What I Spend in a Week as a 26-Year-Old Debt-Free DINK (2022 Millennial Money Diaries)

If you’ve been on the internet the last few years, you have probably seen those “what I spend in a week” Youtube videos done by influencers.

I (being a somewhat nosy person) loves watching those videos to see what other people around my age love to blow their money on.

What I hope these “what I spend in a week” money diaries do is encourage you to track your own spending.

What I have a feeling these videos do instead is create a cycle of comparison. If your favorite 22-year-old influencer can afford to blow $8000 in one week furnishing their first apartment and buying clothes, it may make you feel bad if you aren’t in a similar situation.

These types of videos can make this level of discretionary spending seem normal, when it is anything but.

I wrote a whole blog post about how influencer culture can be toxic for our finances. So we won’t go too far down that rabbit hole today.

Anyway, I decided to recreate the “what I spend in a week” video in blog post format. I’m going to show you what a regular-ole, non-influencer, with a normal 9-5 job in the midwest spends in a week.

I’ll take you along for my week, break down how much I spend each day, and then show you where I am allocating that spending in my monthly budget (because everyone should have a budget!).

Hopefully this normalizes a modest level of consumption spent within a predetermined budget and gives you a glimpse into how we budget our money.

Because spending money in and of itself isn’t bad, provided that spending doesn’t hinder you from your financial goals and has a place in your monthly budget.

Context for My Millennial Money Diary

In case you’re new here, hi I’m Megan!

I’m a 26-year-old engineer living in a small town in Indiana with my husband. We got married in May of 2021 and combined all of our finances!

We are consumer debt-free, own our home (as of April of this year- we survived buying a home during the 2022 housing market), and don’t have any kids.

Both of us work W-2, 9-5 jobs. So we are a DINK household- dual income, no kids.

I won’t share our exact income, but our individual salaries are both under six-figures.

However, each of our total compensation (bonus targets, health insurance, and 401k match) push us both over six figures individually.

As a household, we make well into the six-figures, but are still under the income limit to contribute to direct Roth IRA’s (if that helps set the scene).

We feel very financially stable and are able to live well under our means so that we can invest to build wealth for financial independence!

It wasn’t always like this, though.

I graduated college with $56,000 of student loan debt, a 15-year-old car, and a couple grand to my name. My husband graduated with $31,000 in student loans, and took out a $25,000 car loan shortly after while making less than half of that at his first job out of school (with no benefits or 401k).

We finished paying off our debt shortly after getting married, changed jobs, paid cash for our wedding, bought our first home, and have made a lot of progress financially over the last few years!

Here’s a look into what we spend in a week as two debt-free millennials living in the midwest!

Related: How I Paid off $56,000 of Student Loan Debt in 31 Months

What I Spend in a Week: Millennial Money Diaries

Now, on to the what I spend in a week money diary!

I’ll break down each day with the amount spent and budget category that spending was allocated to.

I also documented my spending on my Instagram stories– you can find a highlight on my profile!

I’ll share all of our spending from the week, including any bills that got paid.

We put almost all of our spending on our cash-back credit card and pay it off in full multiple times per month.

We keep a monthly budget using my template in Excel, and I record every transaction and allocate it to a specific category in our budget. Even though I’m the one who is more hands-on with the budget, my husband and I are always on the same page with our finances.

At the end, I’ll also break down our monthly bills and divide them by 4, to give more context to our actual weekly spending.

I hope this “what I spend in a week” money diary encourages you to track your own spending, start a budget, and most importantly, not compare your financial situation to anyone else’s. 

Monday Spending

Monday was the 4th of July, so we both had the day off of work!

We spent it doing yard work and visited with my in-laws for a few hours. The only thing we spent money on was lunch for all 4 of us at Chipotle.

Monday total: $45.90

• Chipotle: $45.90, restaurant category

Tuesday Spending

After work on Tuesday, I ran to Hobby Lobby to snag some clearance 4th of July decor and picked up a bridal shower gift at Target (I’m hosting a bridal shower for my childhood best friend on Sunday).

Both of these items came from sinking funds in our budget. 

Sinking funds are a way of saving for large or irregular purchases by putting money away each month so it’s ready to go when said large or irregular purchase happens.

I prefer to set up categories that we don’t always spend money from every month into sinking funds (clothes, travel, home decor, and personal spending are a few of ours). That way, if we don’t spend all the money that month, it rolls over to next month! 

We have one separate savings account for all of our smaller sinking funds, and I keep track of the balances in each fund with my budget spreadsheet.

Tuesday total: $66.16

• Hobby Lobby: $35.68, home decor sinking fund
• Target: $30.48, wedding sinking fund

Related: 9 Essential Sinking Funds Categories to Add to Your Budget This Month

Wednesday Spending

We didn’t spend any money on Wednesday! 

Wednesday total: $0

Thursday Spending

On Thursday, our Apple TV subscription came out on auto-pay (husband likes to watch F1 racing).

I also bought a dress to wear to the bridal shower from Amazon, which came out of my personal spending sinking fund.

After work, we went to the local hardware store to get some more primer, trim, and nails for a home project we are working on.

This was $123.53 taken from our home renovations sinking fund. We recently bought our first home, so saving money for house projects is one of our financial priorities right now!

On the way home, we stopped for ice cream at McDonalds and spent $10.77.

Thursday spending: $181.26

• Apple TV: $10.59, subscriptions category
• Amazon: $36.37, personal spending category
• Gilman Hardware Store: $123.53, home renovations sinking fund
• McDonalds, $10.77: restaurant category

Friday Spending

Friday’s spending was literally all food. Everyone was in the office at work today (a rare occasion since we all work a hybrid schedule and aren’t required to be in the office on certain days), so I went out to lunch with my team.

I usually bring my lunch to work and literally can’t remember the last time I went out.

The $5.87 spent at a local pizza place actually came from my personal spending sinking fund (since I wasn’t with my husband, I don’t want to use up our restaurant budget when we’re not together).

Friday nights we usually go out to eat or get takeout to celebrate the end of another work week. This week, we did takeout from a local Mexican place and spent $33.33 (including tip) from our restaurant category.

Friday’s total: $39.20

• Local pizza place: $5.87, personal spending sinking fund
• Local Mexican place: $33.33, restaurant category

Saturday Spending

On Saturday I ran to Walmart to get snacks, drinks, and tableware for the bridal shower I’m hosting tomorrow. I spent $164.65 from my wedding sinking fund (sinking funds are lifesavers for expensive events like weddings!).

We ran to Aldi to get groceries after that and spent $75.46 from our grocery category, which is pretty typical.

We’ve also been rotating through a few different meal delivery services, which means we spend less at the grocery store now.

Our HomeChef subscription also came out on autopay, which was another $63.93 from our grocery budget. I think this is finally full-price, which means I need to cancel HomeChef and sign up for a different service at the promo rate.

Budget hack: rotate through meal kit services by signing up with the promo rate, cancelling when it goes full-price, signing up for a different one, and wait for them to send you coupons to come back. Then, use the coupons from the subscription you just cancelled when the new one one goes full-price. Rinse and repeat.

We also stopped at Wendy’s on the way home from the grocery store and spent $20.95. I fully regret this purchase because it was out of pure laziness and it made me feel sluggish the rest of the day. (Note to self: go home and make a dang sandwich for lunch next time!)

To round out Saturday’s spending, I bought a bridal shower printable game off of Etsy for a whopping $2.00.

Saturday’s total: $329.99

• Walmart: $164.65, wedding sinking fund
• Aldi: $75.46, grocery category
• HomeChef: $63.93, grocery category
• Wendy’s: $20.95, restaurant category
• Etsy: $2.00, wedding sinking fund

Sunday Spending

I didn’t expect to spend any money on Sunday, but I forgot that I still had to pay for my half of the venue for the bridal shower (me and the other maid of honor split this cost). So another $120.38 came out of the wedding sinking fund. 

I actually needed to adjust our budget to contribute more to this sinking fund this month to cover this cost.

Adjusting your budget throughout the month is totally normal and should be expected! I took $100 from our home renovations sinking fund contribution and moved it to the wedding sinking fund contribution for the month.

Our internet bill also came out on autopay, which was $55.

And finally, to round out our spending for the week, my husband spent $18.18 at Advance Auto Parts for brake grease.

We do all of our own car maintenance, so he was replacing the brake pads on one of our vehicles. This amount came out of our car maintenance sinking fund (can you tell I love using sinking funds??).

Sunday’s total: $193.56

• Bridal shower venue: $120.38, wedding sinking fund
• Comcast: $55, internet category
• Advance Auto: $18.18, car maintenance sinking fund

Grand Total: $853.07

Analyzing What I Spend in a Week

What I spend in a week grand total: $853.07.

Aside from the bridal shower spending, this week was pretty typical.

We did a little more restaurant spending than usual and I didn’t have to fill up gas in my car (which has been costing around $65 – $70 these days).

Here’s a pie chart breakdown:

If you take out the wedding sinking fund spending, the grand total becomes $535.56.

Taking out the wedding sinking fund spending and bills (Aldi trip, internet bill, and brake grease), our discretionary spending for the week comes to $386.92.

Of course, we all have those monthly bills that may or may not get paid during a singular week of spending. So in an effort to be thorough, here is a breakdown of all of our regular bills:

• Mortgage: $1694.03
• Utilites (typical electricity, water, trash): $216.94
• Insurance (health, dental, car, term life): $239.56
• Phone: $128.07
• Internet: $55
• Subscriptions (Discovery+, Apple TV, gym, Spotify premium): $86.57

Total monthly bills: $2420.17

If you divide our total bills by 4, it comes out to about $605.04 each week.

Adding that to our “what I spend in a week” total minus wedding sinking fund, Apple TV, and internet (since I also included internet & Apple TV in our regular bills and don’t want to double count) comes to $1075.01.

Whew! Did you follow all of that?

Aside from everything spent on the bridal shower, this is pretty typical spending for us. I’ve really honed in on my budgeting method and what I value spending on over the last 3 years.

Could we cut back our spending in certain areas? Sure!

But the goal isn’t to spend the least amount of money possible, it’s to maximize your health, happiness, and security.

We live well within our means, don’t have any consumer debt, have an emergency fund in cash, are contributing 25% of our gross income to retirement and investments, and know what we value spending money on.

Once your financial goals are taken care of, spend the rest guilt-free on things that provide value and happiness to your life!

I hope this post encourages you to track what you spend in a week and be more aware of what you spend your hard-earned money on.

Think about each purchase as you make it. Does what you spend your money on reflect the type of life you want to live?

Do you feel secure financially? If not, how can you adjust your spending habits to change that?

As always, you can find my templates and trackers here to help you get started budgeting and tracking your spending.

I hope you enjoyed this “what I spend in a week” money diary post!

Feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email with any thoughts or questions, I’d love to hear from you!

-Megan