on my contract).

I take my son out on his bike to the playground, and we somehow pick up a houseplant (€8.50) and share an ice cream (€3.60). In the playground he audibly says, “that boy with the face like a potato is from my school”.

At home we have leftover pasta with tuna and tomato sauce. I debate whether to drag myself to a weights class in the gym at 9pm and somehow manage to go, collapsing into bed after. I’m usually asleep by 11:30pm.

Daily total: €15.90