In our How I Manage My Money series we aim to find out how people in the UK are spending, saving and investing money to meet their costs and achieve their goals.
This week we speak to Fiona Scott, 56, who lives in Swindon with her husband Steve, 56, daughters Sam, 22, Georgia 20, their son, David, 15, and five-year-old rescue dog, Jess. Fiona also has a step-daughter, Lauren, 28. Fiona has run her own media consultancy business for 14 years.
Monthly Budget
Income: I generally take around £2,300 from my business each month, but this varies. I also receive £100 a week from my eldest daughter who currently lives at home. My husband also brings in an income as he works as a pre-sales consultant in the telecoms industry.
My share of our monthly outgoings: Mortgage, £512; groceries, £470; gas and electric, £150; water, £2.50 – we were in credit so this is lower than normal; pension pot, £125; broadband, £40; my mobile bill, £25; home insurance, £16; car insurance, £37.50; TV licence, £6.62; pet insurance and food, £32.62; going out, including to the cinema, £200; average credit card spend, £150; treats like handbags and books, £200; pocket money for my son, £25; money for supporting my daughter, Georgia, at university, £75; money into savings, £100; lottery, £25. I have an electric car which helps save money on fuel costs.
I was brought up in Somerset and come from a working-class background. We lived hand to mouth, didn’t go on holidays abroad and most of my clothes, apart from school uniform, were second hand.
As a child I became aware that my mother wanted to work but my father wouldn’t allow it. As a very young girl I would look at my mother’s daily routine and knew that would never be me. I was never going to depend on anyone for money or be made to feel that I could not make my own decisions around money.
So, I got a Saturday job when I was 16 and worked part-time throughout my studies until I worked full-time. I briefly trained to be a secondary school teacher, but hated it. Fortunately, I was offered a traineeship as a journalist. I eventually joined ITV in Bristol, where I worked for 13 years and became a series producer. But I was made redundant from ITV in February 2009. I was utterly devastated when I lost my job and was worried about money as I knew I had to contribute from day one.
More from Saving and Banking
Over time, I set up my own media consultancy and PR business, which is called Scott Media. My “power hours” are probably the most lucrative part of my business which is where clients can pick my brains for an hour. They currently cost £199 plus VAT for the hour, and I can generally make around £2,000 a month from these sessions. A good turnover for me is around £10,000 to £12,000 a month, and I take about £2,300 a month from the company to pay myself.
For me money is energy. I’m quite a spiritual person and I believe that money empowers me to serve others. Not having money to pay the bills, work with others, invest or grow my business would hold me back. I want to be paid for my expertise because I value what I can do.
I find it hard to save for a rainy day, as that is too vague for me. I find it easier to save for something specific or a particular project. However, I do love handbags and shoes and will treat myself to one every couple of months. I love Italian handbags, and when I go over there, which is every couple of years, I’ll buy one. I also adore Cambridge Satchels and used to own ten, but have trimmed the collection to four.
I also love spending my money on books. I spend about £50 a month on books, and can easily spend about £150 a time on them for Christmas and birthday presents. I always have a pile of around 30 books to read and have a particular penchant for novels.
I put £125 a month into a private pension, and try to add £100 a month to a savings account. I am not really interested in financial products, but we have a financial planner who is working with us to manage our pension pots. Steve and I moved our pension pots in our mid 40s as they were performing badly.
That decision seems to have been a good one. My husband and I are working towards an income level we want in our 60s. This will ideally be around £3,000 to £4,000 a month between us. We are on track to achieve this and have medium-risk investments in place. I think people should start saving into a pension as soon as they start full-time work. I started paying £20 a month into one when I was in my early 20s.
Around the home I do a number of things to save money and be a little greener. I’m also an avid bargain hunter. We have solar panels on our garden cabin, which houses and powers my husband’s office. I also buy items from charity shops and car boot sales, and for the last few years we’ve switched our main supermarket shop to Lidl, which initially saved us about £50 a week.
In terms of financial goals, I cannot wait to be mortgage free and we don’t have long to go now! I want to continue to enjoy running my business, travelling in our caravan and be able to not worry about buying things I want to. I want to have the income to “be more, do more”, rather than just buy new things.
