HOW I MANAGE MY MONEY: IT WORKER ON £2K A MONTH, WITH £5K IN PENSIONS

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 Toby Reeve, 41, who lives in Yoxford, Suffolk, with his wife, Emma, 31, and their two-year-old daughter, Eliza. Toby has £5,000 in pensions and wants to retire by the age of 60 if he can. He’s a self-confessed former impulse-buyer and overspender who once raked up credit card debts. Toby isn’t driven to earn huge sums of money and thinks people should use any surplus for good causes. He wants the Chancellor to scrap stamp duty in November’s Budget.

Monthly budget

My monthly income: I take home £2,000 per month from my job as an IT support analyst for a council. My wife works as a contracts and compliance coordinator for a local government department. 

My monthly outgoings: My wife pays the mortgage and I pay for bills and food shopping. The mortgage is £563 a month. I pay the following: money for food shopping to my wife, £250; council tax, £160; finance on my car, £220; car fuel, £50; gas and electric, £80; water, church offering, £50 – so £25 from us both; broadband, £30; charity donations, £40; life insurance, £10; mobile including Disney+, £30; money into workplace pension, £170; takeaways, £40. 

I grew up in Essex in a fairly large house with my mum, dad, sister, a horse and our dogs. My parents owned their own car transport business and were comfortable financially, though not hugely wealthy. I did go to university, but quit after a month as I didn’t enjoy the course and the lifestyle wasn’t for me.

My first job was in a stationery shop where I started out working on the shop floor and being paid around £1,000 a month. I got promoted to team leader and the pay went up a bit to £1,200 a month. I then worked for my parents in their car transport business, before moving into IT roles.

Since October 2022, I’ve been working as an IT support analyst on a large tech helpdesk for a council. I take phone calls, do web chats and answer tickets for various IT queries. In one call I might be resetting someone’s password, while in another I might be assisting a school with their school dinner money queries! My gross annual salary is about £31,000 and I enjoy what I do.

As I’m getting older, saving money in pensions is becoming increasingly important to me, especially as we now have a daughter to support. I used to think I could just live off the state pension in later life, but with the cost of living so high and having a child to take care of, I now realise how useful a work pension is. I add about £170 a month to my work pension and have £5,000 in it in total.

If I can, I’d like to retire by the age of 60, but this will depend on things like my health, funds and circumstances at the time. From what I understand, people need about £600,000 to £800,000 to enjoy a comfortable retirement.

I don’t have any savings at present. I have a basic cash savings account, but only have around £200 in it. This is clearly not enough to live on or even use for any large emergency purchases.

When I was younger, I used to be a serial over-spender. I’d often buy things I couldn’t afford like holidays and rack up debts I couldn’t afford to pay off. I always had to use my next payslip to pay off my debts and rarely had any money left over after payday. I had a couple of credit cards with large credit limits and got into £3,000 worth of credit card debt at one point. It took a good few years, and a kind inheritance from a relative, to get the credit card debt paid off.

I only have one credit card now and just use it as a buffer if funds run out towards the end of the month. I always pay it off in full to avoid paying any interest.

I’m not surprised by recent findings by Tesco Bank highlighting that a third of people aren’t aware different credit cards exist for varying purposes, like credit transfers or spreading the cost of bigger purchases. Lots of people just think all credit cards are all the same and don’t research them as fully as they could.

We’re living in the first home we purchased as a couple. It’s a semi-detached house in Suffolk that we purchased in February 2020 for £215,000. We have a fixed-rate mortgage for price certainty. When it’s time to remortgage, we’ll be looking to get the best repayments deal.

I would like to see the Chancellor scrap stamp duty on house purchases. This would help ease the financial pressure on people buying a home. Even increasing the stamp duty threshold for first-time buyers would help, as it is currently set quite low.

I am not motivated at all by money and certainty do not think it buys you happiness.

I see money as an essential thing for the basics, such as food, bills and living costs. Anything over and above this should be used responsibly and ethically. It’s nice to have a treat or holiday now and again for the hard work that you do to earn it, but it’s also important to spend money on those in need. This could include family members, friends or charities, for example.

My ideal income is about what I am earning now. It’s enough to comfortably live on, but with enough left over to use for good. I honestly would not want to earn too much money as I feel I would waste it or use it for more impulse purchases that I don’t need. If you’re fortunate enough to be comfortable with your income, then money can be a force for good.

2025-11-03T06:34:03Z