A Week In Providence, RI On A $120,000 Household Income

Refinery29

18-07-2025

Welcome to Money Diaries where we are tackling the ever-present taboo that is money. We're asking real people how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period — and we're tracking every last dollar. Today: a program manager who has a $120,000 household income and who spends some of her money this week on a massive fern and a tiny cactus. If you'd like to submit your own Money Diary, you can do so via our online form. We pay $150 for each published diary. Apologies but we're not able to reply to every email.
Occupation: Program manager
Industry: Non-profit
Age: 37
Location: Providence, RI
Salary: $55,000
Household Income/Financial Setup: $120,000. I work part-time, on average around 25 hours a week. I moved into this role a few years ago thinking the part-time life wouldn't last, but I'm still here! I feel incredibly lucky to have a job that gives me so much free time and flexibility but still pays a salary I can live on. My partner K. is a nurse making around $65,000. She and I maintain separate finances but split a lot of costs including rent and utilities, pet expenses, and shared discretionary purchases. We have a shared credit card for these expenses that we split 50/50 each month. A couple years ago, she switched careers and carries some student loan debt from that.
Assets: Checking account: $23,000 (recently pulled most of this out of a CD and haven't gotten around to putting it elsewhere. However, it's not as bad as it sounds: My checking account earns interest similar to a HYSA); HYSA: $12,500; IRA: $45,000; Roth IRA: $71,000; mutual fund: $31,500.
Debt: $0
Paycheck Amount (biweekly): $1,675
Pronouns: She/her
Monthly Expenses
Housing Costs: $1,140 rent for a one-bedroom, heat included. My partner K. and I split this 50/50. The apartment itself is dated and small, but in a good location and this is a great price. We've been here for seven years with only small yearly increases and are paying under market rent. I always hold my breath when the lease renewal paperwork arrives. (Our last apartment was turned into an Airbnb with a month's notice so I may be carrying some residual anxiety!)
Loan Payments: $0
Electricity: I cover this, it's between $50-$80, depending on usage.
Internet: K. covers this this; it's $60.
Phone: $20
Retirement Contribution: I max my IRA or Roth IRA each year. I don't currently have access to a 401(k).
Car Insurance: $208, split with K.
Health Insurance: $275. I get health insurance via the State Exchange; this cost went down a bit when I renewed so I think I'm probably getting a small subsidy now which I may owe back at tax time. I don't have dental insurance, I pay for cleanings out of pocket and hope I don't need a root canal.
Rental Insurance: $12
Pet Insurance: $21, split with K.
Climbing Gym Membership: $89
Spotify: $12.83
Netflix: $19.25
Donations: Around $100: $22 to a local immigrant rights/mutual aid group, and then donations of $5-$10 to a handful of local journalists and podcasters. I also budget $50 to give each month as I feel moved.
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?
It was generally expected that I go to college. I applied to a few different colleges and ended up going to a small liberal arts school because it was the cheapest option after aid and scholarships were applied, even cheaper than the state school. I used a combination of need-based aid, scholarships, loans, and part-time work to pay for tuition and living expenses. My parents contributed around $5,000 and kept me on their health insurance. They also gifted me an old car of theirs. I graduated with a very manageable loan amount, around $14,000, which I mostly paid off with two AmeriCorps education awards.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent(s) educate you about finances?
My parents are both very debt-averse and savings-oriented and they instilled that in me and my brother. They took us to open our first bank accounts and encouraged us to save birthday money or any money we earned. They also taught us to be pretty thrifty and live well on less, which I think is an underrated financial skill. I don't really remember them talking to me about investing or retirement, but we chat about that sometimes now. My dad is a Nervous Nelly about the stock market and is prone to making poor market-timing decisions with his retirement account, so he has been a bit of a cautionary example.
What was your first job and why did you get it?
I helped out on my family's strawberry farm starting when I was maybe 10 or 11 and my parents paid me for it. This was... Semi-voluntary. It was expected that I would help, but I had a fair amount of say over how much I worked and was paid in accordance. When I was 15 or 16 I started my first actual job, working at a local after-school program for younger kids. It paid $6.15 an hour. I liked having more spending money and it was also an opportunity to hang out with friends.
Did you worry about money growing up?
I didn't worry that much about money but I was certainly aware of it. I grew up in a predominantly working-class area and I felt well-off compared to many of my friends because we were very financially stable, but money was not exactly abundant. When I was very young both of my parents had unsteady income that came from selling crafts, small-scale farming and odd jobs. Though their incomes were low, our lifestyle was more self-sufficient than average: we lived in a rural area and grew or hunted a lot of our food, and my dad built our house. We always had food, medical care, and housing (though not always bourgeois amenities like running water or flooring. The house was built *while* we lived in it, and before the house was ready we lived in a tent and a pop-up camper on the build site.) We also had some generational wealth that smoothed the way: My mom inherited some money around the time that I was born, and my paternal grandparents had a comfortable retirement and would help us out occasionally. When I was older, my mom started working an office job and we had more of the trappings of a middle-class life, like summer road trips to see the national parks and money to pay for extracurricular activities. My parents' marriage was always strained (they eventually divorced), and as I got older I understood how much money was a factor in that.
Do you worry about money now?
I don't worry about money in a day-to-day sense. I do budget pretty carefully, but I'm more financially comfortable than I've ever been. If the car needs a repair, it's not a big deal. If I want to go on a trip, I go. That said, like most people I have an anxious orientation to money that leads me to dedicate a fair amount of brain space to worrying about things like layoffs and recessions and lease non-renewals. In particular, I worry that I missed the boat on buying a home here in Providence. Real estate values have skyrocketed since COVID-19. Even if I were working full time, it would be tough to make the math work on buying a house. If I could get a do-over, I would have figured out how to buy in my early 30s, but at the time I didn't feel a pressing desire to own a house and I didn't know that a window of opportunity was closing.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
When I was in college, my parents contributed to tuition and covered a few bills for me (health insurance, car insurance). I used money from working part-time for any living expenses. By the time I graduated and started working full time in my early 20s, I was pretty independent from them but we still share expenses like streaming services from time to time. If I needed them as a safety net, I suspect they'd be able to lend me a bit of money, and in the worst-case scenario they both own homes outright and have space for me to move back in with them.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
Yes, I received around $20,000 in EE-bonds as an inheritance from my paternal grandparents. My partner K. also received around $10,000 in a life insurance payout when her father died about a decade ago. Though I don't count on it, I may get a modest inheritance from one or both of my parents eventually. K. is very unlikely to get anything passed down to her.
Day One: Monday
7:45 a.m. — Up a little late and make coffee. My partner K. doesn't work on Mondays; since my schedule is fairly flexible, sometimes I take the day off as well so that we can take a long weekend camping trip or go to the beach. Today, though, she has a lot of other obligations so I'm planning to work. While I drink my coffee, I play Which Year, a daily game where you guess the year of archival photos. I send my score to my mom and brother; we have a friendly rivalry going on.
9 a.m. — K. and I take the dog for a walk together. We have a very sweet, very anxious small dog that we rescued a few years ago. She LOVES walks. Usually these morning walks are my job; if the weather is decent we'll walk for at least a half-hour. It's a nice start to the day.
9:45 a.m. — I eat a bowl of cottage cheese and blueberries while I answer a few emails and get myself organized for the day. I generally work from home, but I have in-person meetings on a regular basis.
11 a.m. — K. has a few Zoom meetings and virtual appointments today, so I decide to work in a coffee shop. Two people working from home in a one-bedroom apartment is a recipe for frustration, as we learned during COVID-19. I walk to a coffeeshop nearby, snag a table and order a large iced chai and leave a tip. I spend a few hours drafting a grant application. $8.19
2:30 p.m. — Head home and work on the grant application financial documentation (I actually love working on budgets). As a late lunch, I eat leftovers from a cookbook club that we attended last night. The cookbook was Start Here by Sohla El-Waylly. I made a bisteeya-inspired chicken pie and K. made a tahdig. Both were good, as were all of the other dishes that people brought.
5:45 p.m. — Wrap up work and meet up with my running group for an easy run through the neighborhood. It's a small crew today and we only go a few miles.
6:30 p.m. — Back home and take a quick shower. K. is on a Zoom meeting, so I (quietly, did I mention our apartment is small?) make dinner. I make a chaat-spiced skillet fry-up with potatoes, roasted chickpeas, and green peas. I top it with some leftover tamarind chutney, onions, a cumin yogurt sauce, and fresh mint and cilantro. After several failures, I'm finally meeting some success with growing an herb garden on my fire escape.
7 p.m. — K. heads out to get a drink with work friends and I watch La Casa de las Flores on Netflix (Spanish practice, though I get lazy midway through and turn on the subtitles).
Daily Total: $8.19
Day Two: Tuesday
6:30 a.m. — K. is working today, which means that everyone is up earlier. She has already made coffee when I get out of bed (this is generally her job).
7:30 a.m. — I take the dog for a long walk and swing by my community garden plot, where I pick some rhubarb and a big bunch of mint. The dog spots a rabbit, very exciting stuff.
8:30 a.m. — Breakfast is cottage cheese and frozen blueberries. I catch up on a few things for an organization that I'm on the board for, and then do a few small admin tasks and email for work.
10:30 a.m. — Head to a follow-up appointment for LASIK, which I got around a month ago. All of the appointments were included in the cost, which was $4,100. They say my eyes look good and my vision is 20/20, which is excellent news after spending the last 25 years of my life in glasses. The procedure wasn't cheap, but contacts and glasses aren't either. So far I wouldn't say that it's changed my life, but it was really great not dealing with glasses and contacts when we went camping a few weeks ago.
11 a.m. — Back home and work for a few hours. I'm a little hungry but don't feel like making anything, so I eat an apple and a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter.
1:30 p.m. — The dog has a vet appointment. This is our third attempt at taking a blood sample, she freaks out every time. We have been medicating her in increasingly large amounts. Putting her harness on, I have my doubts that we've medicated her enough, she seems quite alert and happy to go for a walk. Unfortunately I am correct: after around 15 minutes of attempts, the vet tech throws in the towel. We talk about other med options and they tell me the vet will follow up. Today's appointment doesn't cost me anything since it was a failure. How thrifty.
2 p.m. — Back home, still hungry. Eat a packet of instant ramen with an egg. The egg makes it healthy. I also start steeping a big pot of iced Moroccan mint tea with the mint from the garden. Then back to work for a bit.
4 p.m. — I remember that I need to make a boarding appointment for the dog later on in the summer. K. and I signed up to volunteer at the Newport Folk Fest. I haven't been in years because it's hard to get tickets. As volunteers, we'll get in free but staying nearby in Newport would be crazy expensive. With the hour-long drive each day, we'll be gone a lot and it feels best to board the pup. For 48 hours it will be $130, but we won't pay until we pick her up.
4:30 p.m. — Take the dog on a quick walk and then head to the climbing gym for a bouldering session. I don't climb for too long but I tackle my least favorite style: overhangs.
7:30 p.m. — Arrive back home and K. is making some sort of Greek potato pie with leftover phyllo dough and fresh herbs from the windowsill herb garden. I help out a little and then take a shower while the pie is in the oven. It's pretty good, but then again... iIt's potato and phyllo. How could it be bad?
8:45 p.m. — We put on an episode of Killing Eve and tackle folding clothes. The volume of clean, unfolded clothing in our bedroom corner feels obscene. It could clothe a whole Medieval village. Then, bedtime. It's chilly tonight, I turn on my mattress pad heater (a purchase that has greatly increased my quality of life) and snuggle in.
Daily Total: $0
Day Three: Wednesday
7:30 a.m. — Tired and stiff this morning. Probably the climbing yesterday. Get up, coffee, take the dog on a walk.
9:15 a.m. — I am planning on doing some yoga and starting work a little late but then I realize I have a 9:30 a.m. meeting. Darn. I throw the leftover potato pie in the oven for breakfast and log on.
11 a.m. — Meeting is wrapped up and I'm still feeling hungry, so I make a bowl of oatmeal. It's a chilly day and oatmeal with cranberries, apples, and brown sugar feels like a treat. After, I change into semi-professional clothing and bike a few miles downtown for a meeting. I've been trying to bike to most of my downtown meetings now that the weather has improved — it's fun and generally a bit faster because I don't need to find parking.
12:25 p.m. — My meeting has wrapped up and I have a little time to kill, so I duck into the Japanese market where I buy a shrimp tempura onigiri, salmon sashimi, frozen udon noodles, and a small chocolate bar. $24.70
1:50 p.m. — I bike over to a community garden. I'm meeting someone here to show me a space that I'm planning to start gardening in. They're trying to get it started up again after a few years of neglect. It is a bit far from my apartment and I already have a plot at a different garden that I tend to with a group, so here I'm planning to just do flowers and a few low-maintenance veggies. I eat the onigiri and chocolate bar while I wait. The garden space is definitely rough, there are lots of old pallets that I'll need to clear out, but I enjoy tackling messy spaces, so it's up my alley.
2:15 p.m. — Back home again. Tell the dog that I love her and that she's beautiful and perfect. Make a big cup of chai; it's deceptively chilly out today and I need something warming. Do a little work to follow up from my meetings and then log off around 3:30 p.m.
4 p.m. — Walk the dog. I spot a forest green fabric basket on the curb and snag it. I really appreciate the robust curbside redistribution system that our neighborhood has. I don't bother taking anything to the thrift store anymore.
5 p.m. — Need to swing by the organization that I volunteer for to drop some items off, so I combine that with a run. Stop by and chat with other volunteers, and then go to a nearby riverside bike path that is just a little too far for me to regularly incorporate into my runs.
6:30 p.m. — Get home and shower while K. starts making poke bowls with the salmon sashimi. We top them with salmon, mango, sriracha mayo, furikake, and cucumber. After, we settle in for an episode of Killing Eve, then early bed.
Daily Total: $24.70
Day Four: Thursday
7:15 a.m. — Wake up to torrential rain. Boo. The apartment is freezing; wish we owned a space heater. Make coffee and play Which Year, hold off on walking the dog in the hopes that the rain will let up.
8:15 a.m. — Do a short yoga session before hopping on a 9 a.m. Zoom meeting. The meeting lasts much longer than I expected and I wish that I'd eaten breakfast before.
10:30 a.m. — Finally free! I bite the bullet and take the dog out, then make a big bowl of oatmeal for breakfast which I eat in front of my computer.
12:15 p.m. — I head to my ceramics studio for a session. I work on glazing a few plates and then handbuild a footed jewelry tray (strongly influenced by one I saw on Etsy). I buy three-hour blocks of studio access in packages of ten so I don't need to pay anything today. Generally they are $30 each unless I get them on sale, and then I spend another couple hundred a year on clay, glazes, and firing fees. On the plus side, I save lots of money on gifts! Everyone wants more mugs, right?
3 p.m. — Back home just in time for another Zoom meeting. After, I wrap up a few follow up items and then log off.
4:30 p.m. — Still cold, still rainy. I take a nap in bed with my heated mattress pad, which is a delight. After, I decide to make rhubarb bars. They sound like a good treat today and running the oven will warm the apartment up.
5 p.m. — The rain has finally cleared, so I take the dog on a walk. I call my mom to coordinate with her about summer plans. She's going to be coming out to New England for a few weeks with my cousin and her kids. They have found an affordable vacation rental for their Rhode Island stay; I tell her it's not in the trendiest location but should be convenient to the beach and to me. I also tell my cousin she can use my car for two weeks. Mistake? Maybe! But it will force me to bike more.
7 p.m. — K. usually works a 12-hour shift on Thursdays, but she comes home early today and we make dinner together: Japanese-style potato and carrot curry with big chewy udon noodles. After, spend some time reading before bed. I'm finally reading Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.
Daily Total: $0
Day Five: Friday
7:30 a.m. — A little warmer today. Coffee and Which Year, then take the dog on a walk (extra long this morning since we didn't get out much yesterday).
9 a.m. — I do a few small things for my job, but I'm not planning on working much today since I'm close to hitting 25 hours for the week. To be honest, work has felt slow recently; there's a few big federal grants that are in limbo under the current administration and so we don't have as many projects going as usual. It's a weird time.
10:30 a.m. — Wrap up work, eat some blueberries and cottage cheese for breakfast. Put on an old episode of You're Wrong About and spend half an hour cleaning the apartment in the company of my para-social friendships with Sarah and Michael.
12 p.m. — Eat a can of Amy's lentil soup for lunch (underwhelming) then head out to run some errands. Stop at the bank and withdraw $80 in quarters for laundry (we have coin op machines in the basement), then swing by a carwash to vacuum out my car. Love having a clean car. $2
12:45 p.m. — Stop by one of my favorite houseplant stores. It's this oasis in a converted mill building. I really love these old mill buildings. You go inside and it's this maze of repurposed spaces hosting retail, artist studios, dance studios, and community organizations. One of them nearby has a pinball museum and an indoor skatepark! It's so important for a city to have affordable commercial space for these kinds of fun, oddball ventures, and I worry that we're starting to lose that here. Anyway, off my soapbox. I buy a massive fern for a plant propagation workshop I'm teaching tomorrow, and a tiny cactus. I could probably get the fern reimbursed if I asked but I don't really mind donating it. $49.20
3 p.m. — Back home and spend some time prepping for the plant propagation workshop. End up going down a plant-care rabbit hole that culminates in me chopping my huge monstera into a bunch of smaller pieces. Someone on YouTube assures me that once I replant them I'll have a healthier, happier plant and I'm trusting the process.
6 p.m. — I'm just finishing sweeping up when K. gets home. She's wiped from the week and doesn't really feel like going anywhere, so we decide to stay in. She makes a Persian chicken and rice dish for dinner (this is one of her specialties, it's very delicious) and I clean up. Then we watch a few episodes of Killing Eve. Not sure I'm as into the second season.
Daily Total: $51.20
Day Six: Saturday
9 a.m. — Sleep in a little, then up to make coffee and walk the dog.
11 a.m. — Head out to a volunteer shift at the tool library. It's busy today, this time of year is always full of people working on their gardens and house projects and starting new hobbies. Today we have a bunch of people just hanging out as well. It's started to feel like a third space, which is fun.
2 p.m. — It's time for the plant propagation workshop I'm leading. We have 12 people attend, which is a larger group than I was anticipating and flusters me a little, since I had planned for it to be very hands-on. Hopefully everyone enjoys it and learns something. Dividing up the giant fern seems to be the highlight.
3 p.m. — The plant propagation workshop is followed by a plant swap. I end up taking home an unnecessary number of seedlings and plant cuttings (pilea, jade, pothos, stonecrop, elderberry, and something called oregano brujo, which is used medicinally in Puerto Rico, according to the woman who brings it). Also, a very sad cactus arrangement that I hope I can revive.
5:30 p.m. — Home from the plant swap and K. is heading out for a karaoke night. Karaoke is not one of my favorite activities so I will not be joining her. Instead, I go on a quick run with the dog and order takeout from my go-to Cambodian place. I get crispy wings, nime chow, and crab rangoon. Then I settle in with my takeout and watch the first half of Sirens. $32.86
Daily Total: $32.86
Day Seven: Sunday
9 a.m. — Sleep in, coffee. Score in the second percentile on Which Year, very exciting.
10:30 a.m. — Walk the dog and then spend a bit of time catching up on financial stuff. I ask K. to venmo me half of our shared credit card balance and catch up on categorizing transactions in my budget. I also catch up on my bank account bonus churning. I'm not as into this as some people, I consider it a small side hustle. I have a spreadsheet that tracks all of my in-process bank account and credit card sign up bonuses. I'm currently trying to trigger a checking account bonus from Chase and need a direct deposit. I read reports that an eBay deposit will do it, so I list K.'s old Xbox for sale.
11 a.m. — K. is working on sewing projects this morning so I ask her to mend a few items of my clothing with small tears or missing buttons. We also debate whether she is capable of altering a too-large linen jumpsuit I got at a recent clothing swap. She says she'll make an attempt.
12 p.m. — Try to buy a kitchen cart off of Facebook Marketplace but lose out to another buyer. The search continues.
1 p.m. — Head out for a grocery shopping run. We're going to a Memorial Day barbeque later on, so first I stop by the liquor store to buy wine and brandy for sangria (split with K.; my share is $14.37), and then to the grocery store for the fruit and normal grocery haul. Rhode Island doesn't sell any alcohol in grocery stores, which is highly inconvenient. I buy peaches and strawberries for the sangria, potatoes, onions, apples, mangos, bell peppers, ginger, a few tubs each of cottage cheese and yogurt, a few bags of frozen blueberries, milk, half and half, butter, dried cranberries, couscous, chicken, chickpeas and kidney beans, and eggs. I feel like it's a lot of stuff but the total is only $92 (split with K, my share $46.13). $60.50
2 p.m. — Throw together the sangria, bid the dog farewell, and head over to the cookout. Our friends live in the neighborhood, so we can walk. The food spread is delicious, and they have the most amazing garden, I am very jealous. My least favorite thing about our place is the lack of outdoor space.
7 p.m. — Home to feed and walk the dog, then back out again for a parking lot show at a local dive bar. They do these free parking lot punk and metal shows in the summer that last all day; this is the first one of the season. This isn't normally my scene but it's a fun summer tradition. I always appreciate how diverse in age the crowd is: there's folks age 7 to 70 bopping around and catching up. We get a beer ($7.35 each with tip) and chat with some acquaintances in between sets. I am a little hungry so we each get a hot dog from a food vendor ($5 each, but K. pays because I can't get Venmo to work). $7.35
9:30 — We're tired and a little cold, so we head home. I'm still complaining that I missed snagging the last cupcake at the cookout this afternoon, so K. makes a quick batch of brownies to placate me. Then bedtime.
Daily Total: $67.85
The Breakdown
Conclusion
'This ended up being a slightly lower-spend week than normal. It was a little quieter than usual in general, and I did a number of free things, the show, the plant swap, the barbecue. And not having to pay the vet bill certainly helped! I've been trying to cut down on my consumer spending on 'stuff', so it was gratifying to see that I didn't spend much in that area. I think in general I do wonder if I can really afford to keep working in this job as the cost of living goes up. I don't save as much as I did working full time, obviously!
'Also, a quick update: The week after I submitted this, I found out that our landlord is selling all of his properties, including our building, to an investor. So that's probably the end of our cheap rent. I feel like I jinxed myself! We're still waiting to find out the upshot of this for us, but if we do need to move, our rent will likely double in the fall.'