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After my A-levels at a bog-standard comprehensive school, I went to the University of Sheffield to study chemical engineering
I graduated as the last cohort in the UK on a full maintenance grant, with no tuition fees. The system was better then – a working class lad like me could get a degree, provided you were smart enough.
The Blairite “revolution” means anyone can go to university provided they are prepared to pay. The result is lots of disenfranchised kids laden with debt who either work in call centres and never pay back the loan, or for those who would have got one anyway, a penalty to salary for the next 30 years.
Armed with my degree, I worked in India, Pakistan and the UAE, getting chartered and completing an MBA in my spare time. I worked in property management, then operations management, taking my first managing director role at 33.
I went on to work at some large global engineering companies, before joining my current UK-based employer, which specialises in areas like pharmaceuticals and energy.
I take advantage of a salary sacrifice electric car scheme at work. It affords me a 50pc discount on the regular lease cost, so I got a Porsche – which many of my friends and colleagues find amusing.
I also pay £128 a month into two stakeholder pensions for my two adult children. I started when each was born, so both have pots as they enter their first jobs of circa £40,000 each. I will stop these payments this year.
I also send my mum a monthly “pension” of £378. My father was given bad advice to move his British Steel pension and it didn’t provide a widow’s pension, so when he died at 66, the annuity eventually stopped paying.
Vital statistics
- Age: 53
- Post-tax annual income: £131,418, excluding a bonus of £100,000-£200,000
- Mortgage: £2,700
- Job: Chief operating officer, engineering and construction consultancy
- Bills: £891 (water, gas, electricity, broadband and council tax)
- Subscriptions: £3,076 (wife’s car lease, dog insurance, mobile phone and savings)
Day 1
I start my week with a 5.10am alarm and jump in the car. My commute is almost free, as I charge my Porsche Taycan overnight on a tariff that’s only 7.5p per kWh. My 26-mile round trip to the office costs less than my £3.70 daily Starbucks with an extra shot.
I skip breakfast as I’m trying to shed a bit of weight for summer holidays, but coffee is a weakness for me.
I withdraw £120 cash from the bank on my way in to replace what I “left in the chicken”, which is our petty cash bowl in the kitchen. The drain unblockers are coming at lunchtime.
My eldest child from my first marriage has just started work at a law firm in central Birmingham. They are living with their mum and doing a three-day weekly commute to the city. While flat hunting, they are using hotels and this week it is more than £180 a night, so I buy them three nights in an apartment for £232.
At lunchtime my stomach rumbles so I grab a chicken salad sandwich and a bag of crisps at £4.40.
Today is also my first wedding anniversary, so I take the afternoon off and drive my wife to the jewellery quarter to commission a diamond eternity ring. It’s made to order, so I’m asked to leave a “nominal” deposit of £1,450. Ouch.
With the evening traffic building, we eat out at our favourite Indian restaurant before heading home. The meal sets me back £74.30.
Total: £1,884.70
Day 2
I am working from home today after an offsite client meeting is rescheduled. My wife announces she needs to pay her credit card bill, which translates as “pay my credit card bill” of £1,500.
Lunch is a homemade sandwich from the scrapings of our refrigerator. Over lunch, I attack my domestic “to do” list.
After yesterday’s drain fix, I order one metre of flexible hose to line a cracked pipe; eBay comes to the rescue at a cost of £13.37.
I finish work, close the laptop and make dinner from ingredients already bought, along with a bottle of white Bordeaux, before an early night.
Total: £1,513.37
Day 3
Up out and on the road before 6am, I drive to our pharmaceutical hub in Manchester. The traffic is horrendous. Since the pandemic, everyone seems to drive like they’re playing Mario Kart. Roadworks are endemic and the M6 and M62 are car parks. The road infrastructure in the UK is simply broken.
I make it to my EV charge point at just after 8am. Porsche has an arrangement, so I can fast charge for 31p a KWh. I top up to about the 200 mile range for £9.86.
While I’m waiting for the car to recharge, I grab a sneaky McMuffin and a large black americano from the adjacent McDonald’s for £6.08, which I’ll put on expenses. I make it to the Manchester office and pay £4 to park.
I work through lunch as the business is in high-growth mode, saving cash and calories for later. I do steal 30 seconds to buy a manhole cover to fit over my now-unblocked drains for £27.90. While online, I also grab an inspection hatch cover for another drain-related project at £12.46.
Leaving Manchester to brave the M6, I run into a massive traffic jam. I pull over for sustenance, but WH Smith has run out of sandwiches. I tragically purchase a short-date pork pie and a bag of crisps for £4.63.
Once home it’s a quick supper of fish-finger salad wraps, bath and bed. The eating habits of the captains of industry.
Total: £64.93
Day 4
I’m back in the office again and my daily Starbucks is free as I have “earned a reward” by hawking out my confidential information and installing its app. I realise that at three points per £1, my free coffee represents a cumulative spend of £50.
I have lunch at the office, spending £4.40 on a chicken salad sandwich and crisps. I should try to do something healthier, but I’m six hours into my working day and ravenous.
I am down to my last strip of disposable contact lenses, so I trawl the internet and buy six boxes for £131.34, which will last three months. Work has a scheme offering annual optical care cover capped at £130 for the maximum claim, so I lodge that. The cost now is £1.34.
My under-counter lighting in the kitchen went kaput a few weeks ago, so I finally source some LED strips to repair it for £42.57.
I go home for a chicken salad made from ingredients to hand. I have a quiet night in and another early one, as I have a major presentation in the morning.
Total: £48.31 (after expenses)
Day 5
I drive to school for a rare drop-off of my eight-year-old stepdaughter. My wife and I are both presenting to a client in central Birmingham today. The traffic is a nightmare again, both getting to school and especially driving into Birmingham.
Every second driver seems to be an Uber driver, who have their own special Highway Code. Avoiding multiple collisions, we drive through Starbucks to steady the nerves and spend £7.15.
After the presentation, the team and I debrief in a nearby coffee shop. After ordering five drinks, I’m told the card reader doesn’t work. Scrabbling for my wallet, I find a couple of tenners and part with £17.70.
After the drive home and some email browsing, we uncork a bottle of Pouilly Fume and enjoy sitting outside now spring has finally arrived. The wine was so good we opened a second bottle, accompanied by alfresco snacks before retiring to bed.
Total: £24.85
Day 6
It’s the weekend – hooray. I spend the day relaxing, interspersed with DIY tasks and laundry. Drain repairs and sheep maintenance are the headline acts. We use 4G CCTV to monitor our lambing shed so that we can keep an eye on them even if we are out, in bed or just feeling lazy. It guzzles 4G data, so I need to top up online at €10 (£8.84) for 30 days.
We run a new electric fence to partition the “big field” into a small nursery parcel for the new lambs and their mums. Running off a car battery, I invest £43.99 in a trickle feed solar panel to avoid lugging car batteries up and down the hill. Let’s hope it works and the sun keeps shining.
Total: £52.83
Day 7
We had intended to be away this weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary, but my wife’s lambing-related concerns convinced us to defer the trip. I cancelled the hotel bookings earlier in the week, so the refunds totalling £510.99 land in my account.
My wife declares that for what we were going to pay for a weekend in the UK (once we added a few swanky dinners), we could do a long weekend-style city break in Europe.
We fire up the less-than-hypersonic internet and the plan rapidly escalates into an all-inclusive week in Turkey. It costs £1,011.58 for the pair of us, which I am told it would have been “rude not to book” at “such a bargain price”.
We eat a thrown-together frittata made with eggs from our own hens and odds and sods from the fridge. We wash it down with mineral water, as we’ve now decided we urgently need to shed some beef before our mini-break.
Total: £1,011.58
Weekly total: £4,600.57
As told to Rob White.