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 Laura Wardell, 43, who lives in Sheffield with her husband, John, 44, and their children, Freya, nine, and Isaac, seven. Laura runs her own direct selling business offering children’s books and works part-time as a primary school teacher. She thinks teachers should be paid more and said she’s very motivated by money. She doesn’t think the state pension is enough to live on, but is confident her teacher’s pension will help her greatly in later life.
Monthly budget
My monthly income: The take-home pay from my part-time primary school teaching job is £1,915 per month. The income from my work as an independent direct seller with Usborne Community Partnerships is variable, but ranges from £300 to more than £1,000 per month. We receive £170 in child benefit each month. My husband is a secondary school teacher so we have his income too.
My monthly outgoings: Mortgage, £1,302; council tax; £145; groceries, £350; gas and electric, £220; water, £43; broadband, £42; mobile, £40; gym, £27; TV licence, £14.12; home insurance, £37.33; life insurance, £70; car insurance, £100; car payments for two vehicles, £600; home emergency cover, £4.50; car fuel and electric charging costs; £128; contact lenses, 314; teaching union; £10; charity donations, £16; lottery, £25; money into children’s savings accounts, £100; takeaways, £50; clothes, £100.
I grew up in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, and remember we’d go on lots of camping trips to Devon and Cornwall as my parents couldn’t afford holidays abroad. Later on, I went on to study for a degree in primary education with qualified teacher status at Sheffield Hallam University, where I met John.
I’ve been working in the same primary school since 2002. I start work at 7.30am and leave at 4.30pm to pick up my children. I teach a mixture of lessons throughout the day until 3.10pm and then tidy the classroom, mark the books and get things ready for the next day. The take-home pay for my part-time job three days a week is £1,915.
Our pay has increased recently, but people don’t often see all the extra work that teachers do. Planning 10 lessons a day every day and differentiating them for each child is no easy task. I often do planning work on the weekends and during holidays. I’m always writing notes and thinking about every child’s well-being, even during the evenings.
I think the only holiday where I can shut off for some of the time is the summer holiday. I do think teachers should be paid more. After going part-time after Freya was born, I was always worrying about money. I wanted a second job that paid well but was fun and could supplement my income.
I started direct selling with Usborne Community Partnerships, a member of the Direct Selling Association, in July 2018 and haven’t looked back since. I work with children, schools and nurseries and help support children to read and find their ideal book. The income from my direct selling work varies, but is typically between £300 to around £1,000 per month, depending on what events are happening and how many children’s books I sell.
As well as selling at stalls and fairs, I support schools to run sponsored reading events, where they use the money to get Usborne books for their schools. I receive between 20 to 24 per cent commission on the books I sell. I once made £600 in commissions from one book fair, which helped pay for a family holiday to Italy. The extra money helps take the pressure off us.
As a family, we try to live within our means. We save for holidays and have them paid off before we go. I don’t like being in debt on credit cards, as the feeling of owing a bank is unappealing.
We bought our four-bedroom bungalow in April 2021 for £315,000. Unless we win the lottery, we’re planning for this to be our forever home.
In terms of the cost of living, I don’t tend to follow current affairs too closely. I pay what I need to pay to look after my family. Taxes are there for a reason and I don’t really question it. About £550 goes on taxes from my salary each month. Everything is relative and prices are always going to rise. I think we just have to roll with it.
Every month we put £50 each into savings accounts for the children, but we don’t have any investments ourselves. We have a standard cash savings account, which we add money to on an ad hoc basis.
We both have a teacher’s pension and pay into it automatically each month. I add £181 per month and my employer adds £703. I’m not sure how much is in it in total. I’d love to retire by the time I’m 60 or 65, but, to be quite honest, I just live for now. I know we’ll both have good teachers’ pensions and the state pension, and the mortgage should be paid off by then. The income from my direct selling business will also be a handy nest egg.
I wouldn’t feel comfortable living solely off the state pension, which is why I have a teacher’s pension. The state pension, however, shouldn’t be scrapped. We pay taxes all our lives, so it will be good to know that the state pension will be there to help support me in later life and give me something back.
I’m very motivated by money. I do worry about not having enough and would always love to have more. However, I’m grateful for what I have and what I can give my children. In an ideal world, I’d love to be earning £100,000 a year! I want to grow my direct selling business earnings to £2,000 a month.
Although I love teaching, I would like to reduce my teaching hours so that I can have more flexibility around Freya and Issac’s lives. I’d love big family holidays to places like Lapland and Disneyworld in Florida. If money was no object, I’d also buy an electric VW ID Buzz vehicle.
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