Australian Whitney Portwine has shared exactly what she spends in a typical day in a series of candid TikToks.
Portwine, 25, works in marketing and lives at home with her parents, but she still spends anywhere between $300 [$197 USD] and $500 [$330 USD] weekly.
She told news.com.au that while she’s living rent-free, she still pays $300 to her parents monthly to help cover expenses.
While Portwine is in a lucky position, she still finds herself outlaying plenty of cash during the working week.
“I am privileged to still live at home, so I don’t have the standard weekly bills as you would when you’ve moved out,” she explained.
Arguably, young people are hit hard by inflation because they typically haven’t entered into the high-end earning era of their careers, so they are stuck trying to live their best lives on a budget.
Portwine took to TikTok to share a realistic spending day, which involved eating out twice, buying new clothes and heading into Chemist Warehouse.
Often, when people share their spending days online, it is usually framed around how to be savvy with your money, but Portwine’s account is far more based on what her routine is rather than sharing tips on how to save cash.
Portwine went out for breakfast and lunch for two separate client meetings, which would be covered for work, but she still spent $116.45 [$76 USD] in a single day, even without having to splurge on food.
The young worker forked out $31.95 [$21 USD] buying some lactose tablets because she’s lactose intolerant, $5 [$3 USD] on public transport and she got “sucked” into the Glasson’s fashion sale and spent $79.32 [$52.65 USD].
Similarly, in a separate TikTok, she shared another example of how much she spends in a day, and it involved $5.80 [$3.80 USD] on a matcha latte, $8.50 [$5.59 USD] on sushi, $5 [$3 USD] on public transport, and $3.60 [$2.80 USD] on a drink.
In total, the day only costs $22.90 [$15.07].
Yet, in another she explained that she ended up spending $206.84 [$136.84 USD] during a working day.
She bought $8.50 [$5.59 USD] worth of sushi rolls, $169.32 [$111.44 USD] on Souled Out tickets and $24.02 [$15.81 USD] on an Uber home that she referred to as “self-care.”
Portwine explained that while her weekly spending does vary depending on her week, and if she’s having a “low spend” or “high spend” week, she’s still, on average, spending between $300 [$197 USD] – $500 [$300 USD].
That also doesn’t include the fact she pays for phone bills, health insurance and subscription services such as Netflix, Kindle and Apple Music.
She’s also found that workers are now expected to be back into the office more, which has added some extra financial training.
Portwine said that since coming out of the “WFH era”, she’s now spending around $10 [$6.58] a day on public transport.
“Which does add up when you’re in the office 5 days a week,” she explained.
Although Portwine is clearly enjoying her money with sushi and clothing treats, she said her goal is to try to save more.
“I am trying to save to move out, but it is becoming more and more expensive,” she admitted.