{"id":2239,"date":"2025-08-20T11:00:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T11:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/?p=2239"},"modified":"2025-08-21T14:59:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T14:59:33","slug":"a-week-in-minneapolis-on-a-187000-joint-income","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/20\/a-week-in-minneapolis-on-a-187000-joint-income\/","title":{"rendered":"A Week In Minneapolis On A $187,000 Joint Income"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to<\/em> <\/em>Money Diaries<\/a> where we are tackling the ever-present taboo that is money. We\u2019re asking real people how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period \u2014 and we\u2019re tracking every last dollar.<\/p>\n

Today: a research and development engineer who has a $187,000 joint income and who spends some of her money this week on home furniture.<\/em><\/p>\n

Occupation:<\/strong> Research and development engineer
Industry:<\/strong> Medical device
Age:<\/strong> 26
Location:<\/strong> Minneapolis, MN
Salary:<\/strong> $95,000
Joint Income\/Financial Setup:<\/strong> My husband C. and I share finances. Our household income is $187,000.
Assets:<\/strong> 401(k): ~$39,000; C.\u2019s 401(k) and Roth IRA: ~$70,000; savings accounts: ~$56,000; investments: ~$20,000; home equity: ~$96,000.
Debt:<\/strong> $364,000 (mortgage).
Paycheck Amount (Biweekly):<\/strong> $4,399
Pronouns:<\/strong> She\/her<\/p>\n

Monthly Expenses<\/p>\n

Housing Costs:<\/strong> $3,213
Loan Payments:<\/strong> We have no formal loans other than the home mortgage. I owe my parents ~$7,000 for part of my education.
Gym Membership: <\/strong>$25
Netflix: <\/strong>$9<\/p>\n

Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
<\/strong>I was a good student in high school so I kind of naturally ended up in honors classes and AP classes. Once I was in that group I was never presented with options other than college. In hindsight I think I should have considered trade schools, but I didn\u2019t really know that was an option at the time. When the time came my parents and I agreed to split all college costs 50\/50. I had some money saved from working in high school and graduation gifts so that\u2019s how I paid my half at first. When I ran out of money my parents decided to give me an interest-free loan where they would give me money as I needed and continuously tally it up. I\u2019ve paid bits off over the last few years but they insist they don\u2019t want us to pay them back until we\u2019re \u201cestablished in life\u201d. Now that we\u2019ve bought our house, I think it might be time to pay them back.<\/p>\n

Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent(s) educate you about finances?
<\/strong>My dad worked in banking, so he told my brother and I bad money management things he\u2019d seen so that we would know what not to do. He was very good about setting us up for success later in life like getting us credit cards\/loans that he managed so we could start off with good credit scores.<\/p>\n

What was your first job and why did you get it?
<\/strong>My first job was babysitting for spending money.<\/p>\n

Did you worry about money growing up?
<\/strong>I was occasionally (incorrectly) worried about money just because my parents kind of made a big deal over spending any money. I know now that it was never a concern, it was just something they commented on a lot. I think they were trying to show us real world money management but it came off a different way than I think they intended to. <\/p>\n

Do you worry about money now?
<\/strong>My husband and I are fortunate enough to have pretty stable jobs and a good emergency fund but I still worry about money because I\u2019m generally a worrier.<\/p>\n

At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
<\/strong>I would say I wasn\u2019t financially responsible for myself until I graduated college. I was still paying my own bills and whatnot in college but it wasn\u2019t until I moved into my first apartment by myself that I really felt like I was on my own. If anything catastrophic were to happen I\u2019m sure my parents or my husband\u2019s parents would help financially.<\/p>\n

Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
<\/strong>My grandparents gave each of their grandchildren their inheritance ($10,000) ahead of their passing because they knew that all of them were in a spot in their life where they could really use it. We\u2019re very grateful and used the money toward our house down payment.<\/p>\n

Day One: Monday<\/strong><\/h3>\n

7:30 a.m. \u2014 Ugh, I am not a morning person. Since I showered last night, I pretty much just get dressed and put on a quick slick of mascara. I make an espresso but spill it all over the floor while pouring it into a to-go mug. I don\u2019t make another because I want to get to the office before the rain starts. I guess no caffeine for me today.<\/p>\n

8:30 a.m. \u2014 Even without making a new espresso, I get to work just as the rain starts POURING. I get soaked on the walk in. I eat the overnight oats I prepped last night while I review any new emails.<\/p>\n

12 p.m. \u2014 I meal prep weekly, so I eat lunch at the office. This week I\u2019m having dumpling soup with Nasoya tofu dumplings. It\u2019s good enough to eat this week but I\u2019m definitely not buying these dumplings again. I find a piece of chocolate in my bag to reward myself for eating my lunch and not going out. Back to work!<\/p>\n

3 p.m. \u2014 I eat some pineapple and strawberries I brought for a snack. I recently did a pretty massive health overhaul where I lost 70lbs, so I try to only eat snacks when I\u2019m actually hungry. Even then I try to start with fruit and eat something more substantial only if the fruit doesn\u2019t do the trick. My husband C. likes a 5:30 p.m. or 6 p.m. dinner, so this also makes sure I\u2019m hungry around the same time.<\/p>\n

5 p.m. \u2014 We\u2019re having a home energy assessment done to see if our new (to us) home is energy efficient. C. was there to let them in but I\u2019m late. The findings are surprisingly good!! I learn we don\u2019t need new windows after all (and you really only need to replace windows if they\u2019re actually broken). We should plan that we\u2019ll need a new water heater soon (the energy efficient one they recommend is $3,000) and to get more insulation in the attic (they quote this at $7,500). We\u2019ll have to weigh this against the other projects we want to do. The city pays for half of the $100 visit and C. swipes his card for the other half. $50<\/strong><\/p>\n

6 p.m. \u2014 Once the energy people leave we make dinner. Dinner is a pasta salad with ranch dressing made from blended cottage cheese, a little mayo, and buttermilk. After dinner, I decide I need whipped cream for the pound cake my in-laws left with us when they came over yesterday. We run to the grocery store to buy it. $6.99<\/strong><\/p>\n

7 p.m. \u2014 We eat cake when we get home. A big storm was supposed to roll through so we don\u2019t have any plans for tonight. We end up not even getting rain so we could have gone for a walk or something. I prep some overnight oats for breakfast tomorrow and then lay around the house all night.<\/p>\n

Daily Total: $56.99<\/strong><\/p>\n

Day Two: Tuesday<\/strong><\/h3>\n

7:30 a.m. \u2014 Wake up, shower, get ready, make espresso. I try to do as little as possible in the mornings before work. I have to feed our youngest cat every morning since we haven\u2019t gotten an automatic feeder for her yet. She also gets pumpkin to help with digestive issues and that\u2019s not the easiest to manage with an automatic feeder. I feed her on my way out the door.<\/p>\n

12 p.m. \u2014 Lunch is meal-prepped soup. My coworker gives me crap for eating soup not in the winter. I more or less work through lunch so I can go home earlier. Later in the afternoon I have a snack of kiwi and blackberries at my desk.<\/p>\n

5:30 p.m. \u2014 Dinner is leftover burger bowls from Sunday. We always cook meals so that there is at least one day of leftovers but almost never eat the same thing two days in a row. This saves on time and ingredients to not cook something new every day. On days we don\u2019t cook, we try to go to the gym. I have a black card membership at Planet Fitness solely because you can bring a free guest every time. This makes it $5 a month cheaper for us both to go to the gym and also saves us approximately $100 on yearly fees. We spend about an hour at the gym before going home to take a shower.<\/p>\n

8 p.m. \u2014 I learn there\u2019s an app version of a game I loved as a kid. I pay for the unlimited play using Google Opinion Rewards (I probably wouldn\u2019t have bought it otherwise). I play until I crawl into bed and go to sleep. $4.99<\/strong><\/p>\n

Daily Total: $4.99<\/strong><\/p>\n

Day Three: Wednesday<\/strong><\/h3>\n

7:40 a.m. \u2014 I lay in bed a few extra minutes (because I showered last night) before remembering it is bagel day at the office and I need to be there early for the best selection. I end up being early but the bagels are late. I snag an everything bagel when they arrive.<\/p>\n

12 p.m. \u2014 I run out to the grocery store to get my report some cookies for their workiversary ($5.99). I also grab extra toasty Cheez-Its because they\u2019re on sale ($3.49). I eat my meal prep when I get back to the office. $9.48<\/strong><\/p>\n

3 p.m. \u2014 I check my phone while I eat Cheez-Its and fruit from home. C. messages that he ran to Target during his lunch to get a new pair of shoes since his had a hole in the sole. $24.99<\/strong><\/p>\n

5 p.m. \u2014 I pull in the driveway to see the driveway company is here. We\u2019re pricing out how much a new driveway will cost, but I forgot they were coming today. Luckily C. is way more on top of it than I am. The driveway quote is $8,000. This was the last big quote we needed, so now we need to decide if we\u2019re going to do more insulation in the attic, a new driveway, or repair our chimney. They all cost about the same but we really only want to do one big project per year. The chimney seems the most time sensitive (bricks are in danger of falling on our cars in the driveway), so I\u2019m thinking that\u2019s going to win this year.<\/p>\n

6 p.m. \u2014 I make dinner \u2014 a farro, cauliflower, and white bean casserole with a parmesan cheese sauce and garlic bread crumbs. I\u2019m surprised at how good it is. After dinner we go for a walk around the neighborhood. C. tells me he picked up his meds today. After our walk, I make a breakfast apple cake with the apples that are spoiling. I eat a mini ice cream sandwich while it\u2019s in the oven, then scroll Instagram until bed. $17.88<\/strong><\/p>\n

Daily Total: $52.35<\/strong><\/p>\n

Day Four: Thursday<\/strong><\/h3>\n

7:30 a.m. \u2014 Up, shower, dressed. I pack up apple cake for breakfast and my soup meal prep. Every Thursday is \u201cCoffee Day\u201d, so I pre-order a coffee for pickup from Caribou. We have an espresso machine, so Caribou isn\u2019t necessarily an upgrade, but it\u2019s nice to take a day off from making it. I end up a little late to work due to the coffee detour. My office has pretty flexible working hours so late is subjective, but I do try to get to work at 8:30 a.m. $4.61<\/strong><\/p>\n

12 p.m. \u2014 Lunchtime! I discover my soup is dumped out in the bottom of my lunchbox. I think the lunchbox might be ruined but clean it and set it outside to dry anyway. There\u2019s enough soup to still call a meal so I eat it with some Cheez-Its.<\/p>\n

2 p.m. \u2014 C. reminds me that our first regular mortgage payment is due today. I\u2019m very lucky he\u2019s so good at dates and timelines. He pays the mortgage plus the pre-agreed upon extra principal payment of $1,000. $1,000<\/strong><\/p>\n

5:30 p.m. \u2014 Home for dinner. Dinner is pasta salad from Tuesday but I add more dressing and it\u2019s just as good as it was on Tuesday. It\u2019s a leftover day, so we go to the gym after dinner. On the way home from the gym, C. fills my car with gas. After a shower I just hang with the cats for the rest of the night. $35.51<\/strong><\/p>\n

Daily Total: $1040.12<\/strong><\/p>\n

Day Five: Friday<\/strong><\/h3>\n

7:30 a.m. \u2014 It\u2019s FRIDAY. Work has been exhausting and the weekend is supposed to be beautiful weather, so today can\u2019t be over soon enough. I get to the office to discover someone brought in doughnuts! I grab an old-fashioned one. I end up eating my packed breakfast (apple cake) around 10 a.m. because the doughnut didn\u2019t keep me full.<\/p>\n

12 p.m. \u2014 I have a lunch meeting where work feeds us pizza. I would have rather not had free lunch if it meant I didn\u2019t have to sit through this two-and-a-half-hour meeting.<\/p>\n

2:30 p.m. \u2014 I take a brain break and scroll Facebook Marketplace. I\u2019ve been spending a ton of time browsing Marketplace because I\u2019m too cheap to buy new stuff for our house and I\u2019m known for being pretty picky. In terms of furniture we still need a bookshelf, a big area rug, two coffee tables, six dining chairs, a headboard, and at least two nightstands. I find a rug that\u2019s close to C.\u2019s work and arrange for him to pick it up. He venmos the seller when he gets there. $80<\/strong><\/p>\n

5 p.m. \u2014 It\u2019s the weekend, baby! C. helps me unroll the new rug under one of the beds. I vacuum the rug but decide it\u2019s not the day to steam clean it. After dinner (leftover casserole), we chat about what we can do tonight. Neither of us are big drinkers but it feels like there are very few non-alcohol things to do on Friday evenings. We eventually choose to walk around the nearby mall. We get decaf coffee to drink while we mall walk. $6.50<\/strong><\/p>\n

8 p.m. \u2014 More Marketplace scrolling until I go to bed. I have lots of hobbies that I wish I were keeping up with more but I feel like furnishing this house and making it \u201chome\u201d is my priority.<\/p>\n

Daily Total: $86.50<\/strong><\/p>\n

Day Six: Saturday<\/strong><\/h3>\n

8 a.m. \u2014 I miss the days I could sleep until noon. At least this way is more productive. I lay in bed for a bit and look up different landscaping ideas until the promise of coffee lures me out of bed. C. and I chat about goals for today while we eat breakfast. We decide the first task is to clean up a grove of dying trees in the backyard. I never thought I would be excited to do yardwork but I\u2019ve been looking forward to it all week. We make good progress cutting down dead trees and clearing out branches.<\/p>\n

12 p.m. \u2014 We eat assorted leftovers for lunch. While we eat, I scroll Marketplace again and find a bookshelf. I ask the seller if I can pick it up in the evening (when the weather isn\u2019t so darn perfect!), but they don\u2019t want to hold it until then. We hop in the car to go get it ($125). On the way home, we stop at one of my coworker\u2019s houses to get some plants for our house. They\u2019re getting rid of the plants anyway so we are free labor to take them out and haul them away. We get a hydrangea, phlox, a rose bush, raspberry runners, and a white flower nobody remembers the name of. We grab fertilizer for the plants and soil acidifier for some blueberry plants we pre-ordered from a city plant sale that we\u2019re picking up next week ($13.52). $138.52<\/strong><\/p>\n

3:30 p.m. \u2014 We have a lot of plants to plant. We end up landscaping around one of our pine trees\u00a0\u2014 complete with flowers, mulch, and lawn edging. We also plant the raspberries near the strawberries that were planted by the previous owner of our house.<\/p>\n

5 p.m. \u2014 We finish cleaning up outside just in time for dinner. We\u2019re running low on groceries so I\u2019m hodge podging a meal together. I end up making a green pea and quinoa salad with grilled barbecue tofu (grilled by the grill master, C.). It\u2019s surprisingly good and C. rates it an 8.5 (realistically his scale ends at 9 so I count this as a win). After dinner we both shower before putting the bookshelf back together. Part of the reason I was so excited about this bookshelf specifically was that it could be disassembled to transport. We only have compact cars so it\u2019s been hard to buy bigger things for our house. Once assembled we realize we\u2019re going to need to shim one side due to the slope of the floor by the wall. This means I can\u2019t fill it with the bins of books that are waiting and will have to leave those bins packed for a few more days.<\/p>\n

7:30 p.m. \u2014 I snuggle with the cats and drink a non-alcoholic beer. I try to resolve to finish knitting the baby blanket I\u2019m working on for a friend, but I end up scrolling Instagram. I eat some cereal for a snack and go to bed around 9:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Daily Total: $138.52<\/strong><\/p>\n

Day Seven: Sunday<\/strong><\/h3>\n

8:30 a.m. \u2014 I finally sleep in a little. I lay in bed scrolling for a few minutes while I wake up. After coffee and more apple cake, I get a little housework done. I vacuum while C. cleans out the refrigerator.<\/p>\n

9:45 a.m. \u2014 We get an early start to our weekly shopping since we have a few extra places to go this week. We pick up my meds (copay) before going to Aldi. At Aldi we get beans, pepperoni, peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, pineapple, bread, six different forms of cheese, yogurt, sparkling water, flour, chips, and cleaning wipes ($71.94). We stop at Fresh Thyme next to get a few things that Aldi doesn\u2019t carry or that we don\u2019t like the Aldi version of. We get bananas, unsweetened soy milk, and arborio rice ($20.41). $92.35<\/strong><\/p>\n

11 a.m. \u2014 I\u2019m getting hungry so I eat one of the bananas we just bought. Our final stop is Lowe\u2019s to pick up the shims for the shelf. $1.71<\/strong><\/p>\n

11:30 a.m. \u2014 We unpack the groceries and start prepping our meals for the week. I cut fruit while C. cuts vegetables, then we grill the rest of the tofu and eat that with the quinoa salad from last night for lunch. I shim the bookshelf after lunch. It\u2019s not perfect but it\u2019s certainly better!<\/p>\n

1 p.m. \u2014 It\u2019s hot outside!! We need to finish digging out the space for our vegetable garden. We end up making it smaller than we planned so we can get out of the heat. We find a project in the shade redoing the grading on one side of the house and removing some very crumbly pavers.<\/p>\n

3 p.m. \u2014 We take a snack break and eat the last of the dumplings from my lunches this week. We pan fry them and they\u2019re way better. After a quick snack we finish cleaning up the demo zone on the side of the house. Since there\u2019s no rain in the forecast, I realize it\u2019s optimal timing to spray the house with insecticide. I spray while C. plants part of the garden. I end up with insecticide on me so I go inside to shower. After I shower I start arranging books and decorations on the bookshelf.<\/p>\n

5 p.m. \u2014 I start making a cheater paella for dinner. This was a smart meal idea on C.\u2019s part because we already had so many of the ingredients. All we really had to buy for this meal was arborio rice. While the paella cooks, I finish putting items on the bookshelf. It looks so good! I finally feel like the living area is \u201cfinished\u201d with the shelf up. After dinner I wander around the house and take pictures of all our projects from this weekend before cuddling up on the couch with the cats. I think about working on the baby blanket again but end up just lounging until I go to bed.<\/p>\n

Daily Total: $94.06<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Breakdown<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/figure>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cOther than all the home purchases, this was a pretty normal spend week for us. I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll have a few more weeks like this as we continue to buy stuff for the house, but I think we\u2019ll be back to our normal no-frills spending in a month or so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Money Diaries are meant to reflect an individual\u2019s experience and do not necessarily reflect Refinery29\u2019s point of view. Refinery29 in no way encourages illegal activity or harmful behavior.<\/em><\/p>\n

The first step to getting your financial life in order is tracking what you spend \u2014 to try on your own, check out<\/em> our guide to managing your money every day<\/em><\/a>. For more Money Diaries, click<\/em> here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Welcome to Money Diaries where we are tackling the ever-present taboo that is money. We\u2019re asking real people how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period \u2014 and we\u2019re tracking every last dollar. Today: a research and development engineer who has a $187,000 joint income and who spends some of her money this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2239"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2242,"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239\/revisions\/2242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}