Editorials

What Annoyed the Internet This Week?

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23 July 2018

By Bronwen

Rich people who don’t realise they’re rich are the worst.

This week, a London woman on a £69,500 salary annoyed the Internet as she spoke of her struggle to save money. To put into context just how high this salary is, you should know that the average annual wage for Londoners is £34,473, according to the Office for National Statistics.

In the original article, 29-year-old project manager Kate Smith (not her real name) detailed how she changed her spending habits in order to save money for a house deposit in London. Her monthly income is £4,003 and her outgoings are as follows:

“Rent and bills: £830

Pension contributions: £264.25

Travel: £110 (averaged from annual travelcard)

Mobile phone contract: £10

Sports club: £40

Food shopping: £350

Holidays: £375

Savings target: £1,500

Total: £3,479.25 Amount left to spend: £523.75 / £121 per week”

I think the first response I had to reading this part of the article was: “This woman should not writing articles about saving money!”

Opinion and advice pieces on saving money should come from people who are sensible with money and have a low to average income.

In order to reach her £1,500 monthly savings target, Kate moved into a cheaper house share which saved her £50 a month. Then she cancelled her gym membership which cost her *deep breath* £150… per MONTH. One hundred and fifty pounds a MONTH. Yes, we’re talking about London but there are countless gyms which barely even charge £150 a year for memberships.

Her next plan of action was to reduce the number of taxis she took. It isn’t specified in the article which mode of transport she used when she wasn’t using taxis but it may be fair to assume it wasn’t the bus.

Kate also mentions that she won’t give up her weekend trips abroad which cost her £375 a month. While she is gallivanting across the globe, she reassures us that she watches what she spends. She now spends £100 a week socialising and eating out but she did say used to spend more before having to save for a deposit (I know what you’re thinking at this stage, poor Kate has sacrificed so much).

The icing on the cake comes at the end of the article:

“I’m hoping to buy a two-bedroom place near here, but I think I might have to settle for a one bedroom – it depends on the market.”

The long-suffering Kate may have to “settle” by only having a one bedroom property. I, for one, am so sad to hear that she may not be able to have a spare room in the second most densely populated city in the UK.

If you can still afford personal luxuries such as eating out regularly and holidaying abroad on a weekend and still manage to save £1,500 a month, the world doesn’t need your take on finance. This Twitter user says it best:

If you weren’t annoyed enough already, this tweet shows snippets of a refinery29 article about a woman who earns $25 an hour.

https://twitter.com/tessabahoosh/status/1019213579944366081

For many people, living on $25 an hour in New York might be tough. However most people’s parents don’t pay for their rent, phone bill, Netflix, Spotify and most people’s relatives definitely do not give them $1100 ‘allowance’ a month.

I’ll say it again: rich people who don’t know they’re rich are the worst.

 

 

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