Money diaries: I'm a 24-year-old creative who saves $1,000 a month

Ever wondered what your salary and shopping habits are like in comparison to your peers? Money Diaries is a new column by CLEO that takes an honest look at how young Millennial and Gen Z women spend their money.

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We speak to a 24-year old fresh graduate working in her first full-time job as a videographer in a media conglomerate.

Occupation: Videographer

Industry: Publishing/Media

Age: 24

Education level: Degree

Salary: Around $3,000

MONTHLY EXPENSES

Student Debts: $300/month

Allowance for Parents: $200/month

Netflix: $7/month

SHOPPING EXPENSES

How much she thinks she spends: $50

How much she actually spent: $158.40

ON HOW SHE SHOPS:

"I think I spend about $50 a month on shopping alone. I tend to not go over $30 for clothes, $50 for shoes and $20 for bags.

I'm usually a window-shopper, and this includes browsing the ASOS outlet page, opening 20 tabs, saving my favourite 15, and then closing all of them three hours later.

[[nid:462962]]

I only really make a purchase every three or four months when my sister is generous enough to get me something on my wishlist or if I schedule a free day for me to really ransack the sales rack in a physical store.

For online stores, I shop predominantly on ASOS and Pomelo.

For physical stores, I tend to only spend at thrift shops now upon learning the ramifications of my previous shopping habits, which is buying things that I don't really want (or need, to be frank) at fast fashion stores because they are 'on sale and relatively cheap'."

ON HER RELATIONSHIP WITH MONEY:

"I think my relationship with money is terrible. Not because I spend recklessly, but because I constantly feel like I don't have enough even though I know I save at least one-third of my salary (about $800 to $1,000). A lot of it has got to do with the financial trauma that my parents (namely my mother) put me through when I was younger.

[[nid:462405]]

I would say I come from a low SES background. Before my father passed away, he was a taxi driver whilst my mother worked in the admin department of a company. It didn't help that my mother not only had terrible spending habits, but also couldn't secure a stable job. It got so bad that there were times I was afraid I wouldn't be able to graduate because we couldn't afford to pay for my school fees.

My mother always made me always feel terrible for asking her for money. So one day, I decided to stop.

From the age of 19, I started supporting myself financially through temporary retail jobs and government bursaries to put myself through school. It was tough feeling broke all the time and even though I'm financially stable now, thanks to my job, I still feel like it could all disappear anytime."

ON THE BEST FINANCIAL ADVICE SHE'S RECEIVED:

"I'm so grateful for my elder sister because she was the one who taught me how to be financially-savvy. She taught me how to categorise my savings. You should always have one for emergencies, one that you can draw from time to time (like holidays or big purchases) and one that you don't touch at all.

My previous attitude towards money was that if I had anything at all, that would be good enough. But now I no longer fear it even if there's still some residual trauma from my teenage days."

HERE'S WHAT SHE BOUGHT IN A MONTH:

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