Training for 5K. Spending like there’s no finish line.

Welcome to Outgoings, a weekly series where we speak to Yonder members about her weekly outgoings. Real people, real money, real spending habits.

This week: a senior international tax manager who spent seven days juggling direct debits, training for a 5k, finding a dress she can rewear to multiple weddings, and dropping £175 for a haircut that screamed 'disheveled' more so than 'distinguished'. A week that swings between "minefield" and "Goldilocks zone" and somehow lands, almost exactly, in the middle. Let's get into it.

Key facts

Diarist: 31, senior international tax manager

Location: Maida Vale (lives alone)

Salary: £70-80k

Biggest spend: £175 (a hairdresser's appointment)

Smallest spend: £0 (the freebies handed out at the finish line of a Wednesday-night 5k)

I'm 31 and work as a Senior International Tax Manager, which is a fancy way of saying I spend my days on the tax implications of overseas acquisitions, tracking legislative change, and demystifying what "staying compliant across multiple territories" actually means in practice. I live in Maida Vale, reluctantly, and only because work dragged me there from Clapham, a decision I regret daily and am quietly plotting my comeback from. It's a one-bed, solo, with a noisy cat and an equally noisy fox for neighbours, both extremely well fed by everyone on the street, and both sharing my keen interest in garden design (the flowers will eventually recover).

My relationship with money in one sentence: complicated, shaped by growing up without much, where spending it has always felt like a bit of a minefield. Going in, I knew this would be a week of two things pulling against each other: the discipline that has me quietly chasing bonuses, promotions and a healthier ISA balance, and the same ambition telling me a fun run, a wedding dress in the sale, and a haircut I definitely didn't need were all fair game too.

Take-home: £6k / month · Rent: £2-3k · Week total: £760.47 · Transactions: 39

Day 01 · Monday · Maida Vale — £36.05

Damn, did I really press snooze without realising it!?

£2.30 — Coffee. A local independent on the tube platform. Another snooze mishap on a designated office day meant my coffee machine at home stayed neglected and gathering dust — the horse had bolted. I ordered on the platform anyway, and the barista handed it over baseball-style just as the doors were closing. I caught it. A real sliding-doors moment.

£8.90 — TFL. Tap in and tap out for the day.

£12 — Lunch. "A sordid affair": a tuna salad eaten at my desk after a new meeting got dropped into the calendar to accommodate the overseas team, 12–2pm. It over-ran (no surprise), there was no back-up packed lunch (thanks, snooze), so I tried a salad place next to the office I hadn't been to before. "How bad can it be? Edible? Just."

£12.85 — Margherita from Pizza Pilgrims. Eaten while logging back on for one more email before I could properly clock off. "It's to balance the sad salad."

Somewhere in there, an invite landed to join a 5k/10k run in Battersea Park on Wednesday. Entry paid for by an external consultancy we work closely with (think Big 4, starts with D). Free, and reason enough to feel slightly better about lunch.

Day 02 · Tuesday · Maida Vale — £246.87

Direct debits galore.

£58 — Council tax. Westminster, "the lowest in the country," apparently. Set to leave my account on the 18th of every month. "There she goes before I even get out of bed."

£35 — Energy bill. Octopus, flexible tariff. "Honestly this one has a mind of its own. There she goes again."

£100 — Savings. Straight into the ISA. "Hmm, this wasn't so bad."

£18.99 — Netflix subscription. No notes.

£8.99 — Strava subscription. Nearly cancelled it months ago, glad I didn't… comes in handy for the run.

£2.99 — Apple storage. "OK, let's get out of bed, cause these are coming in thick."

£0 — Leftovers from the fridge. WFH, with an hour blocked out to catch up on my to-do list. "Win win."

£8.90 — TFL. Travel charge to the Midnight Runners Tuesday session at London Bridge, 7.15pm. In and out of a work call right up to the start line, but I made it: 7.8km banked. "Strava or it didn't happen."

£14 — Wine. A glass with the group afterwards at the Raven. "Why? OK, it's an after-run social." Got carried away in conversation, it had finally rained that day, which felt worth celebrating.

Got home at 10.30pm to find three tiny fox cubs waiting at my door. "Success!"

Day 03 · Wednesday · Maida Vale / Battersea Park — £48.90

Bring on Battersea Park Chase the Sun run. PB for sure.  A lot of today consisted of non-charges I avoided thanks to my pre-paid for entry.

£8.90 — TFL. Running kit in one hand, coffee mug in the other. "Who's that girl?"

£0 — Lunch. A leadership-team lunch: sandwiches, soft drinks, and AI-generated notes taken while everyone ate. "Multitasking at its finest."

£0 — Travel to the start line: two tubes, a bus, and a run/walk across the bridge to collect my bib before casually joining the line. "Phew! £8.90 it stays," already counted in the day's travel.

£0 — The race itself: medal earned, PB rung in, and a haul of free goodies along the way: a Voltarol gel, two mocktails, a beer, three electrolyte packs. On to the pub for a debrief with the team from D.

£0 — Dinner. Fish and chips (and a rosé) at the Duke of Cambridge. A friend's engagement was announced mid-meal. Ring revealed, wedding speeches recollected.

£0 — Cab journey home. Shared with colleagues, paid for by H, who'd had the foresight to route it via everyone's individual stops. Home by 11pm.

£40 — Groceries. An Ocado order placed while brushing my teeth on the last scrapings of toothpaste. "Toothpaste. Mainly toothpaste. And some other stuff…"

Day 04 · Thursday · Maida Vale — £150

Was the 5k worth it? Yes. Will I do it again? Definitely. Felt pretty smug the first half of the day, running off things I'd already paid for: sore from the run, I leaned on Voltarol and electrolytes I already had (plus coffee, though admittedly that would've helped more pre-run than post), and dinner sorted itself when the Ocado order I'd placed the day before turned up right on time at 7pm. A clear sign to log off for the day.

£150 — a wedding dress, browsed for a wedding I'm a guest at, found in my size, my colour, and in the sale. "Would I buy it if not in the sale? Yes! Do I like a bargain? I sure do! Can I rewear it to both weddings I'm going to? Say no more. This one's coming home!"

Day 05 · Friday · Maida Vale — £18.90

Offices on a Friday are a desolate land to behold. Abandon all hope of in-person banter, all who enter here.

£8.90 — TFL. Tap in and out, smooth operators.

£2 — Coffee. With a colleague, L, who only comes into the office once a month, always on a Friday. Plenty of rooms free, nothing to book. "L might be onto something."

£8 — Food truck lunch. Followed by a walk down the canal with L and A. Daily steps goal unlocked.

I spent my travel home planning Saturday's long run over a call with the group before the signal dropped. Confirmed on arrival: bright and early, and (bonus) a neighbourhood party that night too. "Who needs sleep anyway…"

Day 06 · Saturday · Hyde Park / Maida Vale — £179.75

Waking up early for a long run on a Saturday? Who came up with this brilliant idea? Me? Why?

£1.75 — Bus to Hyde Park. "Reconsidering my life choices," half-asleep and barely dressed for it while the group is disgustingly early and Strava-ready.

Had a quick coffee, an iced coffee after the run, covered by a friend, N. Chatting, laughing, commiserating over another friend's move to Australia. Marathon training floated. No firm answer given.

£3 — Brownie. Needed on the way back. "Because reasons."

Showered, a sandwich grabbed on the way out, and the dress arrives just as I'm leaving. "Finally!"

£175 — Hairdressers. A local appointment. "It costs money to look this dishevelled. Who would have thought?"

£0 — Steak dinner at home. Cooked by my own hand. "Utterly delicious if I do say so myself."

Day 07 · Sunday · Maida Vale — £80

Cause that's my fun day (Ooh-oh).

£40 — Dry cleaning. The local cleaners. "Had to be done."

Saved money by having brunch at home. A friend, R, messages to catch up and we agree to meet for a roast.

£40 — Sunday roast. With pudding, at my local. R clips a parked car pulling in. "Ending the week on a high note? Oh well."

What the week says

Three things stayed with us after reading it.

The £175 wasn't really about the hair. Her single biggest spend of the week bought her the look of having done absolutely nothing — and after seven days spent training for a 5k, chasing down direct debits and eating salads at her desk, that felt like the actual treat.

Free ran her week, not spending did. A race entry paid for by someone else, colleagues covering coffees and cab fares, a finish line stacked with free gel and electrolytes — her smallest "spend" of the week was £0, and it's also where most of the week's joy turns out to have lived.

The minefield shows up in the small print, not the big one. £58 for council tax and £100 into savings barely got a reaction out of her ("this wasn't so bad"). A £14 glass of wine on a Tuesday, on the other hand, is the one she's quietly taking back. When money's felt tight before, it's rarely the scheduled outgoings that set off the alarm — it's the spontaneous ones.

The reflections

Most defended: "£2.30, Monday morning coffee. Nectar from the gods."

Quietly taken back: "£14 small glass of wine on a Tuesday night. No explanations needed."

Almost spent on, didn't: "A pair of shoes to match the new dress. Browsed late at night, tab closed. Probably for good."

Surprising: "A Goldilocks week of spending. Not too much, not too little, just about right.”

Outgoings is a weekly diary series from Yonder. Every Thursday, one anonymous member takes us through a week of their spending life. To write one, submit an application here.